20/20 Hindsight

P1:

So... I tapped out a bit ago and I'm finally cooled off to the point I can step back and see my little adventure in it's entirety, good bad and so on, now I'm going to take you on my little journey if your curious to know how this played out from start to end read on;

So boom, me pop into Defias brand new just in from AD, bored out of my mind with the game and RP is the only thing that holds my interest, that and PvP.

So I search for greener pastures and figure "Hey, RP-PvP that's got everything I'm after!"

Trouble is I RP a Grim-dark DK, so my options are limited, after some roaming around and even joining lights hammer, It doesn't work out for me there. Mallicus is cool an all but his idea does no fit my character, so I go looking at the Wardens (Whispered one of their officers about joining, got the sales pitch and sat and pondered)

As I sit and ponder, all DK'd up outside the lamb a Wild littlepip appears and comments on the sorry state of evil RP in defias, I concur, he says maybe I should make my own guild!

Wardens still not whispered me back and it's been a whole 10 minutes, I'm full of monster and my eye balls and vibrating, fuck it I'll make my own...

Need a name, hmm... Has to fit me, but not just me, because theres only one of me and I'm a snowflake so I need to come up with something that grim-darks and zealots and treehuggers can all join in wi-- Tree cult.

Name took aaaages and it's layered with tons of metaphors and inside jokes, actually the word Yore is an homage to better old days, namely, House of Preatoria. (Remember them SSL players?)

House of Yore (Preatoria)

So I got my name, got my symbol #gondortree copypasta

Now I need guild members, a base of operations... Well I'm outside the lamb. It's kinda nice here, hands are to shaky to move anywhere, fuck it here will do!

Now to recruit, I go through all the hoops, I'm still buddy buddy with skarain from lights hammer so I join up on defiasrp, lfrp, wow eu etc post up my "hi I'm making a guild!"

It's not going well, can't recruit new members unless you have members, can't encourage new RP'ers unless you have RP on for them to see and join in with; I need Bobby's.

Now heres where it starts to get strange.

So we are on a linked server, which means your characters from all 5 servers can join the same guild. so how do I trick people into joining my inactive guild, by making them think it's active!

Boom.

48 new characters created and joined to the house (Roster now sits at 50 my +1 being my RL buddy who i had to bribe with pizza to /invite all these lvl 1 alts )

Job done, now I need my "one guy"

To none GM's this won't mean anything to you, but GM's will understand, you need that "one guy" the wing man, the dude of dudes who will deal with your shit and help you not lose your mind.

Found him in here, his name is Elgus.

"That idea sounds cool, how active is it?"

La'me ~ Got 50 members allready!

"Awesome, sign me up!"

Boom, got my "One guy"

Trouble is my grimdark DK isnt the kinda guy I can send up to people, stormwind is still ICly a dangerous place for him, so I need to use my alts, I also need a uniform to give us identity, and my "one guy" is just one guy.

Next step, these alts need to be leveled to the point I can dress them in a suitable uniform, has to be transmogable so it's useable in rp-pvp or it's pointless AD nonsense.  

So, now the naughty part, how to lvl up atleast 4 alts (one for each armor type) when all i can play is a DK.

Bot it. Set me back £20 now feel free to judge, but fact is, I wouldt have been able to recruit half as well as I did with out multiple, transmoged persona's to assigned to each person.

Depending on who i was dealing with, determined which "Alt persona" I dealt with them on. thus ensuring maximum recruitment potential, still while this was going on I managed to secure a merger with another going no where guild who where in the same boat as me, Shady lady (Charlieblaze and Azapha) However Azapha wasnt an RP'er, hell the dude didnt even talk to me for the first 2 weeks.

Not that he was an OOC'er he was just... very very infrequent. so it still counted.

Now I'm up to 4, the alts are almost done (Damn transmog gear is expensive) now it's time to start advertising.

16+ hours a day spent in trade, from 07:00 - 23:00 every 30 / 10 minutes. Yorian recruitment message. None stop, all day, every day inbetween i do RL thing, check forums, divert interviews to my one guy or do them myself

Now you know how we recruited so many so quickly, I didn't sleep and I drank ALOT of caffine.

I organize my first event and get a taste of failure, I'm advertising none stop yet it's not getting me anywhere, I organize an event which falls through due to lack of participation (Poetry event) and then, to top it off I have to deal with some guy giving me stick, for messing up their calendar by having an event changed over to fit mine in then not having mine.

"OMG that legshot wound of yours is bleeding all over my white trousers!"

>.>

Still, the advertising for that event, helps me to snatch up a couple more people, and the charlieblaze hype nets me a couple more, Elgus nets me a few more and Azapha finally joins in, and nets me some rl buddies, we finally reached the point we can HAVE RP going on in a hub

Recruitment method persists and the new blood begins pouring in...

And here is when things start to get complicated.

T.B.C.

P2:

As the new members begin settling I start joining the house in with the community at large, I've enough bobby's now to participate and create a presence and I hear a RP-PvP event is going on through charlie, and i get my in.

Funny thing though... Everyone is offline except me on the days leading up to it, so the only person for the horde to talk to about organizing, is me.

I've struck gold. If there is one thing I do well, it's plan and execute; This is my moment to shine and so I humbly offer to step up and take the reins on this little event and ensure it goes smoothly.

Trouble is im at an rp-pvp event on a lvl 100 paladin I've never played... And a wild Vardrek is alongside me, who HAS played a paladin, a lot, and will know if I join in the battle with a bot running (Because he runs a fricken RBG team)

Not to fear, I will "Command" from the rear and if I do have to fight, I'll just spam heal another healer and hope they carry me.

"I'm sure I saw holy light on the bars... Sounds like the button to press, I got this"

Thing here is the admin, making sure order is maintained through out and tempers remain cool, calm and civil. On this front I check all boxes and impress by and large as the new comer.

Now I have "Clout" as an event runner. and a modicum of rep as a RP-PvP, enough atleast to get me into Cogshield, on my DK, which I CAN play. The hype train where I can mingle with the in crowd and represent the House.

Which is great... if not for the fact the house blew up with members and now it's a full time job putting out fires, brand new RP'ers who just started, I have to teach them and protect them from the salty element who will give them a hard time, then to top it off, I get people leaving the house, because it's become to chaotic.

But I just spent two months 16+ hour recruiting and I finally started getting somewhere; arg... Right recruitment closed, 2 weeks and I'll get these people trained up, deal with community backlash rep thats out calling "Yorians nublets" and P.R. the community back into a decent spot.

Oh and while all this is going on, I'm writing 100+ pages of "Lore of Yore" on attire, rules, regs, general background, creating an entire culture as the back drop for whats happening and the agenda and the reasons behind them ICly

Trouble is in the shuffle of new bloods I learn a couple have signed up from other guilds, so now I've got people hating on me for poaching, fortunately I can put out those fires during cogshield runs, which I accomplish, by and large.

As well as blowing up members wise though, ICly we're at the heart of EVERYTHING thats going on, everyones favourite new plot device, and ICly keeping track of Azapha so he doesnt get pegged takes a considerable amount of energy. Though in his defence it was very useful for publicity.

2 weeks go by, Bobby's have become "Yorians" and I create a set of procedures and rules and regs to maintain order and proceed to spy on every single Yorian, fortunately they all RP primarily at the lamb hub, where I perch in stealth to monitor and whisper them when it's needed and encourage them in G chat to stop by for some RP.

While recruiting in trade chat

and reading in forums.

and writing Yorian lore

organizing calendar events.

networking with other GM's to maintain relations

and occasionally flirting

Shortly after recruitment re-opened Centax joined our ranks, and in Elgus's absence quickly became my new "One guy"

So, all the gears are now in motion, the IC stuff cracks on, OOC things are being managed, time to expand into raiding and RBG's and community event running.

TBC

P3:

Now the thing to point out at this stage, is there is ALOT going on, too much infact...

Every officer as soon as they log in gets a TS debrief from me, it's the first thing that happens, directed to what they NEED to get done.
But now my officers are fraying at the seams trying to manage the work I'm dishing out to them.

Burn out, after burn out.

Thing is after all the chaos, I went in hard on the discipline.

Things were done the way I needed them done and I was going to stand over peoples shoulders to make sure it was, every conversation, I wanted a chat log, not in your house attire on the armoury? I'm in your skype asking why.

Big Brother is watching and he has a plan for you.

Trouble is I can't allow it to go any other way but how I need it to go, because I can't trust my officers not to burn out and leave me hanging, so if I suddenly have to take over, I'm screwed. So I'll do everything.

I literally fed people entire conversations to say, responses to give for X Y or Z and for the most part... it worked.

Only bad thing is, any one creating new problems for me was instantly blacklisted.

"Not like how I'm doing this? Hmm... Okay, I will hear you out, go on"
*Plans your replacement while you speak and how to oust you and silence you*

I did however have a secret weapon in my arsenal, I never had enough time to check all the boxes and sometimes, the House was left in a vulnerable spot and so, in order to buy more time I did on occasion "Summon" the Shade.

"How can you call us evil when were defending you? Tut tut..."

First time was actually by accident... Second was not. All in all I used them 3 times. (4 counting the accidental) Which again, I justified rather easily, it gave us a great chance to advertise our RP-PvP rep and for the most part, the majority enjoyed the excitement, only a minority objected to the interruption, and I hadn't dealt with them yet so they were going to wait until I was ready for them to proceed.

Yeah... But what would you have done? Let someone throw a spanner into the 50 juggling balls your trying to manage, or kick a fire cracker at them?

But as I'm trying to get around to people to get things done, I can't get anything done, because the ones in charge of those respective areas community wise just arn't as efficient as I NEED them to be, so what's to be done?

"Fuck it.. I'll put my people there, that will ensure it runs smoothly and things get done in a timely fashion"

W-RP-PvP, I'll take that...

Trade RP? Right I'll take that too...

Seasonal events? Arg.. I got that.

Now we're more or less in charge of everything, things "Work"

"You power hungry mad-man!"
Well if you did a better job I would have let you alone to do it! Casual play style are not conducive to my schedule, I'm on the clock!

RBG's are "Working"
Raiding is "Working"
Events are "Workings"
Community events are "Working"

Right every things is going according to pl---

We need to arrest half the council. Right.

Now here I decide to let the new Yorian officers fly solo, I am off TS, the new guards have a big job and a lot of chaos to manage and it crashes and burns, how to reclaim order.

Move Zackarus into the "Speaker" chair, try to get things moving again...

*Facepalm* Right... Everyone hates him. Bullocks!

Now that fire took some time to put out and it still smoulders even now for some, still after the dust settled there I cut ties with people who had caused me problems during that series of events, plus at the time I felt a little betrayed.

Still, need to crack on, trouble is I can't get any RP-PvP going because the horde have nothing to offer, plan, execute. Make a horde guild, kick start that and get it up and running, I'll hand over the house to my one guy, let him crack on and get started horde side.

Though just as I had not considered during the council no one likes Zackarus (Which I should have remembered given all the time spent talking through proxy's precisely because no one liked him)

I failed to consider that the new GM, would actually do something different to what I did. (IKR, crazy?!)

"What do you mean you are not going to do it precisely the way I said too? BURN ALL OF BUUUUURN!"
And after a few holes in doors I took a step back and thought...

Time for you to have a time out, I knew the house would continue, all be it not entirely as I had intended but continue it would but if I was here to see that, I don't think I could do it with out losing my shit, so long spent controlling everything *Shrug*

And there you have it, start to finish, a couple thing omitted for privacy reasons but hope you enjoyed the read.

This was actually quite an enjoyable read. Sorry if i've caused you an ache at times Zackarus. You coming back now? Cause I did enjoy the chatter on TS every now and then.

hello these zack... guessing this IS the time to say I hope you are okay hope for the best with what ever you plan to do now

honestly.. yes a good read into honesty.. can say from an OCD point of view (for them who know i have it my self) can totally understand how things can spiral out of hand.. kinda a snow ball effect, also understand how much if you get super stressed and over absorbed into something it starts to become personal and you need to of stood back for a while before you can see that you maybe needed to cool off sooner than you did

if you do come back I am not going to be hostile.. ill even be happy to talk with you in game chat or TS at some point. i do hope honestly that from an IRL point we can do that at some point and maybe get a more constructive talk than we last had.. its never nice to have your last convo with someone you have been friends with be one where near every word involved "fuck" and "you"

ether way as i said in the forums when you said about your raiding progress .. I can put things aside to listen and i still can wish you the best so maybe ill speak to you soon

a couple thing omitted for privacy reasons

It's all the flirting isn't it?

Mallucis-DefiasBroterhood nods at Zackarus-Sporeggar.

Now we're more or less in charge of everything, things "Work"

"You power hungry mad-man!"
Well if you did a better job I would have let you alone to do it! Casual play style are not conducive to my schedule, I'm on the clock!

RBG's are "Working"
Raiding is "Working"
Events are "Workings"
Community events are "Working"

Only problem with this is you may have got these things happening but it's foolish to think that it was solely down to yourself, only reason you could do those things was a solid player base, a player base that sometimes you gave alot of grief and others outside your guild had to pick up the pieces and re-assure your members that everything would be okay, to be calm and take a breath and remember the good times and focus on enjoying playing the game instead of being worked up about it.

It looks from the forum posts that you were severely controlling, three things happen there, you either burn out or you get pressured to leave the GM spot or you get a mass exodus of members. Gm's have to keep their guildies happy and not be an overburdening nanny, otherwise they won't be GM and they certainly can't go about calling people rainbow retards either.

Interesting read Zack.

Hello Zackarus. Good to see you again.

The amount of work you did, the effort you put behind the guild, I am not surprised on why you needed a break when things went south. I am sorry that I had to leave you and the officer post I had in Yore due to Work. Maybe things would have gone differently if so.

Still, I do tip my hat. It is an interesting guild that you created. It sure have spice things up on the Alliance side of RP scene, which I do thank you for.

Out of curiosity, what do you think you'll be going to do now?

There is one thing in particular I'd like to respond to in this thread, something we were not aware of at the time nor something we condone within House of Yore now that Centax has become the new Patriarch.

I did however have a secret weapon in my arsenal, I never had enough time to check all the boxes and sometimes, the House was left in a vulnerable spot and so, in order to buy more time I did on occasion "Summon" the Shade.

I spoke to the others within Yore and we were not aware that the Shade was deliberately summoned, this confession surprised us and I'd like to express that this is not something we'd ever chose to do ourselves. We do not feel that vulnerabilities IC are solved through summoning PvPers to 'buy more time'; IC matters are best solved through IC interactions.

The rest, we (within Yore) and I personally have no opinion on the rest in this thread currently. We feel we need a bit more time to reflect on things.

Good read. So when are you continuing Yore Horde adventure? O.O

And on the Shade summoning. XD
Who hasn't? *feels different*

Holy shit you have a terrible taste in music.

Well it is what it is, they are my mistakes and I own them, as for what I'm doing next truth is I'm not sure, just felt like I owed some closure to people.

I sort of knew I wouldn't reach a finish line, it was just a case of getting as much done as I could before I inevitably tripped and fell on my face.

Think I got enough done, only bit I regret was snapping at my Yorians at the end.

Sir Zackarus Xaviour wrote:Well it is what it is, they are my mistakes and I own them, as for what I'm doing next truth is I'm not sure, just felt like I owed some closure to people.

I sort of knew I wouldn't reach a finish line, it was just a case of getting as much done as I could before I inevitably tripped and fell on my face.

Think I got enough done, only bit I regret was snapping at my Yorians at the end.

Honestly. This is the internet, no body owns anybody anything. I still tip my hat of too you as i had expected you to hit the point of no return barrier sooner than you did with how much you burdened your self with getting things done and effort you put into things. As i said in my last post i can relate to the needing to step back to see things as they really are, i do think by the end a lot of your in character had become more or less out of character reactions, things had very clearly become that way. i know this as i was hearing it from all sides and as vardrek pointed out, others had contacted in /w for understanding of what was happening, it had stopped being a game, it had become serious OOC shit.

what happened between me hutchins and HoY had become more OOC than IC and shortly after that council i took a step back as i felt it best to let things cool off OOC before even considering getting involved again. a lot of words was said and in truth im happy i was not on HoY TS at the time because somethings had hit a wall that was going to not make for a nice talk, i know at the time banning all of my guild members from HoY TS even the ones who had no involvement with what caused the problem was enough that if i had been there to talk i would of probably called you out on the matter as IMHO that was crossing a line of seeming petty and just reinforced my opinion that this was not a game, it was truly anything but a game

others in your guild knew it was not a game by that point, as they didn't want part in it.. i had so many /w on that day from your officers and other members asking what the fuck was going on and more or less expressing there concern that this was truly not were they wanted to be or what they wanted to be involved in. if there is ANY regret you should of had.. it was before your final point of snapping at your own guild.. and the part where it got to being a personal OOC mission to get things to happen IC

Looking forward to seeing the Pale Rider back, even if there's some obvious places I disagree with.

Is he Illidan and you're Maiev?

Decided what to do.

I am going to pick up where I left off and get the Horde side House of Yore up and running.

I'll be reactivating my account on the 17th of June; I will finish up the RP with you Edwin and then faction change.

In the mean time...