The guild will be going through some major changes in the days to come. The guild will not be disbanding, however it may cease to be FoW, depending on the direction we decide to take.
To explain such changes, I'll say a bit about the guild's forming and the direction we've taken so far...
My original intent was to create a guild with the sole purpose of finding every new player I could, with the hopes of eventualy forming a very large group of players that would develop enough recognition to have new players directed to us regularly, eventualy becoming self sufficient in respect to recruitment. I've always enjoyed hunting with and helping new players get started so the choice seemed natural.
However, some problems arose....
Taking time to find and hand pick new players (in order to reduce the chances of recruiting potential griefers) and playing regularly enough to keep those new players updated and assisted has become nearly impossible. And while, with the help of you guys, we were successful in this (finding approx. 30-40 new players in the month since we were founded), it is something that has been slowing down more recently.
While my reduced play time did contribute to that, we have had 3 experienced players (on separate occasions) masquerade as newbs in order to join, and soon after, pk and grief our new players. As such, I began recruiting less and less and even turned down a few potential recruits, suspicious of them being similar griefers.
As such, the open door policy that we've had of allowing any and all new players to join the guild is no longer something that appeals to me. While I do still hope to find new players and keep our guild growing, it has been too difficult and with too many hazards to continue running the guild in such a way.
Another intention I had with the founding of the guild was to have it located nearby a major city (in order to make it easier for new players to access) while in an area that had room for multiple houses (so that new players could own their own smalls around the guild area.) Thus my choosing Windmere. However, within the confines of a heavily wooded area, there has always been little room for growth as well as limited resources (mining primarily.) As some of our players have become better established on Second Age, they have outgrown the need for small houses. I've looked into the surrounding properties in order to hopefully buy some out, but there doesn't seem to be much option there. This is something I should have planned better for, but in the end, we had one recruit holding a small, the rest being held by myself with five houses.
That being said, I no longer see a point in residing in Windmere, there is no real interest in the area as well as no potential for growth for the guild.
So now to the changes....
I have already dropped all of the houses held in Windmere. I intend to find a good spot still close to a major city. However I'm looking primarily for something that can hold a larger building, something more suitable as a guild house, rather than something that can accommodate numerous players (as many of our members already have housing established across the map). Currently, the guildstone is located just outside of Vesper, directly above the western bridge.
As such, in the days to come we will choose a new name and theme for the guild. I'm still considering options here, so if anyone has something they'd like, I'm open to suggestion.
Likewise, the direction of the guild may change a bit, as I'd like to get the guild more involved as anti's, but the direction of the guild will depend solely on what the members want of it.
That is all for now. My apologies to any confusion or inconvenience to our members, but the guild will be improving much in the days to come. Stay in touch as more updates will soon arrive.
