Ch-ch-changes.

Dear old Chaotic Divinity is a strange place atm. One of our main leaders has gone on extended hiatus, and the other has stepped back due to work and family commitments. Also, in the last few weeks, several of our best and brightest have left for various reasons. Into this vaccum, Ridley, the GM of Surprised Survivors has stepped up to try and keep things ticking over.

For my part, I'm now joint-in-charge of recruitment, attempting to filter out any potentially disruptive influences. So now, I get on average 2-3 separate whisper conversations every time I log in from potential applicants, as well as questions in the main CD chat channels, all whilst I'm trying to raid and grind. That said, I approach things in my typically surly fashion. I do everything in my power to talk potential recruits out of joining and if they still want in, I'll invite them to trial.

The raiding scene's weird atm and CD's raid attendance has been low now for weeks. Since the Burning Crusade Closed Beta started, a lot of folks have come to realise that our gear won't be worth much compared to the items we'll get in the first few levels after 60. Even the most powerful gear currently in the game will probably be superceded by more easy-to-obtain items by lvl 66-67. On one side, this is great, since it means we'll all be on a level playing field again come lvl 70, but on the other, it's taken some of the luster out of any shineys we accumulate now. Added to this, many of our more hardcore players have decided that they'd rather turn their back on the friendship they've developed with us and go take a last look at AQ40/Naxx with a different raid group. Doesn't make sense to me, but hey, they pays their cash for the game same as I do.

As it stands, there's a devoted core to CD, one that will benefit from the smaller raid instances in TBC. By the same token however, I can't shake the feeling that we're just treading water until then. Even if we could be bothered to progress, we don't currently have the raw power to do so.