You guys are all small time.
I am essentially a sociopath when it comes to raiding in World of Warcraft. I quit regularly but follow the same routine every time I resubscribe. I find relatively unknown raiding guilds, ones that I can safely say I'm near the top in terms of skill in that guild. I play healing classes which are not only insanely difficult to recruit, but difficult to do well in most expansions. I spend a few weeks fairly quiet, identifying who is at the top of the social structure and which group is truly in charge. You'll typically find in guilds like this that there are "Officers" in name only and the guild is being run by a sect of tightly knit friends. Once identifying this group, I begin starting to communicate essentially with only those players for a few weeks. Jokes here and there, trade them some potions, talk about mechanics and strategies, the usual small talk for WoW.
Once I'm in with the "in" crowd, I'll start pointing out small flaws of the players I dislike, often in whispers to the people I've befriended instead of letting everyone know. A few weeks of that will go by and eventually the guild will hit a wall in progression. This is where I make my move. I start calling people out in voice chat when they're repeatedly fucking up and cherry-pick logs and performance metrics to bring to the attention of leaders. I begin slowly working at turning what is probably a small gap in skill at best and make it seem like a massive issue and polarize the guild into "Us" and "Them". This has consistently landed me officer positions in every single guild I have ever joined in less than 2 months time. Once I have an official seat of power I start recruiting players behind the rest of the guild's back and start saying "Hey I know so and so who could replace (X guild member who I dislike) and he's been doing really well".
Rinse and repeat the mental manipulations until I have removed everyone in the guild that I don't agree with or think isn't up to par for my standards and I have inserted myself as the sole position of power in the guild regardless of the fact that I am not the "GM". I have respect from all the people who were in the guild before I was for helping them mold the guild, and since all the players I recruit were brought in by myself personally after a decent chunk of interaction, they're typically following my every beck and call rather than caring what any of the other officers or GM might have to say.
You guys think burning and drowning sims is fucked up, I get people who have put months, sometimes years of their lives into a guild removed in a matter of months and take near complete control of a guild only to unsubscribe a few months later when I've had my fill with the expansion and leave behind the dying husk of a once functional guild in my wake.
It's all a matter of identifying which type of players you're talking to and maintaining the proper balance of stroking their egos and shit talking everyone else around you until you seem like a crucial installment that the guild couldn't function without.
In my 10 years playing WoW, I've done this to 8 guilds. Only one still exists and most die out within a matter of weeks of my unsubscribing. I enjoy the power trip and find it rather amusing that people are so predictably and easily manipulated in online communities. It's quite interesting how simple it is to drive a wedge between people who, for all intents and purposes, are on the same side.
TL;DR: I am the puppet master.