Deathwing, Destroyer of the worlds, has gone and done it: he hath sundered Azeroth in twain, he hath set the lands aflame with his fiery vengeance, he hath left a scorched and scarred wasteland in his wake.
But perhaps his most unforgivable offense is that he hath killed raiding for our guild.
Raiding got off with a rocky start for us as we could no longer run both 10mans and 25mans. Attempting 25mans off the bat in crappy heroic gear and minimal experience proved difficult, and trying to split up everyone into 2 10mans left one group ahead of the other and a few people feeling left out. Following one particularly bad week that had several no-shows and cancellations, the officers decided to stop raiding altogether.
For a couple weeks some people tried to organize their own raids without the officers help, but there was a general lack of interest. Lots of people still wanted to raid, but didn't want to lead any raids themselves nor wanted to be led by a nonexperienced leader. So a few people gquit in search of a new raiding guild.
Raids suddenly picked back up again. But this time, it was a "secret raid", which included only the GM, top officers and her close select friends in the guild. It wasn't so secret because it was obvious to everyone else in the guild that 10 people were in the same raid instance, but secret in the sense that there was no raid signup and thus not open to everyone.
I got invited to one of these secret raids last week, where the officers announced their intention to continue these 10 mans, inviting a few random people in the guild each week to "give them a taste of the cataclysm raids".
So...basically you're going to toss a few scraps to some people like you're feeding a dog under the table, while the officers and a select few get to binge all night? Doesn't sound very fair to me at all. My opinion is that either we raid (where everyone who is willing and capable are given a chance), or we don't raid. At all. There's no middle of the road here - trying to do anything in between the two extremes will just leave a lot of people feeling left out and upset. With the way things are currently, 5-6 people in the guild are reaping all the benefits, with only a few token gestures handed out to the rest of the guild.
How the officers think that this is fair or "alright" is beyond me. Already several more have left without any explanation or goodbye, so I'm assuming they're pissed too.
So what am I to do? Well, I could leave and join another guild. I almost want to gquit just to show how BS this situation is, but I don't think it will change anything. If every single other person in the guild left too, then that might really get my point across, but I don't see that happening. I could sit in the guild and stew over how unfair it is and drool over the new loot all the officers are getting. I could eagerly wait every week and hope that I get invited on a raid.
I've decided not to leave the guild for now, mainly because there's no guarantee that I will get a raid spot in a consistent, good raiding guild. I know what all the big guilds on the server are, and none of them suits me perfectly as far as raid schedule, open spots, or quality is concerned. Switching guilds means starting at the very bottom all over again, and there's no telling if a new guild will suddenly fold or break apart. There's no telling a guild is actually good until you've run with them. I don't want to waste 2 hours wiping on a boss I know we could easily down in my current guild. Perhaps if I get recruited during an excellent pug run I will switch, but until I've found a guild that really matches my skill level and availability I won't bother switching.
But neither will I sit there every night eagerly waiting for the crumbs to fall from the table. If I get invited on a run, that's cool but unless my name is actually on the calendar I'm not going to get my hopes up. There's plenty of things to do in wow besides raid - achievements, seasonal stuff, levelling alts, making money, archaeology, etc etc.
Besides, I think it's time for me to take a little semi-break from wow anyways. I don't think I want to quit for good or cancel my account or anything, but just playing less. There are other things in life and other video games out there. I still haven't tried starcraft 2 and I hear Diablo 3 is nearing its release date. I have to study for the GREs and figure out my life, and perhaps now is a good time to take a break from raiding after all.
So yes, it's a little bittersweet, but it's alright. I just go look in my bank where I have tier 1 raid items from vanilla wow to remind myself that all awesome gear becomes obsolete in a matter of months. What took me 15 min to farm just for kicks probably took some poor guy months of raiding to obtain 5 years ago. It's just a game.
