*sigh*

Today I wrote up a guild charter to start up a new guild in WoW.

*sigh*

Sometimes I don't know what to do in WoW. On one hand, I'm totally into raiding. When I'm in the thick of it, I'm having fun. I really love the teamwork and challenge involved.

But right now…I can't say I enjoy any other aspect of the game. I played around with making gold on the auction house. It was fun for a while, but I now have enough gold to buy….whatever I want in the game. But I don't really want anything so it's kinda moot. (I could buy another mount I guess...but bleh)

I played around with leveling alts again and brought my 5th character to L80. While that was mildly entertaining for a while, it was mostly just a grind. At this point I don't think I could do it again. I'll probably level a Worgen druid for the expansion, just to see the new leveling experience that has been hyped, but it is anybody's guess if I finish it. I give myself about 50:50 odds.

So, if I'm bored with the game, why the guild charter? I've been thinking about setting up a guild that is focused on raiding for just two nights a week. Currently, the guild I'm in raids 3 nights a week (down from 4 in BC), and we are at the end of current content with nothing left to raid. Oh, we could do Heroic Lich King (the hardest fight in this expansion), but given the summer, we just aren't going to have a consistent group of people to pull that off. And quite frankly, I've killed the Lich King. Doing it again on Heroic just doesn't hold much appeal for me.

So I think that if I setup a guild that only raids 2 nights per week in the new expansion, I think I will have less of a chance of getting ahead of the content, and (bonus), I get more time to do other stuff with my evenings.

But the problem is….I don't really have a desire to run another guild. I figure that pretty much any guild leader can expect to spend about 5-6 hours per week in various management 'stuff'. Whether it is recruiting, managing the guild bank, handling problems, or other minutiae…it all takes time. Time I'd rather spend doing other things. So I don't REALLY save any time by going to 2 nights. In fact, it is probably a net loss overall.

So I guess I'll probably just stick with my current guild. Ultimately, it is just easier, and lets face it: I'm lazy. But man it would be nice to only raid two days a week...

*sigh*

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...

Dragon Slaying

I wrote this story this weekend, and it is unfortunately, a fanfic. I don't particularly like writing fan fiction. It feels weird writing in somebody else's universe, which is based around a game where the "story" is centered around gameplay elements and can get very forced, at best.

However...I'm happy to write anything without ninja babies in it at this point, so I'm going with it.

The "Real life" story behind the story is that I finally took Onyxia down solo this weekend on my Paladin, and this is a celebration of that feat, of sorts. Since Blizzard is re-releasing Onyxia as a new 10/25 man raid instance in the next patch, this is very likely the last time I will be able to pull it off solo like that, so I'm actually quite proud I was able to get it done.

The young Paladin wiped the blood of the dragonkin he had just slain off his sword and walked around the corner of the cave. He was deep below the surface now. He could feel the heat of Azeroth's core surrounding him. The stench of sulfur assaulted his nostrils. As he walked down the small cave he saw it open up ahead into a gigantic cavern. And in the center of that cavern was Onyxia herself. He had found her at last. She hasn't noticed his presence yet. Good.

Gaston eyed the dragon critically. For a time, she had infiltrated the highest courts in Stormwind. In her human guise as the Lady Prestor, she had gained the confidence of the young Anduin Wrynn, erstwhile King of Stormwind. Her "advice" had nearly brought down a kingdom. At last the Paladin would test his strength against Onyxia the treacherous, daughter of the cursed Deathwing, sister of Nefarian, broodmother of the Black Dragonflight.

Gaston smiled wryly. Aiding the great Marshall Windsor, they had uncovered her masquerade and driven her from Stormwind Keep forever. After the events of that day, he had but one quest...kill the Dragon. It had taken him years to track her down this far and find her lair, deep beneath the swamps of Duskwallow Marsh. Now it was up to him to deal the justice of the Light to this conniving dragon at last, and avenge the death of Windsor.

Quickly and quietly, he checked over his gear. The plate he wore still shone brightly from the polish he had given it at the camp this morning, with the exception of the blotchy stains of dragon blood drained from the watchers Onyxia had left to guard the mouth of her cave. Dragon blood is a stain that would not polish out easily. Gaston grimaced at the thought. All his armor would be colored red by this night's end. The only question was would it be his blood or the dragon's? Time to find out.

He checked the sharpness of his sword and the strength of his shield. He prayed they would hold through the battle. "Nothing more to do but kill the bitch" he muttered under his breath. There was no shadow in the cave, nor cover to be had, so it was only a matter of time before she noticed the Paladin. There would be no surprise or easy stealth kill here.

So be it. Gaston raised his sword and charged.

He was halfway to her when the dragon lifted her head slowly and saw him coming. Angrily she arose to face the challenge. When he reached her, she struck out with her giant claw, but Gaston blocked it easily with his shield and cut at the skin on her forearm with his sword. His sword found her skin, but it didn't cut the flesh...her hide was just too thick. Ducking under another blow from her, he cut down her belly, but he still was unable to pierce the the skin. Behind her now, he tried cutting her hind leg, but the hide held together there as well.

Gaston swore. She had to have a weakness.

Suddenly felt a mighty gust of wind as her tail swung at him. Gaston tried to dodge, but it just came in too fast. He barely got his shield up in time, but the impact knocked him back against the far wall. Onyxia turned and charged after him, but Gaston quickly rose to his feet and stood his ground. He blocked several blows from her claws, and attacked her face, looking for a weakness. Any weakness.

Furiously, the dragon attacked him, but Gaston was able to block, dodge or otherwise avoid every blow. Roaring in frustration, she breathed fire at him, but Gaston shrugged off the assault and blocked the fire with his shield. Putting all the power of the light behind every blow, he attacked furiously to a single point above her left nostril. Perhaps if he focused on a single point, it would wear her down and the skin would eventually succumb to his assault and break.

For what seemed like hours, but could just as easily been minutes, Gaston hacked and slashed at the single spot on her head, trying to make the brood mother bleed at last. Suddenly, when he was about to give up on it and try another tactic, his sword broke through the skin, and he could tell he hurt her.

Roaring in pain, the dragon flapped her wings violently and took to the sky. Flying around the enormous cavern, she looked to rain fire down on Gaston and stay out of the reach of his sword. For any other mere warrior, it would have worked too.

Fortunately, Gaston was a Paladin of the Hand of Vargus and had other tools at his disposal. He focused the light of judgment on the spot he had weakened earlier with his sword and let loose with all the power of the Light at his command. Her screams echoed throughout the cavern and he knew he had hurt her again.

Unbeknownst to the Paladin, the screams had served another purpose though and had awakened a small army of dragon whelps and they came streaming out of the hatching caves on both sides of the cavern.

Just in time, Gaston saw them coming, and had to take his focus off of Onyxia to consecrate the ground beneath him, hoping it would keep the whelplings at bay. Apparently the brood mother's hold on her whelps was fierce, since they ignored the pain caused by the Holy ground beneath them and attacked with suicidal abandon.

Gaston blocked and slashed for all he was worth and was able to defeat the whelps, but almost too late he noticed the giant dragon had taken in a deep breath and breathed down fire at him so intense that if he had not surrounded himself with a shield of Light at the last second, it would have burned him to a crisp.

Angry now, Gaston refocused his efforts with the Light and attacked the dragon with renewed force to the weak spot on her face. In frustration, Onyxia abandoned her flying attacks and dropped back down from the sky to attack him with her claws faster than Gaston would have thought possible for such a giant creature. Blocking and parrying her attacks, her blows still struck with such force that he had to continually back up until he was once again with his back to the rear wall of the cavern.

Strangely, the more powerfully the dragon attacked, the more strength the Light gave to him. Gaston could feel the Light flow through his veins like never before and it gave him a surge of strength and speed that he would have thought impossible just a day before.

Instead of weakening, with every blow the dragon struck, Gaston grew even more powerful. Finally his sword was moving so fast and with such force, that it slashed through the thick hide of the dragon's face cleanly. Roaring with pain, the dragon reared up and Gaston saw his opening. Without thinking, he leapt up in the air, slicing his sword across her neck. As he dropped back to his feet he could hear the dragon collapse behind him with two thuds. A big thud for her body that made the earth shake and a smaller one for the head that rolled away from it's former owner.

He grabbed the head of Onyxia, throwing it over his Shoulder and turned to exit the cave. It would make a fine gift for a King.

Coping

Well, it has been a week now since I last logged into World of Warcraft.

The shakes kicked in the other day. I'd walk around upstairs and sit at my computer and stare at the WoW icon. I could just renew my account and play for....just a couple hours.

NO!!

Must...resist....temptation.

I do like WoW, and I most definitely will be going back to it, but not in the month of July, and probably not August either. The kids are out of school for the summer and I have...well, stuff to do with them. I used to raid after they had gone to bed, which was fine, but I can't do that anymore...they stay up too late.

Maybe I'll go back for Icecrown Citadel. Assuming I can get back on the raiding team that I just quit. /sigh. I liked that raiding team.

In the meantime, I'm catching up on other things that I had been putting off for a while now. I'm going back to the novel I have been writing for....years now. I caught up on Battlestar Galactica. I'm fairly hooked on that show now. Just waiting for Season 4.5 to be released and I'll be done with that.

I'm playing more Rock Band. Just about finished with everything in the game, and I'm almost ready to step up to Medium on Drums. Maybe. I wish I had better Rhythm. Or, you know, talent. Shana is ready to step up to Hard on drums. Did I mention I hate her? HAAAAAATE!!

I should probably pick up Guitar Hero World Tour. Just checked out the song list and me likes. Doubt Shana will go for buying yet another game though. Might have to Gamefly it.

Mostly I'm just...having a good time. The hardest part of quitting WoW is when I get bored around the house. I used to jump on WoW when I got really bored and just tool around and hope for a heroic. Now...I dunno. I just got a new book so maybe I'll just read that.

LOTRO is having a free weekend this week for returning people. Maybe I'll jump on that for a little bit. I remember having fun with that game, though it wasn't nearly as addicting as WoW. Of course, it might just make me miss WoW. /sigh

Quitting the game really isn't as bad as I'm making out, I'm exaggerating a lot. But I am going to miss the people. I still keep in touch with a few via forums, email, and IM, but not very many. Very sad.

In the end, the gameplay of WoW was great, but the people are what kept me playing for so long.