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 27th April 2002 , Divine is the Servers #1 , Albion, Merlin. And here is how it started:
Divine
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Greetings,
Over the course of the last weeks some rather hotheaded discussions have been led on this board regarding our guild, Divine.
Let me therefore explain some details that might not be known to the general public.
When we founded Divine, we started with 3 people. Our motivation was to build a guild where competence as well as friendship could be valued, and generally where people can enjoy their gaming expirience with a certain amount of "professionality".
Due to that fact that our general way to lead the guild and targets had been very well accepted by the public, along with the proven sucessfulness of the guild, we grew larger, and that fast.
We grew so much because we, in the light that we treat everyone as equal, recruited the level 10 as well as the level 50. If we see you fitting, you will be accepted, no matter your level, class or social interaction ability.
We had dozens of people wanting to join, ranging from asking to begging, and we investigated them as best as we could and treated their applications accordingly.
You have to see that this happened in the light of many guilds going inactive, leaving the server or realm or game , or just disbanding.
Many people looked for a new home and their choice was Divine. Again we did not ask them - they asekd us.
Why?
After the fall of Albions first great alliance (TAC - Managed by TR Hawthorne) there was a vacum. No decisions were made and realm organisation was done poorly. Still a new guild, but all veterans of MMORPS we decided to give it a shot and create a new alliance - TAA. TAA today includes 20 guilds and is albions largest Alliance. We cover around 70% of all top 25 rated players.
With this sucess that took weeks of intense diplomatic work on my part, our recruitment number rose even more. The bandwagon effect kicked in and virtually everyone wanted to join us - being part of Divine had gotten the reputation of being part of the winning team, the leading force.
If this holds true or not, i will leave for your judgement. However that was the public opinion.
With 250+ people guilded we faced new challenges. Social problems arose, and some people were expelled from Divine for these.
As a quick note, Divine currently has a free-speech-and-act policy. We are no online gathering ruled by dictators, and at any time members can express their views and beliefs freely on /gu. They also may choose to do whatever with their time - we dont enforce RVR or item or loot or whatever groups. Everyone pays his accounts fee, and hence every Diviner is free to do whatever he chooses to.
(It just so happens that many of us take joy in RVR, so we have earned a repitation of being good RvR/Keep/Relic people.)
However we do not tolerate hate-mongering, racial hatred, disrespect of a certain sex, personal insults and other things that every free democracy in this world would consider being the lowest end of freedom of speech.
We chose NOT to have people that act like this in our guild, which resulted in some quick fixes. (/gc remove).
Again: DIVINE is not responsible for the problems you have in your private social environment or for problems you set upon yourself by inconsiderate or offensive behavior. You can leave or be expelled. That is the deal.
So what happens to something that gets very sucessful, very fast?
Jealousy.
People that i had never seen or talked to in my life before gave negative opinions on me as a person or Divine in general publicly.
People that had been expelled from Divine for the above reasons took pleasure in spreading false information about the guild.
People that were disappointed that Divine leads and others follow, even if they knew in their minds - they were the leaders of the world and supreme rulers of abion - got aggrevated at the obvious fact that when we called, our alliance followed, and so did albion.
I could continue, but i know, you get my point.
I usually dont reply when i see one of these posts, its makes me smile.
Then there are some people in-guild that are not satisfied with the guild, most likely they are even right. Why?
With 250+ people we cannot fulfill everyones interpersonal expectations of what a guild should be. People join Divine because they are told we are the best. This what they expect.
Some Roleplayers want more events, and easter egg hunts. Some RvRers want more relic raids. Some Looters want more Loot groups.
Everyone has HIS own picture of what the guild should be. The part when they leave guild is when They cannot accept that their view might not be shared with the majority of the guild and cant tolerate this - cant tolerate that other people have other opinions.
They WANT the guild to do what they think is the best (rvr/loot/xp/roleplaying) and abandon everything else.
They want to level to 50 (100% xp group) and then rvr (100% rvr). They demand that Divine follows their paths of interest, which is clearly not possible.
Concluding i want to thank the many guildees, albions, and our worthy adversaries from Hibernia and midgard for making this game a pasttime that has proven worthy.
Tolerance, Friendship and Dedication are our values, and these we set forth,
for Albion!
Gezak Whitewolf
50 Armsman
Divine GM
Albion - Merlin
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