A lot of people I've spoken to in SW want to be in other non-playable Communes such as Ackleberry or Jojoba. Not only is SW quiet, it's also full of mistrust and suspicion. Everybody expects another mass-exodus,similar to when Glomdoring came into being, of players leaving SW for some new playable forest. So it's really hard to trust some guy with any sort of leadership responsibilities when you know or suspect he or she is going to abruptly leave everything behind for some other organization. Org loyalty in SW is at an all-time low.

Just a tip for Serenwilde: It took a couple of years for the population to support two new cities and those cities don't even have all their guilds yet, so don't hold your breath on a new forest coming out. Try to fix your problems, because moving all of your lazy apathetic cast-offs to Ackleberry isn't going to help.

Well! All I can really say is.. you wont know who will still be around in the number of years that it's going to take for those two to be considered. They should really stop taking that into account on who to trust! Plus, not like they're icky cities, for all Seren knows they're pure, pristine awesomesauce Communes.

This is aimed mostly at Iasmos, but I suppose it might work for Sylphas as well.

You guys have all the pieces in place to be said 'messiah'. Suggest raiding Glomdoring, perhaps even against impossible odds, have everybody die, but favour for it. Start to fight back. Start doing something. Anything. I had the most fun I've had all year in Lusternia trying (and failing miserably) to find the grid in Avaeryn. Just grab people, say 'We're doing X!' and go through with it. Little by little, these are the kinds of things that raise an org out of the dumps, connect people, make them want to do things. Just make sure to liberally reward people. It's amazing how much better people can feel about something if you give them a commune-favour afterwards, which costs you absolutely nothing and can dramatically raise morale.

(Another problem is that Serenwilde hasn't had a wildly popular Leader in a while, a la Thoros/Talan/Catarin/etc.)

Basically, Seren lacks leadership that leads. The current selection of Divine hasn't helped that-- Maylea was always very hands-off when it came to the Commune, and Hoaracle is much the same way. The lack of Divine leadership (A la Fain), combined with the lack of player-leadership actually leading the players, means that the abovementioned 'doing SOMETHING' rarely, if ever, happens.

(This isn't blaming the Divine for SW's problems-- merely pointing out that, compared to other organizations, our divine are hands-off, which is great when the player leadership is actively doing stuff, but less helpful in the current atmosphere).

I've tried to help solve this problem by doing odd, player-centered, leader-y things (finding the grid in Avaeryn, running Seren-only aetherhunts, moderating heated debates, pushing the purchase of new ships, etc), but I'm not logged in all that much, and I won't be around much longer. What Seren (and most orgs, sadly) need are more people that are willing to put together small, fun mini-events that make people enjoy playing the game together, doing things that may not just benefit themselves. Only then will the org begin to recover.

We have plenty of people that will move to Ackleberry, but we've had them since open beta, so I doubt that's the issue.

I have no desire to be a messiah or pariah. I didn't even want to be a champion or any sort of leader. I'm a far better follower, and I need someone to follow who has a good idea what they're doing. I spend many, many hours writing scripts, which I enjoy, but in the few hours I actually get to play the game, I don't want to spend it doing paperwork, organizing things, and generally being busy with political stuff. I've been there before.

It took me being administrater once, champion 4 times, and a 2 year break to realize I needed to do something different because I wasn't having fun with generally being responsible or caring too much. So a hiatus is ok, but it's hard to stay away from Lusternia for so long and come back, but I generally feel like I know what I want to do while I am here now. Not that I urge going away for so long it just happened I was.

Also a warning if you go away for too long and come back you come back to things like two new cities, changed alliances, and tattoos that I still don't know about.

I did used to alt a lot when I played Shishi but I always seemed to come back to Shishi. Then I decided to try out Shadowdancers, and it turns out that Daem is now my new main, and I have had more fun there than anywhere. :pompom: It's possible that there is just a new place for you that just fits you and you either move Iasmos, or just play with that alt.

Both things work, they reset responsibility. If you are in one place with lots of responsibility and politics, it's easy to move and feel like you don't have that emotional attachment and need to do everything you did before, because it's already being done by someone else. It doesn't even have to be a new org, sometimes a new guild in your org is just what you need. I don't know you in particular to know your preferences, but I always enjoyed trying out new classes.

You should be a griefer. Flex PB and teleport decap AFK people.

I am in favour of opening Ackleberry and losing half our population.

Depends which half.

It wouldn't just be SW's population. It'd probably affect other cities to a lesser degree too. Which I don't mind!

@Iasmos: Messiahs don't do the paperwork. That's what the followers are for. Delegation, delegation, delegation. The messiahs job is to make people -believe-. It's the poor schmucks that believe that do the paperwork and administrative :censor:. <.<