Lions and Tigers and Mergers, oh my!

[Rhiandra Rangnar]

Ok, so here we are "the day after" and what have we learned?

Well, we have learned that people take what others say out of context, thats for sure.

With that in mind I would like to clarify my concerns in regards to this recent merger and I would hope that at least HALF of the members who kept me in tells all night last night with similar concerns also speak up.

I think this merger came as a surprise to many because in the last couple of weeks the discussions have been about trimming down, placing a minimum level of 50 on all new applicants and even limiting application consideration to needed classes only.

There has always been concern and countless talks about getting our shit together, organizing what we have and re-learning how to function as a whole again as we once did.

All of which I would like to say that I agree with and doubt anyone would disagree with.

So flash forward to yesterday, we log in and BAMM we are now merged with ED, not just with the ED members that we may have known/played with in DAoC but with the collection of players that have been invited since release.

We now have more members that we dont know than members that we do know and for what? To be able to sit back and say "well, we have the numbers now to do A and B" but can you really say that? If you answered yes I dont see how you could.

Do we know the playstyles of these people? No. Do they play the hours needed to raid? Who knows?

Give me a guild conformed of 40-50 players who know their shit and play tight together and I will put them against a guild with 100+ members who just "play" any day of the week.

This is not a numbers game it is a quality of player game, more is not always better, infact more can easily equate to more problems.

There is no more "who is XXXxXXX" and expect to hear that is X's alt. We are now a guild of strangers and have no doubt bred clusters of cliques that will have to be dealt with.

We were told "dont worry, if they suck they will be booted" as if that was the golden pacifyer of spoken words to calm us.

Oh and let's not forget the mighty "If you dont like it, you can leave to" option.

Now, already I know I'm probably being misunderstood and I should probably just clarify my main point which is; This was a HUGE decision/move for this guild and the members were not even given the opportunity to voice their opinions regarding it.

You know anyone that says "I will speak to D" about this or that gets shit for saying that. We are told "BWC is not Dwayne" "It's sad that you think D is the guild" along with other shit Im sure no one will opt to.

But you know what I never said Dwayne was the guild. I am fond of him as a person, yes, and I think he is an awesome leader when he plays. He motivates others to play and tries to incorporate fun into that which is a nice change from being called an asshole and being treated like shit by others. It is for those reasons that he is respected as a leader and held in fond regard by this guilds member base.

Now you can say "oh she is kissing ass now" if you want to, but Im not. I am telling the truth, nothing more. I have no problems telling D when I disagree with him or anyone else for that matter.

I believe this guild, any guild for that matter, is a reflection of it's member base and their abilities.

I also believe that in this situation things were not handled correctly. This should've been brought up to the members of the guild and discussed. Hell, that discussion may have ended with Dwayne, Jay and Kim's reply posts being "Listen we understand your concerns but we really want to give this a shot, so work with us" and the merger still happen. But we werent even given that and that is where I think the error was made.

This has nothing to do with ED, I have nothing against Monty or their members, how could I, I dont know them.

This is about us as a guild and this is about at least pretending to value our opinions on how this guild will move forward and develope.

I have always been very proud to be a member of BWC and I have the highest level of respect for it's members as they are some of the best players I have ever come across.

Major decisions like this should be made by the guild in it's entirety as it effects all of us.

I hope I have come across clearer today than I may have last night.

What's done is done and we all have to adjust to it at this point. I'm sure we will do our best to get to know all these new people and work together, but that doesnt change the fact that I believe this situation could have and should have been handled differently.

I wish you all good gaming.


~Somber

[P.S. I was asked by several people to post this as I think alot feel there needs to be a place to vent their thoughts on this matter, so vent away]

[Supreem]

i found it interesting that I (a member of over 2 years of this guild) heard absolutely nothing about this until after the fact. That just blows my mind.

EDIT: I guess it goes to show how much my opinion matters despite my unwavering loyalty to this guild

[Mourningblade]

Supreem is in BWC??

When did this happen??

[Rhuac]

You aren't the only one Supreem.

[Chardoa]

I know i'm nobody special in this guild, but nonetheless i'm a member for quite awhile now and i must say that i was disappointed that we were not informed about this at all. I mean u could have least said, "yo guys, this is what's gonna happen, dont be surprised if this happens when u log on" etc. But to log on and be like whoa! was too much. You gotta keep us informed on things - communication in a guild is huge everybody knows this.

anyways my 2cents.

[Mourningblade]

We all think your special Chardy

[Augomatic]

Thanks to his avatar and Sig, Supreem is easily the most valuable member of BWC.

[Beratuul]

/signed.


I thought the merge was absolute bullshit, heh.

[barbos]

/signed.


I thought the merge was absolute bullshit, heh.

Since when did your opinion matter...

[Beratuul]

Since, I've been with Dwayne longer than anyone in this guild, was a founding member of his Crann Amhain guild on Palo, CoE on Andred, was the reason he came to BWC, and Merlin.

Just because in the latter stages of DAOC, and here on WoW, I have been almost non existant in guild matters because of my lack of participation, I think as one of D's closest friends and a loyal part of BWC ( even though, I've left numerous times in protest heh ) you cannot say my opinion does not have any weight

This guild is more than just D, Kim and Jay. Everyone knows this, and I think Dwayne's decision on the matter may have the affect of being more bad than good.

Everyone knows, Rhia and myself have not gotten along for most of our time together, but that doesn't make her or myself oblivious to the fact that we are both very loyal and concerned about the guild and both hold weight in its past success etc. We both are quite blunt in our opinions, and although they don't often see eye to eye, I respect her. I respect the fact that she had the balls ( sorry for being masculine ) to post this. As Chardoa said, communication is the key to anything in life. Be it relationships, work, or even video games. I think the lack of communication in this circumstance is bullshit.

The merge has pissed off a lot of people. Key people for that matter. In the past, officers have made decisions that have made a lot of past members move on.

For someone that saw CoE fall into a zerg, I think this is CoE all over again. And, no one wants that. Do we want to be a guild like VV who will become a PVE force by numbers alone? or be somewhat capable when it comes to PvP? I always thought BWC was proud to be a PvP guild, and I think with this merge, that changed.

[Tingtong]

I had the privilage of watching this unfold in /GU yesterday and was quite disappointed at the overall lack of respect towards Officers/Leaders and fellow players. I think as a "loyal" member of BWC you must refrain from using /GU as your personal attack and drama chat channel. Remember, for every action there is a reaction. What you say in do not only reflects upon yourself but as a guild. I can't STRESS this enough guys specially to newer players!

OK with that being said I do understand both sides of the argument. Merging guilds is never a easy thing to do you are litterly being forced to play with each other and some may of had mixed feelings on certain players and may not even had a chance to voice their opinions before you were thrown together. Every guild member should ovbiously be entitled to speak about things that impact the guild.

Now, on the other side you have to think of D, kim, jay, and the rest of the people who made this merger possible. I'm 100% sure they are acting in the best intentions of the guild. You may not like all their decisions but you have to remember they are people who are the Gm's/Officer's of this guild. They are in a position of empowerment to make tuff decisions that others may bicker and fight over. They do have ears and are listening to people who have concerns but you HAVE to believe they are acting in the guild's best interest. Weather you may not like it 100% of the time you have to a LEAST give them the respect they deserve and voice your opinions on the forums and not degrade or fight about it in guild chat.

Imagine what ED is thinking right now, they have given up their guild flag to go under BWC's. and the FIRST Hour are people in BWC crying about the merger. Soo uncool in my opinion. So every memeber that joined now is really wondering should they pull out now or wait for a later date? We don't want seperate clicks in a guild it will litterly destroy any such merger and possibly loose actuall BWC recruits. Now that we ARE merged people are making friends or at least I hope A seperation down the road could tear this guild in half.

As far as my opinion goes, I DO believe it was a good idea to become a raiding guild. Celestrial did a damn good job of it in DAOC, and i'm sure Pigvig and other future ED or BWC member's will pickup the tourch to lead more.

Also, we are not fucking VV so get that outa your head right now. We don't have member's joining to secertly get their "Lewt" and leave. Were not even a raiding guild yet. WE needed ED numbers to be able to do decent raids.

Another thing I heard in in /gu was that this merger was a "Band Aid" to a problem that bwc lacked "good" members and #'s
ED is GOOD. We play with the hand in which we are delt guys. You can wish for a better guild in one hand and your can shit in the other and see which one fills up first.

Finding "Good" player's unguilded this late after release is asking for trouble. That why in DAOC you had to play and get to know us BEFORE you were invited. Call it our VV player filter if you will.

If you made it this far thank you for taking the time. PLay nice and remember this is a game we are all here to have fun. Ease up a little in /gu with the "hate" it's not what I remember from daoc and I would sure like to keep BWc around for more years to come.

[Adida]

honestly i remember a post about ED and bwc merger a while ago like almost 2 months ago but i forgot who posted it and on which board i don't know. I don't think it went through that's why it was official just recently. But as you all know m0nty is a great leader and we are really lacking in that department. I think that is one of the major factors of the merger. Not only that how long have ED and BWC been working together? Unfortunately i won't be arround for the merger i've opted to play some pellinor with ting to get my pvp skills up to par they have been really slacking since wow and i need to brush them off for when guild wars comes out on the 27th

[Amit]

as someone who has gamed with D since asherons call, and played in many versions and incarnations of guilds i can honestly say that this is for the best. it may not seem like it right away but to avoid change and growth is to stagnate. to allow growth by admiting a random few people here and there is also a good way to end up with a mixed bag. the best growth is to take in a massive amount of poeple who already know how to work together and are familiar to many of the current guild.

can any of you say that the /gu line hasn't seen a good lvl of discussion over the last few days? to me this is one of the signs that people are loggin in and having fun with each other.

[Supreem]

i dont think most of us have a real problem with merging with ED. the problem is that the core members of the guild were not even asked their opinion or even knew about it before it happened.. it was just log and find out for yourself

[Amit]

honestly in the time ive been in bwc ive never seen a single major decision made by a vote or anything outside the group of officers. its basically always been that way