DZwart said:
As I see it so far, we have the following options, assuming continued growth:
- Accept no new members until we have people inactive beyond a certain timeframe (1 month?). Until then, possibly redirect prospective members to Defend Christ or Christian Gamers Guild, or potentially God's Chosen.
- Create a new allied guild (or use Spirit of Elisha) and split up current members based on PvP or PvE preference.
- Create a new allied guild (or use Spirit of Elisha) and have a core group from the existing guild as "seed members" to become officers of the new guild where all new invitees will be sent.
Let me make a few comments and also suggest a fourth option:
Option 1 - Accepting members only as slots become available may seem contrary to the spirit and goals of our guild, but it does have some distinct advantages. For one thing, it encourages current members to stay active (or at least, log in from time to time) in order to retain a place in the guild. But also, it gives us a chance to support other guilds in our alliance, by sending them members. Personally, I really do like the idea of planting the seeds of a strong and healthy guild like ours in other, smaller guilds by sending them members.
Option 2 - I would not be in favor of this only for my own sake, but I can say objectively that NOTHING poses such a threat to the unity and harmony of our Guild than our lack of competitive-ness in the area of PvP. Those of you who have been around here a while know how much of an issue this has been in the past. And it is not only an ever-present stumbling block for us, but also for potential members who would like to be involved in a guild that is competative in PvP.
Derk said before that our guild consists of folks who either do both PvP and PvE, or exclusively PvE. But you can further divide the "some PvP" crowd into people who enjoy playing even when we don't usually win, and people who CANNOT enjoy PvP unless we are organized and competent enough to win on a regular basis. If you are like me and very strongly in the first category, it is easy to just dismiss those in the second category as somewhat immature. "Its just a game" is easy for someone like me to say, mainly because I'm in it for the social aspect more than gameplay goals. But for folks who are very success and goal-oriented, it really can be impossible to enjoy this game without a reasonably high degree of competitiveness. In my opinion, the best way to serve these members and potential members is to go with a PvP sub-guild.
Option 3 - If we choose this option, we need to be aware that we are really setting up what will likely evolve into a new and separate group, whose officers and members may or may not decide down the road that their philosophies and goals align enough with ours to remain affiliated with us. We may call it the same guild, and treat it as the same guild - but wasn't the United States once called a colony of Britain and treated as such?
There is also the danger of an officer or member in one or the other group developing a grudge against someone in the other group, in which case the interdependence of the groups would allow supporters of one or the other viewpoint to flock to one or the other group and polarize it against the other. Don't think this is likely to ever happen? It happens in the Christian Church ALL THE TIME.
Option 4 - If we want to acheive a similar result to Option 3 without essentially starting up a new Guild, I'd recommend making Elisha an "overflow" area for our guild. Here's how we might accomplish that:
1 - We'd start by encouraging all members of our Guild with 2 or more accounts (particularly our officers) to affiliate one of their accounts with Elisha. This would not force anybody to leave Elijah, but it should populate Elisha fairly well. Current officers of Elijah who join Elisha would be Elisha's officers.
2 - Whenever we do not have room for a new member in Elijah, they would be accepted into Elisha. This would be announced on a thread on this forum, so that Elisha members would know to log in periodically, and Elijah members could add that person to their friends list. We'd make an effort to personally invite new Elisha members to our guild events while they are waiting to join Elijah.
3 - Elisha may become an interest-oriented sub-group of sorts, depending on who decides to congregate there. Most of our PvP-oriented players do have second accounts, so a PvP orientation could develop. But regardless of what people do or how the group evolves, Elisha would firmly remain a sub-group of Elijah, lead exclusively by Elijah's officers and populated by its members or soon-to-be members.
Paul
, inserting data is the most boring job in the world...
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