Posts tagged shared topic
WoW In The Workplace
Jul 16th
It has come to my attention that I haven’t joined in with shared topics for a while now. I like to get involved, however, I haven’t really thought of any responses recently. I’d actually had the idea to write a post about the things WoW can teach you that would seem great to potential employers, though if they found out where the skills had originated from they perhaps might not be so supportive. Well, I think that slots in quite nicely with this week’s shared topic:
What has the World of Warcraft taught you? Did you learn about economics from playing the Auction House? Or learned the value of household chores from doing dailies? Or maybe WoW has impacted your real life in some other way. Maybe you even met your significant other in Azeroth! Write about something you’ve learned from WoW, or some other way it’s affected you in the real world.
Recommended by Sindei.
I’d first like to mention that employers differ. Some will be quite open to gaming, after all, it’s hardly an activity that requires sacrificing lambs in the name of Beelzebub. On the other hand, some will remain fairly archaic in the sense that gaming is something for children and teenagers, it doesn’t belong in the workplace. Whilst I don’t believe that mentioning that gaming is a favourite pastime, I also don’t believe that going into detail about the following skills being learnt as a result of heavy game playing would be particularly rewarding either. I am going to talk about a few skills, which are widely regarded as excellent skills to take into a job, or anywhere else in life for that matter, and how exactly they relate to the World of Warcraft.
Tolerance
We’ve all been witness to the immaturity present in trade chat, pugs, and sometimes even in guild chat. However, after time, you learn to just deal with it, it’s a part of any multiplayer game. If you want to play the game you enjoy, sometimes you just have to tolerate the stuff you might not otherwise want to. The existence of this immaturity is particularly obvious when it appears within guilds. You enjoy raiding with them, there are some great people, but one or two people might spoil the fun. A lot of people decide that it is worth ignoring the bad stuff to stick around in the guild they like.
Of course, in the real world, we may encounter people whom we find insufferable on a daily basis. It’s a part of being human, but do we attack these people or just smile and tolerate them, for the sake of a job, a friend, family, whatever may be at risk if we choose to act on our dislike. I feel that there are many situations in WoW which help us to tolerate people a bit more.
Patience
Tolerance goes hand in hand with patience. We need patience in order to tolerate the idiots. This skill is especially great if you’re working in customer service, as I’m sure many of us have discovered, the general public can be dicks. If they’re particularly stupid, you may be able to slip in a little sarcasm which will probably go unnoticed but that’s never really recommended. It’s always best to take a deep breath, smile, let them rant, and so on. Keep your cool.
Doing dailies, levelling your 5th level 80 alt through the same zones you’ve now completed repeatedly, grinding just about anything from reputation to herbs, all of these things require an immense amount of patience, and music/podcasts/vent. Not only this, but doing the same mundane tasks day after day must in some way prepare you for a 9 to 5.
Problem Solving
Problem solving is another very important skill for the workplace, and life in general. Often we are met with difficult tasks, whether we choose to flail around in a state of panic, or calmly take things step by step in order to overcome the problem is upto us, but it is possible to learn this skill whilst playing WoW.
Okay, so, this skill is a little more based within the refines of raiding and PvP, perhaps even in RP. In raids, Blizzard have given us a variety of problems to solve, also known as bosses and their strategies. It is mostly the raid leader’s job to think of a tactic to best overcome the boundaries put in front of us, though at some point, any of the raiders can step up. Rogue adds hitting the healers can be misdirected away by a Hunter, the boss standing in bad stuff hurting the melee can be moved away by a tank, there are many examples of problem solving within raiding.
In PvP, particularly in arena, the enemy players become our problem and we have to use our offensive and defensive abilities to best overcome them, perhaps even using the environment around us to make it a little more difficult for them.
Roleplay was also mentioned, and you may be wondering how on earth roleplay and problem solving can mix. Well, occasionally we meet new people, and we have to devise ways to interact with them. Sometimes, they may even force situations on us that we are not comfortable with which we have to find ways to escape from. This will tend to happen much less if you roleplay with friends but it definitely counts.
Teamwork
This skill I think you can work out for yourselves. In fact, I may already have touched upon it in the previous examples. However, I’m not bailing out. Teamwork. Working as a part of a team. This is a term that employers love. They lap it right up along with good customer service and a lot of patience. In fact, there was a great scene in the IT Crowd that summed this up quite welli (just incase you guys outside of the UK can’t view that clip, here‘s a different clip, thankya Mork, completely unrelated but I can’t leave you guys out now can I?)(oh look, another one, more related to teamwork).
I believe I just went off on a footnotes vs. bracketed rant. Right, teamwork. Whenever we group with people ingame, that’s teamwork right there. Raiding, 5 mans, group quests, arena, premades, roleplay. Know what else? Vehicle mounts. You have to put your trust in somebody when they’re riding you around that they won’t eject you in some strange place, like jumping off of Dalaran and watching you fall to your death while they parachute down, or perhaps you’re a passenger in their rocket, they could eject you in midair any time. That takes trust, which is pretty useful when you’re working with other people.
Business
Have you ever put anything up for sale on the auction house, or perhaps advertised it in trade chat? Could be an item, or offering your professions for a fee or tip. Was it a lot of items? Did you undercut the competition by a lot or just a little? Did you use your professions to make things to sell? Buy something for cheap and sell it for more? Whatever you did, you were making gold on your own initiative, rather than just doing dailies and quests which are there, you’ve thought about it a little bit. The more you do it, the more you think of new ways to make gold, different strategies. New skills. Business skills.
Management Experience
I’ve left this one until last because this won’t relate to everybody, but if you’ve ever lead a guild, or been an officer in a guild, or lead a pug, that is giving you a little management experience. Why? You’re leading people! Thinking of the best ways for people to work as a team, hoping they have patience and tolerance for one another, in order for the team to work a lot better, using your problem solving skills and hoping that others step up and use theirs if need be.
Whilst an employer more than likely wouldn’t accept management skills learnt from a game, in leading people within WoW, you have picked up a few tricks, and demonstrated that you have enough patience to work in management.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could put down ‘a few years of MMO playing’ on your CV as a part of your experience?
- chances are this is only viewable in the UK, sadly I couldn’t find another clip on YouTube that wasn’t in Russian [↩]
The Best & Worst: Cities/Towns
May 8th
Yet another Blog Azeroth Shared Topic, this time suggested by the most delightful and lovely Windsoar.
First off, I need to make it very clear: I’m not a fan of the Alliance cities. They’re boring to me. Stormwind? Every Human city in a fantasy land looks like this, cobblestones and cathedrals, seen it all before, not for me. Exodar? I know I’m supposed to be a Space Goat and all that but.. it’s sickeningly pink. Yeah, I’m a girl, but that much pink and purple is enough to put you off. Not to mention I always get lost in there, or stuck behind something. Darnassus? At the beginning of my WoW playing, I had quite a soft spot for this city, however, as time has moved on I’ve learnt that again, it’s nothing really special to me. Trees, trees, elves, trees, wisps, trees, and where the heck is the auction house again? Ironforge? Yeah, okay, this is the city that I can stand the most out of all of the Alliance cities, but still, lava, grates, not to mention it’s FULL of Dwarves and Gnomes. When you spend maybe 3 years with green people and cows, a girl gets used to a bit of mess.
I’ll start with Thunder Bluff, because in the past I always hated the place. However, after a while, you get sort of used to the wooden maze that is Thunder Bluff, and quite enjoy the company of big fluffy cow people. It feels kind of cozy. Silvermoon, while it isn’t my favourite city, is lovely. I’ve played endless amounts of Blood Elves for so long that I can’t not like the place, I’ve spent so much time there in early levels, and some of the bars and shops are really cool looking. Undercity is another place I used to hate. It’s so dank and dreary, full of slime, and in the past abominations (which by the way, used to REALLY freak me out. GUTS!), not to mention, again, I used to get so lost here. I’ve come to realise that Undercity is basically like a compass, divided into 4 sections and if you do happen to go to the wrong one it’s easily remedied. That and the scenery looks pretty Tim Burtonesque. That leaves me with Orgrimmar, to longtime Alliance players I can imagine Orgrimmar being one of the blandest cities, but not to me. It’s so big and majestic! Yep, I called the city of the Orcs majestic. The shape of the city itself is interesting, I reckon it’s difficult to get lost there as long as you ask a guard, the stealthed Trolls on the auction house roof, the zeppelin high above your heads, the drag, I love it. Really do.
So am I a Hordie at heart? Of course I am, I was always Horde in the past of course I’ll have a soft spot for the large bunch of misfits. It won’t stop me liking the Alliance mounts and races.
Raising Awareness
Apr 11th
This Blog Azeroth Shared Topic was brought to you by Tarinae.
“Blizzard has been on the fast track to promoting account security lately. They all new options for when accounts are compromised, they offered pets for authenticators, they made several posted awareness sheets, etc.
But running parallel to that is the amount of gold sellers we see.
I have seen two of my guildmates hacked already this year by devastatingly experienced hackers. I was going to construct a post about the ugly truth behind gold buying. Do I know anyone who buys gold? No, but I know people who suffer the consequences. I did it once…referring to the fact that I suffered the consequences of someone else taking my items and money to give to someone else. I was the victim not the gold buyer.
I want to try to make sure people are aware of what happens when a gold seller needs to fill an order…they don’t create this stuff out of thin air.
So I thought I would promote it as a shared topic so you can share any (hacking or other) experiences you have to help raise awareness. People expect blizzard to say this stuff…but we are just players….real players with real experiences.”
A while ago I planned to write a post about authenticators and why it will always be worth owning one and why. It seems to have been pushed back by a bunch of post ideas in my drafts, as always happens, so, let’s take a look.
In my first guild back in TBC, we were in Karazhan and my boyfriend at the time claimed a disconnect over vent. He tried to log back in, but we pointed out that his character was hearthing. I think a couple of us yelled at the person on his character, my little naive mind assumed that they would react with “Oh crap, they caught me, run and hide!” But of course, that’s not realistic, they carried on. The one being hacked quickly changed his password and managed to get the guy off of his account. He lost a few things, but he was pretty lucky.
Quite early on in Wrath, one of the guild’s officers was hacked. The guild bank was cleared out, and this happened twice. A few weeks later, our prot paladin was also hacked. His character was used for roughly 2 days before the account could be locked, it was constantly in Wintergrasp, so they were either using his character to farm, or they really liked PvPing with other people’s characters.
This all begs the question: are gold sellers hacking? Or is most of the hacking coming from another source? I’m sure we’ve all seen them farming away, Whelplings, Borean Leather, I’ve even seen them farming Hippogryphs in Feralas in the past, but how can we tell who’s actually hacking? Well for starters, the example above is very good evidence towards gold sellers hacking accounts to use. The most likely thing they could have been doing was using the level 80 character to farm eternals to sell. The hacked accounts themselves can be used as a great source of instant gold, selling gear and items and trading the gold to another account. It can be used to farm items to sell for further profits. They can use the account to whisper and trade people, which cannot be done from a trial account. Not to mention they will 9 times out of 10 have access to a high level character without all of the time and effort put into leveling and gearing. There probably are some out there who hack for malicious reasons, but the main cause, as far as I can see, will be gold sellers.
They ruin the economy. How many times have you seen stacks of Borean Leather and other things on the auction house for ridiculously low prices, sold by Wxrycd? Blue Whelplings for 150g? If I can, I try to gank them when I see them, anything to hold them up. I found one in Scholazar Basin a while back, there were a few characteristics you can pick up on to tell if somebody is or isn’t a farmer. Do they emote you? If they wave, smile, or something along those lines, often the interaction will throw people off, but don’t be fooled, it’s one of their tricks. How keyboard mashy does their name sound? Are they guildless, or perhaps in a guild you’ve never heard of? If they’re an enemy, if you place yourself next to them, do they ignore you, kill, loot, skin, keyboard turn away and rinse and repeat? They’ll be fairly slow with their movements and will usually be Hunters or Death Knights. Ganking them and reporting them are great ways to do your bit. Of course, this isn’t going to make people’s accounts any more secure, but let’s call it vengeance.
If you don’t have an authenticator, why not? Blizzard have done plenty to make them more accessible, they’ve made them cheaper, made them available for iPhones, they even come with a cute little Core Hound puppy now, so if you don’t have one, what’s your excuse? Don’t think using NoScript is safe enough, don’t think an over complicated password is safe enough, if you don’t have an authenticator, they can hack you and attach one to your account, making it even more difficult to regain access. Sounds fun, yes? Thought not. You can never be safe enough. I deeply recommend you get one. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Starting Over
Mar 29th
This week’s Blog Azeroth Shared Topic, suggested by Fiorentin, is:
If you had the chance to start all over again in WoW, but your char is already level 80, or level 1 depending on if you like to level or not :>. What class would you pick? What race? What faction? Why would you pick that class/race/faction?
And most of all what would you plan to do with it? Raid, PvP or just hang out in Dalaran?
Let’s just imagine that my account is gone. Space aliens came down to Earth, tamed a bunch of elephants, and stole my WoW account. Thus leaving me with the need to start all over again if I still wanted to play WoW.
The first thing I’d have to do would be to decide my faction (after of course buying a new copy of the game and installing it and banging my head against the desk for a bit while it patched). At the moment, my main is on Vashj, I’m having some fun on Argent Dawn with SAN, and I have a few friends on Terenas. I’d have to make a Horde alt on Argent Dawn anyway, to say hey to the guys in SAN, but realistically I’d want to be Alliance, so I’d head over to Terenas and stare at the character creation screen a little.
Here is where I would really have to decide which race and class I want to be. I’d probably spend a little time creating female Dwarves and giggling at how silly they look, maybe play a bit with the female Human model, then eventually settle on the race and class combination I’m so attached to: Draenei Hunter. Of course, those who know me should know how badly I’d like Fae to be a Draenei. The waggle has a certain charm I tell you and they have the best hairstyles. Hunter is just a given fact by now, I don’t need to explain that one. According to maths, they are the least faceroll class in the game, so obviously that means they’re the most fun, right? Okay, I get to have an attack bear. Hush. I would tame the polar bear from Dun Morogh and call it Patrick, named after the large cuddly polar bear that lives on my bed.
Then I’d have to log in, skip the intro, sort out my settings, get the video and sound settings to exactly how I like them, and add people to my friends list and throw them a poke. Also perhaps grab a couple of mods, but these are the boring bits so I won’t go into too much detail.
Levelling is okay for me, I don’t mind it. I get to do something that’s not raiding, see the old world, enjoy being a lowbie, and get used to the character. Terenas is a PvE server so she wouldn’t need a personality or a backstory, but I would work hard on her to earn some gold, level a her professions, grab a few achievements, and gear her up a little. Once I hit 80, I would spend most of my time doing Loremaster, working through my achievement panel, and collecting mounts and vanity pets, occasionally popping over to SAN to say hello. Perhaps I’d level a Mage or a Death Knight over there, they’re pretty enjoyable classes.
Overall, it wouldn’t be so bad, and it wouldn’t be a whole lot different to what I do with my time now: levelling, collecting, and achievement whoring. The only thing that would be different really would be the confusion over why the heck the aliens decided to tame elephants and steal a World of Warcraft account.
Positive PuG
Mar 3rd
Shared Topic courtesy of Kin at Altoholics Anonymous. You can find other responses in this post at Blog Azeroth.
I’ve been playing my mage, Twylite, a fair bit lately. It’s fun when you’re feeling a bit blah about the game to pop on an alt you haven’t really explored yet, get her spec, glyphs, gear just right, and attempt to top the meters in every random you do as Frost. Maybe that’s just me, I like damage meters, they make DPS classes fun for me.
Well, when I was about level 35 and Scarlet Monastery was all the rage, I queued, got in a group and lo and behold the warrior tank could hold aggro! I Blizzarded my little Blood Elf heart out, and we started chatting, the tank, me and the druid healer. We decided to stick with that group and re-queue for a few. The druid healer was a really nice guy, he gave both me and the tank some friendly advice, not the kind of advice you expect to find in a pug these days. He told me to try single targeting the mob with the most HP in a pack of 4 or less, I think it was along those lines, I’ve since adapted it anyway, and it has helped me in dungeons with my mana issues.
It was a lovely group and unusual to find that and have everybody want to stick around, well, everybody who counts. The silent hunter left at the end of the first one. The warrior was on my server, I added him to my friends list and chatted a little after we had finished. Shame he hasn’t really been online at the same time as me since because it would have been quite cool to queue up again together. Keep trying guys, there are good pugs out there!
WoW Outside of Azeroth
Feb 20th
I haven’t participated in a Shared Topic in a while, so I’ve browsed the forum, selected a few which are sitting in drafts waiting to be written, and my first is Oath’s idea:
Have you ever been out and about, minding your own business, having a casual conversation with a friend and fellow WoW player about the latest patch or last night’s dungeon, then some random stranger comes up to you and says something like, “Hey, I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear, but do you guys play WoW? I’ve got a level XX [race] [class] on [server]“?
I’ve probably had two handfuls of people come up to me in real life, either overhearing I play WoW from conversation, or seeing that I’m wearing my Warlock shirt or Horde sweater, and strike up a conversation with me about the game.
While places of congregation abound, such as a gaming convention, comic book shop, or GameStop, the topic persists more of an unprecedented setting. I ran into an Alliance member at a mall outside of the restrooms and we had a heated debate about Varian Wrynn. A guy started a conversation with my cousin and me at a sushi bar because my cousin and I were discussing ICC. A friend and I were at dinner at an expensive restaurant, and I was telling her about my spec, as she was leveling a warlock, and our waiter chimed in about his warlock.
Have any of you out there in the blogosphere had this happen? If so, what was your experience like? Was it just a pleasant conversation or did you face off with a passionate member of the opposing faction?
Well, I can’t recall any eavesdroppings, from my part or anybody else’s, but I do remember a particularly nasty train journey, or as much as my terribly bad memory allows me to remember…
This was back in TBC, I was playing my shadow priest in Supreme, and my relationship with Dan was at this point long distance. Okay, compared to some I can’t complain, but a 7 hour train journey did suck a fair bit.
I think this particular night it had been snowing in some places, or more possibly raining quite heavily, so when I got to Cardiff the bloke in the orange coat who I asked which platform I was on, or God knows what now, told me the train to Birmingham was cancelled or heavily delayed, or something, so I’d need to get the train to Bristol and change there to get to Birmingham. So, I listened, at this point I just wanted to get home, I was cold and tired and didn’t particularly feel like sitting on trains, I wasn’t in the best of moods. Got to Bristol and the train was cancelled! I broke down, thinking I’d be stuck in sodding Bristol all night with no money or anywhere to stay, not a particularly nice train station either. I was wrong, a train came along to take us to yet another station to get us to Birmingham, I forget which, where I sat waiting rather impatiently for this, by now, doubtful train to Birmingham.
I sat next to a girl who was quite friendly and started talking to me. I’m usually quite a shy person, so it’s probably a good job she spoke to me, else not only would I have gone insane that night but I definitely wouldn’t have a post to write about this topic.
We talked about why we were stuck getting these stupid trains, me on my way home from visiting my boyfriend, her on the way to visit hers. I asked, “Oh, cool, how did you meet?” And she blushed.
“Just some online roleplaying game, heh, bit lame.” I became curious. At this point we had something in common, both meeting our other halves online.
“Really? Which one?”
“World of Warcraft.” She blushed harder.
“Really? Same here! We were in the same guild together! What server are you on?” Suddenly she stopped blushing and we got talking even more.
Sadly, I did finally get to Birmingham, but the last train back to my town had gone, so I had to get a taxi to my dad’s friend’s house to stay the night. That was a stressful night, but bumping into her really helped, it’s a shame we didn’t keep in touch.
After Arthas
Jan 23rd
As usual I’m late to the party, this shared topic is one I wanted to get involved in and in all my IRL stuff, managed to forget. Ringo from Flinthammer Hall suggested the following topic:
What now? What happens to the world of Azeroth? What happens to the people, the factions. How does this affect the relationships between the Alliance and Horde? What does your character think happens next? Is this the end for you, as a player, especially if you started, as I did, with Warcraft III? Is this the “end of history?”
Other responses from: Zan, Littlebark, and Ophelie.
What happens to the world of Azeroth?
Arthas is dead. Not too soon after, Deathwing breaks free. The world of Azeroth is once again torn asunder (the first time by the destruction of the Well of Eternity), races are left stranded (goblins), entire zones changed by the extreme power of Deathwing. That’s for a different topic, another time.
Looking at the undead armies and the Lich King, as Uther said in Halls of Reflection, Azeroth needs a Lich King. If we didn’t have a Lich King, there would be nobody to control the scourge and stop them from swarming Azeroth. Somebody will need to replace Arthas, and my money is on Bolvar Fortdragon. They don’t necessarily have to be evil, in fact, it’s going to be a huge sacrifice, but a necessary one. For the future of Azeroth.
What happens to the people, the factions. How does this affect the relationships between the Alliance and Horde?
The Alliance and Horde will have to work together to not only defeat Arthas, but decide who the next Lich King will be. Bolvar has lost so much, he has nothing left to lose by making the sacrifice. This causes a temporary truce, though I don’t think it will last long. There will be issues leading upto Wrath which again will cause disagreements between the Horde and the Alliance, at the moment, we only know rumours, not facts.
What does your character think happens next?
My character figures that so much has happened, that it has to come to an end now. She expects that after Kil’jaeden has been defeated, the Lich King, Yogg Saron, and so on, that really, what else could happen? With this thought in mind, you can imagine she gets quite pissed off when Death Wing pops up, determined to give Azeroth some peace.
Is this the “end of history?”
No, of course not. There is still a lot to deal with. Deathwing, the rest of the black dragonflight. The Emerald Dream and what exactly is the nightmare. There are still Old Gods locked away, not to mention the Elemental Lords and Sargeras, if Yogg Saron and C’Thun managed to corrupt people from their prisons, I’m sure others can also. There are endless pieces of lore with loose ends, just because the RTS games haven’t shown it yet, doesn’t mean it isn’t being planned or written. This part is surely more exciting, not knowing exactly what’s around the corner.
Looking Back to the Start of Wrath
Jan 5th
I was running around Dalaran last night, desperately trying to find where you get the lights to light up Dalaran. I realised though it’s been littleover a year since I first discovered that little easter egg, when I ran into every shop, checked every vendor and what they sold, every little nook and cranny. I was excited back then, this was a completely new city and it was pretty and I’d just bought a bear mount FINALLY. It felt a little like being a child at Christmas again, you’re given all these new toys to play with and it’s almost magical, but then they force you to eat Christmas dinner instead. Now, in my analogy, Santa is Rhonin and Christmas dinner is levelling to 80 and raiding before you had chance to check out the 5 mans. In fact! I remember this quite clearly.
I had to go back to work after taking a long weekend. I’d got to about 75 or 76 ish, but it slowed down a lot in the week and everybody I knew got to 80 before I was even 78. They all wanted to do Naxx, and were absolutely adamant I could enter at 78. I got all the way down there and it turned out I couldn’t, wasted so much of my precious levelling time, would have been in Scholazar at this point.
I was levelling with a rhino called Steve, my God I miss that knockback. It was so awesome, such a fuck you from the rhino. I remember being in Storm Peaks at 79 and running out of quests before I’d even got the achievement. Eventually found out I’d missed the chain that started from the dropped item from the dwarves in the north by the stone frost giant, but at this point I didn’t know that, and I was determined to ding without starting any new zones. I dinged 80 at the same time I discovered Storm Peaks and almost immediately was dragged off somewhere, can’t remember if it was for a 10 man raid of some kind, or piles of heroics, but they’d all been semi-waiting for me to help me gear up.
It must have been Utgarde Keep because I remember specifically wanting a new ranged weapon and I refused to get the gun crafted at this point because in my own words, “Ewww guns.” These days I’m less fussy and even then I didn’t say no to the 10 man Kelthuzad gun (Envoy never dropped), but at this point I was determined to stick with bows as much as possible and I wanted the bow from Patchwerk so badly. We farmed Utgarde Keep for a week or so before the crossbow finally dropped. Pinnacle we didn’t start farming until I was on my priest, we didn’t know where the blue proto drake dropped.
I also remember the first toy train set.. Our GM was going insane with that thing. I think that’s what eventually lead me to play WoW with sounds turned off.
Then there were the friends. I’d started talking to a social in guild.. end of TBC/during levelling, and I remember being in Scholazar when she started talking to me properly. Telling me stories about how somebody else in the guild, you know the guy who’s always really quiet, a generally nice guy, everybody loves him? Yeah, apparently he was in love with her. She specifically told me not to tell anybody.. then he started getting a bit creepy, overreacting a lot when she didn’t reply to him immediately, didn’t play with him all the time, things like that and this girl had a boyfriend. It all kept going on.. she claimed he was stalking her. Which was probably true, but she had been sending him naked pictures and leading him on. Clever, eh?
Anyway, that friendship ended after a story involving her e-cheating on her boyfriend, me letting slip that they were going to the same guild meet up to her boyfriend, her exploding at me claiming I’d ruined her life (because of a slip of the tongue, when they ere separated at this point in fact) and blaming me for her attempted suicide. Needless to say that’s one grudge I can’t let go of.
However, at the beginning, we were good friends. I was a hunter and she was an enhancement shaman, so we had to agree with each other over who would take which gear pieces and so on. It was quite friendly, she even named my cat ‘ChairmanMeow’.
I do miss the first month or so of Wrath. There was hardly any arguing, or drama. Everything was new and shiny, there was plenty to do. Raids were still fun. The one guild I really miss was still going strong. It was the most fun I’ve had in WoW.
Dying Guilds Don’t Have To Die
Dec 1st
Shared Topic courtesy of Windsoar, Jaded Alt.
These days it appears to be very difficult to keep a guild running. People are growing tired of this repetitive horrid content, some quitting the game entirely, some giving up on raiding, at least until Icecrown.
The only way really to tackle this problem is to be nice about it. So, you’ve geared these guys up, and they decide they can’t be bothered to help the guild anymore. Not to worry they’ll be back in Icecrown to take more loot from the guild. Or maybe they want to bring their alts instead. So the rage bubbles away inside while you attempt to keep up a front, “Yes, not to worry, we’ll keep your spot, have fun.” You know full well if you let that out, it will only lead to bad things. Let them go, but tell them you may have to replace them if they plan on coming back because you won’t have the DPS/tanks/healers. Do not try to force them to stay, under any circumstances, this will make matters worse if they really don’t want to stay.
Recruitment
Now you’re down a few players, and you’re struggling to get raids together. This is where you need to step up your recruitment process. Make a recruitment macro and make sure it is well grammared and spelt. For example,
<Guild> is recruiting for Icecrown. Most hardmodes complete in Ulduar, 4/5 TotGC. We’re looking for exceptional applicants, especially: rogues, resto druids and a ret paladin.More info at http://www.guildwebsite.com/
It is important in this macro to make sure you let people know where your progress is at, what you’re aiming for without saying “we’re really struggling at the moment”, what you’re looking for if any classes are specifically needed, and include the guild’s website with the http:// so that potential applicants can copy and paste from ingame if they have the chat mods to do so, which most do.
Post on the forums, let people know what is in the macro, but extend it. What are your guild’s policies? Hardcore or casual? Raiding focus, 10 man, 25 man or both? Is it a fun or serious guild? How old is it? Bits of information which may help to sell your guild to the potential applicants. Don’t think that recruitment posts are a bad idea, a lot of people turn to the forums when looking for a new guild, they might miss the macro in trade, this is where you really sell yourself. Cross-realm applicants, and applicants already on the realm who may not know what the guild is about until you put yourself out there. Use spell check.
Guild Websites
On the website, some potential applicants will want to know raid times, raid days, guild rules, how loot is distributed, and on rare occasions, what the server is like. Some will want to know what the guild is like, perhaps open up the general guild forums to be read only for potential applicants, so they can get a feel for the guild before they apply. When applying to a guild, people want details of what they’ll be getting into, if the details aren’t there, they may give up and try the next guild. Sell yourself, it’s important. I cannot stress this enough.
Applications
When a potential applicant applies, do not shoot them down. If you do you may gain a bad reputation on the server and miss out on some really exceptional applicants who don’t wish to be guilded with dicks. By all means, give bad applicants constructive criticism, but they haven’t applied to your guild to be shot down and insulted, don’t do it! Advice on how to improve themselves, and a polite “I’m sorry we are going to have to decline you at the moment, good luck in your search for a guild.” If drama flares up in a topic, lock it. The one thing you want to avoid most is an air of drama, if there is drama in your guild, don’t let it be shown publicly.
Punishment
The way you handle people in a guild is also very important. If somebody is acting like a douche, whisper them, demote them to a rank with no talking rights until you’ve resolved the issue, invite them to a party, get them on vent, but whatever you do, DON’T address it in guild. It is unecessary to tell them to shut the fuck up in front of everybody else and it’s going to look bad on your part. Maybe include a warning system, if somebody is acting particularly badly, to the point of making people in the guild feel uncomfortable, give them a warning, but use them sparingly. Don’t use them to look big and powerful because you can and they pissed you off, only for the good of the guild. Once they’ve used up their warnings, ban them from raids, using guild chat, remove their loot priveleges, demote them to trialist (or perhaps introduce a rank with less priveleges then trialists, they’d still be allowed to attend raids, but no speaking on vent, loot, etc.), or if it’s a really extreme case, kick them from the guild permanently.
Raid Leading
When leading a raid, it is important to make sure people know the tactics, so go over them, even if it’s only brief. You’ll regret it if you don’t when somebody is hit by Icehowl on heroic mode and claims they forgot they moved that slowly after the crash on this difficulty setting. If somebody makes a mistake, don’t treat them like dirt. On vent and in raid, address the raid in general do not, under any circumstances, single somebody out unless they did something particularly stupid like, pull a boss and wipe the raid on purpose because they think it’s funny. If it’s just a bad try and people make mistakes, just tell the entire raid that things need to improve. If need be, whisper people who seem to be struggling, there may be a reason behind it, especially if they’re in a bad mood, singling them out on vent is going to do no good. Praise the raid when they do well. Tell them to step up when they aren’t. If it turns out to be a bad setup, don’t keep trying it will lower the guild’s morale towards raiding.
Fair Balance
You cannot have a guild without punishment. You may think you can, but if something comes up that really needs to be punished, you’ll regret it. Make sure that people know there are punishments for bad behaviour, it won’t be appreciated if they don’t know it’s there. Equally, you cannot have a guild without praise, most people thrive on being told they are doing well, so tell them, but make sure they keep in mind that they can’t stop trying because the boss has now got to 20%, they have to keep trying. Finally, there needs to be some fun. Organise guild activities, random crap, old instances, achievements, guild 10 mans. The guild needs to talk, get to know each other, and laugh. Otherwise the game becomes pointless, and the guild becomes just another guild.
Relationships Within Azeroth
Nov 2nd
Shared Topic courtesy of Naithin of Tank ‘n’ Tree.
After three years of playing WoW, I have come to realise that there are many different variants on the relationships within Azeroth. During game play, most of us will make friends, that’s almost inevitable when you group with people. Many of us will go so far as to meet people who we don’t necessarily get along with very well. A small handful of us will even meet our other halves through the game. The moral of the story, act the way you would in real life. Endure the bad, appreciate the good, laugh at the stupid.
Friendships
The problem with ingame friendships, is that they can be easy to lose if you don’t keep them up. You create a character, you level upto 80, you join a guild and there you make your first WoW friend. You do everything together, instances, achievements, PvP, but one of you doesn’t like something about the guild. Say your friend leaves for another server and all you have left is MSN, at first you keep in touch but eventually you both go off and meet new people ingame and slowly lose touch. This is just an example, but when you realise that what was once a strong friendship has become an acquaintance who you barely speak to anymore, it sucks.
Of course, once in a while, you will also meet people who you do keep in touch with, even when they decide to quit the game or transfer. In one of the guilds I applied to, one of the members of that guild randomly added me to MSN to talk to because he thought I seemed like a nice person, and is now a really good friend. Just goes to show, stalking isn’t always bad! In each guild I’ve been happy in, I’ve made a friend that I’ve kept in touch with, perhaps the secret to a good friendship ingame is to be happy in the first place. After all, you won’t meet anybody if you keep yourself to yourself.
People we Dislike
Of course, this is a very social game, a great way to talk to new people, but this also includes meeting people we don’t get along with. Personally, I generally dislike people who treat others like crap in order to make themselves feel good, basically ingame bullying. If it’s making fun of somebody jokingly and they understand that, then fine, that’s not the same. Bullying I will never agree with.
People who will act a certain way to benefit themselves over others. For example, as we’ve come to know them, ‘teehee girls’. Girls who will flaunt their femininity in order to receive promotions, loot and attention. They provide us constantly with information reminding us that they are in fact female, and massively overuse smileys, occasionally speaking in guild in such a way that no man would refuse to give said girl her loot. This is one thing I particularly dislike, as it’s only a small handful of WoW girls, some of us like to get into a guild based on good applications and ability rather.
Griefing is another one, corpse camping, trolling, kill stealing. I don’t and never will understand the fun in this kind of behaviour, but it exists, and always will. The trouble with these people is that, just like the real world, we have to learn to get along with them and accept that they are there.
Romantic Relationships
A lot of people think that people who meet their other half over the internet, especially WoW, are weird. However, I know a lot of people who are in strong relationships who met this way. So why is it still seen as a bad thing? It’s an old fashioned way of thinking to be honest. In fact, a few years ago, I knew that you could meet somebody from the internet, get together and have a good relationship, the same way that blind dates and the adverts in newspapers work. I was wrong. It is possible to fall in love with somebody before you meet, but to be sure that it’s real, you have to meet.
This is the part that is dangerous, because it can all go wrong. The main reason so many people are against online relationships, what if you meet and aren’t physically attracted to one another? One of you is a psychotic murderer? One or both of you are a lot older/younger than the other? There are so many things you have to beware of on the internet because it’s so easy to lie about almost anything. Though, I might my boyfriend on WoW, and we now live together, so it’s not always bad.
Brew of the Year
Isle of Conquest Victory
A-bomb-inable
Stocking Up
40 Exalted Reputations
Master of Arms
Plenty of Pets
Looking For Multitudes
A Void Dance
Lockdown!
