Closing the guild down.

Hello there folk, the title must have definitely caught your attention.. well here I am writing to you all and looking for an opinion.

I've made a poll, so it's determined by majority choice, rather than myself, or althalos alone. I'm here to ask,

Does Army of the Damned still actively have a purpose?

Did the guild reach it's peak some time ago, and is now in decline?

Has the guild declined to a sufficient level that it ought to be closed down until further notice?

These are all questions I've wondered since the guild gradually became quieter, and quieter, and quieter. I for one, feel as if we have accomplished many things and have had many interesting events, we've developed our characters together and I personally spent 9 months between two scourge affiliated characters. But y'know, I eventually just lost interest, it's like reading a never ending book. It was never any of you whom ruined it for me, it was always something I felt myself. I think it's time to close this chapter of the book, and move on.

I personally would like to invite you to a guild that in my view still has a future, something lorewise that has not been killed and murdered by Blizzard, the forsaken.

I hope that you'l answer each question and post all your thoughts and opinions about exactly what I post today, thank you.

You know Eph I've been wondering the same thing myself. As much as I would hate to see the guild go perhaps it is time to close down. Recently I've felt like our "story" in Northrend is going nowhere and with so few active members now the guild seems to have stagnated. So unless the guild undergoes radical reform and we get some more active members I think we'll have to close down.

i agree our business in northrend are actually pointless, but we just started to build up events with other guilds and getting a respectable reputation around DB

keeping on with that will attract some pepole for sure, we just need to get out from our cocoon because if we keep to RP with ourselfes only we gonna close for sure

i suggest to focus more on cross-guild events and see how it goin

try everything before give up

In my opinion, I wouldn't say Northrend went no where, or us being there was pointless. We have achieved much, from characters progressing, training, learning new sources of power, to raising a necropolis, to our saronite operations, to the formation of multiple concepts like the Lingering Shadow, Wolfcult and such. There came a time when we were very blooming and such, and then due to some RL issues, we have gone stale, and perhaps we did not perform very well as we should, and we made mistakes. But imo, it was very important what we did there ICly, but OOCly, it didn't make sense for shutting ourselfs away from the whole of the RP community, but that is somewhat what we must sacrifice as being evil, since we cannot just RP like other ordinary players in cities.

But in my personal opinion, our problem is the seperation of the guild. It is true that the Scourge is varied, and diversified, and that aids our RP, but the fact that we chose to run an army sector seperately from the Cult, and I mean by each being on a different end of the map, could have contributed to the RP going stale, because once members started reducing due to many issues, from RL to simply going inactive, our RP was reduced. And then, I have noticed that we have become a guild based on events, that we're only active during event times, and that is a good factor, and some people have many things to do, so its understandable that people cannot log on always, but I myself hardly find any random RP going on as it did before, and that could be from the lack of members as well.

But even so, these times are hard, with multiple of people going through RL things, with new games being released, and with the server as a whole going quiet. But I myself in my experience has seen this before as well, and we have strived through. Perhaps it is time to close, perhaps it is not, but due to many external factors we have become quite quiet, or that we could have done our concept in a better way, such as uniting us all in one place. But it is not from the guild's concept getting old or leading no where and such, I myself don't believe that. From where we have come, I'm very proud. If we have to close down, we'll close down, but I would still try.

My response might be a bit vague and messy, but I just don't feel like writing well atm or to think, so I might write a better response next time, but however, should we move on. After everything has been sorted out, The first step I would do is uniting the whole guild (if there are no objections). Of course, we would still have a army, a cult, a apothecarium, and people RPing according to their place, but we will all be together in one place, RPing together. We will not abonden Northrend completely, we will return many times, it is where we dead folks belong, but we will return with the Cult, in a way that we get the whole guild involved in all the RP without obstructing or ruining anyone's current RP. With us all together, in events under one banner, working together very closely, it will increase our dominance and our picture in my belief. We all are afterall the Scourge, we are all sons and daughters of one father And thus we won't be so much seperated. Of course, this is not the only issue, and if we are to go on, many things must be fixed and such, and hopefully they will.

Its just, I think that this is one of those time periods, in which all the issues which threaten a guild come together all at once and zerg themselves at the guild. But we can recover if we'd like, and I think we can. Sorry again if this is all messy and stuff, as I mentioned earlier, I'm just writing this quite fast and not in the best mood, and of course I don't mean this as a offensive to anyone's response or the topic itself if it came out that way. This is just my take on it atm.

Althalos uses paragraphs, government denies!

Just kiddin', personally, I want to remain role-playing with you all - Which is why I mention the Forsaken, regardless of concept or RP project, the people whom worked for this guild are the people I want with me, you know who you are.

This is a difficult decision to make. Just what Alth said, many outside factors affect our activity, and i agree on that the seperation of the parts of the guild hasn't helped. It was not a bad idea as a short term one, but on the long run it just cut the members away from eachother too much, reducing our options in RP. And, maybe uniting the guild would blow some life into it.

On the other hand, i think it could be closed to prevent it to sink even lower. Maybe it has truely over its peaks, and we can just longer its suffering but not avoid the inevitable. I'm not sure how much good it would do to expect from the officers to put more effort into it and might get nothing out of it. Maybe it's better if everybody uses their free time and energies on other projects. Maybe.

I would try the reunition as well, just so we can say we've tried even that and maybe feel no regret afterward.

That's all i can think of right now.

Right well, as people mentioned, we are inactive due to alot of reasons, games, IRl issues etc, such things we all get over in due time, some might take longer than other.
But even so I woulden't see it as an reason to close the guild down, I personally do not feel to give up on this, and I enjoy RPing scourge, and I'd fight for it, as I have done for years now.

And yes separating the guild as Jemerick said, was good as a short term , but a long term it did more harm than help, and we are soon to reunite ecother, and we are starting to do more open Rp with other guilds.
Things are really getting started, more than it have before atleast, and I'd give that a chanse First, before I give up.

So I'll continue staying in the guild, continue aiding it and try to bring it back up, Scourge RP is great amount of fun for me, nothing I ever want to give up on.

That's my view at least.

(Hope I make sense )

I place my modest vote in a "no" to the closing the guild matter.
I will continue rping with it, as long as ic and rl allows it.
I also see no reason to give up before trying solutions to it.
The guild is one of the best in Defias, the events seem amazing, and I have had a great time with its players

Okay my 2 penny.

I say also yes for closing the guild down. Even thou im not so active anymore as the rest of you guys, i want to say what i think. I know the feeling of eph. The feeling of a story that is done. That's also one of the main reasons im not so much online anymore lately. This has also caused me the decision to go back to a PVE realm with my DK, but that's another story.

Now to answer the qeustions

Does Army of the Damned still actively have a purpose?
No, not really, since we moved away from Eastern Kingdoms, and into Northrend, the Death Knights dont have a purpose anymore. The cultlists on the other hand, they strike fear into the hearts of the people, they fight with other people and stuff. And since the cultists came after the Death Knights, the Death Knights, the core, has lost his purpose.

Did the guild reach it's peak some time ago, and is now in decline?
Yes, the guild has reached many peaks, aswell on Death Knights, as on cultlists side. Battles has been there, in proportions not even shown in the lore of the original WoW itself. To all the members that came, the guild has teached them how to fight, with merely rolls, and imagination. This are lessons, none of us shall ever forget.

Has the guild declined to a sufficient level that it ought to be closed down until further notice?
I dont know what this sentence means.

Now as i stated before, the guild has conquered many story's, have experienced alot, and always had great RP. But every book must be closed sometimes, and as i see it, the last page is coming soon.

This is also noticeble of the events. I check my cellphone regulary if there are any events, but they seem 2 go down aswell. And when i check signups for these, it's also... not a lot.

These are my opinions, handle them as you want, and i bid you all farewell, and good luck in the near future. Because i am going to move my DK to where she was born.

Saronaya