Drama Mamas: The case of the mass guild eviction

Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm.

What makes funsuckers do what they do? I really don't know, but here is a story about another victim.

Drama Mama Lisa: I would wholeheartedly agree that it stinks to be in your shoes, Used and Guildless -- but to give you my take, as you've asked, I do need to point that the the only reason you're either used or guildless is because you stood by and meekly allowed the entire affair to unfold on top of you. You and the rest of the guild meekly sat back for months on end and watched the guild dribble out through the cracks, clapping your hands over your eyes to ignore the GM's obvious machinations to maintain control and continuing to pour hours, days and weeks into leveling the guild despite every indication that the GM had no intentions of keeping this guild an active, viable group.

During all this, you relied on one last shot in the dark, putting all your eggs in the basket of an angry appeal to Blizzard. The only thing is, the Big, Bad Egg himself was perfectly within his rights to do with his guild exactly as he did -- snatching back possession of his nicely leveled guild and leaving you former members with nothing but egg on your face.

I hope this won't put a dent in your willingness to bond with and trust other players, U&G. People aren't always that irresponsible and manipulative. But if you should find yourself in a situation like this again, watching some little brat banging and tugging and putting the smackdown on your favorite toy, then perhaps it's time to pick up and move to another sandbox.

Drama Mama Robin: Hey, Used and Guildless, sorry to hear about your plight. Blizzard did all it could for you. It's hard to protect yourself against someone who uses the system to grief you.

I agree with Lisa in that you should have ditched the guild the first time the Guild Leader came back with two days to spare. That should have clued you in that not only did he not want to keep up the guild, but that he had actual malice toward his guildies. At that point, you and your guildies should have packed up and started a new guild. But we don't have time machines, so we can't go back and fix it.

In general, low-level guilds with open enrollment are neither cohesive nor long-lasting. Someone thinks the idea of owning a guild would be fun and would also like some people to play with -- or just some minions to have a little control over. It seems that you got the latter type. Sometimes people with very good intentions begin one of these helpful guilds but then find friends or a more advanced guild elsewhere.

I think that a guild consisting of the more active of your recent guild's members would do well. It would level up quickly, and you wouldn't be constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Go see Officer's Quarters for some help in setting up an appropriate leadership and some posted rules.

If you don't want to put another guild together or want to start anew elsewhere, try to get into a high-level (preferably max-level) guild that has posted rules and an active leadership. All established guilds have had time to level up. Either way, you should make sure that whatever guild you join is active and the level of the guild is a good gauge.

Good luck to you, Used. I hope you can just think of this as hard-learned education and not be bitter about it.

Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with a little help and insight from the Drama Mamas. Play nice ... and when in doubt, ask the Drama Mamas at robin@wowinsider.com. Read Robin's section of this post on how to get your letter answered and please remember that we cannot answer privately.