Guild Drama: Soul Sucking Monster Or Hardcoded Behavior?

Guild Drama, I have to wonder if the sole reason some people that create or join guilds is because they have this atavistic (Worded) need for drama in their lives.

Right now I am part of two guilds, a very small guild that I am GM of (The Company Of the Wolf and for any old RPGA players out there yes it is the same folks that did the old weekends at Ravens bluff more or less. ) and another guild that is the vestiges of an implosion due to (you guessed it) drama.

The most puzzling thing about all of this is, I keep hearing that none of the people involved want drama yet that Monster* (*who will be portrayed tonight by Ethan; the annoying Goth kid that cries whenever he hears a certain Good Charlotte song ) rears his tear-stained face without fail time and again.

If one is to follow logic…the inescapable truth has to be that since drama (or Ethan) keeps following the same people around no matter how many new guild members they go through or how many times they leave guilds (futilely) in a huff to form better non-drama guilds that always become that which they are supposedly running away from.....then logically they must love and feel that they need the drama in their lives....... yes?

A good friend of mine who is also a well respected Psycho-Analyst in the Los Angeles area calls this Soap Opera syndrome; the syndrome goes like this:

People watch soap Operas not because things go well but because things go bad, there is a certain amount of sadistic joy seeing Luke get crushed because he walked in on Laura and Biff going at it, conversely there is an inherit masochistic need to bring a bit of that emotional turmoil in our own lives despite the negitive psychological cost to ourselves and those we care about…

she goes on to say that 90% of the couples that visit her where infidelity is involved has nothing to do with the perpetrator falling out of love with their partner…when all of the layers are pulled back the need for Drama is the driving force behind the indiscretions.

"People will ruin their lives gladly for a bit of Angst" she says in her proper British accent. That’s a profound thought and if that is true what does it say about us a society? Heck what does it say about us a gamers when we set aside what draws us to the games we play and immerse ourselves in petty childlike bickering and/or setting in motion events that will destroy a perfectly healthy functioning guild?

A Co-worker who at Forty Five walked away from his entire life for someone he barley knew told me once that the heart wants what the heart wants….but what if what the heart wants isn’t the person, but to feel that they are part of some emo-ridden passion play, and they want that so much that they walk away from thier safe secure lives for it?

So it's human nature is it? Maybe so......maybe all guilds are ultimately doomed because at the end of the day the need for drama bigger than the need for epics. How this new realization is going to affect my future participation in Guilds is unclear…it certainly lends credence to those who believe that the only way to win at the guild game is not to play.