The Good the Bad and the Bolle

Longish Post. No offence to Bolle meant in any of it. And I still love the Munquis.

The Munquis have always been a sort of safe-haven in the World of Warcraft, at least, that's the way I see them.

We're very flexible on our recruiting policies, we basically accept any sort of person / player, and allow people to come and go as they please. We try not to make any serious demands on the players time, unless they want to be a part of orgainsed raiding etc..

We're sort of a jack of all trades guild. Freindly, Sociable, and well bonded together.
I'm pretty sure there's very few players out there who have a truly bad word to say about us.

But that's also part of our problem. Because we're so laid back we can sometimes lose focus on the things that make us a good guild.

I purged the unused toons from the guild the other day. Anyone who hadn't logged on for 6 months or more was out. I probably kicked about 30. And many of them were low level alts.
I think about 4 of them were just Funks! Which was good for a laugh seeing as he was online at the time, and objected to every kick.

But that still left about 300 toons who were regular players, of course many will be alts, but not all of them.
We lose players from time to time because people get borde of WoW, or just end up playing a different game. And that's fine, and to be expected. Some of them might even come back to us after a few months.

But we also lose players like Bolle. And that's a concern for me. Bolle (along with a few others) has always had a history of being more hardcore than the rest of us.
Not in a bad way, at all. He just plays harder, and progresses faster than the average Munqui.
So it's been pretty common for players like him to keep a main in the Munquis and another Main in a raiding guild, and we've generally been happy with that set-up. They usually find a raiding guild that's happy with it too, although there probably aren't many.

Dungeon Raiders deserve an honorable mention at this point. Many of our better players have joined with them for more serious gaming. And they don't seem to have a problem with them maintaining a connection to the Munquis... Kudos.

But recently Bolle took most of his other toons out of the guild too. Not all of them, he still has one or two lurking around. But he took the rest out, and not to join another guild, or to go hardcore on our asses, but just because he felt the guild had changed, and wasn't as suited to him as it used to be.

My first reaction would normally be "maybe it's Bolle that's changed, not us" but it's very clear to me that it's not true. I actually know where he's coming from.
The people aren't the same, the feeling isn't the same, and a little of what makes the tribe a fun place to be has been lost. With Bolle leaving that's made it even worse.

I'm saying Bolle's name alot, and it's not that I'm singling him out or anything, I just feel that he's a perfect example of why the Munquis need to change again. We need to get back to having more fun, and being less serious about stuff. Progress is good, but not at the expense of losing good people.

It's the "Expansion Syndrome" that I blame, there's a new level-cap everyone rushes to reach it, and has alot of fun doing so, but once they're there they don't know what to do with themselves. So they get more serious and start looking for progress.

When I rejoined the Munquis, TBC was already out, and I went back to start from level 1, while some of the guys were already level 70. I was an officer again by level 40, and at level 80 I'm now the GM.
But the reason I gave up everything to switch servers and start again from level 1 was because of the fun I'd have with the Munquis.

I could've stayed on Nordy, formed my own guild, tried to keep it fun, but it'd never have been the same. I've asked myself this question a few times now:

"If I'd joined the Munquis again today though, and had to start from level 1, would I have stuck with it?"

Unfortunately, I think the answer would have been "No". And that's not good.

So let's bring back the fun, win back some players, maybe recruit some fresh blood. And get the Munquis back where they belong. Kicking ass in raids while at the same time doing stupid things just-for-the-sake-of-it.

Who's with me?