“Referring to the World of Warcraft as a simple “game” has never settled well with me, I simply cannot refer to something I commit such a large portion of my life to as a game.” - Argos

This except was taken from a comment left on Stop the Warrior’s Blog. I encourage you to read the entire comment as it is an excellent articulation on how changes that cater to the “casual” player make “hardcore” raiders feel disenfranchised. However, reading the entirety of his comment in context is not necessary to the comprehension of my post.

Argos’s comment is a rather poignant and concise statement of one of the most fundamental differences between the “hardcore” and the “casual” player. To the casual player this is just a game. They come home, log in for an hour maybe two after work, school, or whatever on a week day and maybe raid on the weekends. It’s a form of entertainment but it doesn’t take priority over other things in their lives. To a “hardcore” raider this “game” is a way of life. They come home and clear their schedules to meet their raiding commitment and that commitment does take priority over other things.

Some psychologists and casual observers point to this difference of perspective as an indication of unbalanced priorities or “video game addiction.” I’ve read more then one article portraying World of Warcraft as an evil thing that destroys lives and marriages. But this isn’t the only past time that people have different perspectives regarding. To the kid in the school yard tossing a ball around with his friends, basketball is a game. However, to the college basketball player who spends 4 nights a week in practice and weekends going to away games, basketball is a way of life and if he’s good enough maybe a career. I’ve never heard of anyone being accused of having a “sports addiction.”

But Auz, sports are different from video games, they promote physical activity and valuable life lessons. Yes, sports promote physical activity and video games do not. But video game playing does not exclude physical activity either. Many of my raiders are also avid exercisers, and the ones that aren’t, wouldn’t be exercising in their spare time even without WoW. I believe hardcore raiding teaches many of the same life lessons as being in a sports team. To be a successful you need to learn the limitations of what you are capable of and then learn to push those limitations. You need regular practice, you need fast reflexes, you need to learn a playbook and most importantly you have to learn to become part of a team.

Beyond what a sport will teach you, WoW raiding will teach other real life skills. WoW raiding requires resource management. Consumables are a part of every day raiding and learning how to manage both the resources of consumables and the resources of your non raiding time are a very real part of raiding. WoW raiding requires math skills, evaluating gear to determine which one will better help you be successful in raids can be a simple as “which one has more armor” (love you Hogun) or as complex as involving calculus. Personally I just have a spreadsheet, but one of my raiders actually wrote a computer program to help him compare stats. In addition, comparing which abilities to use to help you generate the most threat, most damage or keep the most people alive requires even more trial and error, math and/or analytical skills. Wow Raiding requires typing skills and written communication. Even guilds that use voice communication (I believe that’s most of them), also must rely on text communication if only because not everyone can talk in vent at once. Also, most raiding guilds have forums. We use ours to bullshit about upcoming changes, discuss boss strats and share interesting links we’ve encountered in our web browsing.

Okay but Auz, if you excel at sports you can make a living at it, no one can make a living playing video games. Actually people do make a living playing video games. I have a WoW friend who for 5 years of his life played Warcraft (not WoW but regular Warcraft) competitively and made $30k a year doing so. In addition to the 30k earning he also traveled the world for free. He retired from professional Warcraft playing now that he has a wife (met on his Counterstrike team) and child and needs a guaranteed form of income rather than something solely performance based. In America this player is largely unknown, but his peers in Korea were lauded as children’s heroes and had equal standing as popular sports athletes.

But Auz, hardcore WoW raiding causes people to lose sight of what’s important to them outside of the game. No. Addiction causes people to lose sight of what’s important to them outside of the game. There are WoW addicts. There are also work, sex, alcohol, drug and many other kinds of addicts. I have met some WoW addicts in my time playing this game, but every “hardcore” wow player is not a WoW addict. As a GM, I often find myself having conversations with my raiders to help them find a way to balance their raiding commitment and their real life responsibilities. From relationship counselor, to time management advice, to homework help, and even sometimes telling them they cannot balance the two and they have to take a step back, I often find myself listening to my raiders include wow in a list of many priorities. In addition, I’ve found that WoW addicts actually make poor raiders, with so much of themselves tied into this game they tend to blow WoW issues and conflicts out of proportion. They may excel at playing the game, but they often fail at being a part of the team. An addict, of any sort, isn’t generally fun to be around.

In conclusion, I share Argos’ difficulty conceptualizing my interactions with WoW as “just a game.” World of Warcraft is a game, but hardcore raiding is more than that, hardcore raiding is a way of life, a commitment. I believe that commitment that raiding requires transcends the boundaries of the game and makes it something more, in much the same way that being a basketball player makes basketball more than a game.

Last night for the first time we cleared Hyjal in one night. That’s right, the same guild and many of the same exact raiders who last week struggled with Achimonde. We actually one-shotted Archi for the first time. It’s a good thing but it’s also a little frustrating. Last night I didn’t do anything better from a leading perspective than I normally do. In fact, I cratered (yeah it was dumb, I’m ashamed, but it turns out conjured mana biscuits don’t slow your falling at all) and nearly wiped us myself. We didn’t recruit better players or do in depth training with our current raiders. I did spend most of the weekend discussing stuff with the raiders that came to me, seeking advice to better their game. I spoke with some of the other leaders to help determine who we should be actively seeking out for some one on one training, but we didn’t actually approach any of them yet. Last night hit home for me that even though we steer this ship, it isn’t entirely under our control. Wiping for 4 hours on Archimonde or clearing Hyjal in a single night, in the end our performance on a single night is entirely up to our raiders.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to blog about this, because I thought it might be unfair to the initiate in question, should he or someone he knows stumble upon my blog. However, it’s what’s on my mind and not blogging about it has prevented me from blogging lately. So I’ve decided to type out my thoughts and try to treat the issue with as much dignity as possible.

We’re considering asking an initiate to drop to friend rank or find another home. As a leader this isn’t a new process for me, but it’s something I’ve never enjoyed about being a GM. In the history of our guild we haven’t fired many people. Certainly some of our raiders are more skilled than others, but typically we’ve made room for people who are aware their skill level is below our average but are actively working to better themselves and know that until they are the best option, they are going to spend some time on the bench. So the firings we normally have are for pretty concrete reasons; attendance, ninja-ing an item, not fitting into our guild culture. Also generally, these things are pretty mutual, and if it’s just a “not the right fit” issue, I generally help them find a new guild.

This firing is bothering me though because he’s not going to understand why. Personality wise this guy is a great fit and really someone I enjoy having in the guild. But when he’s in raids they are less successful. It’s gotten to the point where if I have the choice to bring him in or go with 24 people, I think I’d rather go with 24. He is generally smart player, but he is putting value on and excelling at the wrong things. I’ve tried to talk to him about it and I feel like I’m hitting a brick wall. I’ve tried assigning him to different roles to play to his strengths. I’ve tried respecing him to a build that allows his play style to bring more to our raids. I’ve tried explaining to him what I value from members of the healing team and how that differs from what he values. I even posted a link in our forums to a tongue in cheek article another blogger wrote that illustrated how the things he values are counterproductive to raid success. I think though that in his mind, he honestly feels like I’m valuing the wrong thing. I’ve tried to avoid articulating exactly where the point of dissimilarity is because he’s not here to defend his point of view and he shouldn’t have to. Also, his way of doing things may be a perfectly legitimate approach to healing, it just doesn’t function as a part of the healing team my healing officer and I have built.

For my healing officer this firing isn’t a problem. He’s not functioning as part of the team, kick him and get a new one. For me, it feels like I have to share some brunt of the responsibility. It’s my team, we’ve brought many others into the fold. At one point we had another member of the healing team that shared this initiates approach to healing. It worked out with her because I was able to reach her and help her understand what I needed from her to make it work. She didn’t suddenly change her approach to healing or value the same things I did in the healing team, but she understood what I valued and how our team ran. Because of this understanding, she was able to adjust when the team was failing and function as a valuable member of the team.

Either way, I cannot put more energy into trying to integrate him into the team. I’ve run out of ideas and frankly energy. His lack of integration is a detriment to our raids and he personally has been the cause of many wipes. Removing him from from our raids will make them more successful. As the GM of a raiding guild, it’s clear to me that my responsibility to the others who allow me to lead them, is to remove him from the raids. However, knowing it’s the right thing to do doesn’t change my feeling that this represents a failure on my part as well as on his part. While we have both failed, I will “get a new one” and he’s going to be looking for a new home or end his raiding career.