What's Wrong With RID?

Kurke_Aumea · Post by **Kurke_Aumea** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 9:14 pm

Whats wrong with RID?

This seems to be a question I keep asking myself as of lately. It seems that recently there have been numerous quarrels among players, command problems, and other general things that are happening in RID. Maybe it is just me, but absolutely NONE of this stuff should be happening. There is way too much DRAMA in this guild and it needs to stop, NOW.

The rest of this message will not be pleasant.

Let me remind you that I am a loyal member of this guild and I will not leave it for another guild. I highly value the time I have spent in RID, but lately it seems like I want to block out certain events from my mind.

When you stop to look at the problems in the guild, you have to wonder where the problems truly originate. On one hand you can point your finger at the leadership of the guild, but on the other you can point your finger at its members. The truth in fact is that we have all failed at some point along the way. The leadership has taken the wrong steps in some areas, while the members have taken the wrong steps in other areas.

Let's start with the leadership. Now, when I say "leadership" this includes Lexx, Zeta, and the 6 division commanders. Lexx, you are a great leader, but you have your flaws. Where you make a mistake you often learn from it. I think you do everything you can as the guild leader and city mayor. But, there are times when things get out of control because of numerous things. I think that sometimes you are mislead by some of the members and there are times when you fail to followup on things you have promised to do. Regardless of these failings, you have been a wonderful leader and I hope that you will continue to be the leader of RID.

Zeta... You seem to be one of the greater mysteries of RID. While I believe you are a nice guy from the few times I have met you, you seem to be absent from the guild. I know you are taking a leave of absence for the month, but my experience with you goes back before that. Everytime I have met you, you have been very professional and dignified. But, I rarely see you. Maybe it is because it seems like you hibernate in spatial and never talk that often in guild chat... I do not know. In my eyes, though, a person who is second-in-command of a guild should be a little more "public". Maybe I set my standards to high for guild leadership...

Now on to the division commanders. A little over a month ago there was a command restructuring in RID. This was done to get rid of the excessive number of divisions that were in existence at the time and to make it clearer who was in charge of the guild. Now, sit where you are at and ask yourself, "What has changed since then?" We seem to be in the same situation that we were in before. True, we went from like 10 or 11 divisions to 6 and we now have definitive commanders for divisions... But, it seems like not much has changed. New members still ask who is in charge of certain divisions. Some people don't even know which division they are in. Now, I will take some of the blame for this. I only do so because I was the one who came up with the basic ground work for the divisions we have now. But, I do not take all of the blame. There are others in the leadership who helped shape this command structure who should be held to blame.

But, what are the true problems in the divisions? I think that in our quest to simplify the command of the guild, we diluted it again. Instead of just having the 6 divisions, we went along and had squads within each division. This is where much confusion arises. It seems like each squad has its own special name and it becomes nearly impossible to figure out which squad goes in which division. The next problem arises in power-of-command. Some people seem to think that the captain of a squad has just as much power as a Div. Commander or that one Div. Commander holds more power than another Div. Commander. It has, of course, been stated numerous times that all division commanders have equal power and that all squad captains report to their respective division commander, but it seems like no one listens.

If you think the divisions aren't confusing right now, I encourage you to try to visually graph out a command tree with all commanders and members of RID listed in it. It is hell. it is impossible to determine who goes where and what is what.

Commanders could also be a bit more active in their roles. Sometimes it just seems like the commanders aren't there. The other problem with commanders is that there is the question of "What qualifies a person to be a commander?" Some would say it is time spent in the guild, loyalty, or mastering of the respective profession. I personally believe that in order to be in command of a division, you sould have mastered a profession in the respective division. Of course, loyalty and time spent in the guild should play a role. It isn't right to have some new guy in command of an entire division. But, at the same time, it isn't right for someone who has mastered Doctor to be in charge of a combat division.

So far I have focused solely on the leadership of the guild, time to move onto the members of RID. The members of RID vary in many different ways. Some are young and some are old. Some are Wookies and some are Bothans. Some are vocal and some are quiet. In our quest to become a larger and more powerful guild, I think we have lost site of some members and focused too much on some. Some of the reasons I hear for some people leaving are disturbing. Reasons like "I didn't feel like the guild valued my presence" make me wonder. Did they leave because they just wanted attention or because we didn't socialize enough with them? I can find cases for both reasons. The truth is that as a guild we value every members presence in the guild, big or small. Of course, it is not always possible to prove so. Perhaps the best solution for this problem is for the players to interact more through guild chat and such. It is pretty hard to feel recognized when you hardly talk to anyone else in the guild.

But, then there are times when there is too much interaction with some of the players. Sometimes a few of the guild members can get out of hand and be down right rediculous. I agree that these people should be dealt with properly. The problem is, they often aren't. One point I am attempting to make is that if you, as a member of RID, have a problem with another guild member, please take up the problem with a division commander or Lexx. Fighting in guild chat accomplishes nothing. There is a Judgement Council in place for a reason.

Another problem members have concerns personal advancement and the advancement of others. Some of the members are asking how to advance in the current command structure. The problem is, there really isn't a way. There are ways to address this. I believe the more prudent problem is that some of the more senior members of the guild are wondering why newer members are being placed in higher ranks and chosen over the senior members. This one concerns me. The issue has been raised several times in recent weeks. it brings up the question of favoratism. Are some members being favored over others? Yes, of course. Sometimes it is legitimate. There are occasionally members whose loyalty is questionable and who you wouldn't want in charge of the guild. But, then there are times when you get someone who, while loyal, has barely spent any time in the guild, but is put into a leadership position. To me, this is unfair to anyone who has been in this guild a long time.

OK, on to solutions to the problems.

Now, I think one of the keys to solving many of these problems is to redefine the command structure. On paper, our current command structure works great. in execution, it hasn't worked so well. Here is my idea starting from the top. At the top we have Lexx and a second-in-command officer. The second-in-command officer should be an active player and should be someone who is social. There is no point in having someone in this position if they aren't in guild chat some of the time. Notice that I have left out the royal advisor position. In recent weeks, this position has caused much controversy in the guild. Instead of trying to possibly replace the person in question with someone less controversial, we will just eliminate the position all together. This position should be, in fact, the scond-in-command's job.

Next, we cut down to 5 divisions. The Royal Guard at this point, serves no purpose other than to have a cool title. The 5 new divisions would be: Close-Combat Division, Ranged-Combat Division, Intelligence Division, Combat-Support Division, and Recreational Services Division. The Close-Combat division will contain members who are experienced in hand-to-hand combat and melee weapons. Anyone who uses pistols, carbines, or rifles of any sort will end up in the Ranged-Combat Division. The Intelligence Division should be self-explanitory. The Combat-support division should contain doctores and creature handlers. And Recreational Services Division contains crafters and entertainers. Each division commander should be a master in a profession in the respective division. Example: to be Commander of Ranged-combat Division, you should be a Master Pistoleer or something similar.

As for 1st Officers... This is tricky. In my opinion, in order to have 1st officers in divisions, you can't have any squads. If you have squads then there should be no 1st officers of divisions. Here is what I think we should do. We have the 6 divisions with a commaner in charge of each division. We have NO 1st Officers. Whether or not there are squads in each division should be up to the division commander. If the commander wants to have squads in his/her division, then it is his/her responsibility to manage the squads and their setup. Also, there is to be no divisions based on race. Everybody should be able to enter a division regardless of their race.

All commanders should also be active members and should not be the type of person who is constantly changing professions. Anyone who is noticably absent for 1-2 weeks, without notice, should be immediately demoted from their commanding position.

OK, now to sum up what I have just said. We have Lexx, his Second-In-Command, 6 divisions with a commander in each division, and optional squads. There are no advisors and no 1st Officers. There is also no segregation. All commanders have equal power.

As far as personal conflicts go, here is what I propose. I cannot ask that each person likes everyone else in the guild. It is inevitable that some people will not like other people. What I ask is that instead of having argument after argument in guild chat, report your problem to your commanding officer. Part of the leadership's job is to help sort out problems like this. If a problem is serious enough, it should be taken up with the Judgement Council (well, that's what I call it). The Council is in place to judge those who have been severe problems in the guild. Of course, I also think that all council meetings should be open to the guild. If a member goes before the council, then all guild members should be able to attend and observe. Making judgement decisions behind closed doors will only create more problems.

Personal advancement tricky to address. The only real way to advance is if a division commander resigns, goes inactive, or is demoted. If there are squads, then people cna become captains. Other than this, there is no other way to advance and there really shouldn't be any others. Advancement should be earned through hard work and dedication. If one person is more dedicated than the current commander, then taht commander should be replaced with the more dedicated one. It will be the dedicated members that shine.

As far as concern of favoratism goes, I think this will be addressed by removing the position of Royal Advisor. Xanus, you are a nice person, but it seems your position has caused much controversy. I don't know why or how your got that position, only Lexx knows. It just seems there are older guild members who object to you being placed above them with you being such a new guild member. I do admit, you have done your job admirably, but is your position worth the controversy in the guild? This one is up for the guild to decide.

Overall though, I believe that favortism is a bad thing in most circumstances. If someone is under suspicion for being a rebel spy or something, then they don't belong in a leadership position. Older members should have seniority status over newer members, unless there are no other senior members to choose from or the new member is more deserving of the position. Perhaps advancement should be left up to the judgement council as well?

There have also been recent rumors (OK, maybe not rumors) of merging with other guilds or cities. This is perhaps one of the most unwise decisions I can think of. RID is unique for many reasons. We are our own guild and no one else's. Now, some will argue that by merging with another guild we would get more members and more skilled individuals in our group. If this is the reasoning for merging with another guild, then shame on whoever thought of this. Growth is patience. Growing to fast will lead to our demise. Numbers are nothing but numbers. The true strength of our guild is in the quality of members we recruit, not quantity. Sure, we need more skilled members, but our current members are training as fast as they can and we can always recruit newer, more skilled members.

There is also the concern that we are recruiting faster in order to get a shuttleport. While a shuttleport will be nice, we shouldn't sacrifice quality members for simple numbers in order to get that shuttle. It has also been brought to my attention that some sort of application for new recruites has been waived in order to quickly increase our numbers right now. I think by waiving this application we are creating more problems.

Now, we cannot allow any of these problems to get worse. But, at the same time, we cannot rush into some process to rectify these problems without proper planning. I encourage all who read this to post your opinions and suggestions. We will never accomplish anything if we don't work together to solve our problems.

I know there will be many of you who find this whole post offensive or painful to read. For that, I am sorry. While this post may be painful to read, I feel that I must express my opinion on the state of the guild. Whether or not you agree with me on what I say in this message is your choice. If you agree with what I say, say so. If you don't agree, say so. Everyone's opinion matters.

Xan · Post by **Xan** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 11:04 pm

Ok, first off i want to add what kurke has already said but i felt like i should say it to. We have sent out guild wide e-mails several times, that if someone has a problem with another person in the guild, wether hes another members or a high ranked person or even the leader for that matter that if it cant be solved in an easy mature proffessional matter, that they talk to either lexx, the commanders,the council, or myself. As many know today is when all hell broke lose because no one did this. If people would have done this we wouldn't have lost many members like we did. We try our best to create a fun enjoyable environment for everyone, but me and the others aren't god. We can't help you if you dont come to us in most situations.

As for the Royal Advisor part. All people that i have known of that have publicly expressed they do not like me and/or me getting such a rank so quickly have left the guild. But im here for the guild and im loyal to the guild, the majority of people even though they may not agree with me getting such a position so quickly, seem im doing it well. If they want me to step down thats fine but i wish you guys would give me a chance here, though i want whats best for the guild and i want everyone to be happy. I have known lexx for a looooong time. He has gotten to know me during that time, and he though, from his knowledge of who i am that i was fit for such a position and according to the council, the commanders that are left, zetagala, and lexx, they think im doing a good job. But if you guys dont think so i will step down. I can completely understand that some members, especially some of the longer time members dont like that i came out of no where. i will step down and earn my position back if i have to. Though im doing all i can and id prefer it if i earn my position while im still in it. This i think will go further into depth once lexx gets back.

I am loyal to this guild and i will not leave it. I have known lexx and zet a long time and i trust them.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 1:51 am

I understand that there are problems going on in our guild. Some, which came up yesterday, are quite serious, and I'd like to address them and the issues related to them.

Currently, we are losing guild members at the rate of around two a day. This is outrageous. Yesterday, we lost five guildmembers, and while three were the same person, I feel that this is a sign of huge new troubles for the guild.

Before I continue, I've become aware of remarks stating that I am an "inexperienced nobody" who "doesn't deserve any of the promotions with which he has been 'showered.'" I'm afraid this is not me. I'm rabidly loyal to this guild, and would never dream of leaving it. Ever. I've been investing every single minute of spare time that I have into trying to better the guild, time which could be used socializing with RL friends, hanging out in general, or trying to get a real girlfriend :wink:

. Quite frankly, the standards of our guild quite recently have been appalling. When I do a fellow guildmate a favor, occassionally I will be thanked, but generally, I will get nothing, as if it is assumed that I am "supposed" to just hand things away. This attitude must change, as it ruins the experience for everyone.

The main problem that I find our guild has in general is that certain members think that Xanus is a greedy, power-hungry slimeball who, as one of Eurami's friends put it, "is deep in Lexx's pants." I happen to know Xanus fairly well, and I have found that, while occasionally quirky, he is extremely qualified for his position. I realize that this view is unpopular, but even if you do not share this view, at least show him the respect he deserves by at least being civil.

The biggest problem now facing the guild is members who leave without discussing their problems with the guild. If you have a problem, bring it to Lexx, or whoever else of importance is on. Hell, bring it to ME. If you have a problem, try to have someone help you solve it instead of leaving the guild in disgust. We can help work things out, believe it or not. We aren't totally incompetent.

These problems affect the entire guild, and are very worrying to me. I would hate to return from the vacation I leave on Thursday to a dead or shattered guild, which I'm worried might happen if situations do not improve. If you take nothing else away from this post, take this:

If you have a major problem with something in the guild, arrange an appointment with the guild leaders and discuss your problem with them before quitting the guild!

Post by **Lexx Yovel** » Thu Aug 12, 2004 8:12 pm

Very good post Kurke. I will probobly write out a more in-depth message in-game.

Kurke_Aumea · Post by **Kurke_Aumea** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 12:16 pm

I do strongly believe that Xanus is a nice guy who is very qualified for his position. I thinnk that many members are upset at him because he was placed at a higher rank than the older members without anyone even knowing about it until Xan sent out a game mail. To be honest, this does slightly bug me. Only because I know a lot of older guild members got passed over for this position.

What I can't argue is that Xanus has done an exceptional job during his tenure as Royal Advisor.

This leaves the guild in a tricky situation. Do we keep Xanus in his position and make more guild members angry? Or do we remove a qualified person from his position to make everyone else happy. My personal answer is to remove the position until the guild is ready for Xanus to move into such a position. This way, people don't feel overlooked and Xanus can regain the position once he has gained more trust within the guild.

By the way, this is pretty much means nothing if Lexx and everyone else has made some decision in my absence. Since I can't get in-game while I'm in vacation, someone let me know what has happened since I left wednesday morning.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 12:55 pm

I agree with you kurke. good point we should just remove the postion or something

Post by **Lexx Yovel** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 1:27 pm

Yes, I simply couldnt remove Xanus from the guild. I was considering it, but should we remove him just because some members are either jelous, or unhappy? He has done well for RID, my only mistake, like Kurke said, was putting him in such a high rank. My cure is to bring Xanus to maybe a SpecOps member, or fill in one of the empty Officer slots. This way over time when he becomes more and more trusted, people wont mind him being an advisor. The fact of the matter is Advisors dont really have any powers. They cant sponsor anyone. There more like secrateries who hold info, suggest ideas and such.

One other thing that made one certain person unhappy, Eurami, was the fact he didnt hold much interest in his ideas. I dont know the situation here, but Eurami was basically saying that he didnt like how Xan disagreed with his ideas. I really cant hold anyones opinion against them. Then there are also rumors that once Eurami left, Xanus had stunted his chances of joining TIO. Eurami sent me a mail stating how he did this. So in all fairness, I contacted Malachon, leader of TIO, and said Eurami isnt a bad person. Malachon replied with, "I know, in fact, I didnt even know he was that interested in joining TIO. I was watching over him and he didnt seem so bad." Apparently Xanus told Malachon Eurami was a bad apple or somthing along those lines.

Bottom line is there was one simple problem that was my fault. While I could whole heartedly say those RID's who left could have handled it waaaaay better, the only mistake was letting Xanus hold a high position. Jelousy, anger, power hunger, we dont want it. Thats why I am issueing new laws in RID.

-Organization tests every Sunday. Gets RID's to know eachother and become organized.

-People who are portrayed as obviously power hungry will be suspended, possibly removed depending on the case. However, that doesnt mean members cant request a higher rank. What I am saying is respect everyone in the guild, not doing so will be seen as favoritsm, and will be handled if needed.

-Any fights which happen to take place will result in those people who fighted against eachother to be removed effectively, with no warning, and no way of returning. Will this make people afraid to fight? Yes, and thats a good thing. Bickering will result in quick demotion.

-People who try to threaten people with ordeals by leaving the guild wont work anymore. Everyone is to take their concerns to me or a higher official. Be patient, if you dont notice any change in an hour, relax, not everything can be done with the snap of the fingers.

Santos · Post by **Santos** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 8:20 pm

Kurke, wake up. Its obvious that everyones sad cuz im on vacation! but seriously, it seems like cell's leaving caused a chain reaction and maybe people r starting to think if rids loyalest member left, something might be wrong.

Santos · Post by **Santos** » Sun Aug 15, 2004 8:21 pm

o and lexx, u really need to get the dates on the posts working lol

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 7:31 am

Right. I'm going to give my input into problems in R.I.D.
Firstly, The majority of people in R.I.D are reasonably new to the game - They don't understand a lot of the mechanics, and politics of playing SWG. So there will be ideas/insults/utter crap banded around by inexperienced players, which is frustrating for veteran members who will 90% of the time, give the correct guidance and advice.
Secondly - Divisions. What's the need?? I could understand in PVP there being some kind of divisions, each with a seperate role i.e Carbineers/melee'ers using state attacks blah blah blah, but R.I.D hardly pvp's together so you can't really expect it to work - I'd hardly even met 50% of the people who were in my division, and there were noobs trying to tell me what to do... excuse me? I hate to sound elitist, but i was one of the more established pvp'ers of R.I.D and was sick of individuals *COUGH COUGH COUGH* skaarj (and others) telling me how the game worked. Frustrating. Do all the well-respected PVP guilds have divisions? No... there's no point. Guilds such as REIGN are so closely knit and bonded that they know what everyone is doing... Having a large number of inexperienced guildmates breaks down this communication and causes misread messages and a whole lot of unnecessary nonsense. My proposal? Shave the number of R.I.D members further, but increase the incentive to join the city. Effectively the city supports the guild - It should never be the other way round.

Another issue - Divisions and Posts cause resentment. For example, i had forseen Xanus causing a stirring up of emotions, Xanus comes in and is escalated to a high position. Noobies who have been in the guild for a while think 'Hey, why don't i get that position?' It causes resentment because noobs don't climb the ladder (Oh btw, this is not an attack on Xanus - I found him to be a mature individual with a wide knowledge of SWG)

So basically, for the security of R.I.D, you should get rid of divisions. There is no perk to them anyway, just a title.

Cheers,
Love you all
-Mnyak

P.S COME JOIN ECLIPSE! SO MUCH BETTER!

Xan · Post by **Xan** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 9:52 am

I just wanted to clear up two things.

1. I have no clue what Eurami is getting at about me disagreeing with his ideas. I had agreed to EVERY ONE of his ideas since they were all good. And i represented them to Lexx to see what he though like i told him i would.

2. Malachon i have known for a long time and i have a few RL friends in TIO. As far as im concerned Eurami is power hungry because he left because he though he was not getting credit for what he did and thinks he should have gotten a promotion. 2nd. TIO has a rule for all members to be mature, i thought i should alarm Malachon of Eurami to not waste his time with trying him out since he is definately not mature from what ive seen. He blames people for things, he thinks he gets absolutely no credit for what he does, he thinks he should be promoted and leaves when he should have just asked lexx and discussed it with people. He assaults other members because they have acheived things he hasn't (im talking about him attacking oraf AND me.) And 3rd he was swearing(alot) and got waaay out of control gunning down several members verbally on guildchat. And i thought i would save Malachon the trouble of kicking him later after he causes problems in their guild. Bottomline: He has some major personal problems and id rather not have him taint a great guild like TIO. especially since it has many friends in it that i know in RL and some just in-game.

Thats all i have to say about him.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 5:43 am

You really ought to have a probation period of 1 week before you finally accept someone into the guild.
That means that already established guild members can get to know the person/ see if they get on with them before they are a part of R.I.D.
I knew within 2 hours of meeting Skaarj that he didn't deserve to be in, and look what happened.
If they don't use guildchat frequently or try and get to know other members, they shouldn't be allowed in, what's the point in having someone in the guild who doesn't participate?
You're trying to recruit too many people in too short a time. I know it's for the city, but put your guild first.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:06 am

I just thought I'd chime in here. Lexx knows what I think of you Xanus, there's no reason for me to reiterate that here. He knows what you've done, and people that know the truth have seen your true colors.

However, I will not tolerate you bashing me, while I am no longer in the guild. You wished me good luck when I left RID, (when I left RID I told people not to follow me), and then I later find out you went behind my back and lied to Malachon about me.

I am probably one of the most mature people that ever set foot into RID, and my actions during my time in the guild reflected that, before you were even a member. For you to say I have personal problems only shows that you don't understand why RID has problems in the first place.

All I can say to the people of RID, is listen to Lexx, Zeta, and Kurke.
The reason I am posting on these boards is to defend myself from personal attacks from people that might try to sully my name, or the name of my friends. Or the new guild that we have created, The Imperial Enclave. I have thoughts of perhaps RID and The Imperial Enclave one day becoming allies. Hopefully things will work out. Time will tell.

R.I.D BASE OF OPERATIONS

What's Wrong With RID?

The Problems with the Guild

Bashing Eurami?