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What made 2003 and 2004 different than today? Why, ambition of course... Many were creative and knew for themselves that our guild and community are member-led. They understood it and used their creativity and ambition to build what it was that they thought we could use, or what they thought would be fun to organize. They didn't worry about time, or worry about responsibility, but they did it for the heck of it.
Gardens, Mercenaries, the Mediators, the Innovators, Special Ops, Dimension Zero, the Hosted Forums, alliances, factions, shops, meetings, and even more were created, influenced, and/or controlled by members. Funny how almost everything I mentioned happened more than a year ago?
What about recruiting? What of those ambitious events that got their own forums here, such as the Mock War, SeeD Survivor, Conquering of a Land, and Nuu's current dream-related forum? "Crescens Has Been Defenestrated"?

We weren't window shoppers before... Our members weren't the type to jump from guild to guild to find one at its prime. We came together to build our own guild, and to lift it as high as we could. We all knew what a single member could do, and that's where the whole member-led idea came from. Ever since 2002 we pushed it, until it was forgotten.
That doesn't mean we can't start again...
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I keep hearing this pointless pessimism about how we can't grow, how we shouldn't recruit, how no one comes to events, how Soandso is not good at this or that, how members can't influence anything, and how one wishes that things are how they were. There isn't some mysterious entity holding us back, or some abysmal fate that someone sees in a divining orb. We are simply not taking our guild by the horns anymore... We lost ambition.
That's the only thing. We have much more than we did in a lot of areas, but without ambition what's the point?
I'm not even talking about factions! They're a big part of our community but they're not everything. A lot of the things I mentioned don't have anything to do with games...
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There's no one to blame. For one to say "they should do this to solve our problem" includes you this time as well. It includes the moderators, the faction leaders, all our active members, and me. Everybody who wants our guild and community to succeed. Our community. It's yours just as it is anyone else's.
You can build your own thing here. Your own ideas can thrive. You can make it your community if you want. Forget responsibility. Forget your worries. Just do it for the heck of it, and you'll feel good about it. If your idea succeeds, then you'll have fun with it, others will have fun with it, and the entire community will benefit from it. You will have made a lasting impression, and can consider yourself an architect for what will once again be a successful guild... One you can call your own!
So let's build something again. Guild pride... Not conditional, not after we're successful, but along the road to our goals and your goals. Both in games and out. Are you a window shopper? I hope not. We sure weren't before.
Go ahead and show the [Arbiter] tag in MSN. Mention your guild in your signatures. Take a leadership position. Do whatever the heck you want! That's all we ever did before, and we enjoyed ever minute of it...

I'm going to lay on the beach for a few days [figuratively] (


Please do think about it though...
