The musings of a guild leader are always full of drama. I wouldn't deny that my own musings aren't free of the dreaded drama bug, but we're all human. It's just that guild leaders are more exposed to those sort of things. What makes you different though, is your ability to come back from cloud nine to the people you love.
Rankings meant something back then, but it still kinda does now, depending on your mindset. Yeah, I won't avoid the argument that so and so abuse of this destroyed Guild Rankings, but let's take a look at Main Class Rankings or Sub Class Rankings. Coli anyone? But really, it's just a competition of who can abuse the most the most. On a macro scale.
On a micro scale, it's much much muchhh more different. When you look at your ranking compared to the surrounding five guilds above and below you, you begin to think about strategy because, in your world, the next rank can mean victory. And there is competition in rank between guilds beyond the top 10 guilds. Just watch the rankings beyond that first page and watch them battle it out. It's amazingly slow, but amazingly spectacular.
On a micro scale, ranks can be a goal. I admit that once you reach rank 1, you wander aimlessly because you have a lack of a goal. There is no Level 13-15 for guilds as of yet (but there should be and I'm infuriated to hell about this) and the other top 9 ranked guilds are far under you in a large gap. But that's just us. For a level 9 guild, reaching the next rank or a certain rank can be an inspiring, motivating way to get people active, having fun and just being together as a guild.
On a macro scale, ranks aren't as widely received unless you are on the top 10. You get accused of blatant stereotypes of GP item abuse and you gain enemies for just being where you are on the top 10. If you're not on the top 10, then you're just an average joe unfortunately. You have a name, but you don't have a reputation of being successful in ranking. You might have a stereotype from the antics or theme of your guild, but you only have that. You can be a somebody, but the public will only see you as a nobody.
But let's talk about before Inflation's time, when other guilds competed ranks. I might not have been around that time, but I can assume that the opinion that rankings meant something was strong. It was strong and prevalent before slowly becoming weaker and weaker. Needless to say, no matter the time period, there will be people who will claim the rank does not mean anything argument and that population of people has been growing and getting stronger in absence of the counter.
Whether it means something or not doesn't really concern me. I just care about goals. Goals is what drives us to do what we do, turn our wishes into desires. If you make rank a goal, then that is a good goal to pursue. The only thing you have to worry about is when you run out of ranks to pass. Then you have to get creative.
Depending on your mindset, it will or will not have some worth to you, but keep in mind that other people will have different opinions regarding ranks and that's something you just need to accept. If you wasted all your energy into making people conform to your idea, what do you have left? An idea that is slowly being accepted and wasted energy on something that could have been more productive.
But I'll save that for another day.
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