TG_Bear

Morning all, I hope everyone is well!

I wanted to put my thoughts in print after a brief time away and some deep contemplation on where I am as a player, where we are as a guild and what the future holds.

I think that TG is at a fork in the road. The path to the right is perhaps the road more often traveled. It's paved, there are lots of rest stops and most of the ugly potholes have been filled. Its a path that casual gamers and casual raiders follow to continue advancing their toons, hopefully getting some new gear and experiencing some new bosses and encounters. It's also a path that doesn't normally require a huge investment in time, mats, pots. Nor does it take an iron will because most of the heavy lifting has been done. The best analogy for that path might be MC, ZG and AQ.

The path to the left is the road less traveled. It might not be fair to even call it a "road" at all. It's more like a logging trail. A few have traveled down it but they usually have big ass 4x4's or a bulldozer leading the way. Travelling down this road is not for the feignt of heart. The road is littered with flat tires, busted oil pans and broken axles. Not to mention, lots and lots of broken spirits. More often than not, this trail breaks the gear and the spirit of those foolish enough to drive down it. For us, that road is BWL.

Some people will shift into first and plunge down the road to the left not caring about what lies in front, others prefer the cruising of the road to the right. Neither path is the right choice nor the wrong choice, they are merely just choices. Personally, I like the cruising route, it's fun, relatively easy and there are nice rewards for miles driven. The challenge with cruising is that eventually you've seen everything that stretch of road over and over and it no longer becomes enjoyable. Despite that, you continue to drive because friends of yours haven't seen the sights yet.

We have reached that fork and I believe our "convoy" has a dilemma. Some want to cruise and others want to do some serious butt ugly four wheeling. I sincerely believe that we have a choice to make. We NEED to decide who wants to go left and who wants to go right. There is no pride nor shame in either choice but a choice HAS to made. I don't believe that you can effectively drive your Chrysler down a logging road, nor is it much fun four wheeling on the Thruway.

I think we need the following:
1. We need to figure out who wants to drive on dirt and who doesnt. If either group doesn't have enough then we need to call the local auto club and get some more drivers.
2. We need to figure out who is going to lead the cruisers and who is going to lead the trucksters.

You can't sit at the fork in the road forever, you have to make a choice sometime. If that doesn't happen, I think the people with the "trucks" are going to go find their own way into the woods with or without TG. If you don't believe this is true, look at the angst and anxiety that has already developed by trying to smash the same two types of drivers on the same road. In the end, the "cruisers" may stay or they may go but if the road stays clear, they'll likely continue.

Anyway, that's the world as I see it.

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“Waiting to be awakened by some unexpected thunderous roar, never dying...the sleeping giant lives and will sleep no more”. - John Seabrook

Sajier

Nice post Bear, some good perspective.

Hope to see you back soon!

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Sajier/Sajaman/|TG-Irr|Sajier - WoW Shadow Priest and Resto Shaman, BF2/BF2142 Assault/Medic

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Gaviin

Well said.

Mark me down as a truckster who doesn't mind blasting through the tree line over to the smooth road from time to time to show new guys the old sights.

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Ninja

Icsist

well said Bear.

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QUOTE : "Icsist has a little shameless behavior in the past"
Nice remark guys.

Muirc

Well said.

<---Revs up his 4x4

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"Remember that all things are only opinions and that it is in your power to think as you please."

Lepmesiah

I work for Chrysler so you can count me in! I warming up the 4x4 as we speak. I loved the post Bear, great analogy.

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"As Above, So Below"

Altor

Ask this again in January...This time of year is pretty bad, for a lot of folk, in regards to time.

Pistos

Heya Bear. Nice post.

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Gigan - Shaman (Resto)
Pistos - Semi-retired Shadowpriest
...and other distractions of various levels.

Icsist

I personally dont feel that we have enough time to wait until January, yes this is a pretty bad time of year to be working towards content that we dont know all that well, but It is very doable..

If we wait until January then BC will be out and most likely people are going to be leveling that month or so, so if we dont start it now, we probably wont do it for another 6 months.. I say fire up the 4 wheel drives, Ill bring the John Deere to start clearing the way.

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QUOTE : "Icsist has a little shameless behavior in the past"
Nice remark guys.

beep

Nice to hear from you, Bear! Thanks for your thoughts. As usual they reflect some wisdom.

So, here's my question...why does TG have to make a choice? It strikes me that the solution (as a guild) is to accommodate both those who want to cruise and those who want the off-road.

If we are short in numbers...(not clear since this is the skinny season for most guilds' raiding)...then we can expand AS NEEDED to put forth full raids of cruisers and full raids of 4x4 players. Honestly the only limit on class size has been to try to insure that our members got to raid enough to make it satisfying for them. We have some who rarely miss any raid...and others who show up a time or two per month. If we determine that we don't have enough to fill our off-road raiding, then we can recruit those who want that experience. In like manner, we can have "cruising" raids to satisfy those. (As you correctly point out, at some point cruising becomes decidedly boring even for those who like it).

One of the "strategic" questions we officers are dealing with is the concept of guild size, the advisability of creating different raiding "teams" within a larger guild with content/raid choices to align with the team goals along with other similar/related questions. One of the things that gives us pause is that we don't want to go through a several month process of planning and change only to find that the expansion makes our "new" strategy outdated.

Thanks again for your post...only I think the crossroads choice metaphor is an individual one, not a guild one.

Oh...and another thought...if we have a guild that bulks up so we can man concurrent 40 man raids...and one later wants to drive the other route...you may find there is more competition for the available slots (more raid queuing).

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Beep


Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. - (Isaac Asimov)

Gambit7

must... fight... the urge... to post... gaahhhhhh

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Muirc

I think the problem are the key parts of both the "cruising" and the "truckers", mainly the RLs and other key classes, so both raid styles cannot be the main focus. I think it is a crossroads and we do need to find focus and state where our main focus is otherwise the "truckers" will be peering to their left to see the our "truckers"(guilds) enjoying themselves and wishing they were there.

Also, as a note there would be no cruising without the truckers who blazed the trail in the first place. Just a friendly reminder.

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"Remember that all things are only opinions and that it is in your power to think as you please."

Halten

IMO...

the "truckers" are getting pissed. the "cruisers" aren't helping with progression. I came across a fact yesterday that I won't post here, and as Ark and a few others know, it really, really, REALLY pissed me off. "Truckers" are going to either stop raiding or leave. That's just my opinion.

Vondoom

I think what Beep said makes the most sense. If a certain class is always lacking in support, then expand that class(add new players). I'm sure the officers know what class needs the most help. Work toward adding more players to that class. I know there are plenty of Mages so I don't believe theres any problem getting mages to attend raids but maybe we need more warriors or preists or druids.

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I don't suffer from insanity,
I enjoy every minute of it!

Anah

Even mages have been short on signups Doom. We were saturated to the point of Mages leaving because they didn't have enough raid time, then we can't get enough to show up. A few are still showing up to everything they can, others have cut back and leave us needing more. Non-guildies/alts have seen a lot of raiding time lately, maybe we need to push those up, but then those who aren't signing up can't complain when they are stuck in the queue again when they do sign up.

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