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I was on last night though....Mil and Hal both saw me >.>

Rastelin wrote on Aug 10^th, 2011 at 5:56pm:


I am well aware that there are a few, or more than a few, closed minded people that judge others by the actions of a few. And believe me, listening to guild chat has made me want to pull the remaining hair outta my head on more that one occasion...

2/8 of my toons are in DoA as well. 

First the bad: we have not been recruiting completely freely now and recruitment requires a member to advocate.  But of course, there are a lot of officers... much less members that are fairly clueless, so that isn't saying much.  Our policy of 3 week = boot is also poorly informed.  Recent departures accounts for half our account total and without that I'm sure we'd be much higher by now... possible around 70. 

The good?  If I thought that DoA were just another EE though, I wouldn't keep my toons in there.  Tthere are many newer players in there that are starting to come into their own, and several that have multiple TR'ed toons and are getting quite well geared, even though the guild is less than a year old.  I'm not saying that TRing alone is enough, but the level of play is raising, slowly but surely.  46 minute shroud is certainly terrible by CE standards, but just a few months ago, even a guild completion would have been out of the question. 

Another thing I like about this guild is that the top leadership (burboink/Azjme) does a LOT to keep the members actively involved.  He hosts weekly giveaways of things like LDS, greensteel blanks, lordsmarch gear, et.c.  This week he even gave away one month of VIP subscription!  How many guild leaders do that? :p

I think this fosters a fairly charitable environment between guild members.  People are constantly giving away gear in guild chat, even if it is mostly shit lowbie gear, there are still a lot of new players that benefit. 

Also, Ssister, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is much the same way Helpers Guild started out.  So don't you think it's a bit hypocritical to criticize DoA when you were once in their place?  If there is any "next helpers guild", DoA is it.  I don't know of any other new-ish guild that has any sort of potential.  DoA does, imo. 

TLDR: give DoA a chance.  Were getting better.

AtomicMew wrote on Aug 11^th, 2011 at 3:32am:


LOL that's not something you should be bragging about.

Sister and Eladiun have had to do a lot of cleaning up, and it still has left black marks on their reputation.

AtomicMew wrote on Aug 11^th, 2011 at 3:32am:


You want a history lesson...then I'm your Huckleberry.

Helpers initially started out as a small tight guild of relative newbs in early 2010. (and I mean newbs, completing a guild Shroud was a huge accomplishment.)  I joined shortly after the guild was formed after I returned to the game after a break.  I was one of only a couple vets and I was rusty after a year or so out of game.  We grew to what I would say was around 40 active accounts prior to U5 with more than half being officers.  The original leader set the guild up to run with a small council of elders that operated as co-leaders. That Senior Council handled major issues and drove the direction of the guild.  We were small and mostly harmless.  Que U5.

With the intro of renown and airships a couple officers went fucking crazy and started mass recruiting (including absorbing a couple guilds). All of a sudden we are well over 300 accounts before three of us SC members push to stop the madness.  Now we are fucked...the complaints start flowing and everything is a mess.  We are split over what to do, leadership fractures, and our original guild leader and some others split to create a new guild (leaving a few presents on the way out in the form of a ton of random officer promotions).  We are left holding a bag sand mixed with gold.  We had a choice give up or fight.  We decide to fight and we decided that we had a good core if we could clean up the chafe.   We rebuilt the council and decide we wanted to shift from a casual newb guild to an end game focused top tier guild.  So we took a hard line and over the last year...

1) We wrote a clear code of conduct and proceeded to actively remove anyone who violated it.
2) We closed recruiting and cut back on what officers could do.
3) Created strict recruiting guidelines. All applicants must apply via GuildPortal.
4) We implemented a rigorous guild raid schedule (6 nights a week 2-3 raids a night with 2-3 full guild groups) to train and observe the membership
5) We had three guild treasures actively passing out free gear donated by members
6) We wrote an officer code of conduct and purged the officer corp accordingly.  We started holding regular officer meetings.
7) We worked very diligently to recruit experienced players off our friends list from outside the guild to reinforce our core.
8) We required registration on GuildPortal and we required all characters be on the GP roster before getting a guild invite.  Anyone not in compliance was removed.
9) We implement guild exclusivity.  Anyone not in compliance was removed.
10) We pushed the use of GuildPortal for info and raid scheduling.  Inactivity on GP is severely frowned upon.

These changes were spread over the last 12 months and trust me they were not popular with everyone when they were implemented.  At each step, we were called names and shed more accounts.  I regularly fought here and elsewhere to protect our reputation.  I received regular tells and PM about members who were problematic. We followed up and observed each and every one of them.  Our end goal was to be where we are...a large guild, still 130ish, with a very active, very tight, very coordinated and organized membership.  What I'm saying is it didn't just happen.  It took a lot of work and a lot time and late night discussions.  If you don't have the full support of the leaders in the guild, it won't happen.  The changes had to be phased in slowly and were planned meticulously.  Many experienced Guild Leaders here told us how hard it would be but we were stubborn.  In all honestly while the results are rewarding to me personally if I was in the same situation I wouldn't do it again.   I would rather gather as many good players as I could and split to a new guild as others have.   

So there you have it, history and a road map.  I wish you luck.  Reputation comes with success and it doesn't happen over night.  It is built one success, one completion, one run at a time.  People have long memories and you have to convince them one at a time.  We have had a lot of members and officers who have contributed to rebuilding our reputation.  I will say though it is very rewarding when your biggest detractors are turned to supporters.

stainer wrote on Aug 11^th, 2011 at 11:47am:



He hates waiting on people to check their mail before starting a quest.

Jaxx wrote on Aug 11^th, 2011 at 12:05pm:

AtomicMew wrote on Aug 11^th, 2011 at 3:32am:


I did critize DOA at all. I was more giving a warning that I have learned from past experiences.When it comes to cleaning up a guild and I wish the leadership luck on setting up things. I was just stating His own words seamed to not like the guild much
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And with is what is described is happening it will get a lot worse before it gets better, trust me I have been down this road. You want to fight the good fight always, but you have to be sure you know what the end result is. Is the juice worth the squeeze?
I wish no member of DOA any ill will and I hope you strive as a guild together.
And one last thing my name is Sisster, not Ssister

Sham wrote on Aug 11^th, 2011 at 12:49pm:



Stainer is still recovering from his Ensure binge from last night.

stainer wrote on Aug 11^th, 2011 at 1:19pm:


Which beer?

Appears to be Heineken.

No homo but I love what you've done with your backyard!

stainer wrote on Aug 11^th, 2011 at 1:25pm:



That's pretty sweet.

Asketes wrote on Aug 11^th, 2011 at 1:30pm:


Eladiun wrote on Aug 11^th, 2011 at 1:35pm:


We finished that this spring. It is awesome to sit out there and watch a baseball game. Here is a shot of it right before it was completed.