User:Scythe/Guild Rant

Writ this day, for the guild that I am no longer a part of. It's here solely because it came out half decent, and many to my knowledge most people do not honestly know what I am capable of, and have judged me somewhere, on something that is how I am when I'm pissed. tl;dr at the bottom for those of you too lazy to read the whole thing.

So.... as many of us my guild members already know yesterday, Nov. 15th i lost my officer status. It's not exactly earth shattering news, I knew my hard-ass attitude was bound to frustrate people, eventually. The real issue is the how I host my officership, and whats to happen next.

First I would like to address what and / or why officers are officers. Officers should be officers for a reason, it shouldn't just be an "I like you, so your an officer now," decision. It should be: "your an officer because your experienced, know a lot about the game, and I trust you." Another such example would be: "You do a lot of faction, encourage others, and are good at organizing guild events, and I trust you." See the pattern? Yeah, trust is pretty important. You don't just go making someone an officer that you don't trust to not blow everything up. (Note that taking flak and officership being disruptive is not the same thing as not blowing things up. Blowing things up is things like kicking at random, mass-trolling, etc, etc [we do quite a bit of trolling in the guild, whether you will admit it or not, you probably partake. As such trolling really couldn't be completely 'outlawed.'] would be considered blowing things up.)

Giving officers crap. It's honestly a pain in my fucking ass when I see this, so forgive if there is a presence of rage in this paragraph. Officers are *not* perfect, don't expect them to be. Shockingly: they are human, they have their good and bad days just like you do. If your going to give officers flak, honestly, prepare the damn argument first. Just a simple: "I don't like what your doing now," is not sufficient. How much effort you put into writing something (grammar, punctuation, etc etc,) are a direct correlation to how much you really care. So, "I don't like what your doing now," really doesn't make the cut. For one, there is no backup argument, that's as far as you thought it out. For two, its really, really insulting. Somehow, I couldn't say it enough yesterday, "cut the shit," was not intended to be funny, in any way/shape or form. I had to actually kick dude 0 (my cousin, "ign removed,") from the guild for fifteen minutes because I was seriously tired of his trolling. It was actually very effective, though it shouldn't be used in all cases, because people can be spiteful and just not rejoin. I'm not saying don't criticize, I'm saying make it solid. Criticism is a natural, (important, even,) part of life. Your also probably thinking I was going to say something cliche now, like: "don't do it if you can't be better," yeah, too bad. I'm mentioning it specifically to explicitly prevent it from coming up in commentary. For the most part officers do a good job in and by the guild. However, there are issues.

Guild chat is a forum in many ways (see definition three, I'm not talking forum as in internet page, forum in its original context.) I expect a certain level of decency from everyone. What do I mean? First off: DO NOT MAKE PERSONAL ATTACKS. Yes, I'm a hard ass, I'm going to tell you whats what. The difference is: I'm not going to personally attack you (usually, some things are just impossible to rephrase. [also note: criticism is not a personal attack.]) My 'line' between a personal attack and criticism is similar to where i draw the line on trolling: my personal definition include the phrase "with malicious intent." Yes, there is a such thing as unintentional trolling, but that is a beast all it's own. Criticism, when done properly, no matter how harsh it is, is with the intent of helping you improve. Personal attacks are simply there to put you down, they usually mean the person making them really doesn't feel all that great about themselves, and are trying to lower you to their level. I took a solid seven hours of unrelenting flak yesterday. A certain someone even said: "Your [my] reputation in the guild is lower than that of a troll," to paraphrase, since i did not screenshot it, and have nothing to work off of but memory. The person that made the comment, you know who you are. That is unacceptable I was (at the time) an officer. Officers are not (or at least should not be) regarded as a troll. Yes, I do troll from time to time, that's normal. But I'm not consistently a troll, it's not what I do, regularly.

I'm a hard ass, vindictive, a little conceited, strong-headed, and fairly impatient with those that do not improve. Improving your people skills, grammar, and knowledge are a few of my pep-peeves. I cannot stand people who act like an eight year old, but make perverted references, (once again: you know who you are, or maybe you don't, though you should considering how many times I told you yesterday.) Yes, I did spend roughly two months away from EoTs, and chick 1 was highly suspicious of me. But, I think, after what has it been, another four already? That she trusts me now, and has a feel for who I am, and when I'm jerking your chain.

That brings me to my next point. I am, no matter how much you potentially dislike the fact, a prominent member of the guild. That's probably not going to change. I do a lot for and with the guild. I chat a shitton, though of late I've been chatting more via IRC than GC. It's not that I don't like you any more, I like you all (those you who haven't taken steps to lower my opinion of you) as much as I did way back when.

Furthermore: some officers I'm iffy to dissatisfied with (*ahem* this is constructive criticism, not a personal attack). For one: dude 1, for lack of a better phrase: oh my motherfucking god. I honestly don't know why your an officer now. You've been in the guild for roughly two weeks to a month, sooner than any other officer I've ever know (besides Michael, but he's a special case.) Also, frankly: you attitude sucks. I cannot count, on both hands and my feet, how many times you personally attacked me last night. You assaulted me with claims of "You don't find anything funny," (which, yes is a bit mild to go after you on, but it was the last one that i can remember at the moment.) You accused me of being a (paraphrasing here) "consistent troll," which, your grammar sucked when you said, so it was either half-hearted, or your too young to be dealing with crap like that on the internet and should seriously stop now. But the point is: you repeatedly went after me, that is unacceptable. dude 2, (again,) for lack of a better phrase: holy shit. Turn the damn ego down, please. If not for us, for yourself. You've recently started raving in GC about certain "gurus" in the guild. "I [dude 2] specialize in (am guru of) warriors, Michael is dervs, Battles is paras, Julia is mesmers (sort of,) dude 3 is monks, [...etc etc]." It is quite frankly, bullshit. Your putting certain individuals on pedestals, without legitimate just cause. Yes, your ego is so fucking massive that you probably thing your the best warrior ever, and if not certainly in the guild. Why not acknowledge my skills as a monk when I've done freaking top 500 GvG playing WoH, played HA for over three quarters of my fame (yes, that is seriously what the title points are called,) and played through at least 4.5mill exp of PvE healing? Seriously, why not? You also fail to acknowledge Nick's skills as a warrior, he may not have every single warrior skill on his warrior, but that doesn't matter. I've played enough times with him on his warrior, or seen him play, (this is where being brothers comes in handy,) enough to tell you that he knows what the hell hes doing. True, in things like MQVQ/SoO Bloo-way (which sadly, we've sort of stopped, [restart it, please the guild enjoys it]) he employs what is essentially a suicide bomber tactic. Guess what, though? He survives it ~75% of time time, and can shave off as much as 15 seconds a mob by doing it. Right about now your thinking "holy shit batman! A WHOLE 15 SECONDS!!! THAT'S INSANE!!!" Yeah, well multiply that by the oh, I don't know, average of like 30-40 mobs in each VQ, it adds up pretty damn fast. Why not acknowledge anyone else's skills with their main profession (or even something they don't play all the time)? Seriously? Your that conceited? So, dude 2, there is a not-so-fine line between skill and playing round the clock. (it looks something like this: skill|no life). Also look at it this way, having Obby armor, Torm weapons, and an Obby edge (q9, at that) *DOES NOT FUCKING PUT YOU ABOVE ANYONE ELSE.* I cannot stand anyone saying anything like "I do DoA, therefore: I am superior." Or: "I have obby and a torm hammer: better than uuuu!!!!!" No, just no. Some of the best players (in both PvE and PvP, though PvE it is less common because the entire point is pretty much look as cool as you can.) work with BASIC WEAPONS AND ARMOR. This topic comes up at least once a month in AC: Functional and Cool are two different things entirely. True, you can have both, but they do not have to go together. A simple collector's hammer works exactly the same as a tormented hammer. So, dude 2, sorry to be so harsh, (tbh 'news' like this your pretty unstable with,) but you are not "the bestest ever at everything you do." And yeah, I can smell the accusations of me being like this from here, take a look at my consistent play, I'm not like that normally.

So, now that you've quite possibly burned out your eyeballs, and forgotten the beginning of this, lets recap.
 * 1) Officers should not be chosen because "i leik u."
 * 2) The excessive trolling needs to stop, it's pissing me the fuck off, and I'm sure I'm not alone, (though most probably wont be as open as that.)
 * 3) Criticism|personal attacks: stick to the left, please.
 * 4) Some officers need to be changed.
 * 5) I'm aware that my officership wouldn't last and that I don't make the best officer.
 * 6) Stop giving officers unrelenting flak, especially when you accuse them of being childish, or acting like a little kid.
 * 7) Your being more of a obnoxious brat sticking those grubby, greasy, pudgy fingers in their faces with ungrounded accusations.

as promised, tl;dr: no, read the whole damn thing. I spent the two hours writing it, the least you can do is spend a maximum of a half an hour reading it. &mdash; Scythe   2:52, 16 Nov 2010 (UTC)