Guild Drama

I've heard of it before, I think anyone that plays an MMO through to endgame content has heard of it and many encounter it: Guild Drama. I was lucky enough to not encounter any major guild drama in Anduril while playing FFXI. It was a very stable linkshell with people that were typically more interested in playing than gearing. They had a stringent recruitment process. Very few new players were allowed into the LS to help avoid the watered-down feeling of linkshells that allowed too many people in. It's a fine line that they walked. They need to keep enough active members so that we could consistently make scheduled runs but not induct so many people that we lost the feeling of a team. Very few LS's ever accomplished this. The fact that I can look at Anduril's roster and still see many of the same names that were playing when I quit 2 years ago speaks volumes. Most other LS's have probably imploded by now. Backstabbing, behind the scenes bitching and pissing matches over who should get what gear over whom wreak havoc and limit the shelf life of most endgame LS's to 6 months or less.

Not until reading a post by Big Bear Butt Blogger did I realize what sort of a fiasco endgame grouping can be.

http://bigbearbutt.blogspot.com/2007/12/guild-drama-endgame.html

It's a long read but well worth it. The big thing that lead to problems was the lying. Big Bear Butt reminds me of myself in some ways. First off, it seems he has a general confidence in his guildies or people he's played with on a long term basis. He also seems to hold a belief that is crucial to end game players if they truly want to succeed: it's not all about you, gear needs to go where it makes the biggest improvement. DKP systems are fantastic but sometimes people just need to refrain from bidding because it's going to make a bigger difference in the other players' gear. Last... I think he's kinda old like I am, old for an MMO that is. He mentions his wife and receding hair line so...

I certainly hope that when I get to endgame raiding (what seems to be the quintessential endgame activity), I don't run into shit like this.