Leadership in Albion Online is a world which is wide, wild, wily, and wise. Often the interactions and perspectives of leaders and diplomats happen outside of the view of the common line member and gatherer. This interview is an attempt to bring some of that hidden perspective to light.

As part of my interview process with the significant leadership, diplomats, and shot callers of Albion online, I used a standard set of questions for each person that is being interviewed. These views and expressed opinions are their own and, except where the interviewee is the alliance leader, are not reflective of the views or official position of their organization at large.

The following interviewee is none other than Durateen.

VOLTEL: For those who are unfamiliar with you, who are you and what do you do?

DURATEEN: My name is Durateen aka skill and I’m the GM of god bless and a member of the squad alliance. I also hold the title of king of the brozils and Durateen leader of men.

VOLTEL: What can you tell me about yourself and what you do; i.e. your role in your Alliance?

DURATEEN: Many moons ago during the betas I was a leader of men while in EOS (edating is still a sin) now after a few months being the main shotcaller for poe I’ve retired to a simpler life of leading my guild inside squad and offering wise council to a new generation of players.

VOLTEL: How’d you get your start in Albion? Did you start with planning to help run an alliance?

DURATEEN:

I fully committed to playing albion during beta 2 when my guild EOS migrated to albion. At the time we were very much against having alliances in general. We as a guild didn’t have a problem being friendly/neutral with other guilds against a common enemy but we felt that being obligated to help someone based on anything else besides content was not something we wanted to be involved in. I was not involved in the initial creation of squad, at the time I was still leading in POE.

VOLTEL: What, for you, was the hardest part of growing (into) your alliance? What do you struggle most with now?

DURATEEN: I have a very small tolerance for weakness, and that ends up with me being very confrontational. I refuse to accept a loss simply by lack of effort and sometimes leads to beef, I fucking love beef.

VOLTEL: How did you broach diplomacy when you were first growing your alliance; what were the early growing pains?

DURATEEN: The concept of having an alliance without any territories and with nothing really offer players besides a dream was something I had thought about a long time ago. Not having a home and being a nomadic horde allows you to be anywhere and not be tied down. Today squad has zero obligations and all the benefits. You might own a territory, but we’re the ones gathering it and getting energy from it.

VOLTEL: How does diplo currently – or continue to – shape your day-to-day and the experience of your members?

DURATEEN: Diplomacy in squad is a bit different from other alliances. We like to keep ourselves as a neutral force willing to fight anyone. Although we may have temporary arrangements with certain guilds, we have nothing set in stone with anyone outside of squad.

VOLTEL: From the high-level, what’s the unspoken or unsung role of diplos and leaders that most people don’t get to see?

DURATEEN: I think a lot of people when they think of squad instantly think about mojo, and realistically he is the heart and soul of the alliance. In terms of unspoken heroes, probably pareille. She has to clean up after us and that’s a full-time job on its own.

VOLTEL: Do you ever feel leaders are sometimes in the position of creating more problems than they solve?

DURATEEN: Yes, right now the game lacks true leaders. Sure, there’s lots of people in the position of leading but key figures able to draw people to them are few and far between. People tend to get very emotional in sandbox games and albion is no different, the problem is when leaders start to make decisions based on emotion and not on what’s practical. There are so many examples of promising guilds that have crumbled because of weak leadership. Or you could just join a slave alliance ayy

VOLTEL: Let’s talk regional – A lot of recent attention has been paid to Mercia and their residents. What are your thoughts on the region and the diplomatic and political situation?

DURATEEN: I think that Mercia is pretty interesting atm. Derrick and then syndic have had a grasp on it for a long time but now that save is done saving EGO and fleet they’ve finally started moving in. Going to be very interesting to see who ends up securing it on these final weeks of the season. We’re in double energy so holding these Mercia towers and lvling them is key to securing spots or that crystal rank.

VOLTEL: Does the situation in Mercia differ greatly from Cumbria and Anglia?

DURATEEN: It does, poe have proven themselves to be fragile and dependent on one powerful baker of cakes to carry them. Save is a highlight reel of incompetence and rage, everyday it gets closer to imploding. If anything, ego is the most stable alliance right now, too bad they’ve already been saved and have been exiled to the royals. Anglia and Cumbria save north Cumbria that has always been tc dominated since the end of ewa.

VOLTEL: By your assessment, are their problems that leaders and Diplomats are incapable of solving?

DURATEEN: Yes, it is of my belief that you can’t be perfect and you can’t please everyone. I feel that good leadership makes being in a guild or a community more enjoyable, where as bad leadership, well, yea, but it’s up to the individual player to have the right attitude. End of the day everyone has a choice of where they play, if you don’t want to do mandatory cta’s join a guild that does not have them. If you want to sit in a dungeon and hangout on discord, join a guild that offers those. Most conflicts come from when people join a certain guild and want it to be something it’s not. Don’t get me wrong I can fix a lot of things, but I can’t fix stupid.

VOLTEL: Do you feel that building alliances and coalitions in Albion through diplomacy is largely misunderstood?

DURATEEN: Yes, these hoes ain’t loyal. The only coalition worth mentioning was the anti edate coalition. None of these so-called turbo nerds are gods and the common player in caerleon just must understand that him and his 4.1 claws with an overcharge have the just as much ability to impact albion as cargera. The only thing that separates you from what you want is the will power to take it.

Editors Note: If you know anyone that you think that we should interview please join us in our discord and let us know! https://discord.gg/6rPPdJA