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Monday, August 1, 2011

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

So, those that have talked to me and check this, I am sorry that it has taken quite a while to get back into blogging.  But, I'm back and here we go.

So, about 3 months ago, I took a journey down a road I never thought I would take.  I left my long time guild of almost 3 years.  The experience and friendships that I gained there will help me into the future.  Really and truly mean this, best of luck to all those friends I left behind and best wishes with the new content.

Now, yes, there were reasons I left, but the bottom line is, I wasn't happy.  The guild was taking a new direction that I wasn't ready for.  So, now what am I to do with myself.  I thought about it and came to one conclusion:  I wouldn't be happy with a guild again unless it was built how I saw fit.  So, the guild <Mountain Top> was born. 

Now, when I formed this guild, I knew I'd have about 7-8 people that would follow me out:  friends that had been with me for 4 plus years, new friends that weren't happy, etc.  I had no idea that I would have so many come to me asking to join.  After server transfers of friends from long ago, people coming back to the game, a couple of twitter recruits, and I now am the GM of a 10-man Raiding/PvP guild with 60 players(that is accounts, not alts).  While I was happy to see this at first, I realized now how much work this is going to take. 

60 people.  60 different objectives.  60 different mentalities.  That is alot to take on after only being a GM again for just 1 week.  But, with the help of my officer core, who I absolutely could not do this without (don't tell them that), we are underway.  We are now currently raiding 2-3 nights a week, doing RBGs 2 days a week, and currently working on getting another RL to run a second group. 

While I have absolute faith that Mountain Top will succeed, there are a couple things I have had to do to help me make sure that we get there:
  1. Find other games to play.  While most gamers play several different games, I rarely did.  I had alot of fun working on alts, pvping, etc. in WoW.  Now, to relieve that stress that seems to never go away, I play LoL, have really gotten back into some console games, and just find myself playing Angry Birds.  Why is killing pigs with birds so addictive?
  2. Upgrade my phone.  Now, this seems like something that doesn't need to be done, but I honestly find myself checking up on my guild all the time when I'm not behind my keyboard.  I've finally gone into the world of smart phones and have no idea how I did without it.
  3. Buy more stress balls.  Now, I owe this one to a friend who told me once, "You can never have to many stress balls when being a GM.  That is why I have a crate of them."  Yes, I am using one right now.
  4. Finally, find other successful GMs to talk to.  I have several fellow GMs from various servers that I talk to quite frequently about different things, whether it be Boss Strats, how to deal with certain situations, or just plain fun to keep each other sane.
I really have taken on a daunting task that I wasn't quite ready for, but now, I feel confident that I am. 

I will continue to keep writing about the guild and some guild management things I have learned every couple of weeks.  If you have any topics that you wish me to discuss, please feel free to ask me here or through my contact info.