published 2024-06-01
I’m going to leave all of this with the following two screenshots from the remaining officers since that is the legacy they left. They in a short span turned the guild and group into what unfortunately many gaming communities are - unfriendly, toxic places.
One from Jeroen van Limbeek / Frosty (the actual word censored for what should be obvious reasons…)
and the other from Liam / Vortavala (the guildmaster)
This is just the tip of the ice berg. I’m saddened that they decided to go this route, apologizing and excusing racist and misogynistic behavior, and I hope that maybe the experience of this gave them something to think about however unlikely that is.
~sky
The following was my farewell message (that they quickly deleted days after)
I’m still a bit rattled. After much thought I informed Liam that I’m stepping down as an officer and raider in the Drakes. It’s been a good 3 years, I feel like we’ve shared a lot of good moments, and I care for everyone here. There’s a lot to unpack, and I want to explain why I came to this decision, in part because I fundamentally disagree how it felt like we swept a lot under the rug.
Think people noticed that I took a break from raiding a few weeks ago. I’ll preface this with saying that this is my view of what happened, I’ve disagreed with both Liam and Frosty on certain parts, and they can really only speak for themselves.
For me it started with me finding out that Frosty was talking behind my back about guild matters. It hurt me emotionally. I was in pain. I felt stuck. I didn’t feel like I could raise the issue without feeling like I’d break the trust in his friendships, the same way I felt betrayed by someone I considered was my friend.
I can’t speak for Frosty. He expressed that he felt like I’ve ignored him. I don’t understand how that would lead to what followed. He said he was hoping what he said would reach me indirectly, that it was suggestions on strats, on the roster, but he also said it was venting. I felt like the messages I saw were disrespectful.
When Frosty left he said that it was what I wanted, it wasn’t. What I had been looking for was an apology, all I got before that was an apology for how I felt and an accusation that I was insinuating things.
I’ve mainly seen us as a group that raids together, but are also friends. Over the last couple weeks, but especially days, it became increasingly apparent to me that I feel like my idea of what the guild should be, and in which direction it should go is different from Liam’s on a fundamental level as well. It makes recruiting hard, but I’ve always felt we’re better for it, and for all our faults I felt proud of what we were as a raid team.
I’m still going to stick around for a couple weeks. The last thing I want is that my departure disrupts raids significantly. At risk of sounding a bit cliche, but I am going to stick around doing keys and other things, don’t plan to just disappear into thin air :)