My Starshadow BIO

I have been an avid MMO gamer since Diablo and UO. I started my first kin, Starshadow, in Ultima Online with some other dice dealers at the Rio.

Our plan was simple, a casual guild that was more then just a friend in-game but rather one which would consist of quality people eager to proactively promote its members from the ground up. Every one of us took an active role in the welfare and prosperity of each and ever member. We did not just make that claim, we made it part and parcel to how we organized the guild. Members were appointed to specific roles that involved class mentoring, quest completion, world lore etc. Beyond the titles earned, these members were given a specific criteria to fulfill and expectations to be met. Our members wanted and reveled in these roles and of course the larger guild benefited immensely.


Our specific brand, some vocal leaders and a hyper active calendar helped us to grow to more then 320+ unique players and quickly become one of the largest guilds on our server.

Then came EQ, Asherons Call, Dark Age of Camelot, Eve, COH, WOW and others. Over the years we became a guild spanning 12 games, 17 servers and 18 official guild entities. We counted some 4000 unique members and supported one of the most active guild sites within the MMO space. On WOW alone we had 4 separate guilds on 3 servers covering both factions and so numerous we exceeded the guild tabs ability to track members. Within Asherons Call our nearly 1200 members on Harvestgain alone represented over 10% of the server and of course we had a presence on 3 other servers.

Over the years our core ideology remained the same and most of our real changes were dictated by the reality of each world as opposed to any internal problems. The more we grew the better we were organized. Most Starshadow guilds were headed by leaders appointed or accepted by our central or “Inner Council”. Some Starshadow guilds were simply started by miscreants looking to exploit our good reputation and branding. Many of these same leaders even claimed to be me.

Through it all we were a bonafide success attracting the attention of gaming companies and hardware developers. At one point our guild site was posting 100k unique hits per month with more then 7k registered members and $500 per month in corporate sponsorships with dozens of free product disbursements such as Microsoft Sidewinders which were given to all of our Inner Council members for word-of-mouth advertising.

After nearly 10 years of relative stability we finally met our slow and sad demise. I should add that even now Starshadow lives on, quietly perpetuated by small groups in various games with a few leaders with ties to the past but mostly made up of people who have little knowledge of our storied history.

Among my many mistakes there were a few that ultimately led to our disintegration, my retirement and ultimately the end of any central organization.

For one, I never took my own leadership role that seriously. After all we were playing games and I just did not recognize how emotional this gaming connection was for so many people. I was happy giving each guild autonomy as long as they respected and incorporated our special brand of guilding. Given our success this was always an easy sell. We were a nicely wrapped package.

My 2nd big mistake and some would argue my biggest problem in general is my constant desire to micro-manage every level of the guild. Yes we had plenty of people to do various tasks but I always wanted to be in the mix. I am not the type of person to take anything for granted. In fact a good part of what I considered fun was having some type of presence in nearly every game we played. There were days when I would log-in and participate in 5-10 different game worlds in a single day. When I was basically stuck in my house for periods of disability, this level of virtual activity gave me purpose and provided me with a social life that I would not have had otherwise. (I participated in the film Avatars Offline to highlight the benefits that come from virtual socialization for people with disabilities if you are interested in learning more visit avatarsoffline.com)

And what I consider my own worst mistake was changing the brand and succumbing to the “success” of World of Warcraft. It was at a time of weakness and like so many millions was completely captivated by the grind and simplicity of a brilliantly executed world. We started off simply enough with a few dozen people from other Starshadow games. We focused completely on our brand and organization. It was apparent to most of us right away that WOW offered little in terms of community development and immersion. There were no houses, no kin halls, no purpose for taverns, no guild rewards or accomplishments, basically nothing that emphasized the “WE” over “ME”. Instead WOW brought the loot, the battles, the quests and a brightly colored world. For the first 50 levels we were so pre-occupied with leveling as a group we did not notice the big sign that read “Help me raid so I can loot”.

If you have left WOW for Lord of the Rings you know our pain. The end-game of WOW is all about the gear. That’s it, end of day or should I say endless days. If you want better gear your only choice is a raid guild with demands relative to the boss they have reached. A casual community focused group can’t get it done. You have to make the choice, raid or not. There was always the argument of a “balanced” guild that did both but as you creep ever closer to end game the line is drawn. Unlike most games where numbers and a good strategy can win the day, the harder WOW Raids are harder still and have increasingly narrow requirement of skill, equipment and the time needed to earn DKRP to win diminishing rewards. Success requires that a guild make choices less about the person and more about the avatar, straying further and further away from the bonds of community.

After weeks of debate and mounting raid losses the decision was made to split our primary WOW guild into two groups, one casual and one raid. Starshadow Origins was born to accommodate our more social group and the original Starshadow guild remained to RAID FTW. Lost in the hopes of a final solution was the reality that WOW still offered little in the way of community or character development beyond raiding.

What it all meant was that in trying to please everyone, we pleased no-one. Some members of Starshadow Origins regretted their decision to split, some in Starshadow felt that we had abandoned our mission while reluctantly realizing that our mission was lost despite our best efforts. In the end the debates, the time sink and the hopelessness of it all made for a less then enjoyable gaming experience.

Unlike our multitude of other games, WOW did not afford me the luxury of passive involvement. I was highly invested in its success and failure. This was the world I had chosen to spend most of my gaming time and had dedicated much of our guilds visibility and resources. As the drama unfolded and people took sides I grew increasingly frustrated at the level of greed and entitlement that had manifested itself. Gone was the vision, the sense of community and the purposeful gaming that had inspired a decade of success.

When my Dad passed away in November, I took the down time to re-evaluate my gaming experience. I found that I had ultimately sacrificed my own motivations for gaming, my own sense of fun. After all it was JUST A GAME. When I returned to gaming in March I logged into Starshadow for the last time and relinquished my role. I had to return to the type of gaming that was inclusive, inter-dependent and most of all FUN.

For me, its not about the loot or beating bosses, its about the community and promoting the game play experience of those around me. I love being the mentor, the provider and in a way the supportive father figure. I found that reality in Lord of the Rings Online.

A few months ago I started The Council on the Landroval server in Lord of the Rings Online. I previously joined several other kinships that had advertised “mature and supportive” communities, but for the most part its all lip service. They are simply simple kins with a few friends, little direction and no real leadership. There are of course the raiding guilds, but they exist to raid and while they may offer non-raid support, the expectations of time and commitment are still there.

The idea now is to grow The Council in the vein of old Starshadow. To promote the sort of organization, validation and pro-active roles that yield ever increasing gaming enjoyment. And of course to fill the void of guilding that still fills my veins.

If you would like to play a role in The Council and assist me on this journey I would love to share my ideas with you. There are countless smaller kins who have retreated from the lip service, lack of leadership and narrow objectives of larger kins. Imagine a kinship that can properly preserve the community dynamic of a few friends but on a scale that still allows for consistent progression through the game. Imagine a kin that lacks for nothing and actually increases the expectation of play and overt enjoyment beyond the limitations of the game.

My own commitment to LOTRO is complete. It is the only game I play now and most likely for the inevitable future. I know that Turbine will continuously evolve the world to provide infinite scope in the days, weeks and years ahead like it did for Asherons Call.