Good Will

During my every morning routine visit to wow.com, something oddly unconventional caught my eye; Doing something nice for other players. Makes you think back and just how rare this sort of thing is in the modern World of Warcraft. Aye, it is not as bad as it first seems, but the simple truth is that large portion of players find it stimulating to jerk off at other people, safe behind the impenetrable shield of anonymity.

What is worse, it is everywhere; both general and trade channels, battlegrounds, raids, guilds, and even random people you meet outside an instance. The recent moments, for me personally was when I was waiting for a friend of mine to come out Caverns of Time, standing outside the instance where a friendly level 80 warlock threw "noob" at me for being below level 60.

Any of my readers happen to be working on a doctorate for psychology? I am pretty sure this sort of gratification disorder, the need to jump on other people for no good reason, other than that their moms held them too tight or not tight enough would just fascinate you shrink types.

But of course, after some reflection, we can gladly conclude that while their numbers are high, they do not make up the whole of the gamer population. There are lots of friendly and decent people around. True, I have to say that although I hold myself to this group, I do not practice the kind of open charity as the person described in the news post.

The reason for that is that while those of us, who enjoy helping others, do not do it very often or to total strangers only out of the goodness in our hearts, is that most newbies are not nearly as grateful for the help you offer. Several exemplary cases come to mind, one being that after you do help out, maybe pull extra mats from your bank and make some toys for someone, they tend to get too used to it.

The end result is that they continue to whisper you for more help; can you help me with this quest, where can I find A or C, and if you can loan them some more gold for a new piece of armor. That is just not right and incredibly infuriating. Another winning case is when you polite tell someone you cannot take them to your pug because of their shabby gear.

Aye, it does suck to be turned down but all willingness to give you tips and hints where to get better upgrades wash away when you start throwing "fuck you" and "shit yourself" at me for trying to help you. We have all been there, in that position. The difference is, we worked hard and got out of it, without the need for drama.

Some part of the problem itself, I believe is inherent in the game itself and what it represents. A common problem with kids these days is that they spend so much time online and in the virtual world that they totally lack social skills. They do not know how to communicate with the common bloke and the game itself promotes an environment where they do not even have to.

This is the big reason why I refuse to give into using much of the WoW slang that exists in the game, because it was invented by socially awkward 14 year olds. I choose to hold on to my persona and will not sink into the pit hole of lame idiots who hardly know how to spell xenophobe.

Nerd Rage

I am sure that anyone who has been playing World of Warcraft for more than a week is no stranger to this phenomenan. In a way, the game is a perfect analog for rl sports, where cheering for your team and defending the ethnic correctness is defended to the last one and it is not just in-game. It spreads like wildfire, infecting discussion boards, news groups and just everyday talk between buddies.

Sometimes I wonder if it is the only aspect of the game that some people know how to do. The examples sure are more numerous than one could list, e.g. horde vs alliance. Aye, seems rediculous at first but people tend to take it very seriously and the hatred for anyone not of your faction is thick enough to cut with a butterknife. Same goes between guilds, especially if you are unlucky to be in one that aroused the ire of the community, you might not even be accepted to PuGs because of it.

One of my all time favorites is asking or just talking on trade or the general channel. The trigger can be almost anything really, like asking if someone wants to take part in your group quest or just asking directions where a specific quest is completed. Perfectly understandable isn't it? After all, though it reads "Suggested for groups [5]" doesn't really mean it is meant for groups. It is perfectly soloable in the uber gear that we are all privied to.

Other good examples include pvp, which is an instant combustion for the losing team, certain classes, of death knights are a prime example (after all, was our fault that we were so overpowered back in the day when earth was still flat), poor gear, mistakes on instances and raids, or just happening upon the same bond that someone else is already fishing in.

I understand many play the game with great passion. Personally, I am very much the same. I love playing it and I try to do so every day, but it does not make me hate the world and certainly cannot find it in myself to degrade and ruin someone else's gaming experience just because I am prone to psychotic episodes. In my mind, people like this have no place in the game and personally hope Blizzard would implement more strict tolerance for it.

It is still a game, one have volunteered to subscribe to, and the joy of playing is the only valid reason to continue playing.

Services Rendered

Although I cannot claim to have been around during vanilla WoW, I think I have played long enough to remember the days when you did not have to worry about paying outrageous fees to whatever crafter you found on trade to, perhaps enchant your new gloves, or to create some belt buckles. This is probably, once again, one of those that depends heavily on the server you play but the first time it happened to me, I was quite honestly stunned.

That astonishment quite quickly turned to annoyance and admittedly was fairly rude to the enchanter, but with an excellent point. I have since held firmly to my principle, never to charge for my services rendered, which by this time include tailoring, jewelrycrafting, enchanting, and mining. Mining is a special case, as titansteel bars are on a 24 hour cooldown and usually the fellow player expresses his will to pay all on his own.

It isn't that I do not see why people wish to be paid for their services, it is the size of their fees that they throw at you. One enchanter was calculating his prices to me, based on the level required to make them, although that made absolutely no difference concerning his part; which is, receive materials, open trade window once or twice and hit a couple of mouse clicks. The total size for just one such enchant was 120g, the total sum ranging to nearly 300g.

After you, the customer already spent nearly or more than that on materials to make the transaction possible, it gives you little incentive to pay the same amount again for a greedy bastard. Now, whenever I offer my services to whomever needs them, should they ask (which they almost always do nowadays) how much I charge, I call them daft and just tell them to tip me with whatever they feel appriopriate and it's settled.

I know I am probably quite an odd bird at this aspect and I certainly could go down the same road but my morals and principles simply will not let me. It is one thing to expect a tip, it's only polite, and if they want you to provide the materials, of course they pay for them, but for 2-3 mouse clicks and five minutes of their time, I say no, I refuse.

Yes, it is only virtual gold and yes, most of us can carry thousands of it in our pockets, but where I come from the fact that you're rich does not mean you should be stupid. The fact that you have cash, a lot or a little, does not mean it needs to be spent. But here I go again with my silly little common sense again.

The Essence of a Guild

People who know me are aware that I expect a lot out of my guilds and I have a strict criteria of what kind of a guild I want to a part of. If a guild is unable to live up to my par, after repeated attempts of trying to improve it, I will usually leave for elsewhere. However, I do not really think of myself as a knit picker, and so I decided to put together a small view of what a guild means to me in the World of Warcraft.

Well, of course, has to do raiding, on the level of progression that I myself am at that moment in time. This is obvious, since I love to raid. It does not necessarily have to be a progression guild, but will not hurt. I have so much experience with casual guilds and watching them struggle with putting good raids together.

But the two most defining elements of any guild, in my opinion, are the guild leader and the raid leader, in my mind, two distinct people. These are two guild members who have the most impact into the nature and success of a guild. They set the tone and atmosphere in their respected repartments and are responsible for the most essential functions. Usually, the raid leader is also the guild's main tank, though this is not always the case.

I believe in a guild with a clear vision of what it wants to do and the guild's leader should embody this aspect. He should know exactly how many and what kind of members are apart of the guild, with a healthy firmness of rules. Does not mean rules have to be absolute or so strict you choke on them, but make sure everybody follows them and no one should get preferential treatment.

For the raid leader, the responsibility is to schedule and make sure the raids run smoothly. Same rules apply, to make sure bad apples are weeded out and everyone comes both prepared and follows the set rules. If either of the above mentioned, is a bastard, unqualified or unable to follow (or even set proper rules), it quickly reflects on the guild's performance and will eventually break it apart.

One huge mistake I see many new guilds do, particularly casual guilds that are based largely around close-friends, is at the beginning, reward seniorship by making their friends officers, as somehow as a sign of prestige or priviledge. I have seen it so many times and it is never anything but a recipe for disaster. This might work when the guild only has 15 members, but once they push to 30 and 40, it ends up with 10 arrogant officers who do nothing to contribute to their position as leaders, but simply reap the benefits, often getting priority on raid spots, what they are allowed from the guild vault, and distributed loot.

"There are no bad crews, only bad leaders."

Essentially, the guild simply continues to revolve around the senior members, with the rest viewed mainly as a space holding force to fill the gaps for 25-man raids, and worse, have no voice at all in anything that the guild does. Understandibly, the leadership makes the final calls, but it is the most common and obvious sign of a bad leader, if they are incapable of taking input from other members without referring to their status for confirmation about their qualifications.

For me, I don't see how a guild ever needs more than a couple of officers. Even a guild doing 25-man raids, only need a 2-3. If it is a particularly large guild, signing officers for various subgroups, tank, dps, and healers is appropriate. But still it is no sign that they are more "important" than anyone else. They simply are there to manage their departments.

If you now find yourself thinking to yourself that as an officer, of course you deserve more than non-officers, think about this; without those "lesser beings" you would be managing empty air, you would not have full raid groups, and if you truly and honestly feel you you deserve better rewards then they, does that sound like you're thinking about the guild's best interest, or your personal greed?

Because so far, I have not found evidence of a single guild that succeeded in good progression by only looking after a select elite and leaving others behind. The more division in gear and skill there is between members of a guild, the worse the it will do on the long run.

Server Cultures

I have done my share of server hopping, on a variety of characters, and although I do not mostly like to do it, it is an eyeopening experience. One does not automatically consider it, until you have experienced it, but servers across the World of Warcraft space are very culture driven. Many vary greatly from each other, in both the nature and level of players. They have their unique habits and odd quirks.

For one, the EU server of Blade's Edge, has a strange habit to promote the use of PvP gear, in PvE playing. I have written about this before and I still cannot understand where that comes from, but they do it a lot. It was never an odd sight to go into a heroic dungeon, have a look at your fellow gamers' gear and see just stacks of useless PvP gear.

On the Aerie Peak server, the current realm that I occupy, has shown me another extremely strange habit; the PuG demanding to show your achievements before you can join up, and today reading on wow.com I realized this is not just an Aerie Peak quirk, but a habit that spans a lot of different servers.

The authors at wow.com, and the subsequent bloggers that they read upon, are just as baffled by this rediculous trend as I am. What they demand is that, e.g. to join a Naxx10 group, you have to link your [Epic] or [Fall of Naxxramas] achievements. The same is for even stupidly easy raids like Vault of Archavon. In essence, you are asking that you only want people who are stupidly outgeared for the instance, in hopes for a quick and smooth run.

This sort of behaviour only truly makes sense if you are PuG'ing particularly difficult encounters, like Emalon or Sartharion with drakes on board. In fact, it is a sound theory that this is where it all started from, but has since grown out of control. Monkey see, monkey do, usually only leading to its own downfall because any experienced player (with a head to draw sense from) knows that achievements can be completed and epics acquired, without actually having any skill.

And skill is the key. I have witnessed, time and time again that the people you want on your side, are the people who can get really good results, even in the worst gear. Completing Naxxramas in blue gear, enduring obstacles and performing against all odds, can only be accomplished by having the skill to play. Yes, achievements and gear are good indicators towards it, but are far from reliable.

All you, really, end up doing is recycling the same dirty laundry, since you are recruiting people with the achievements and/or gear over those without it, ending up with the same bad apples as last time, and the time before that. How many times do you see people die on silly mistakes, doing e.g. Heigan or Thaddius? The answer is, everytime, whether they have completed it before or not.

Elder Thraznar

A lot of people keep telling me that online is not the place to make true friends, just simply buddies you see here and there, but I could not disagree more on that. It is truly possible to get to know people online and and it is possible become true friends. In fact, it is arguable that the game only becomes more enjoyable, the better you know the mates you play with.

Well, here is one of my best mates in the World of Warcraft; Tom (aka Thraznar), elderly dwarf tank and healer, for whom there is not much more left to see in the world. You might say he is the inspiration of young Durithim, as the young death knight dwarved became a servant of light and ideals of good ones more.

I first met Tom on Darkspear realm and can honestly say, I would not be here without him. There was no one person who taught me as much, of attitude, knowledge and the ways of playing World of Warcraft as he did, in the most inconspicuous small guild, the Fallen Finest. Now sadly, he is walking away from the game and though not all partings are endings, I find I will miss his presence.

Here is a fine screenshot of Elder Thraznar, in midst of Crystalsong Forests, battling crazed treants. I know there are none, nor should not be, words to keep you from leaving, so instead I now raise my blade in salute and wish you a godspeed; a good and prosperous journey wherever the road may take you.

Farewell my friend, the winds of Dun Morogh welcome you and the mighty walls of Ironforge keep you safe.

It's just a Game

World of Warcraft is best when played in teams, with other people, there is no denying that. However, the longer you play the game the more it seems that there are a lot of variables that, in fact, play against that notion. I have experienced it time, and time again, and reading on other blogs and news sites, it seems evident that I am not the only one who feels this.

It is easy enough, if you have a close friend who you do lots of things together, to fit a schedule between the two of you and get on to play WoW. Questing is best and most fun in pairs, preferrably over voice chat or even better, between family members when you can actually play in the same room with someone. Then again, if you try to exceed that number, you run into trouble.

Who has not tried to put together a regular dungeon group? To go off and play regular dungeons and get the best gear as you level your characters. I can tell you, it's awesome fun, when it works but most of the time it does not. Fitting 3-5 people into one schedule seems like an impossible task, even for a shorter period of time and for myself, it seems puzzling; why is it so hard?

After all, we can easily schedule a movie night, with 4+ people meet downtown, no matter on what walks of life we come from. Or go out to a pub for a drink or whatever we call outdoor social activities. But in WoW, no. Just no. It seems anything and everything can come before a game of WoW and while it is easy to dismiss that by saying "well hell, it's just a game."

But is it just a game? I like to think of it more like a hobby. Like going to karate, playing tennis or football, or collecting stamps or butterflies. When you make that transition of attitude, everything changes. As long as it is just a "stupid game" it is easy to dismiss. When you think of it as a hobby where other people depend on your keeping your word on showing up, it is suddenly a whole different story and I believe this is the biggest problem in the warcraft sphere at the moment.

I dare anyone to step into the boots of a raid leader, even if it's inside your own local, casual guild, and try put together raids, or heroic dungeons runs, or any dungeon runs. Look people up, talk to them, invite and set schedules. It is such a drag it feels like hips deep in a stinky marshland. Not only will you begin to stumble just trying to get all five people on a same time of day, 1-2 will easily later come and tell you how sorry they are but they have to brush their cats or go do something or other - and that's if you're lucky. Some will just simply blow you off and later boldfacely lie why they weren't there.

In the end you cannot take it anymore and you cancel what could have been so much fun and beneficial for everyone. Worse, soon some genius from your guild will come nag on you why won't the officer's setup regular heroic runs, "it would be so much fun, wouldn't it?"

Aye, as much fun as sticking needles into your eyes...