Guild:Misguided Judgment (Gilneas US)

Misguided Judgment is a casual raiding guild on US Gilneas server of the World of Warcraft game.

Guild Organization
As of June 2008, the Guild Leader is Bigstomp, a Tauren Druid, who is supported by several officers, including Ados, Aganie, Putric, Jackdaft, Nylorac, Mokakona and Putreous. Holycadaver and Tankbabie are two of the guild's raid leaders. Decision making is democratic among the officers, and the guild rank names are inspired by the characters of The Venture Bros. cartoon.

The guild officers are contemplating structural changes to the guild following the recent swell in membership and successes in raiding.

Guild Philosophy
As a casual raiding guild, Misguided Judgment does not require players to adhere to a strict raiding schedule to participate in the guild. Karazhan and other raids are scheduled on a weekly basis, as players and skilled raid leaders are available. The guild prides itself on helping players level their characters and prepare for endgame content.

How to Join
The guild is open to all players who wish to apply, who may do so by visiting the forums at http://misguidedjudgment.guildomatic.com/ Nearly all applications are accepted, unless one of the officers objects on the grounds of past experience with the applicant or known personality conflicts with existing members. Generally, applicants are given the benefit of the doubt and are accepted without conditions.

While the website may state that recruitment is closed or limited for certain classes, this is by no means exclusionary. These designations simply mean that new recruits may not be immediately eligible for slots on raiding teams, as more senior members will have that opportunity, first. The guild chooses raid members, however, by who is appropriately geared, who signs up, who is more senior, and who is online, so even brand new members might have the opportunity to raid.

Misguided Judgment members are proud to say that they enjoy the people in the guild, and feel very comfortable with each other. They try to keep inter-guild drama to a minimum, due to the past problems that different personalities have caused.

Founding
Misguided Judgment was founded by members splitting off from the Shadowblades in early 2007. The first guild leader, Auraya, gathered a number of similarly disgruntled players to form the guild. Coming together with a collegial sense of mutual support and improvement, the members grew the guild into a raiding guild in only a few months.

Due in part to Auraya's recruitment efforts, the guild enjoyed a small boost in membership near the end of 2007. The guild began running regular raids in Karazhan, organized mainly by the player and officer, Avva. Disagreements between Auraya and Avva ultimately led to Auraya transferring leadership of Misguided Judgment to Bigstomp and then leaving the guild for another group, Dark Hand of Chaos. Some respected members of the guild shortly followed suit.

Misguided Judgment recovered from the shake-up quickly, with Bigstomp as guild leader and Avva and Maguano as the assistant guild leaders and raid leaders, but all the issues between the officers had been resolved. Raids on Karazhan resumed quickly enough, and to facilitate faster expansion into new game content and 25-man raids, Maguano negotiated and initiated an alliance between Misguided Judgment and another guild, Word.

Alliance with Word
The guild alliance was based on the mutual support of each guild in raiding and larger dungeons. The officers agreed that there would be no cross-guild recruiting, and that each would maintain their integrity and resources. In raids, loot was divided as equally and democratically as possible, and for several weeks relations between the two guilds was very friendly and convivial.

Things began to fall apart when members of Word and Misguided Judgment began to discuss a merger between the guilds. The proposed agreement would have moved all the raiding members of Misguided Judgment to join Word, and Misguided Judgment would become a guild for alts and non-raiding players. The idea sharply divided the leadership of Misguided Judgment. Avva and Maguano wanted to merge with Word, while the rest of the officers, led by guild leader Bigstomp, felt that the new arrangement would be unfair to the greater membership of Misguided Judgment.

In the end, the differences between the officers were irreconcilable, leading to the end of the guild alliance and Avva resigning as an officer and immediately leaving to join Word. Maguano and several other members of Misguided Judgment left for Word over the next few weeks. The split was demoralizing, and conducted mainly in private, between the officers themselves. The greater membership of Misguided Judgment was unsure of what would become of the guild, especially whether they would continue raiding now that the alliance was over and the two chief raid leaders were gone.

Rebuilding
With Avva and Maguano out of the guild, Bigstomp was the only clear leader of the guild remaining, and he was clearly upset by the events surrounding the end of the alliance. While Bigstomp took a break from the game on a short vacation, the other officers, led mainly by Mokakona, reassured the guild that life would go on. When Bigstomp returned from his trip, he came back to his own and immediately took the reins of the guild, starting a new chapter in its history.

Empowered by a revitalized Bigstomp, the officers of Misguided Judgment began a vigorous recruiting campaign, swelling the ranks of the guild with experienced raiders and newer players willing to rise to the challenge of raiding content. Within weeks of the split with Word, Misguided Judgment was up and running again with two or more regular, weekly Karazhan runs. By early April, 2008, Misguided Judgment entered Gruul's Lair with 23 out of 25 members of the raid belonging to the guild, and downed Gruul in only six attempts, quickly having Gruul on "farming" status in weekly raids.

Misguided Judgment is now on track to tackle the remaining endgame instances through the summer of 2008. The guild has now attempted several new raids, including Magtheridon, Serpentshrine Cavern, and Tempest Keep's Eye. The players of the guild look forward to an eventful summer and fall leading up to the release of Wrath of the Lich King.