User:AOTT/Followers Of Master Jack

This page is intended to become a section on FOMJ's history.

[FOMJ] was an accident. I never intended the guild to flourish the way it has; I had expected other guilds to be so well-developed and well-known that my little stake in the battle isles would be ignored by all but the most newbie players. Well, FOMJ grew faster than I had ever imagined and now it floats between 70-90 players at any given time with an average of about 15-20 officers. When Factions came out, and I heard about Alliances and the rumored ability to take control of cities, I had originally expected to be fighting for control of a city constantly in a siege-like 'round the clock stuggle for supremacy. I was actually fairly confident in my Guild's ability (or at least my officer core's ability) to hold such a siege, but alas; city ownership turned out to be a matter of how many faction points an Alliance could muster. Once Factions hit its peak, it dawned upon me that controlling even a minor outpost would be impossible to accomplish without sacrificing all other aspects of the game. So, I gave up the dream of owning Cavalon (which at present requites 24 million faction points to control, 1/7/07) and settled for having far more members in my guild and alliance than any of those alliances. Thanks to my impressive officer core and my own efforts, I'd say we've done a pretty spiffy job. Since the release of the Nightfall Campaign, I have been unable to maintain a high level of faction in the guild. FOMJ, much as I would like it to, never got off the ground when it came to PvP. I have fleeting come-and-go interest in PvP, and the majority of the members of FOMJ are either unresponsive or do not care about the PvP aspects of the game. In fact, I've actually had members leave after completing the campaign, saying that they are "done with the game." Well, that disappoints me.

The FOMJ forums have been a great asset. Unfortunately, we're cursed; the forums never stay up for long. Because I'm trying to keep so many players informed around the clock in several diferent time zones and countries, the forum allowed me to schedule and share ideas and opinions. I even used it to poll members on new policies. Well, no forum, no communication. It's actually a very frustrating problem. We've had several free servers, and we thought that we had a permanent server hosted by a friend, but our curse has yet again struck; due to issues in our personal lives, the server is MIA and we shall simply have to do without it for now.

=The Future= What's in store for FOMJ? I don't really know. I have been predicting it's eventual fall, and given that I'm getting more involved in my real life, I may soon have to pass off the leadership or dissolve the guild.

Possible Successors?
Who would I choose to lead FOMJ if I had to choose a new leader? Certainly one of the offciers. That narrows it down considerably. But there's a stipulation: few of my officers WANT to lead the guild. They're content with their roles as Officers and most of them do a good job. But faced with running the Guild AND Alliance, the ones willing to carry that burden are probably least suited for the job. I didn't WANT to run something this large; it's like an in-game job. The other people with the skills and will to run it are people who I would not be surprised if they quit anyday now. We're getting old and life is starting to happen.

The Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate for running FOMJ would have to be YOUNG (13 or 14,) have a natural ability to lead, be punctual, an older member of the guild (a year +,) and frequently play. Essentially, be myself only about 5 years younger. Unfortunately, people like that are few and far between. I may have to pass it off to one of the officers via random selection or dissolve the Guild. Once I leave, there's a good chance of the Guild falling apart on it's own; the Alliance would soon follow, most likely. The successor would have to be able to prevent that kind of decay.

Best-Case Scenario
If I last until ANet stops making expansions to GW, then I will have outlasted the game and the Guild will have made itself unto the legends of Guild Wars.

=Results= I decided to disband FOMJ. All members were kicked after giving their names to allied Guild Leaders, who invited them into their guilds. I disbanded the Alliance, disbanded FOMJ, and joined TRA. The Alliance re-formed under EMHW.

Old memebrs of FOMJ are allowed to edit/add to this page at my scrutiny. AOTT 21:47, 16 January 2007 (CST)