Woodgrain

[Tbone]

I thought Woodgrain was going to make his own post, but I guess he decided not to. He PMed me the other day letting me know he was quitting the guild.

It's no secret that his personality clashed with a lot of people. Despite this, I felt for the most part we could all get along and game together. Woodgrain was one of the few of us who got into Beta. Some concern arose when we never saw him actually log into the game. He had told me he was multi-guilding with a clan that was also going to play Darkfall, which normally we frown upon. I made an exception for the circumstances, as he said Darkfall would strictly be with us, but I guess problems arose anyway.

Woodgrain had created other characters to play in Beta that we had not known about. Whether he was gaming alone or with his other guild (that is in a rival race) is unknown, but we were concerned that he would not help the rest of us to gather information to make things smoother for the guild at launch. To add to this, Woodgrain seemed to be trying to crush the spirits of our other members who had not had an opportunity to try the game out for themselves. We don't mind you posting opinions, even if they are negative, but it became a method of trolling where all of our threads were starting to get littered with a lot of negativity.

All of this together really wore on our nerves. We approached Woodgrain about it. He got very defensive and, apparently offended that we would even question him regarding the matter, decided to leave.

Admittedly there were some quick jabs that went back and forth between our leadership and Wood before having a more open discussion about it, and so that's the part that we played in the matter. It's unfortunate to lose Woodgrain as he was a long-standing member, but that sort of attitude and negativity can eat away at a community like a cancer. That coupled with his multi-guilding makes me feel this is probably for the better. It was, however, completely his decision. At no time did we ask or recommend that he leave.

Anyway, that's my side of the story. If you have Woodgrain's contact information, you are more than welcome to get his. I figured it was better to just get this information out there than it just be passed from person to person.

[Zero]

Yeah that kinda sucks.  I felt like he was a pretty hard working guy for us.  He did a lot of the sigs for us.

[Ash]

So who's responsibility is it to relinquish him of his tatoo?

[likwidtek]

What did he get tatood?

I like Woodgrain.  He seemed like a good guy and I'm sad to see him go.  He was helpful and did a great job in photoshop as well.  

Yeah he seemed to be more interested in leading up his other guild, he also wanted to create a Furious Angels division of some other MMO which seemed weird.

Maybe I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here but it seemed like what drove him out was the comment that Broin tossed at him in public.  It seemed like it was in anger and was pretty harsh IMO but maybe there were things leading up to it in TS where I wasn't there.

It's sad when we loose members for any reason but maybe it's for the best.  Game on.

[Tecknik]

What did he get tatood?

The FA angel.

I, too, liked Woodgrain.  When he gamed with us in MxO, he was always by our side and always seemed willing to help out teammates with leveling or farming.  I know he got on a few people's nerves, but I felt like his heart was in the right place.

I don't know what has happened as of late, as I haven't been keeping up with the Darkfall threads.  From what I did see (ex. the signature thread), he still seemed like the same old "willing to help" Woodgrain.  I guess I missed the negative side he was expressing in other threads.

As Likwidtek said, it truly is sad to see (some) members leave, but these things do happen.

[ArchNemesis]

For some reason every time i think of Woodgrain, i remember him trying a second time to get into FA... don't know why.

I didn't game with him since i stopped around the time he popped in...

When i did talk to him in TS the few times i recently went on, he was always eager and talking about Darkfall...

I kinda didn't see this coming, what in Gods name happened?!

=/

[Fuse]

Wood was one of our more energetic applicants who wouldn't take no for an answer. Sad to see him go out like he did...

Also the pic of his FA Tat on the back of his neck is somewhere on these forums...

[Fuse]

Ahhh, there it is...



http://thefuriousangels.com/index.php?msg=72313

^^^LOL

[likwidtek]

[Broin]

What did he get tatood?

I like Woodgrain.  He seemed like a good guy and I'm sad to see him go.  He was helpful and did a great job in photoshop as well.  

Yeah he seemed to be more interested in leading up his other guild, he also wanted to create a Furious Angels division of some other MMO which seemed weird.

Maybe I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here but it seemed like what drove him out was the comment that Broin tossed at him in public.  It seemed like it was in anger and was pretty harsh IMO but maybe there were things leading up to it in TS where I wasn't there.

It's sad when we loose members for any reason but maybe it's for the best.  Game on.

Yeah, what happend with that was Wood was approached about his negativity.  Basically asked to tone it down.  Yet continued to do such.  So since he decided to publicly ignore what was asked of him and continue to be a downer to what we as a clan were trying to accomplish I decided I was going to call him out in public.

There's more to it than that and I'll be happy to talk to you about it Yotogi so your not in a wierd place about it all.  

You know me I'm gonna shot straight and let you know what I think about things.

[Manic Velocity]

I had a feeling he'd regret that tattoo eventually.

[Jeyk]

I would like to take a moment and remind our members that if you encounter an issue with another individual in the faction, regardless of the circumstances, please take the time to contact a member of leadership via Private Message, as we are available to address your concerns.[/b]

[Anonymous]

I think that the very average launch of DF and the frustrations it’s caused, coupled with the need to defend something that doesn’t give you much ammo to help u defend it has led to a lot of frayed nerves and less than bright responses. Maybe Woodgrain was being too negative and maybe Brion was being too aggressive. Who really gives a shit. What I care about is that we have a cohesive group of like minded individuals that can co-exist without the need to be right all the time.
Let’s face facts. Darkfalls launch has been pathetic regardless of how good the game is or will be. People are allowed to say that with no fear of being shouted down for being negative.  I’m a realist and refuse to look at some emperor dude walking down the street with his willy hangin out and pretending that its normal. Having said that, the potential of Darkfall is amazing and I can’t wait till the kinks get ironed out and I can go kick some ass. Let’s not turn on each other over stupid things. Being as negative as what some perceive Woodgrain to be in response isn’t the answer. I wasn’t privy to his dealings outside of Furious Angels and to be honest, that is his business. I have seen a few opinions he expressed that even though where of a negative vein didn’t believe ventured into the Troll realm. If we start to turn on others because it’s not helpful to have a certain viewpoint then this Clan is Doomed to become a robotic slowly devolving memory. Our diversity is also our strength. Yes people will piss each other off now and again (if I don’t piss at lest 5 people off a week I am being lazy) but what we lose by Woodgrain leaving is more than what we gain from him leaving IMO.

[Tbone]

There's no doubt it's a high-stress time at the moment. It wasn't his negativity that was a problem as much as it was his negativity coupled with his absence during Beta. If you aren't gaming with us and are doing nothing but complaining on our forums, then that needs to be addressed. The goal wasn't to push him to leave - it was to find out what he wanted....to find out why he wasn't gaming with us. Yes, there was an exchange that went kind of like:

"This game sucks"
"You didn't play the game"
"Yes I did, I just didn't play it with YOU."
"Then why are you here if you are gaming with someone else?"
"I quit.'

That's overly simplifying it, but that's how it progressed. Normally I would try to resolve an issue so that the member can stay, but these are problems that have been going on for a while, honestly. It was fine while we were in between games for him to game with others, but it just didn't seem like he was ready to bring his focus back around to FA and this game. I still would have tried to work it out with him, but instead he pulled the "I'm just going to leave" card.

He's not the only one who has been negative, and that's not a problem. There's a lot of things wrong with the game right now, obviously. For it to get dragged out in public discussion wasn't smart of us, yes. Anyway, I don't want this to cause any concern to our newer members. I promise you we aren't nazis with this sort of thing and the issues with Woodgrain were ones that had been developing over a long amount of time. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

[Subb]