[H-RP] Orcs of the Red Blade – Twenty Years Later

Argent Dawn
949

I sympathise fully, if an outsider’s perspective means anything. It can’t be easy being a part of a guild for a long time, only to see its aesthetic in RP gravitate further away from the spiritual/cultural themes of Orcs and become closer to the more, er… contemporary… homogenised presentation we see in post-BfA WoW.

And from what I’ve read, to then have those concerns not only shot down, but actively attacked by the new-blood that’s trying to install these changes, well… it can’t be pleasant.

I’ve never RPed with OotRB much, despite being a Defias Brotherhood oldie myself, and it’s probably no secret that the guilds I’ve been part of have had their disagreements with ORB before, but I’ve still always respected the grounded, highly spiritual Orcish RP they’ve offered to both DB and AD. It’s a shame to see the older player-base that introduced that quality of RP being actively driven out of the guild that they once so proudly bore the name of.

I hope all you guys have good luck in future endeavours. I’m hoping some of you will continue to RP, even if it’s outside ORB, as I think now more than ever, Argent Dawn needs the story-telling capabilities of its old-time veterans.

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950

I’ve been an officer on and off for the last few years but real-life has a real way of making it tough to play. In all this time we all clearly wanted to keep Koz as chieftain, he is Orcs of the Red Blade. I’m not trying to kiss his behind but I’m going to be doing it anyway, Koz is one of the nicest and most intelligent people I’ve met online and I’m a 37 year old boomer with 3 kids. If Koz doesn’t feel at home in the Orcs of the Red Blade then something has gone wrong somewhere.

I’m not going to go over what’s happened but I think Koz should be given the guild leader of the guild back and it’ll be healthier all round if you guys made your own guild up. If the Orcs of the Red blade goes dormant, so be it. But carrying on without the blessing of the community that made it and Koz? That’s way too stressful to think about. Honestly I think that’s the best all round, hit me in DM’s if you want to talk about it. Razaron#5205

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951

Can I use kit RP as a scapegoat for this nonsense?

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Tialis in the 8 years your stench has been on the server it’s funny how you’ve never tried to improve not only as an RPer but as a person

Genuine scumbag

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953

Is this the rise of the TCU? :thinking:

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955

Guilds are communities. Old guilds have large communities. There are lots of options if you want a fresh start with a new community. Usually what happens is people make new guilds with their own vision.

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956

Not to jump in on the bandwagon of my esteemed fellow outcasts, but I would like to add my own few pence, after all it was me dragging up my concerns regarding the segregation in the Discord after they were ignored in an officer’s PMs that caused this particular set of precariously balanced dominoes to fall.

Firstly, I would like to thank Kozgugore for creating an institution that has well and truly supported me, and many others like me, through some extremely tough times and for harbouring a community whereby you felt valued regardless of your contributions. I will cherish, quite literally for the rest of my life, the memories, and friendships that I have made throughout my time with you.

I think the bottom line is that when something exists for such a long period of time, it becomes very important to many people, and it grows into something that can only be described as “more than itself”. Kozgugore has had many periods of inactivity over the years, as we all do, but whenever he has departed and left a team of officers to caretake the guild, they have always understood that they not only have the usual responsibilities regarding planning and running events, but they also have a degree of responsibility over the community at a large. Unfortunately, the current hierarchy didn’t get that memo.

The correct response to Kozgugore, or any GM, losing their ingame role due to unfortunate inactivity would be to claim it and immediately promote them back and thus the cycle continue. The correct way to manage a community split between people who have been with you five minutes, and fifteen years, is not to separate the two, but to encourage the old guard to remain amongst the many and spread their wisdom, ideas and creativity – because believe me, just because life draws you away from roleplay, does not mean the roleplay itch goes away.

You can take the man out of the Orc, but you can’t take the Orc out of the man.

Segregation is never the right course of action.

I would like to also extend a request for the mantle to be passed back to Kozgugore, and for the remaining members of the guild to create something new.

At this stage cosplaying in the corpse of a guild so beloved is just bad taste.

24 Likes
957

In recent WoW times I’ve been a part of OoRB with Draz’hul and Nrak, some of my favorite and finest RP characters that I’ve had the pleasure of playing. But even before those characters I’ve been around OoRB since it’s Defias-Brotherhood days and I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know so many people, some I would consider friends, and that’s saying a lot for a anti-social dork like me.

Whilst I’ve seen and known many different members, from outside and inside the guild there’s always been one constant: Koz, even when he was rarely around in-game he’d be around on the guild-forums, the discord or the WoW-forums, he’d always manage to squeeze the guild into his very busy schedule. To claim the guild-master position and not return it is simply deplorable.

Many others have already said it but OoRB as a community is basically an institution, one that’s existed for almost two whole decades. It’s more than just a guild. At one point, back on Defias-Brotherhood I was part of an equally epic RP guild, that like OoRB wasn’t just a big Horde RP guild, it was a realm-known entity, but sadly that guild eventually died off due to similar circumstances, with me as it’s lone active officer before I got promptly booted by someone who wanted to make the guild something it wasn’t.

I cannot stress enough that it’d be a shame and a waste to have OoRB end up like that, and like the others I would love to see Koz reinstated as the guild leader, I have no qualms against any current/new members, I simply want to see OoRB as it was for almost two decades so that it can still be this almost mythical community well into the future.

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958

Thank you Verzan and Rykana for having kept our favourite orcs alive, continously hosting the kosh’harg that bring more then orcs but the horde together on at this point sparcely inhabited server. The Bi-annual festival helps give a sense of time for any of my characters, despite never having played an orc, you have taught me about a lot of the culture and you continue to do so with your hard work.

I’ve enjoyed spending time with you on bulwark campaigns and many of the active people you have brought into the fold help make your guild welcoming and approachable. I greatly enjoyed the recent sparring event after the Eight winds campaign and I believe you will be succesful coming into the new year and new expansion with your awesome content.

People who have made my day on several occasions extend to all the active members who have made it awesome content. I look forward to see what comes out of this and what you decide on doing!

Happy dragonhawks all around.

1 Like
959

:smiling_face_with_tear:tfw you’re post got eaten by the internet so you have to re-type it. :smiling_face_with_tear:

In recent times I’ve been a part of OoRB with Draz’hul and Nrak, but I’ve been around OoRB for the better part of a decade. Various stints in the guild with short lived RP characters and as someone who interacted a lot with the guild trough other chars that were part of other guilds. During these times I’ve gotten to know a lot of people, some that I still speak to and play games with to this day, it has been a source of enjoyment for the better part of my WoW-life.

The person who’s always been synonymous with OoRB for me has been Koz, he was there when I first rolled an Orc over a decade ago, and he was still there up until very recently, sure he wasn’t always around in game but he was around on the guild forums, the discord and the WoW-forums, his work with the guild is commendable and to see him being stripped of being guild-master behind is back is quite simply deplorable.

Back on Defias-Brotherhood I was an officer in a infamous RP guild that, like OoRB, was founded on the day the realm went live. It held a similar place in the RP community, both guilds were basically staples of the server, however after a situation that was quite similar to the one currently with OoRB I got booted as an officer and member, and had to watch the guild die from the outside.

I cannot stress enough that it would be a shame and waste to see OoRB go down the same path. As a community the guild has been a staple of Orc RP on two realms and has been part of countless stories, fun adventures and hilarious shenanigans. So many people have worked hard to see the guild thrive, creating the lore they use, making the guildforums etc etc. I would like to see OoRB as it was over a decade ago, and to continue seeing it as it should be well into the future of WoW, and I think for that to be achieved it would be nothing more than right to reinstate Koz as guild-leader.

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960

I feel like as someone that has mostly recently played Classic or other MMOs, any comment I make on the forums is invalidated, but I agree completely with what Peacemoon wrote about old guilds coming with a built-in community as standard - it’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

At some point early on OotRB was just another generic orc clan guild concept but at this point the unique appeal of the guild is the real lived history of 17 years of RP. The names and events in our guild lore weren’t merely invented, they happened and were brought to life by an active, vibrant community that remains in touch to do this day.

It’s why the decision to toss aside Koz and exclude the older members from WoW and RP Discord channels isn’t just a jerk move made with no thought to how the wider community would react. It implies the current leadership fundamentally don’t understand what OotRB is or why it’s been successful for so long.

The current leadership have prioritised short-term event attendance at the expense of the guild’s community - built across 17 years - and believe me that the community will still be here when you’ve gotten fed up and moved on to the next thing.

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961

At least most of them can be still found on our site. Also, a big place with all the member names that came and went along the years.

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962

It’s hard to keep a guild together when others go inactive, I’ve absolutely been there! So they should definitely be praised for keeping the show on the road and huge respect to them as it’s not easy.

Obviously things went astray recently and people have fallen out which is always a shame, but that is only a testament to how strongly you guys all feel about this guild and community, which makes everything more intense.

I hope you guys can sort this out and go back to being the great Orcs you’ve always been, and put these bad vibes behind you. I’m sure you can do it!

Perhaps giving Koz back guild leadership and stewardship of the Discord server will help repair things, and others can be in charge of events without needing to be responsible for the whole guild and wider community, which lets be honest, is a really difficult job!

5 Likes
963

Even if Koz gets back the leadership, the rift between both parties won’t heal. It will simply just ensure both part ways and go on with whatever they intend to do.

Also, when you intentionally getting rid of all those that were around for a long time and could help in dire times is kinda on you. Issues with inactivity and one-two officers having to keep the show going happened in the past also, but the more veteran players stepped up and helped the officers out.

Regardless, doing a good job becomes void when you pull off something as scummy as this takeover. The role of officers in guilds is to help the GM lead and keep things going, so when someone accepts the role knows the responsibility that will come (especially in bigger guilds), but also knowing you have the trust of the GM.

Kozgugore is a bit at fault here also, but mostly because he decided to trust the wrong people and ended up with daggers in the back.

Yeah, they kept your favorite orcs alive while they ensured to chase away the favorite orcs of a huge chunk of AD veteran roleplayers.

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964

Funny how you offer support, when you are named as one of the clique members, Tialis

It is genuinely amazing how you cannot pass an opportunity to powergrab everything you touch and ruin it as a result. First House of Rivorndir, then blood elf community, now ORB? Lol, how far do you need to go to realise that you just poison everything you involve yourself in?

19 Likes
965

Having read all this… There’s actually not much more that I can add that hasn’t been said yet.
I’ve left the guild and the game about a year ago when I didn’t agree anymore with how things were going down. I did not want to see the guild I’d been a part of for more than 10 years go down the way I slowly saw it crumble.
I’ve been an officer myself for multiple years and no, it’s not easy. But as Red Blade, we’ve always stood for how we included people, how we made both old and newcomers welcome and happy in any way we could. People were never shunned for inactivity, on the contrary, they were always encouraged to still include themselves in things, be that on discord or come back ingame.

So when I heard about the choice of actively excluding all the old members from most of the discord, and that this choice had somehow pushed through by a few without any member even being asked what they preffered, shocked me.

That’s not what the guild has been representing all those years.
And perhaps, maybe just like Sadok, I have ‘no right’ of speaking according to a few because I left before the boat sank, so to speak.
But this guild and its community has been a big part of my life as well.
To see it continue as it is now, with people who are actively pushing the older generation out, that hurts. Yes, it’s just a game, maybe. But I’ve made many, many friends in this game over the years. And seeing them treated this way is not okay.

I agree with the idea that has been offered by several. I’d rather see the Red Blade go inactive than continue in this zombie-dance that is only Red Blade in name and not anywhere near how its spirit used to be. I’d prefer it ‘dead’ over it continueing as an empty shell.

Good bye, Red Blade.
Thank you, all the officers of the past before this all, for what you’ve done for what used to be an amazing community. Thank you, Kozgugore, for always being a pillar to lean on and taking me in.
Thank you, other orcs, for all the amazing RP over the years and still standing by me. You all know who you are.
I’ll keep in contact with those people, as this community is still strong, even without being in the guild or its discord.

Salute

19 Likes
966

Rivorndir* thanks

This is also pretty funnysad

967

It was always a difficult name for me to spell, ok.

968

I really enjoyed the kosh’harg, I really did.

But for now it looks like some people are carving their names in the realm history in a manner that is not generally considered flattering. Are you sure you wish to take that path?

What good does snatching a guild tag do? I get that inactive leadership can be and usually is annoying, but I (as a complete outsider) don’t belive this is the way. There are other far more beneficial options available than this - for both sides.

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969

Honestly, I didn’t really interact much with the Red Blade in the previous expansions. But always recommended them to people that wish to try out orc rp.

And the few interactions I had with them during two recent campaigns were always good and fun. Pity to know what has been going on in the background.

10 Likes