The death of a guild, what does that lead to?

This week Ghostlands saw one of its core guilds disbanding. It wasn't something I expected, they were a great group of players, and they weren't full of themselves like many top guilds are. It was the guild I applied to before Cake, but got declined as they were full on warlocks. I tried explaining you could never have too many warlocks, but no luck!

This got me thinking. When are guilds due to disband? Cake formed from a disbanded Hide n Seek around the time attunements got removed, so it's fairly new compared to the other top guilds on the server.

We did come close to disbanding at one point when we realised most of our core Black Temple raiding team had either left or quit, but there was too much holding the guild together. Because of this soon after we had two officers leaving. As an officer myself the other officers start to become your biggest friends in the guild; they're the ones you trust the most to help with decisions or problems, so when two of them just vanish like that it feels like a huge chunk of the guild left.

The last nail in the coffin was when our GM also hinted towards leaving. We were given a heads up that he'd be leaving when 3.2 hit, and then it was announced a few days after that 3.2 was coming out that week. It was a very tense moment and he wasn't about to go back on his word. The other members had no idea what was going on, and it felt like chaos backstage too. Theories on what to do were flying around. Some which included taking the core players that were left and forming a close-knit 10man group. Another was merging with another guild on the server and do shared raids. These were just the tip of the iceberg.

We were asking ourselves what we'd do if the guild just disbanded. Some said they'd just stop playing, and I myself said I'd probably transfer off to the server my other friends play on.

All that's passed now. We made a smooth transition to a new GM and very few of the members seemed to be affected. We've cleared the Coliseum on normal mode, and are slowly making our way through the Ulduar Hardmodes. While I agree it's late, it seems to be keeping the raiders happy.

However, what dawned on me even more is that it's not just our core raid group that's changed, but the attitude of most of the new players who are new to raiding. I'm pointing my blame finger at hardmodes and achievements here. Before people raided simply for the joy of raiding, and the occasional loot drop. Now I notice that players feel like they need to do hardmodes so they can show what awesome raiders they are. While striving for hardmodes is fine, I feel like a lot of players are starting to get sour about it. Cake is not a hardcore guild, we don't kick players if they mess up too much or if they disconnect all night. Because of this, we can't expect to be the best guild ever and it's fine by me, I'm enjoying myself. We're a friendly group of players who like to raid; at least we were.

Something's changed, and I'm not sure what. It's got me confused, and constantly thinking about it. Sometimes while raidleading, something happens and I just feel like I don't have the patience for it anymore. Maybe it's me that's changed. Seeing things from on top as an officer, rather than just being another chess piece of a raider. Maybe I'm seeing things that frustrate me. Why can't that guy just move out of the fire in time? Why can't he just read up on what his rotation should be and do more damage than the tank? Why can't they do some research on what they should be gearing for? So many things to look out for when raidleading, and maybe I really don't have the patience for it anymore.

Or maybe it's the weather.

Blargh.