The ramblings of a draenei

As I sit in my garrison this early afternoon as the little one runs a muck in the office it dawned on me that on June 28th the guild turns 9 years old. Nine years! Wow. I look around at the landscape of the server, so much as changed over the last 9 years. A lot of friends have come and gone, the game has changed in so many ways, and many guilds that once dominated the server are no more. I've been asked, over the years, how we have not only survived, but thrived as a guild. Although I do believe a bit of luck is involved, the primary reason we've been successful is our determination, our reputation and our structure.

Determination

After I had to leave the AM Raid Team due to a schedule change at work, I formed the PM Raid Team. I was forced to select a replacement, for the first time, to run one of the guild's Raid Teams. Since then, I've selected multiple replacements for both AM and PM, some fantastic leaders over the years. Their determination to the overall success of the individual team and the guild as a whole is what has carried us through the years. I will be the first to admit that I've made some mistakes in this area over the years, but as they say hind sight is always 20/20. Now, all of the determination wasn't just from the Raid Leaders, we've had dozens of people over the years that bent over backwards to ensure their team and this guild would succeed no matter what.

Reputation

From day one, this guild was and still is about integrity, fairness and promoting an environment of trust and respect. We forbid drama internally (among guild members) and externally (general chat in instances, trade chat, general chat in zones, etc). We are a very prestigious guild and by having the tag under your name, most people on the server know you're trustworthy, respectful and willing to lend a hand whenever possible to our friends. Now, we've had our fair share of drama, every guild does, but the leadership of the guild abolishes any and all drama be it internal or external to the point that we've removed raiders for giving our guild a poor name.

Structure

I assure you, we're probably one of the few guilds on the server that has structured Policies and Procedures. It may also be one of the reasons why we're still around. Transparency is key in this gaming environment. We let everyone know what to expect from day one. We have a detailed checks and balances in place with our ranking. We don't have run away Raid Leaders because they're not the top of the chain and have to report up, just like raiders report to their raid leaders. Our Policies and Procedures are updates as needed to adjust for the ever changing environment of the game or when the leadership deem something to no longer be valid.

Flawless

Are we perfect? Absolutely not. Often times I feel we compete internally more than we should. A level of competitiveness between teams helps push each other to the next level, but we need to focus more on "Competing Collectively." What does that mean? Although we are different raid teams, different raid schedules, we need to help each other get the next kill. We need to develop a strategy as a whole. If the Heroic Team kills Heroic Blackhand, we killed Heroic Blackhand. If the PM Team kills Mythic Imperator, we killed Mythic Imperator. If the AM Team kills Mythic Tectus, we kill Mythic Tectus. If the Weekend Team kills Mythic Oregorger, we kill Mythic Oregorger. We are one guild and the success of any team is the success of the guild. We should strategize not only within our individual team, but by classes or roles. When was the last time you sat down with the other teams' tanks/healers/rogues/shamans/ranged dps/etc to talk strategy on a certain boss. We are our biggest asset, it is literally standing right next to us and often times we let our pride or our competitiveness get the better of us and we show a blind eye.

Alone, we stand

There are a lot of guilds on Stormrage. There are a lot of raiding guilds on Stormrage. We're one of many, we're no longer in the top 3 progression ranked guilds (The Burning Crusade), we're no longer in the top 10 (Wrath of the Lich King), but we're still here, we're still progressing. We run 4 successful raiding teams, not one "power team" with a "B" team or an "alt" team, but 4 independent successful raiding teams, raiding at various (and not overlapping) schedules. We are a powerful guild, one I expect to be here in 9 years in one form or another. Each member of a team helps support the guild and in return the guild supports each team. We are unique, you won't find this type of environment anywhere else. We have 4 raid teams all starting or about to start on Heroic Blackhand. Show me another guild that can say that!

I love this guild and I consider every one with the guild tag to be my friend.