Thinking about guild mergers

The latest suggestion to be thrown around among our guild officers is a merger with another guild. There is a big difference between merging with another guild and being absorbed by them.

In my mind, a merger is when two approximately equal sized guilds combined into one.  Both guilds would disband and then members would join the new guild under a different name.  The leaders of the two original guilds would combine to form the officers of the new merged guild.  The new guild is bigger and (hopefully) better and has more people available to explore previously inaccessible content.  Rules for content and loot are established and agreed upon before the merger takes place.

An absorption is when a smaller guild gets sucked up by a bigger guild.  The name of the larger guild remains unchanged.  Maybe one or two of the leaders of the smaller guild are offered officer spots in the bigger guild.  Or maybe not.  Conduct and loot rules are dictated by what the bigger guild has been doing all along.  The bigger guild will have almost all of the raid spots, with a few offered to new members from the smaller guild.

I could go for the first one.  I don’t want the second one.  I get the feeling that the second one happens a lot more often than the first, though.

I’m now doing some research.  Using my realm forums and WoWJutsu, I am looking for a guild that is

• Progressed in Kara or maybe a little bit into ZA or Gruul’s.  That puts them very close to our own progression, so we are not coming into an arrangement vastly undergeared.
• Small – only enough people to barely make a 25-man raid, if that.  This way when we join them we will have some raid slots open for us.
• Casual – most of our members cannot raid on weeknights due to family or job.  We need a guild that will allow us to raid on weekends only.

I can find out these things about many guilds.  WoWJutsu tells me their progression (sort of – its not always accurate but I can get an idea).  The Armory tells me about their size, number of officers, and level of gear.  If I can find a link to their guild web site from the realm forums then I can learn about their policies, raid schedule, and loot system.

Will I find a guild that matches my needs?  Maybe or maybe not. If so then I need to start sending out feelers and  making contacts.  If not, then I need to consider arranging for us to get absorbed by a bigger guild.  Despite the fact that it rankles me to even think about it, that would provide the most opportunities for progression for our guild members.

I need to come up with discussion points if I do get in contact with the leaders of another guild.

• leadership structure – as Guild Leader now, do I get any influential spot in a new guild?  One of my officers already told me that this is a deal-breaker.  If the new guild won’t trust us enough to give me an officer spot, then we can’t trust them in return.
• loot system – if we get absorbed by a guild with a DKP system, are we starting out so far behind that we have no shot at loot?
• raid times/schedule – is weekend raiding OK?
• how raid spots are assigned – this is the big one.  I am only looking into this because I want my guildies to have a chance to raid.  If we join another guild and they don’t get raid spots then my efforts would be a failure.  Also, I play with my family (5 people).  I’d love to be able to raid together.

Am I setting unrealistic goals?  I’d like to think that there are guilds out there that would fit my criteria.  A lot of casual guilds must be stuck very near where we are in the game.  I just need to find them.

What other discussion points do I need to have?  Am I setting myself up for disappointment?

WoW Theme Park

I spent a day at Busch Gardens in Tampa this week. While I was walking around I was thinking about theme parks and the lengths that they go in order to make everything match to their theme. The rides are pretty generic – roller coasters, motion simulators, free fall rides – but add some decorations and fancy names and suddenly its an African experience.

So I starting wondering what rides I would put in a World of Warcraft theme park. Again, these would be regular rides, but with a WoW twist. There would be a lot of places to make inside jokes for the WoW fans.

So I came up with some rides…

Deadmines

This is the first ride that people would encounter when they enter the park. It would be a “runaway mine” type of roller coaster. Guests in the coaster car would careen along the tracks, masked defias bandits flying by on all sides. In the end the car bursts out of a tunnel into a huge shipyard and blast through a huge ship. However, half of the park maps have this ride labeled as “Deadmines” and half have it titled “Van Cleef”. People entering the park for the first time will be confused.

Molten Core

The first really big ride built at the park. This is a massive roller coaster. It goes fast, with flames and smoke billowing around the cars for atmosphere. When it was built, it went higher and faster than any other coaster. At that time, everyone rode it over and over again. People lined up at the park gates to get in. However, it has not aged well. Newer rides are a lot more fun. No one rides it anymore.

Raid Naxx

This is a slow haunted house style ride, much like the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. It carries a car full of forty passengers through the creepy, dark corridors of Naxxramas. Images of Abominations and Horsemen beset the riders from all sides, until faced with the fearsome visage of Kel’Thuzad. Most groups will see an animation showing the lich winning. Randomly, some groups get to ride in a “T3″ car and defeat the evil lich. They win t-shirts that say “I Raided Naxx and survived!”

When the ride is first released, the only way guests are allowed on it is if they can prove that they have ridden all the other rides in the park dozens and dozens of times. As a result, only about 1% of park guests ever get to ride it. Later the restrictions will be relaxed, but park veterans will proudly wear their “I Raided Naxx” shirts and call everyone else noobs.

Bombing Run

On this you are in a gryphon that flies in a seemingly random pattern over the park. You can drop virtual “bombs” over designated areas in order to kill demons. Its awesome the first time because the guests had never seen a ride like this before in any other park. After a few rides, guests just complain about the lack of demons to drop things on and how slow the gryphons are. It is possible to upgrade to a faster gryphon, but only guests who come to the park over and over again at expense of such things as jobs and family will ever get them.

Karazhan

This is a motion simulator ride, much like the Spiderman ride at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. A group of ten guests seated in a car are taken through a long, winding path up and down stairs in a huge castel setting. They see a multitude of different animated encounters. Each “boss” has spectacular graphics and exciting simulated motion, accompanied by flashing lights and a mood-setting soundtrack. The ride is different every time, as sometimes the car will turn down different paths to see “optional” bosses. Guests will want to ride this over and over to see all of the possible encounters. They will ride it over, and over, and over, and over, and over… It becomes by far the most popular ride in the park despite the fact that people are sick of it.

Gruul’s Lair

This is a fairly short and standard roller coaster ride set in a cave environment. What makes this fascinating is that the line for the Gruul’s Lair starts exactly where the Karazhan ride exits. The Gruul’s Lair ride holds 25 people at a time. So two groups will come out of the Karazhan ride with ten people each, then they have to decide which 25 of them get to ride Gruul’s Lair. Fights will ensue, friendships will be broken, and marriages will end in divorce as a result of bitter arguments.

Black Temple

Don’t even bother looking for this ride. Guests will hear rumors that it exists, but none of them will ever get to see. It doesn’t even appear on the park map. Some people claim that they have been on it, and mutter something about “Hand of A’dal” but they are lying.

Carnival Games

Every park has to have fun games to play… ring toss, shoot-the-water-gun-to-fill-the-balloon, throw the beanbag to knock down the pins. All of these can be altered to have a WoW theme. Instead of stuffed animals, though, the prizes are either Marks of Sargeras or Sunfury Signets. You have to choose one or the other, and you cannot change your decision once you have made it. These can be turned in for prizes at a gift shop, although they are used in two separate shops and the shops carry different merchandise. If you have Marks of Sargeras you won’t be able to buy anything from the Scryer gift shop even if you like their stuff better. Choose wisely.

Food

Food is very pricey, of course, as in all theme parks. Guests can get low quality food like Wolf Steak for little money, but expect to pay a premium for such delicacies as Warp Burger, Golden Fish Sticks, and Spicy Crawdad. They can be washed down with some delicious Draenic Water. Its even filtered sometimes, or purified occasionally. Guests over the legal age can buy some Nethergarde Bitter.

Classes

A unique feature of the park. Every guest is assigned to a character class when they enter the park – paladin, warrior, shaman, etc… Guests get a wristband proclaiming their class. Each morning, the park administrators choose one class to be “OP” for the day. Anyone who is that class automatically gets to go to the front of the line on every ride. All the other guests complain that its unfair how another class is OP. Fortunately, all the other guests get to throw Nerf items at members of the OP class while shouting “Nerf them!!” Oddly, Warlocks are picked as the OP class most days. Shamans are almost never picked as OP, and guests who are assigned to be shamans often leave the park and come back in order to get reassigned.

Other theme elements

All park employees are called “CMs” and they are required to dress in blue. They generally ignore questions from park guests. If guests complain that a ride is not working, the CMs will usually say that it is not bugged, and is actually working as intended.

Future Expansions

Every theme park has to add new rides in order to keep people coming back. Unfortunately, whenever this park adds new rides, no one goes on the old rides any more.

Have other suggestions?