Menzoberranzan on Tichondrious-H decided recently that after a spat of drama, they were going to go on hiatus until Wrath, so their GL cooked up this video to show off some of the highlights of the guild. Most of it is just a slideshow of screenshots (so we're using it as the header shot this week), but jump up to 7:19, because there's some funny kids dancing.
Lots (and I mean lots) of drama in the GW this week (including the "corrupt loot council" that spawned that gem of a title), so make sure to click the link below to read it all. And don't forget to send your own tips in -- wowguildwatch@gmail.com is the email address. We want your downed, drama, and recruiting news, so send it all.
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.
A few weeks ago, my first and most important suggestion for casual raiding guilds was to find a committed raid leader. These days, however, good raid leaders are even rarer than good tanks. The author of this week's e-mail asks, What do you do if your guild doesn't have anyone willing to be the RL?
Dear Scott,
[. . .] My guild, Winding Path, came to be during the MMORPG, Asheron's Call, and has been in existence since February of 2000 (3 months after the retail release of AC). We're a family and friends based guild of roughly 85 casual, playing members whose core belief is friends>lewtz. We've gradually worked our way through Kara and are *finally* <whew> making some progress through ZA (slowly, but surely). We have some amazingly talented players, intelligent people, kids as young as 10 who make the adults look like n00bsauce sometimes, and more belly laughs than you can shake a stick at. We may never see Sunwell Plateau until a 4th or 5th expansion ;) , but the points you make in regards to the fun being of the utmost importance was something that I have hammered home in the eight years my guild has entrusted me with the leadership of our family. I thank you for sharing that with the rest of the WoW community, as I fear it is heard far too little.
My greatest issue, however, is one that even after all this time, not even I have been able to resolve. A few months ago, we were forced to terminate the Raid Leader for our guild for several reasons. The biggest issue, though, is that on multiple occasions, he failed to show up for raids without notice, which we forgave and ignored. Unfortunately, the last time this happened, we learned he had actually been playing his Horde character on another server, running Kara with his other guild. Quite a slap in the face, and well--to me, a definite expression of his disinterest in his position as our RL.
With the barrage of Wrath of the Lich King news we've received recently, one little tidbit stuck out in the bad way. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited about quite a bit of it, this one thing in particular just struck me as odd.
The mention of there being both 10 and 25 man versions of every raid zone is interesting, but makes me worry from a logistical point of view. I like the fact that it means more casual players can see the content, I like the fact that it means the content actually exists for the casual players.
I wonder, though, what it will do to 25 man raiding. I can't speak for all servers, but on my server(or more specifically my raid group) the gear that comes out of boss fights is just a way of progressing to the next boss. It is largely unimportant to us until we come across something like Brutallus, in which the gear is absolutely necessary to have to progress. Seeing the characters, bosses and the encounters is far and away the most important part of raiding.
The short version of the tells above: Renzor tried to start some drama by posting a vent recording on the forums, and when Avasa (who took the screenshot) posted against him, Renzor threatens to kick him (and, as you can see, claims Avasa "likes to create drama" when Renzor was the one who posted the vent recording). Click the image above to see the uncut convo (with some not so SFW language), and click the link below to check out the whole story, along with all of the other drama (including a bit of bank drama that will surprise you) from this week's GW.
And if you've got drama, downed, or recruiting news from your own guild or someone else's, send it along to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Your tips keep this thing running, so thanks in advance.
Just want to get something straight, so you all sending in Downed news can be sure to work out the "notice" mechanic correctly: every guild gets to put just one boss on notice every week. You can't put instances on notice (although if you do, you have to clear that instance all in one go, and we're going to need video or it didn't happen), and you can't put more than one boss on notice -- otherwise, everyone would put everyone on notice. One boss per guild, per week. Any other kills after that are just bonuses.
Now that that's out of the way, on to the Guildwatch! Click the link below to see this week's drama, downed and recruiting news from around the realms, and be sure to send us your tips, from your guild or anyone else's at wowguildwatch@gmail.com.
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.
This is it, folks. This is the final column in my four-part feature about how to take your casual raids to the next level. For parts one, two, and three, click on the purple words with lines under them.
I've noticed in the comments under these features that a few people seem confused about the difference between casual and hardcore raiding. One reader from last week, Ger, put it best:
The point of "casual" is to concentrate on WoW being a fun game more than a chore, but if you want to raid then be prepared to take some dang responsibility and not be a liability to 9 or 24 other people.
That one made me laugh. It's a bit of an exaggeration, yes, but I like that definition. Let's recap what I talked about previously, and follow that up with some more suggestions.
File this firmly under "contained in the game files but may not be activated until Wrath if ever," but MMO-Champion has found something very interesting in some error messages contained in the 2.4.2 patch. Currently, the recruit-a-friend functionality (offered from the account management page) is fairly bare-bones. You get a free month if your friend signs up and ends up paying, and they get a free ten-day trial to give them some time to get into the game, but that's about it.
According to these data-mined error messages, that may be set for a change. See for yourself:
ERR_REFER_A_FRIEND_DIFFERENT_FACTION = "You cannot grant levels to a character of the opposite faction.";
ERR_REFER_A_FRIEND_INSUFFICIENT_GRANTABLE_LEVELS = "You have not earned enough levels to grant any more levels.";
ERR_REFER_A_FRIEND_SUMMON_COOLDOWN = "You can only summon your friend once per hour.";
FACTION_STANDING_INCREASED_BONUS = "Reputation with %s increased by %d. (+%.1f Refer-A-Friend bonus)";
This is just a sampling of the errors, but it raises some highly unexpected possibilities. If whatever functionality this is referring to goes live, it seems like we'd be able to award levels to friends we recruit and summon them to us, in addition to getting a bonus to reputation gains with (specific?) factions. My guess would be that this is to combat the problem of wanting a friend to play with you, but not wanting to wait for him to grind seventy levels so they can get to the "real" game. Obviously it's far too early to analyze this in detail, and again, we may well never see this in game, but it's eyebrow-raising nonetheless.
One person in the conversation above is making sense. And the other one is named "Krazyhunter." Be careful whose alt you roll against in Kingdom of Fire on Khadgar -- losing a roll on a piece you need to an alt of a co-GM might get you kicked. And, oh yeah, no matter what guild you're in, be careful who you send angry whispers to, because they might show up here on Guildwatch.
The story above and much more in this week's GW, including the return of lots of recruiting news. If you have tips for any of the sections below, send them along to wowguildwatch@gmail.com, and click the link below to see this week's drama, downed, and recruiting news.
Guildwatch is back, and boy do we have a drama-stacked edition for you this week. How about this Vent recording we've got, complete with classical piano playing in the background. Or this hacked guild that didn't really get hacked at all? We've got Shaman ninjas, Auction House drama, and even a Warglaive fight. Our tipsters really, really came through this week (thanks everybody!), and you reap the benefits.
Additionally, there's also plenty of downed news behind the break as well, and just a bit of recruiting news also (seems like most guilds are filled up for the time being). If you've got a tip for GW, whether for your guild or a great piece of drama you've seen somewhere, drop us a line at wowguildwatch@gmail.com and see it here next week. In the meantime, click the link below to see this week's GW!
Here on GW, we mostly focus on guild drama, obviously -- every week, we hear about GMs /gquitting with as little style as possible, ninjas cleaning out the guild bank, and friction between guild members. But guilds are really only a part of the ingame drama -- people can find silly things to fight about all over Azeroth. Think the fishing tournament is tame enough to avoid an argument? Think again.
That story, and more, are in this week's GW, which you can read by clicking the link below. And don't forget to submit your own tips to us, whether they be drama, downed, or recrutiing news. Wowguildwatch@gmail.com is the address, and any tips you send to it will be much appreciated.
Here at GW, we love even the small downs (heck, this week, we reported on a downing in the Stockades -- although it was by the Horde), but when other guilds are able to clear out the whole endgame in the time it takes you to go from one endgame boss to another, it's probably not the best idea to go on to the forums bragging how great your progression is.
That story and many others in this week's GW, which starts right after the break. Your tips fuel our column -- please send any and all tips about drama, downed, or recruiting guild news to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Click the link below to read on.
Only in the best situations do you have great documentation of great drama, and only in the best of the best do you have actual screenshots of it as it happens. But then again, that might just be more evidence that they're just messing around -- it's hard to believe that this really happened and was captured so perfectly.
But as always with Guildwatch, you be the judge. For all the drama, downed, and recruiting news you can handle (most of it probably true... probably), click the link below. And don't forget to send us your own tips (anonymous or otherwise) at wowguildwatch@gmail.com.
Yes, we know the headline is spelled wrong -- that's the joke. (So feel free to make fun of anyone who points out the misspelling in the comments; they're fair game.) In the meantime, the more "rediculous" the guild names, the better for us. Why would you want to name your guild Sentinels of Azeroth when you could name it something like Dont Be That Guy?
In the meantime, click the link below to see all the drama, downed, and recruiting news we got from across the realms this week. And don't forget to send your tips (especially drama -- let us know if you see anything either on your realm's forums or on your guild's forums) to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Because not sending your tips to Guildwatch is pretty rediculous, if you ask us.
There will be drama, and when there is, Guildwatch is there to ridicule and call out all parties involved. Because WoW is serious business! I've abandoned my main tank! I've abandoned my boy! I am the Third Revelation!
Whoops, got a little carried away there. Meanwhile, this week's look at guild drama, downed and recruiting from across the realms starts right after the jump. And be sure to send your tips to wowguildwatch@gmail.com -- this column flows directly from them like so much black, slick oil.
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.
If the wildlife in Nagrand didn't reproduce faster than rabbits injected with Viagra, one could accuse the genocidal Hemet Nesingwary, or even the Consortium (with their endless need for ivory tusks), of funding poaching on a massive scale. And of course, we would be the perpetrators, guilty of the annihilation of entire generations of species. But fortunately, those elekks, clefthooves, and talbuks never seem to become endangered. This week's e-mail is about a different kind of poaching, but one that is no less nefarious.
Hey. I have been reading your blog for awhile now and I am an officer in a small casual guild (66 accounts) that one day hopes to have some endgame on farm. The problem we seem to have is people just leaving with a stealth guild quit. When asked they normally say they left for a friends guild or something along the lines of "just wasn't working out." About a week later I see them in Shattrath with a guild tag of another guild that I know just poached them from us. I understand that it's their $15 a month but is there anything that we as a guild can do to keep them? We seem to lose one once a week.
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