I don’t have time for a full post today but I wanted to draw some attention to TJ’s post that I’ve renamed in my head “When WoW Bans happen to Good people.”
While we all understand the need for banning those that aren’t playing by the same rules, I would hope that Lamaa finds some recourse.
Description: The “Insert Witty Byline”
Entertainment: To aid your creative inspiration, I’m providing you a list of bylines that didn’t make it:
10 years of gaming, 6 years of GMing and a great set of tits too - Rejected because if you don’t know me it’s not funny also, it may draw the kind of attention I don’t care for.
I have 35 kids - Rejected, I don’t really think of my raiders as kids…. most of them anyway =P
Wrangling at the funny farm - Rejected, the farm reference was supposed to be a play on “chick” but that didn’t really come through, and again, I don’t really think of my raiders as animals… most of them anyway =P
A Medivh Carebear - A play on Stop the Warrior’s byline “A Medivh Badass.” Rejected, I don’t want to be too closely associate with Stop’s blog, as our topics are largely unrelated and our tone is much different. Also, while I am known as our guild’s carebear for positive reasons, carebear has gaming connotations I don’t embrace and may soften the message I want to send.
An over opinionated chick’s thoughts on GMing - Rejected, too close to the truth so it might scare people away.
PWNing boys since 1998 - Rejected, this is more confrontational, and egotistical than I want. Ideally I want others to be able to catch a glimpse of the world from my perspective, not alienate them. Also it’s a little less mature than I normally am. I’m still grumpy with masculine side of our species, so to me, it’s kinda funny today.
Prize: As a baby blog or as Matt put it, “Upcoming Blog” (made my week Matt) I don’t have much to offer. The winner gets a link on my blog roll (if you aren’t already there and have a blog) and a gold star.
For the record, I don’t understand boys at all nor do I understand the way I interact with some of them. I think it was simpler when they all had cooties. I’ll be back to regular blogging after I get my cootie shot.
And on the 6th day, I rest. (Sorta)
I don’t lead raids on the weekend. Some people can lead raids 7 days a week but I am not that person. I make myself available for one on one sessions with my raiders regarding raid performance, real life, personal interactions, gear plans, etc. But leading a group of 25 raiders, just drains me.
My guild, however, has become it’s own living breathing thing. With 148 accounts and 358 characters (only 38 of which are raiders) our guild has four hour raids five nights a week that are “official, ” and 5 Karas, 4 ZAs, 2 Mag/Gruul runs, and a smattering of pre-bc runs scattered in our off time. The runs are sometimes run by my officers, partner-in-crime and sometimes by random members that just stepped up and started running it. Sometimes they consist solely of members of my guild and some are a collection of people from various guilds.
Normally I avoid the ones my officers don’t lead. It’s hard for your guild not to look to you for leadership, and it can make the leader feel like they need approval for the things they would otherwise just do or say. This weekend however I decided to go to one. My baby druid is coming along nicely, and I thought she was ready for some 25 man content. It was interesting. I bit my tongue while some interesting healing assignments were made and watched my member as he made careful adjustments to his instructions. We ended up one shotting, High King, Gruul, and Mag with a group of alts and casual friends. He didn’t do everything I would have done, but we were successful. One time I was unable to contain my advice, so I whispered it to him rather than blurt it out. (Taking two very observant players off cube duty and instead having them watch nearby cubes as back up, if you were curious) He handled it with grace (namely listening to me =P)
I can’t say I was a perfect raider. I can say it was very interesting to be in the back seat, watching the raid from another perspective. It was also interesting to note how he established his authority, how he handled questions, how he put down rebellion and how the raid in general responded to general nuances of his personality. I’m thinking about using fraps to record myself in vent and the raiding effect. It would be interesting to see if I can recreate my observations and translate them to my own leadership skills. I can never hope to be unbiased, but maybe I’ll be able to learn something anyway.
On a side note, I’ve about had it with that little blue dragon. I’ve tried about all I know how to try from a leadership and strategy perspective. I’ve done indepth WWS analysis, made graphs, pictures, wordy explanations, set up captains, educated captains, worked on a one on one basis with those that are repeatedly not executing, recruited new raiders to replace the ones that are not executing, tried different strats, spoken to leaders of guilds that have killed him, spoken to members of guilds that have killed him, everything I know how to do. If we don’t kill him soon, I’m not really sure what to try next. We have the gear, strat, ability and desire, it seems we lack the focus and execution. All guilds have high points and low points, and we’ll get through this one too, it’s just frustrating to be in a low point.
Long Boring Intro:
I have a secret. A long time ago, I was a “casual” player. For about a year I had a real life priority that took enough of my time to prevent me from raiding with any regularity. In that time I was part of a pvp team (where I met my partner in crime! Mikedabutcha) and then part of a real life friend guild. (You had to know someone in real life who was in the guild, A la Kevin Bacon). Once my real life priority had passed, I found myself too bored to play casually and sought out a raiding home, but I’ve always stayed in touch with that real life group of friends. Recently one of those members e-mailed me and let me know they were considering “raiding” and wanted advice. What is “raiding” and where might they find a good home? I e-mailed them back a specific response, and then upon re-reading it decided some of the advice I’d given him could be generalized and may be interesting to others.
The better player myth:
Intrinsically, dedicated raiders aren’t any better or worse than their casual counterparts. Rather than a reflection of skill, dedicated raiding is reflection of effort. Most people do become better with time and effort, but I’ve seen some really terrible players in some really good gear. In fact, in some cases I’ve been responsible for putting some good gear on bad players.
The “raider” mindset:
In another post, I’ve already talked about how the commitment to raiding, alters a players view of the game, so I won’t rehash that here. The advantage of this mindset is that you feel more involved in the game, you are able to see more things and the encounters do challenge you to master your class. The disadvantages are the you have to make raiding a priority in your life, you may end up playing with people you don’t necessarily enjoy outside of raids, and gaming time becomes a little more stressful.
Defining your commitment:
Often times in discussions we’ll put players into boxes: “Casual,” “Hardcore,” “Elitist,” “Scrub.” But in reality it’s not that simple. Rather than black or white there is a grayscale of levels of commitment to raiding and ability. So while considering raiding, consider realistically how much time do you want to spend playing this game? How much time can you spare from your everyday lifestyle? Remember that you are committing to more than just raiding, but also to being prepared for raids. A good rule of thumb to consider is that you’ll need about 15 minutes of preparation time for every hour of time you spend in a raid.
Finding a guild that matches your expectations:
This isn’t always easy. In fact, it was so hard for me that I ended up making my own guild. One of the easiest tricks to finding a guild that raids when you want to is to just type “/who Serpentshrine Cavern” (Or whatever zone you’re interested in raiding) and note the guilds of the people who are in that zone. Do that for a few days and make a list of the guild names you see. Once you have your list, do a search on the internet for “GuildName WoW Servername” or ask a member for the guild’s website. The first thing you should check is that their raid expectations match up to what you want to commit. Second, check their available information and see if their culture seems like the kind of culture you want from a guild.
Impressing the guild you want to join:
Once you’ve decided you want to join them, you have to explain to them why they should want you. Take a look at their raiders who play the same class/spec that you are playing in the armory and see how they have gemmed or enchanted their gear. Take a moment to evaluate your own character and used the “find upgrades” button to see if there is something easy you can do to make your character stronger. If this guild is killing bosses you haven’t seen yet, read information about those bosses. Remember in an interview, the recruiter is checking you to see if it’s worth making a time investment in you. The more things you can do to show them that you are investing time in yourself and your own progression, the more likely they are to feel that time invested in you and your progression is worthwhile.
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