Anyone who’s been playing on-line games for a while will understand where I’m coming from with this and Dominate is no exception. Every guild/group/association goes through this, be it in WoW or even in real life to a certain extent.

If you haven’t guessed it yet this is going to be one of those thought-provoking-life-changing-deep-seeded-realization articles (or some reasonable facsimile ;) )

As we speak Dominate on Fenris is going through it’s 4th iteration (cycle). Some of the players are new some have been here since the beginning and yet others are returning after a hiatus but all share a common goal. Any guild that is to survive this cycle  must have one if nothing else to truly rise from the ashes: a purpose.

The Birth:

Dominate (for those who don’t know yet) is a loose association of like minded individuals that stems from a web site (www.DominateYourServer.com). It all started on the web with Gavin putting up tips from time to time to help anybody get better at WoW. Over time this eventually lead to the creation of guides: Horde Leveling guide, AH Mastery guide. Popular demand is the real reason there is a Dominate guild on Fenris in the first place. When the guild was started everyone had a common goal: Dominate, Raid and Progress through content as a group. And we did through every cycle to varying degrees.

The First steps:

After everyone signed the charter and we had 150 members in the first 2 weeks it was time to see what we can do with all the toons. We all started running heroics and doing the special events in anticipation of the next expansion (Wrath). When the expansion hit it was a good ‘ol fashioned leveling race to 80 through new content with almost no outside help. Wowhead was incomplete, no web site had any real information on anything even the Horde leveling guide had us running to Alliance quest givers on occasion. 14 days after the launch of Wrath we had enough to form our own 5-mans on a consistent basis with new 80s popping up every day and the true spirit of this guild shining bright. Everyone was there helping everyone else out with advice, materials, professions and anything else we needed. There was a real sense that we were going to do something great.

Growing up:

It wasn’t long we had 5-man dungeon runs every night and anyone that came online would find a group really easily, we were getting all the gear we could in anticipation of our first real challenge: Naxxramas, a zone that would make or break us. A month after the expansion had launched we had enough “geared” 80s to head into Naxx … And wipe the whole night without killing a single boss. We took it in stride after a great motivational speech from our Guild Leader we went back to the drawing board and got more gear from heroics, OS and VoA. By the next raid lock out period we were ready for our next crack at taming the beast. That night we cleared spider wing and one more boss, everyone had gotten some piece of loot and we felt great, so great we spent as much time talking about that raid in vent afterward as we did actually in the instance. We were on fire and the world of Azeroth was our oyster.

The glory “years”:

After that week we started on the road to conquer the rest of that place we had most bosses on Farm in no time. We were attracting more and more people every week and it didn’t take long to build up 2 complete 10-man raid teams. After that 25 Man Naxx was ours for the taking. Our players were gaining experience and everyone was getting more gear every day. We were updating our guild ranking every day in whichever web site was most used at the time and we managed to crack the top 10 server after only 2 weeks of raiding Naxx 25. That spurred the troops onward and KT was ours to pwn.

The beginning of the End:

Just when things were rocking and we were doing good that’s when we started seeing the problems. Like all guilds we had our share of problems, from Key Officers going AWOL for personal matters,  to squabbles over spoils and even the occasional public rivalries between the Tanks. We also had people leave the guild for a more “hard core” raiding guild after they got geared up with us and learned all the fights and the ones who left because we “didn’t raid enough” or at the “right times”. There was also a member who got his account hacked and even though Blizzard did eventually restore all it, he’s never really come back. Others just got tired of the game and simply needed a break be it because of real life constraints on their time or simply a genuine need for a break. I don’t know if it was any of these alone that did it but I am certain that the confluence of events led to our eventual collapse. I got to tell you the higher you climb, the longer the fall seems. One particular week we missed a raid because there simply wasn’t any Tank on-line, the next raid night we were short 3 healers. Then we said let’s resume raiding in 10 days or whenever the next patch comes out, but some people have a very short attention span and needed their raid fix then and there. Ultimately when patch day hit the guild just wasn’t the same and we had to start over again.

From the ashes:

Dominate was started from a web site that had one single goal in mind: to help the average player become better. We have, from the beginning, been brought together by an ideal and a common sense of “dominating and having fun doing it”. Because of that Dominate can never really die, those who believe in what we stand for will be there through thick and thin, the hard times and the good. Those who believe that helping people level (through hints and tips and knowledge and possibly a phenomenal leveling guide)  is just as important as gearing the new 80s and Raiding Ulduar or any new raid out there ( ToC, Onyxia, Icecrown etc.)  This, the true Spirit that holds us together, can weather any storm.

Copy and paste this back to back a couple times with different people and it could very well be the story of any guild on any server.

Starting over … Again:

Gavinn and Lawbringer have both stepped down from the day-to-day leadership of Dominate and some of the more experienced players and some newer ones that have believed in what we stand for since the beginning have stepped up to the plate to rebuild in the Spirit of Dominate. With the help of others we are rebuilding from the ground up the guild was formed over a year ago with one purpose: a Casual Raiding/Training Guild. We have really high hopes and even higher expectations. Whether  you are in the middle of leveling your first toon or if you’re at your 5th 80, we have need of every class to rebuild the Dominate guild on Fenris Horde side.

Getting it Right:

If you like helping out other people and don’t mind answering the occasional noob questions or if you’d always wanted to ask some noob question but have always been scared of the backlash in trade chat, then Dominate is for you. If you are sick of the drama and would like to play the game in a friendly, cuss-free atmosphere where respect and a positive attitude are the primary criteria of entry, you’re more then welcome to join us : Horde side on Fenris server(/who Dominate)

As of this writing:

  1. Dominate GM: Anibow (DK)
  2. Second in command/Raid Leader: Dindrane (Prot/Holy Paladin … aka Agorg)

These are some of the things that we have learned along the way and have decided to incorporate into the current cycle in order to grow:

  • Better communication between the guild leadership, its members and officers.
  • Using the Spirit of DominateYourServer.com as the unwritten rule of the guild.
  • Actually helping players of all levels (including 1-79) learn to play their class and play as a team.
  • Organize runs for lower levels .
  • Help the newer 80s get gear as well as experience raiding.
  • Getting every 80 their free Bronze drake … I like free.
  • Restructuring the guild staff so that all jobs get done by those who enjoy them.
  • Restructuring ranks in a visually meaningful manner.
  • Getting some PvP in there as well (Premade BGs, daily PvP, Holiday PvP etc)

That’s not to say that we’re perfect but we do try to make a difference wherever we can.  We are once again on the look out for like minded people that believe in what we stand for. Wherever you are in the world of Azeroth: always DOMINATE!