WoW dramas

This post is about drama. Well, it starts like that, then goes pretty random and winds up somewhere else. Sorry...just brain dumping into the nothingness that is my blog.

When you play games in a large multiplayer environment, you get...lots of players. Each of these players has a different personality, likes/dislikes in how they want to play the game, and different ways of expressing themselves.

Usually, a lot of mechanics in the game separate large personality divisions. PvP players who hate PvE will not usually join PvE guilds. PvE raiders will not generally join pvp guilds. Hardcore raiders don't join casual guilds. The list goes on.

Anyway, the point is that players tend to segment themselves into guilds that fit their personality and playstyle. This is a good thing really. Put people together that get along and like to do similar things within their hobby (WoW really is a hobby).

Sometimes though you get players in the guild that don't fit the mold of that guild because they came in with friends, and there is where the root of a lot of guild drama starts. A hardcore raider may join a guild with his casual friend and try to turn that casual guild into something it is not. A 'carebear' type joins a pvp guild and tries to get them to raid or run heroics. This is the cause of one type of drama.

As a leader, this is probably the hardest type of drama to deal with. You have a player in a raiding guild that doesn't want to do anything but heroics. He is frustrated because he always has to PuG for it, and can never get a heroic going. The raiders want to raid, and may occasionally do a heroic..but it is never their focus.

The most honest thing you can do is tell them "You don't belong here. You should join a guild that matches your interest". But you don't. Why? He is best friends with one of your best raiders, and you don't want to hurt his feelings or by proxy, your raider's feelings.

It works the other direction though too. The raider in a casual guild. The raider is frustrated because he shows up to raids on time, with consumables, ready to go. He has researched his class, other classes, all the raid encounters, and watched a few videos...

Then the rest of the guild shows up. They trickle in slowly, playing at an incredibly slow pace and a majority of the people don't perform very well. That hardcore raider is frustrated because they never progress very far, and they only really progress as far as they do because the 'hardcore' people are carrying them.

The kindest thing a casual guild leader could do is tell them..."go find a raiding guild". But you can't really do that...this person is friends with the people in your guild, you don't want to hurt anybodies feelings, and quite frankly...you NEED him for your guild to do any semblance of raiding at all.

I've seen this problem cause splits and other things before, and if I ever do a raiding guild again, I'm only going to invite raiders to the guild. I'll make a whole separate guild for friends and family. It probably seems kind of heartless, but I've decided that it is better to be 100% clear on what you are there to accomplish.

If I make a guild again (it won't be at least until Cataclysm), I'm going to treat it like a Sports Team. You are there to play a sport and win. The sport must be clearly defined. If it is a 25-man guild, there are 30 people on the roster (bench is 1 tank, 2 ranged dps, 2 healers, and 1 melee dps and the bench rotates in to stay current with gear). No more. Friends, family, alts, etc...put them in a separate guild and manage it loosely with few rules. Make a big chat channel so people can talk to each other.

The point is to make it CRYSTAL clear that this guild is setup to raid. Period.

Anyway...this post is in response to a bunch of drama in my raiding guild about 10 mans, heroics, and pvp. All ancillary stuff that should really have no bearing into our core 25-man mission, but it has to be dealt with because the guild is trying to be all things to all people...a recipe for disaster.

I have personally committed to sticking with this raiding guild through Icecrown. We all want to kill Arthas, and personally, I want to finish what I started in wotlk with the people I started it with. I feel like I owe it to them. Also, I'm doing a lot of the raid leading with them, and I don't want to leave them in a lurch.

I do think though that the Arthas kill will signify my last act with Satellite (well, I'll stay to farm the instance through the expansion of course). I don't think I will carry it through to another expansion with them.

I have a few problems with the guild. Like, currently our only measure in the guild is performance. If you perform well, but are terrible to other people, your actions are tolerated. If you do not perform well, but you are a nice guy, you are publicly and privately lambasted.

In sports, if you aren't performing well, you may be benched. This is cool and acceptable to me.

You may even earn the criticism of your teammates if you perform poorly. Also fine. But in sports, there are spots for mediocre players who are great in the locker room. Everybody on the team doesn't have to be Barry Sanders. The good players are your core, and the great players rise to the top and shine.

In sports, and in guilds, I really hate the players who are great on the field but terrible in the locker room. Terrell Owens comes to mind. And we have a pair of Terrell's in our guild right now.

In my future guild that may or may not ever happen, there are two measuring sticks: Performance and Personality. You must have high scores in both. BOTH.

If I do start this guild, it will be run like a sports team. Head Coach calls the plays (raid/guild leader). Probably have an offensive coordinator (dps class leader) and defensive coordinator (healing/tank class leader).

Not much of any other leadership required. Maybe a loot council that consists of one person from each class + the raid leader. I dunno. The details are still a bit fuzzy.

My point? Yeah, I forgot it a while ago in this post. I guess it could be summed up in 'I hate stupid guild drama', and I'm tired of seeing it crop up wherever I go. Maybe it is me...