First off: Yes, losing the Dark Empire as an official member of the URPS was indeed a blow. This is an undenyable fact. They are, as many have pointed out, a well respected and influental guild.
Originally posted by Phinehas:
The Dark Empire left? You lost the only guild that had any real influence, and you expect to be taken seriously?
I find that sort of derogatory towards the other guilds. Saying that non of the others have any real influence is, in my opinion, rude. Just because a guild is new, or small, doesn\'t mean they have influence. Influence where? Over the other guilds? Over development? Over the forums? How do you get influence? There can be no true influence with out true power. Perhaps credibility is a better word in this case...It takes time for a guild to establish credibility, and prove they aren\'t a flash in the dark - that they are in it for the long haul. We want newer guilds in the URPS - we want older Guilds in the URPS. We want to be inclusive, not exclusive. Anyways, many of the members are also listed at Kada-Els tavern. This doesn\'t PROVE anything beyond that they have been seen as credible.
There will always be guilds that come and go. Some because they have a problem with what we are doing since it is completely impossible to make everyone happy. Some will for personal reasons not related to the URPS, some will fade out of existance, but others will stay, and new guilds will take their place. It is the way of things. Change is inevitable - unavoidable - necessary. If the DE did not think that their guild\'s goals matched what we wanted to accomplish, then they did the right, respectable thing and withdrew honorably, taking care to inform us that it wasn\'t anything we (the urps) did. They didn\'t try to make a bid deal with it, or publicly denouce us in any way. Nothing wrong with that - these things will happen.
Still, one guild isn\'t the whole URPS, and with the exception of Sangwa, the DE wasn\'t really that active in the URPS anyway, other than having their name in the list. There will always be naysayers, people who have nothing better to do than run down others ideas, and criticize. This accomplishes nothing, and is basically a waste of time.
We aren\'t begging anyone to join the URPS, we are encouraging them and asking for their support. This is what will make the URPS successful.
The URPS will never die as long as we keep fueling it.
Yep! We are here to stay.