Knights Of Sparta

The Next Chapter



I've toiled over this Guild History update for a long time. The guild has undergone considerable changes in the last few months, and I know the guild history needs updating to reflect this. However, given how 'heated' some of the most recent changes were, I haven't felt able until now to give a rounded account of what happened.

In the past 2/3 years we have twice experienced a mass exodus of players. The first was the formation of the guild RIP, when lots of our more progression orientated players left to form a more hardcore raid guild. Many of those who left, where former members of the Dreamweavers with whom we had merged. The central issue that lead to their departure was that we were making insufficient progress in our raiding.

Because KOS had been so ‘noob’ friendly, the merger had perhaps resulted in a ‘nerf’ to some skilled players progression. Some players wanted to push on and experience new content, whilst others wanted to take their time and feel less rushed. The result was a division in the raid team. We did try two teams for a while, but this proved insufficient. A lot of players left to form a more raid focused guild called RIP. However, some members of that splinter group later returned to this website to say it had been a mistake to leave. The grass on the other side, it appears, was not greener after all.

Despite the splinter group, we retained most of our longest standing members and rebuilt on the same basis as before, until we were raiding successfully again. I’d like to say at this point that there is more to this game than raiding, but ultimately raiding is always the ‘hot bed’ in which all arguments take place. The reason for this is simple. Blizzard have designed WoW as an ‘end game’ game. It is meant for raiders first and foremost. That’s not me, that’s what I believe Blizzard are focused on.

Anyway, after a year or two of rebuilding, we found a balance again and developed a regular raid team, whilst the guild remained open to non-raiders. What happened next however was terribly unpleasant and there is no getting away from that. I will endeavour to keep my own personal feelings out of the following account of our history.

We reached a point where our raid progress was , shall we say limited, due to our all inclusive ethos. We had players who, whilst well loved by the guild, were never going to raid current content. It’s a matter of ability, yet to even discuss player ability had become a dirty word. It got to the stage were even implying that Player X was better than Player Y was almost treated as an act of discrimination / racism / ageism etc. Me and my family who founded this guild all but gave up playing for a while as a result of this conflict.

Whilst we were away, others assumed greater authority within the guild and planned for my removal as guild leader. However, after a short break I came back determined to try and resolve the conflict. My attempts were seen by some as the acts of a tyrant (or certainly portrayed as such in officer forums). All I did was remind people that this was a guild formed by one family, primarily for that family, and secondly for anyone who liked what we were trying to do. I was portrayed as a dictator (which I adamantly deny) and thus followed a second mass exodus. The second splinter group formed a rival guild known as The Chapter.

I have no hard feelings towards most of those in the Chapter. Many left simply because they felt that the players they knew best had left, and wanted to remain with their friends. Alas such reasoning is self-fulfilling. If everyone who had stated their reason for leaving as ‘to follow their friends’ had stayed, most of them would still be in KOS. But those who were at the centre of this division had worked wonders at forming an ‘impression’ of a mass exodus. Rather like someone spreading rumours of a stock market crash, resulting in people selling stocks and thus ‘causing’ a stock market crash, people jumped ship due to the impression they had been given, that KOS was a sinking ship. Well, they were wrong!

We nurtured some of the lesser known players in our guild and attempted to recruit. However, the truth is, our growth into possibly the most successful raid team KOS has ever had, has been entirely generic. Some players who weren’t raiding started to raid, and those players recommended friends, and family members to the guild, such that now we have an excellent team of close knitted players, who’s early success speaks for itself. I believe, for the very first time in KOS’s history, that our current raid team, WILL, kill the current end game boss before he is redundant.

So pat yourselves on the back those of you who are involved. And just to set the record straight, KOS are still all inclusive, everyone is welcome to the guild, we will nurture new players to fulfil their potential.

The only caveat is this:

Everyone has a place, everyone in the right place.

If you are less skilled, you still have a place in the team. However, we will not again have a situation where the guild as a whole only progresses at the pace of the slowest player. I will find a role for everyone, but the best will take on progressive / hard content, and the less developed player will take on the farmed / easier content. This is reasonable, this is the only way to find balance between the multitude of skill levels we have within our guild.

To use a football analogy, I want to make KOS into a successful Premiership team. Such teams succeed only due to the overall strength of their squad. If you find youself as the 89th minute sub who scores wonder goals, then that is your 'place'. If you are the stalwart defender who will gladly put his own face in the line of fire when hanging on to a narrow lead in the last minutes of a close game, then that is your 'place'.

The only questions you need to ask yourself are these;

do you recognise your 'place',

and do you want to win the Premiership?