From the very begining when this guild was still a concept, one thing both Solie and i where very set on was setting as fewer rules as possible. Neither of us liked the idea of chaining people down and restricting them with over the top limitations. There was one rule however, that we both agreed whole heartedly on. The disallowance of PuG'ing a raid without express permision. At first glance, most of you will see that as harsh, unfair or just downright stupid. What the greater percent of people fail to understand is that, by pugging something for yourself because you can't be bothered to wait a couple of days, there's potentially 9-24 other people you're letting down.
My main problem is this, Placeholder is held together by our close community. You'll see me spouting that word quite a lot of the course of this blog, the big C, community. What this means is, we're very group driven, we feed off each other. Everything we do is for the greater whole.
Part of creating this community, was recruiting people from vastly varieing experience levels on WoW. From those who claim to of downed every boss at its peak to those who've yet to step foot in a single raid. In an effort to keep everyone happy, we host numerous raids of all levels throughout the week. We're progressing well in ICC, at 6/12 in our third week, whislt also taking those who've yet to see t7 content into the respective dungeons. This in itself is no easy task, you'll always get those with no interest in older content, you'll get those lacking the confidence to do newer content. It's for this reason, we forbid PuG's.
Imagine if you will, you've not yet done a raid, but the guild has set up a nice and relaxing Naxx run to show people the ropes. You've been looking forward to it all week but, at the last second, it's found out that, due to people pugging it during the week, we have too many saved and not enough members to go. That leaves all those who where planning to go in the lurch because a few people where too impatient and, in my eyes, too damn selfish to wait and help the guild instead.
Imagine how you would feel if your ICC raid was cancled for this very reason. Completly different story then right?
I've used Nax as an example, this applys to any and all raids. Just last night, at 11pm server time, we all decided to go to ulduar for kicks and giggles. This wouldn't of been possible had we allowed people to pug at will.
Having explained all this, to each new recruit in detail. Having had "No pugging without permision", twice, in our MotD and also seeing others be reprimanded for not asking, or those rewarded for asking. Why is it then still a huge problem this guild seems to face.
No less then 4 members have left or been kicked in the last two weeks because of this rule. Whether it's for non compliance or non agreemant. Why is it such a problem for people to accept that we do things for each other here, not for ourselves.
This game is focused entirely on self progression thesedays. Too much weight is put on an individuals gear. *Curse you gearscore* Skill gets you nowhere, you can bruteforce most encounters, including the first quarter of ICC. There's no obligation to be good to your fellow players. With the advent of the LFG tool and the numerous ways to avoid the kick function, you can troll your way through an entire heroic, stick two fingers up and run away with the loot at the end. People need to be held accountable for the actions, whether it's in game or in real life. This is why we take a strong stance on this rule. We can not and will not allow people to screw over other people, for their own personal game.
Anyone of you i find breaking this rule, regardless of current standing or position in the guild will be dealt with in the same way. A swift and complete removal from the guild, our site and our voice programs. It's impossible to build a community around selfish people. It doesn't work and leads to infighting. This game is an escape, a safe haven for many and i will not allow that to be tarnished by those who value themselves over someone else.
/end rant.
Sunday 18 April 2010
Thursday 25 March 2010
Now... where was i?
There's a common belief that, upon entering this world, we're given a list of skills in which we're allocated a set ammount of points. This handily explains how some people can kick a ball better than others, how some can roll their tongue whilst no matter how hard i try i'm unable, and how, try as i might, i'm still sat here struggling to think about what to blog next. For no matter how hard i train my mind, how hard i sit and think "be creative, be creative", all i feel the compulsion to do is to forage that little bit further into my nose.
Strangely though, as i slipped further into the brooding and the "why bother"'ing, i realised that this was the reason why i had troubles agreeing with Solie and her deathly urge to start this guild in the first place.
You see, when i finally reached the front of the line at the Center for Skill Allocation, they were fresh out of Creativity. They had a rather nice two for one offer on Arrogance and Manipulation though and since these were two of the least popular skills to have, i was given more than the usual allocation.
Lack of creativity and abundance of negative stats, leads to me shying away from all forms of social interaction and responsibility. After thorough testing and analysis, i've been shown incapable of performing even the simplest of tasks without upsetting someone thoroughly, or sending them into an apoplectic state. This, as you can imagine, leads to rather interesting results when forced to deal with more than one person at any given time. For instance, doing the weekly shopping soon turns into raging old ladies and a whole legion of crying babies.
Strangely however, Solie remains immune, even stranger still, she remains loyaly devoted. Whether by intelligent use of my higher than average manipulation skill, or by sheer force of will she has stood by me through it all. After having finally given in to her insistance, we worked tirelessly to piece together our guild. All throughout which i was shadowed by the terrible fear of causing it to go horribly horribly wrong.
It very nearly did.
Strangely though, as i slipped further into the brooding and the "why bother"'ing, i realised that this was the reason why i had troubles agreeing with Solie and her deathly urge to start this guild in the first place.
You see, when i finally reached the front of the line at the Center for Skill Allocation, they were fresh out of Creativity. They had a rather nice two for one offer on Arrogance and Manipulation though and since these were two of the least popular skills to have, i was given more than the usual allocation.
Lack of creativity and abundance of negative stats, leads to me shying away from all forms of social interaction and responsibility. After thorough testing and analysis, i've been shown incapable of performing even the simplest of tasks without upsetting someone thoroughly, or sending them into an apoplectic state. This, as you can imagine, leads to rather interesting results when forced to deal with more than one person at any given time. For instance, doing the weekly shopping soon turns into raging old ladies and a whole legion of crying babies.
Strangely however, Solie remains immune, even stranger still, she remains loyaly devoted. Whether by intelligent use of my higher than average manipulation skill, or by sheer force of will she has stood by me through it all. After having finally given in to her insistance, we worked tirelessly to piece together our guild. All throughout which i was shadowed by the terrible fear of causing it to go horribly horribly wrong.
It very nearly did.
Tuesday 16 March 2010
Still waiting on 3 sunders.
When i first read about the new LFG tool, i was filled with ambivalence. On one side, i'd no longer have to sit around a city all day, trying to con people into running a specific dungeon with me. On the other, i'd be thrown into groups with people i'd have no idea about, whos very skill wouldn't be shown, if at all, until deeper into the run. It was a double edged sword. My biggest concern however, was the behaviour that comes with anonymity on the internet. It's amazing just how quickly etiquette and common decency go out the window when you cant be held accountable for your actions.
With the ease of access to content across the board, this game as spawned a new generation of players. Players who, have never had to do things such as watch their threat, resort to unorthadox tactics, use crowd control, use any ounce of their brain in order to achieve anything in this game. I've noticed a startling trend between just how little people need to do in order to get by and just how nice people are willing to be to do it. It has never been easier in this game to aquire gear, to kill the big bads and to experience what's on offer. The only single target pulls you get, are bosses. Even then, 9 times out of ten they have adds or something to that effect. To win this game, all you need to do is mash your most effective AoE button as hard and fast as possible.
This to me highlights the problem. In expansions past, threat was a mini game. You had to manage your abilities whilst maintaning your position below the tank, or should you be the tank, above everyone else on threat. This itself promoted smarter game play. Constructive use of cooldowns, perhaps holding off on that big boom until you where sure you wouldn't get one twice as large right back at you. Effective use of threat reduction talents and abilities such as feint, feign death, soul shatter. Crowd control too was a very important method of getting from A to B without getting duly pounded. In many situations, it was nigh impossible to get by without judicial use of such abilities. Tempest keep springs to mind. *shudder*. It was also common place to wait for tanks to gain threat, with the eponymous "Wait for three sunders".
Herein lies the problem. As more and more of our tools and abilities fall by the way side. So too does the required level of input and thought. Gone are the days of carefuly chosing CC targets. Gone are the days of managing your cooldowns in order to keep track of your threat. So too, are the days where it was expected of you to atleast consider other people around you. gone. Too easy is it to critisize rather then to help. Too easy is to to "lol noob" then to offer advice. All people care about these days are their two frost badges. Within two heroics, i witnessed impatient DPS pulling whilst the tank was preparing. I've seen tanks refusing to do their job due to a healer not being geared enough. I've seen healers refuse to heal tanks who make a single mistake. All through out, i saw more expletives, "Omg"'s and rage quitting then duely nescescary.
Also, rather disgustingly, it's expected of a tank to have an inordinate amount of health upon first entering heroics. Which is always seemed rather paradoxical to me. In order to gain such a health pool, it is nescesary to do heroics. It seems these days though, in order to do heroics, it's first nescesary to have that health pool. How the majority of players fail to see the broken logic behind this i'll never know. As a reroll guild just hitting 80 we have a few tanks who're looking to start the gear grind via heroics. Too often have they been kicked, or left stranded as the group leaves, due to their relatively low health pool or, god help us, gear score. Sadly though, it doesn't stop there. Those people who don't leave straight away, go on to berate and belittle the tank. Why is that so much of an easier option then offering tips? Perhaps suggesting a new way to try things, or an easy way to get a much needed upgrade. It's easier, as it requires less thought.
Thoughtful people, being such a rareity these days. Are often met with awe and wonder. Such is the norm that it's expected of everyone to be an ass, that when someone is genuinely nice, you have to double take. I've therefor made it my personal mission to be that person (hard to believe for some), and to reward other likeminded people with the respect they deserve. Many of those around me who have taken the time to help are swiftly invited to my friends list.
If there was one thing i could ask the WoW population as a whole, it would be this. Please spare a thought for your fellow player. Don't fall into the trap of forgetting that behind their avatar, there is a real person. Real feelings, real emotions. A little consideration goes a long long way. Regardless of what we chose to do in WoW we all do it for one reason and one reason only. To have fun. We all need to do our part in ensuring those around us, not just ourselves, are achieving just that.
With the ease of access to content across the board, this game as spawned a new generation of players. Players who, have never had to do things such as watch their threat, resort to unorthadox tactics, use crowd control, use any ounce of their brain in order to achieve anything in this game. I've noticed a startling trend between just how little people need to do in order to get by and just how nice people are willing to be to do it. It has never been easier in this game to aquire gear, to kill the big bads and to experience what's on offer. The only single target pulls you get, are bosses. Even then, 9 times out of ten they have adds or something to that effect. To win this game, all you need to do is mash your most effective AoE button as hard and fast as possible.
This to me highlights the problem. In expansions past, threat was a mini game. You had to manage your abilities whilst maintaning your position below the tank, or should you be the tank, above everyone else on threat. This itself promoted smarter game play. Constructive use of cooldowns, perhaps holding off on that big boom until you where sure you wouldn't get one twice as large right back at you. Effective use of threat reduction talents and abilities such as feint, feign death, soul shatter. Crowd control too was a very important method of getting from A to B without getting duly pounded. In many situations, it was nigh impossible to get by without judicial use of such abilities. Tempest keep springs to mind. *shudder*. It was also common place to wait for tanks to gain threat, with the eponymous "Wait for three sunders".
Herein lies the problem. As more and more of our tools and abilities fall by the way side. So too does the required level of input and thought. Gone are the days of carefuly chosing CC targets. Gone are the days of managing your cooldowns in order to keep track of your threat. So too, are the days where it was expected of you to atleast consider other people around you. gone. Too easy is it to critisize rather then to help. Too easy is to to "lol noob" then to offer advice. All people care about these days are their two frost badges. Within two heroics, i witnessed impatient DPS pulling whilst the tank was preparing. I've seen tanks refusing to do their job due to a healer not being geared enough. I've seen healers refuse to heal tanks who make a single mistake. All through out, i saw more expletives, "Omg"'s and rage quitting then duely nescescary.
Also, rather disgustingly, it's expected of a tank to have an inordinate amount of health upon first entering heroics. Which is always seemed rather paradoxical to me. In order to gain such a health pool, it is nescesary to do heroics. It seems these days though, in order to do heroics, it's first nescesary to have that health pool. How the majority of players fail to see the broken logic behind this i'll never know. As a reroll guild just hitting 80 we have a few tanks who're looking to start the gear grind via heroics. Too often have they been kicked, or left stranded as the group leaves, due to their relatively low health pool or, god help us, gear score. Sadly though, it doesn't stop there. Those people who don't leave straight away, go on to berate and belittle the tank. Why is that so much of an easier option then offering tips? Perhaps suggesting a new way to try things, or an easy way to get a much needed upgrade. It's easier, as it requires less thought.
Thoughtful people, being such a rareity these days. Are often met with awe and wonder. Such is the norm that it's expected of everyone to be an ass, that when someone is genuinely nice, you have to double take. I've therefor made it my personal mission to be that person (hard to believe for some), and to reward other likeminded people with the respect they deserve. Many of those around me who have taken the time to help are swiftly invited to my friends list.
If there was one thing i could ask the WoW population as a whole, it would be this. Please spare a thought for your fellow player. Don't fall into the trap of forgetting that behind their avatar, there is a real person. Real feelings, real emotions. A little consideration goes a long long way. Regardless of what we chose to do in WoW we all do it for one reason and one reason only. To have fun. We all need to do our part in ensuring those around us, not just ourselves, are achieving just that.
Friday 12 March 2010
Thought process.
What better place to start then at the very begining, where the guild was nothing but a mere thought in the back of someones head, unheared and unnoticed. Someones head, i might add, that's not often filled with thought, so it's a mystery to many as to why this thought went unheard for so long and, conversely, a mystery as to why this thought went on to be noticed and grow into a full blown idea, where so many before had faded out of exsistance.
It started one afternoon with my partner spouting rather randomly "We should create a guild! Oooh a Re-roll guild". This was met by my very best attempts to ignore her insistance. I battled long and hard, the days passed by and turned into weeks. I was winning. Or so i thought. As she piled more and more thought on top of this idea, the sheer weight of the possibilities crushed my battered defenses and i caved. I agreed to help her on one condition, i'd take no active role in the governing of the guild. One which she was all to glad to accept for reasons i'll go into another time.
This is the story of that thought, which started so inconspicously quiet and content in it's own little corner of the universe. A nobody, that went on to become the guild we know and love.
It was a very happy thought indeed, and why wouldn't it be, it had ample space to live in, the neighbours where so quiet he wasn't even sure he had any and he could sit back and watch reruns of Scrubs any time it pleased. The happyness wasn't to last how ever, as mid way through season 7, he was thrust rapidly into the center of conciousness, like a deer caught in head lights it lingered, startled by the sudden rush of oncoming traffic.
"W-where am i?" He stammered. The only response being a feint echo.
He tried again.
"What is this, what's going on?" Still nothing.
"Help?" It managed to quiver.
At this precise moment, two things happened. The first being a cavernous voice, low and rumbling which bellowed "You have been chosen little one, Lord Plonk has decreed you to be of value, and as such demands you turn over your assets to him for immediate use". The second, a rather large boot decended upon the poor little thought, cascading down from out of nowhere and hitting, with quite some force, the thoughts backside.
As he flew through the air, he had the time to reflect on his life. He looked back on his life with abject curiosity. Could he of done more? Was he really content with the lot he had been given. His revery was cut short by an almight *SKADOOM!* The sky exploded into a sea of white and blue forks of lightning. The thought rubbed his eyes and shook his head to try and ease the ringing in his ears. *SKADOOM* It came again, this time rumbling on for quite some time. As the lightning flared up and painted the sky white, the thought caught glimpse of a sign which read:
"Welcome to the Brain Storm: Population; You!"
He hit the floor with a dull wet thud.
It started one afternoon with my partner spouting rather randomly "We should create a guild! Oooh a Re-roll guild". This was met by my very best attempts to ignore her insistance. I battled long and hard, the days passed by and turned into weeks. I was winning. Or so i thought. As she piled more and more thought on top of this idea, the sheer weight of the possibilities crushed my battered defenses and i caved. I agreed to help her on one condition, i'd take no active role in the governing of the guild. One which she was all to glad to accept for reasons i'll go into another time.
This is the story of that thought, which started so inconspicously quiet and content in it's own little corner of the universe. A nobody, that went on to become the guild we know and love.
It was a very happy thought indeed, and why wouldn't it be, it had ample space to live in, the neighbours where so quiet he wasn't even sure he had any and he could sit back and watch reruns of Scrubs any time it pleased. The happyness wasn't to last how ever, as mid way through season 7, he was thrust rapidly into the center of conciousness, like a deer caught in head lights it lingered, startled by the sudden rush of oncoming traffic.
"W-where am i?" He stammered. The only response being a feint echo.
He tried again.
"What is this, what's going on?" Still nothing.
"Help?" It managed to quiver.
At this precise moment, two things happened. The first being a cavernous voice, low and rumbling which bellowed "You have been chosen little one, Lord Plonk has decreed you to be of value, and as such demands you turn over your assets to him for immediate use". The second, a rather large boot decended upon the poor little thought, cascading down from out of nowhere and hitting, with quite some force, the thoughts backside.
As he flew through the air, he had the time to reflect on his life. He looked back on his life with abject curiosity. Could he of done more? Was he really content with the lot he had been given. His revery was cut short by an almight *SKADOOM!* The sky exploded into a sea of white and blue forks of lightning. The thought rubbed his eyes and shook his head to try and ease the ringing in his ears. *SKADOOM* It came again, this time rumbling on for quite some time. As the lightning flared up and painted the sky white, the thought caught glimpse of a sign which read:
"Welcome to the Brain Storm: Population; You!"
He hit the floor with a dull wet thud.
Thursday 11 March 2010
The begining of all things wonderful.
I have never really understood the fixation people have thesedays with social networking sites, twitter, blogs and the like. I've always done by best to partition my life spent outside of the web and the time spent on it. More over, i've always thought the practice of sharing the intricacies of every day life with complete strangers was daft and somewhat baffling.
Yet here i am, gawping at my monitor and suffering with chronic writers block, having made the choice to blog about the running of a World of Warcraft guild, specificly a Re-Roll guild. There are many trials, tribulations and challenges involved in running any form of group or organisation. Ranging from advertising, recruiting and socialising, to discipline and management. The ongoing struggle expands when you feel the need to meet the most daring of expectations of your fellow members and how something so small as the uttering of the wrong phase, something said being taken out of context or making a difficult choice can upset such a delicate balance between order and chaos.
The blog that follows will take you deeper into the life of an officer in such a guild and an inside view into the mechanics behind maintaining order.
Yet here i am, gawping at my monitor and suffering with chronic writers block, having made the choice to blog about the running of a World of Warcraft guild, specificly a Re-Roll guild. There are many trials, tribulations and challenges involved in running any form of group or organisation. Ranging from advertising, recruiting and socialising, to discipline and management. The ongoing struggle expands when you feel the need to meet the most daring of expectations of your fellow members and how something so small as the uttering of the wrong phase, something said being taken out of context or making a difficult choice can upset such a delicate balance between order and chaos.
The blog that follows will take you deeper into the life of an officer in such a guild and an inside view into the mechanics behind maintaining order.
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