Lemmings of the Revolving Door
Despite having only joined the guild four months ago I'm surprised and a little concerned about some of the recent losses to our roster. I always got the impression that Lemmings was a stable and friendly environment to while away our Warcraft subscription time, and while the later is undoubtedly true, a feeling of stability seems lacking. Influential members have left, and it makes me wonder if it could have been prevented. I apologise for mentioning names in this next part, so if any of you are reading this please don't feel that I am 'naming and shaming' you, its purely just examples of what I feel is the bigger picture.
We lost Starion because there weren't enough people online during the day for him to party with. We lost Floggy because he wanted to do higher level raiding, and this week we lost Pronder for roughly the same reasons. Now fair enough, Lemmings is a casual raiding guild, not a hardcore raiding guild, but that doesn't mean more content can't be discovered if we had more players online. The heart and soul of the guild is jumping ship, and I'm scared to think what would happen were a couple more influential players to leave.
We currently have 159 members on the roster - obviously some of which are alts, and yet how often recently have 10 man raids been cancelled due to lack of sign ups? I have my own reasons for not joining, and I'm sure lots of others do as well, but not being able to fill 10 spaces from a roster of 159 is criminal.
Perhaps the solution is some aggressive recruitment drives, but then its a case of sorting the wheat from the chaff in terms of suitable candidates.
The management here do a fine job and stick to the code of conduct rigorously, so please don't feel that I am ranting at you (I'm not actually ranting at anyone in particular, merely venting) but I'm sure that you see that we need to be proactive in attracting suitable players.
Hugs & Kisses,
Tix
Comments (18)
Some interesting points made
Some interesting points made here. Obviously it is never nice to see good players (and more importantly good people) leaving the guild but these things do happen.
Being new to the guild myself i have seen how it can be an issue to fill 10 man spots and if this is the case then obviously you are not going to move onto 25 man, so there will be people leaving now and again to fulfill curiosity (many dont like pugging at all let alone 25 mans).
When i have raided with the Lemmings it has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience but unfortunately at the moment with having a little one about and in the middle of moving i find it hard to commit to a solid 3 hours of...well anything really (except painting
).
As long as this guild keeps its morals the same then imo its the best place to be, and if we all advertise it as such then it surely can only grow.
Well, I'm a bit of an
Well, I'm a bit of an outsider now, but I do know a bit of how things are going and how things have always gone.
Starion is a great guy and a lovely chap, and I would be behind his joining Lemmings again any day of the week, but I know he has a hard time signing up to our events sometimes, and this is the reason why he left us before (around the time we did Zul'Gurub?).
As far as Floggy goes, he just wants to explore more content, and I suspect that means 25-mans (that's what Gryning does), not content that Lemmings isn't doing.
And where Pronder and Anstrit are concerned, personally I feel there was a case of different expectations. They both joined us from the Companions, which was a great guild, but had a different 'culture' when it comes to raiding. I think that while the social bits of both guilds really meshed well, the raiding bit turned out 'different'.
You *all* need to help out with recruiting, and right now I know the officers are already discussing options and solutions, so I have full confidence that things will turn out ok. Things are really not so glum as they may seem; yes, 2 people leave in 24 hours, but it's not because of some huge drama behind the scenes, a problem with Lemmings, or anything else. It's natural in any guilds' history that people come and go.
BTW the Flogmeister told me
BTW the Flogmeister told me he missed Lemmings and that he might be back when he's got his raiding out of his system
So.. rejoice peoples of Lemmings!
pretty much as Wilgje's says
pretty much as Wilgje's says it imho. A lot of recent losses were inevitable, we just need to get on to the task of looking for more like minded individuals now
Raid Leading 101 - by Matzi:- "Okay, just do the same again ... only better this time"
Well the lemmings have been
Well the lemmings have been in a hard time of a leavin lemmings wave. This is just a small after effect I guess. The best thing you can do now is have patience, dont leave and help recrout
Dommens Noobpower ...the one who dispells faster than his shadow.
I'm not going anywhere. I'm
I'm not going anywhere. I'm genuinely proud to be part of this guild.
I'm sure It's better to post
I'm sure
It's better to post these kinds of stories in our forums though. We don't want to cover up genuine discussion but.. well.. it won't really attract possible new recruits 
I made it "visible to guildies only" now so the post doesn't do the opposite of what it meant to
Sorry Wiggles, didn't mean to
Sorry Wiggles, didn't mean to make matters worse.
Are you silly, I'm sure we
Are you silly, I'm sure we all understand you want the best for the guild
I've been watching the
I've been watching the developements here for the past few days and I can honestly say I'm surprised more people haven't left earlier.
While other guilds are focussing on the most up to date content we are placing our focus on something that is out of date. If people want to progress they have no other alternative than to leave.
What should we be doing is placing our attention on the new raids, yes it might not be the largest place with the most bosses but it is where so many potential recruits want to go.
Sure there is not the same number of bosses as in Ulduar but there are both normal and heroic modes to be beaten.
.
While other guilds are focussing on the most up to date content we are placing our focus on something that is out of date. If people want to progress they have no other alternative than to leave.
Whilst I understand where you are coming from Clout, Lemmings has never been about pursuing the latest content. Are philosophy is to work through content together, exploring together, and defeating bosses together.
Revolvong door
Whilst I understand where you are coming from Clout, Lemmings has never been about pursuing the latest content. Our philosophy is to work through content together, exploring together, and defeating bosses together.
Although I do applaud the commitment to your principles I feel I should point out the current signups for the next 2 Ulduar raids do not stand up to re-einforce that philosophy.
I'm not suggesting fully abandonnng going to Ulduar but let it become the spare raid. Have two nights in TOC and Onyxia and build some progress in there and when you do go to Ulduar do go week after week locking the reset.
Clout, don't you want to see
Clout, don't you want to see end of Ulduar? I know I do
We have cleared Onyxia. If you want to go there, feel free to organise it
There's still a point to go there, because it's a short raid and the loot it drops will help us in Ulduar & ToC. I'm just not sure it should be on a regular basis 
I really like going to ToC, but the difficulty level is higher than Ulduar. I don't think it's wise to go there more often than Ulduar. A lot of the newer guildies just don't have to appropriate gearlevel yet. I think that's the main reason we've only downed the Champions once and sometimes have difficulties with The Northrend Beasts & Jaraxxus.
Hey Clout, I know you mean
Hey Clout, I know you mean well, but you come across really negatively. Some smilies might help your message
As far as the raiding subject is concerned, I know the officers are doing everything they can to offer a balanced raiding schedule, and I remember a few recent polls from which I didn't gather people were really against Ulduar and eager to sign up for ToC. Signups seem to be slow to get across the board.
Clout, I think that is an
Clout, I think that is an idea worth considering.
For me personally, Ulduar is a challenge I want to see through, but of course, we will always take suggestions on board, so don't stop making them (just, as I'm sure you are aware, we try to listen to everyone).
Catch 22
I think were in a rut with the raiding at the moment, i also would like to progress, My warlock has been neglected latly, but to fill them needed spots, my Pally has overtaken my warlock in 2 specs.
Although i dont mind this, and i would rather fill any role than a run is cancelled, I miss my dps role and lately, we just dont have enough signups for 10 man runs, not to mention picking what role we can choose to play.
We do have a few new signups that seem keen, and when we get their gear upgraded a little , things will look better, but to try and run some end game stuff seems suicide, mabee if we can get a few more raiders enrolled to fill in the low numbers, and maybe a few of them, will organise runs, this would unload some Pressure off the management to concentrate on guild stuff?
I, like i hope others, are prepaired to hang on until things get better, i dont dissagree with why people have left lately, i can totaly understand it, but leaving isnt helping matters, certainly not helping the people who stay, and not helping the guild we have all become a part of.
So, i'm not going for a while, and i hope we dont lose anymore people, but rather, i hope we gain some.
I'm sure recruitment is hard at it, and i'm sure things will work out, just use this lul as a rest, cos when it gets going? who knows
Tix I understand what you are
Tix
I understand what you are saying, but if we cannot get raids filled and then people leave because we are not raiding enough, it doesn't really make it any easier
We cannot force people to play at particular times, nor to sign-up for raids, nor would we want to. The raid content we are doing at the moment (Ulduar and ToCr) seems right for our level (remember that we've only got to Yogg-saron once so far, so there is more to do there).
Yes we need more members, but not at any cost. Recruitment is open, and as Wilgje has said in the past, it is for everyone to join in to help with that.
I don't see how we can commit to more raiding at the moment when a few players are being very heavily relied upon to raid at every opportunity - it's not fair on those people.
As I've said before, more than once, for every person that thinks we don't raid enough, there will be someone else who thinks we do too much
I agree with the sentiment
I agree with the sentiment Tixil and I know the officers, who are already actively recruiting, (just look at the number of new recruits we have received of recent) are considering another recruitment drive to perhaps take advantage of what is a graveyard period for any expansion.
The facts are though that we did recruit an awful lot of people for raiding over the last couple of months … and, after a brief period where all seemed easy to sort, we seem to be hitting another wall in respect of getting enough interest for raids.
With only one more major content upgrade left for this expansion every guild will be seeing some major shifts and movements. Some people will be looking to see the last part of WOTLK in its dying breath. Others will think that, come the next expansion, it will be back to square one and they may prefer to find a new home in time for it, where they can look forward to levelling and learning the new content alongside like minded peeps.
I must mention that, being part of the recruitment process now, I think we approach it as stringently as any other guild does. Our focus of late moved away from the raider and towards the casual, realising that we had room to get a few more casual players who didn’t really just want to raid. I agree focus should perhaps slip back onto raiding again, and tbh Tix I made a post about this very subject before yours in the HL forum hehe great minds and all that
Raid Leading 101 - by Matzi:- "Okay, just do the same again ... only better this time"