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Posts with tag guild-drama

Forum post of the day: Purchasing raid epics (poll)

Back in March, Mike Schramm reported on a player who paid 20,000 gold to ensure that she would receive the Amani War Bear from the Zul'Aman raid instance. It is not entirely uncommon for players to run their guildmates' alts though low level dungeons for fun or profit or purchasing raid runs or arena points. Any of these may be considered cheating by some players, some more obviously than others. Angona of Hellscream (obviously an alt) had the opportunity to purchase Black Temple gear, though her guild is currently running Serpentshine Cavern, Tempest Keep, and Mount Hyjal.

Her guild leader disapproves of this transaction. Angona quoted him as stating "Only lazy noobs buy gear, that's not what this guild is about. If you want to buy gear, then I suggest you just /gquit right now." This attitude suggests that players should earn their gear, even if a gear upgrade would be good for the guild's raiding efforts overall.

Continue reading Forum post of the day: Purchasing raid epics (poll)

Ties that blind


When you show up to Archimonde attempts on a Monday night, you don't really expect much apart from a fun night with lots of wanton death and slaughter, albeit not for Archimonde himself. Killing Archimonde is pretty much out of the question at the moment. He's the kind of type-A boss who likes to demand absolute perfection out of his visitors, and that's not really what we're prepared to offer right now. We are more of an experimentation guild, the type that slaps things together with duct tape and then cheerfully proffers them for inspection, the type of guild that wanders off while important historical events are occurring, absorbed with what's going on with that duck by the pond or an interesting tree. Despite this, or possibly because of it, we've progressed pretty quickly. Too quickly to avoid leaving people behind, according to some, in the wake of an ugly blow-up that happened early in the evening and continued for the rest of the night in a flurry of tells, vent binds, and and anxious messages.

All guilds have problems and all guilds have drama; if you read the site you have the opportunity to see a lot of what goes on elsewhere if your own guild isn't host to a ton of trouble. My own wasn't for the most part until last night, and I tend to read Officers' Quarters and Guildwatch with the sense of clinical detachment you might expect from a surgeon's dispassionate survey of a necrotic limb. Not so much so anymore, I think. Guild-ending matters are usually the result of a slow burn you recognize only in hindsight, and when I read of of break-ups it's hard not to think about the names you don't know and wonder who was the whistle-blower, who tried to save the ship, who abandoned it altogether, and who was simply lost along the way.

Guilds are fragile families. This will be an interesting week.

Breakfast Topic: Is it possible to /gquit gracefully?

Inspired by this thread on the official forums, I have a pretty simple question: How do you view guild quitting? Is it possible to gquit with dignity? Is it possible to leave behind a guild with no bad feelings and as little malice as possible on the part of the quitter and the guild?

Unfortunately, it happens to the best of guilds, sometimes things just fall apart and EVERYONE leaves at once. It's also true that a lot of us know of at least one spectacular /gquit that spawned a multi-page "grab the popcorn" type thread on the server boards. Sometimes it's over loot. Sometimes it's over repeated wipes or perceived lack of skill or dedication on the part of a raid group or raid members. Sometimes it's over emotional issues or personality clashes. Sometimes, even if the /gquit seems relatively benign, there ends up being some underlying problems that come to the surface and explode at some later date, like a ticking time bomb.

Now, myself, I believe it's possible. I've seen friendships survive gquits, as much as all the drama that makes it to server boards and blogging sites would suggest that that isn't possible. Sometimes you just need a new experience, or your goals and your guild's goals diverge, and there's nothing wrong with that. With enough grace and aplomb from both sides, you can simply agree to part ways, and go on. Heck, sometimes you can even continue grouping and pooling resources even while you have separate guild tags. Of such things are guild alliances formed!

What do you think? Is drama nearly unavoidable when it comes time to /gquit? Who's at fault when it crops up? And how do you avoid it?

Breakfast Topic: The great Kara divide

Blogger Amava is having a bit of a crisis in his guild. They have just hit Karazhan and the question of who gets in on the 10-man team and who sits out destined to spend the evening begging for a pick up group in Shatt has caused much drama.

Amava knows that they have to recruit more healers to make multiple Kara teams, but that will take time. Until then, the core group will have to learn the raid, then rotate in others.

But who gets in on the rotation? As Amava put it "simply possessing the Master's Key does not mean you are ready." Standards have to be set, but they, of course, fall only on dps as healers and tanks are going to get in on every run, more or less.

Has you guild hit this split? How did they handle it to keep everyone happy, but not coddle the inept? Is Amava's solution the best? Gear checks FTW?

Last Week on Massively: WoW-related stories

Regular columns dominate this week's listing of WoW-related content on our sister site Massively. You can click on the links below or subscribe to a special WoW-only Massively feed.

Behind the Curtain: Immediacy in PvP
Craig Withers likes to PvP in a tabletop game, but not WoW. Why not? Read his current Behind the Curtain column to find out what's lacking in Blizzard's version of mortal combat.


WAR vs WoW: Keen and Graev compare
Keen and Graev's blog has started early in the comparison of World of Warcraft and the upcoming Warhammer Online. See what our own Kyle Horner has to say about what's sure to be a hot topic this year.

Another rumor regarding Blizzard's love affair with consoles
A recent demo of a new console game resulted in a comment leading to speculation: is WoW coming to a next-gen console near you?


Behind the Curtain: More Plot Please
How much plot is needed to make an MMO enjoyable? Chris Chester poses that question, and his own answer in his weekly column, Behind the Curtain.


Building a Better MMOusetrap: Adventures in babysitting
Guilds are an essential part of every MMO. In his Building a Better MMOusetrap column, Dave Moss explores ways that Blizzard and other game developers can make guilds even better.


As the Worlds Turn: Ramblings of a mad man
Adam Schumacher uses this week's As The World Turns column to present his wish list to Blizzard and other MMO developers detailing what he'd like to see this year in MMOs.


MMOGology: Keep it simple, stupid
Mark Nottke has been playing a lot of Dungeon Runner. In his weekly MMOGology weekly column, he compares the simplistic quest, interface and content to WoW's system and you may be surprised at his conclusions.

Breakfast Topic: The stealth /gquit and other lost art forms

If a guild mate logs in at an hour when most of the guild is sleeping (or simply nobody is around) and /gquits, is it a stealth /gquit?

Amanna over at Adventures in Azeroth (who I have to wonder might be the first appliance-spec druid judging by the name) asks this question after having done this exact thing. Many times over the past couple of years I have been tempted to do this myself. There is always such a recoil when you leave a guild, even if you try to take the high road and make it as drama-free as possible. No matter how many people there may be that irritate you in any given guild, there are always two or three -- or twelve -- that really like you and don't want you to go. Thus, your planned drama-free departure is suddenly less drama-free.

How can you get out of a guild and make a clean break? Have you ever performed the stealth /gquit personally? Was it successful?

(And yes, I watched Mr. Deeds the other day, and it was foremost in my mind when I created the accompanying picture. Does it show?)

Guild drama, preventing the big three


Far be it from me to play guild expert, that's Scott's job, and he does it brilliantly. I am so far in need of guild advice that I take it wherever I can, and when I read the Priestly Endeavors article on Guild Issue Resolution, I found so much of worth for me personally I knew our readers should know about it. Yes, it was written a while ago, but good advice never goes stale.

As Kirk puts it, there are three major complaints that players have when they talk about the guild drama they've encountered with their previous guilds. "I never get any loot," they say. "They waste my time," can be heard echoing off the guild bank walls. "No one ever helps me," the crowd bemoans. Each of these is a major sticking point with guild members, and if you as the Guild Leader can do anything to avoid these big three, you'll go a long way toward creating a content guild populace. The loot issues he suggests can be mostly resolved with a good loot distribution system, but not everything can be handled by organization.

Continue reading Guild drama, preventing the big three


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