Notes

Hello Joelle,

So I didn’t want to approach Rolan with this topic because I think you are probably the best person to talk about this. I just want to say to start off with this that it is not my intention to start drama or to gain attention in any way. If you have or haven’t noticed I keep to myself for the most part and interact in the guild/team speak when necessary or during events. I’ve kind of always been that way in any game and to be honest I think my approach is fine considering I get along with most of the people. But the reality is that I am having some problems. I am approaching you solely to see if I can get some advice on how to handle in guild harassment. I have recently confronted two people in the guild, one of which kind of resolved itself, but the other who expressed his opinion of me as rather atrocious and quite disrespectfully. I completely believe in the freedom of speech and the right to state your own opinion, we are all entitled to our own. The thing that disheartens me is that I haven’t done anything to personally upset or make this person feel or even harbor feelings of hate towards me. I will state that I am only speaking of my own experience and no one else’s and it is common for people to clump me with my boyfriend Dirtnasty together.

Back to what I was saying…
After speaking to the second person about why they harbored these feelings towards me they just simply said it was their "elitist perspective" and that "I don’t deserve to be in this guild". I told him I did what anyone else new coming in would do and i came into this guild with the idea in mind that I would only get in if I was a good enough player. I understand that this guilds reputation is one that many look up to and is a guild that people aspire to join one day. At one point, that was the same aspiration I had. Now that I am in the guild I am very content and glad to be part of a community of people, Catalyst included, who have allowed me to experience end game content with them. Now, I know we can’t control what people say or what people do in the game, and I have taken steps to trying to ignore the things that have and possibly will continued to be said. So far the measures I’ve taken are to block these people in the game, which I think to a certain respect is unfair because they can still see my chat. But does it really have to come to this?

Onto another point…
I don’t feel like I am the only person who has fallen under harsh criticism by these people and frankly it gives such an unwelcoming vibe into the guild. I feel that the reason a guild would want to expand is to further progress in the PVE and PVP content that the game provides. I think I can be a very reasonable person and I understand why people who have been in here the longest might gain feelings of resentment or distaste for new members, especially due to how most of the new people got in. But the way I see it, and I am sure you and Rolan as the leaders may see it, is that these are new times. To reiterate, the game has provided us with new content and other things that most of us would like to do. If we didn’t have a vast amount of people contributing to the guild we would have not achieved what we have in past few weeks. We are on top of our game as a guild and its due to it’s members contribution, a collation of old and new members! I understand the “want” to preserve our relationships with our old members and their perspectives, but as new people come in we need to also learn to adapt so that we can work together with fluidity. Harboring such emotion within the guild is unnecessary when we have so many people who dislike us for being successful as a guild.

I don’t want to be stuck as an outsider of this guild and if i need to improve something, if I lack something, please let me know. I look up to the leadership in this guild, from guiding us to success within the game to expressing the upmost respect of the positions you hold. I want to further progress as a player and as a member of this guild and I do look forwards to new and exciting things.