As my contribution to the Elder Blogging Event started off by Khi at Tree Burglar I decided to put down some of my general dungeon tips. In wow years I'm probably about middle aged and given my extensive range of alts I often have
Now a lot of bloggers have spoken about playing their alts and getting whinged at or told off by other people who think they can tell them how to play. Allow me to state firstly that I only give people tips when their playstyle is causing the party problems and secondly that I generally always try to do it via whisper.
That said playing on my balance druid and healing from said spec in randoms to get groups means I spend so little time actually doing any healing that I'm noticing what people are doing. So without further ado, here's what I've been trying to politely ask people do properly. So help be a constructive party member and don't do/ help out the newbies yourself!
1) Stop pulling shit that is miles away from the tank - this is fucking obvious. In addition to this let the tank get the initial aggro as they are more likely to hold it if you do.
2) Paladin tanks, stop casting exorcism when tanking groups of mobs. Your health spikes because WHILE CASTING YOU CANNOT PARRY, DODGE OR BLOCK! Ahem
3) All tanks - learn how to move with mobs. I understand that for many of you, the random dungeon system is first step you will take into tanking. That said, an important point to remember is that you lose a whole lot of avoidance if the mob isn't facing you. From behind you cannot block/parry/dodge, this is also the reason melee dps attack Bosses from behind.
4) Put your buffs up at the start and then renew them without asking. There's nothing more frustrating than having to wait for the one person who is too cheap to buff.
5) Look at mana levels. If your healer's mana is low then pulling more mobs is a guaranteed wipe unless they manage to pull something special out of the bag.
6) Hunters, please turn growl off. I know your pet can tank but its easier for the tank to pick up the mobs if they don't have to worry about your pet stealing one while they aren't looking. Its also a focus loss, so your pet will in fact do less dps while growling.
7) Warriors, hold off on charging in if you aren't tanking. Yes it gives you rage but it often prevents the tank from pulling stuff back. Wait for the tank to stop moving, then charge.
8) DKs, use Death Grip sparingly. Helping a tank out by pulling a caster into melee range is useful. Pulling a mob out of the pack is not.
9) Understanding. If someone is doing something wrong - try and tell them in private first. Often there might be a good reason for them doing something. For example most levelling specs differ greatly from raid specs. So if my druid doesn't have points in certain talents, I for certain know this and know why I haven't bothered taking them. Someone saying "OMFG NOOB USE MF" is unlikely to garner a positive response.
10) Loot. The pink elephant in the room. All I'll say is that the LFD system gives us a lot more gearing options and this loot will only last us so long. It's never nice to have someone be an ass with loot but ignore them and you never have to worry about them again.
/elderecho out
Showing posts with label Raiding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Raiding. Show all posts
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Friday, 12 February 2010
Having the balls to fail
A bit of a change today. I'm going to try not ranting and instead try and reach out and help some people I think need a helping kick up the arse hand.
I was musing on some posts I see around the WOW Blogosphere and my first hand interactions with people I know on my server and it reminded me of when I was first getting started with proper raiding. Basically there's people I see every day who will often hold back their own progression because they're afraid of the tarring and feathering that often follows in most online communities when you make a mistake.
Now as a Raid Leader our squad is solid and we have no recourse to invite friend ranks let alone randoms for progress but in my alt runs I often ask people I know if they want to come along to some very easy content for some free purpz and a laugh. More often than not from the indiviuals I'm referring too I get back
or at least a variation of that. Now I know I'm an asshole sometimes and it could be they don't prefer my raid leading style (carrot and stick approach, mostly stick) but I think it's a problem a lot of basically good players have. They are suffering from "low self epeen™"!
Back in the days when I was just sinking my teeth into TBC content I was obsessive about my gear. I may not have had the best gear but for the access I had - I had the best gear in each slot available and enchanted and gemmed and I believed that if I wanted to get further I had to be in the maximum the previous content offered. I was not the only one in the guilds I was in who felt like this and often it was used as an excuse by the guild leaderships to call off raids or stop trying. When I joined my current guild I was completely broken of this. Initially we didn't have the best gear or even the best players on the server. We started Lich King content in blues and we cleared everything the first week. It took us a little longer to get the 3drake OS but still we were improving all the time and were trying to avoid getting complacent as we moved into Ulduar. Half of the time we'd down shit and I'd be thinking "I didn't think we'd manage that after the first 3 wipes". It wasn't uncommon for the people I was playing with. They were used to wiping and used to overcoming content by wiping on the fight and learning something new each time.
My point is DO NOT GIVE UP. Nobody can tell you that you cannot do the content you are attempting except you. Sure it might put a bit more pressure on the raid but we're strange beings us humans. We need adversity to grow and yet if we see the easy route we will almost always take it. Stop being humble because I've seen full t9 232 players pass on doing ICC because they thought they weren't geared and players in worse gear join and rock the meters. I have even tanked up to putricide ICC10 on a death knight wearing mostly naxx gear with a couple bits of T9. Sure it was harder and I had to work really closely with my healers to make sure if they were boner spiked, for example, I'd use something to try to stay alive but it was also a hell of a lot of fun. Coasting through content as soon as its nerfed isn't.
To the players who don't believe they deserve or are ready for higher content:
And accept my goddamn invite to the purp train
/echo out
I was musing on some posts I see around the WOW Blogosphere and my first hand interactions with people I know on my server and it reminded me of when I was first getting started with proper raiding. Basically there's people I see every day who will often hold back their own progression because they're afraid of the tarring and feathering that often follows in most online communities when you make a mistake.
Now as a Raid Leader our squad is solid and we have no recourse to invite friend ranks let alone randoms for progress but in my alt runs I often ask people I know if they want to come along to some very easy content for some free purpz and a laugh. More often than not from the indiviuals I'm referring too I get back
Sorry man, I'm not sure I'm ready for x instance, I think I need to do more work on my gear.
or at least a variation of that. Now I know I'm an asshole sometimes and it could be they don't prefer my raid leading style (carrot and stick approach, mostly stick) but I think it's a problem a lot of basically good players have. They are suffering from "low self epeen™"!
Back in the days when I was just sinking my teeth into TBC content I was obsessive about my gear. I may not have had the best gear but for the access I had - I had the best gear in each slot available and enchanted and gemmed and I believed that if I wanted to get further I had to be in the maximum the previous content offered. I was not the only one in the guilds I was in who felt like this and often it was used as an excuse by the guild leaderships to call off raids or stop trying. When I joined my current guild I was completely broken of this. Initially we didn't have the best gear or even the best players on the server. We started Lich King content in blues and we cleared everything the first week. It took us a little longer to get the 3drake OS but still we were improving all the time and were trying to avoid getting complacent as we moved into Ulduar. Half of the time we'd down shit and I'd be thinking "I didn't think we'd manage that after the first 3 wipes". It wasn't uncommon for the people I was playing with. They were used to wiping and used to overcoming content by wiping on the fight and learning something new each time.
My point is DO NOT GIVE UP. Nobody can tell you that you cannot do the content you are attempting except you. Sure it might put a bit more pressure on the raid but we're strange beings us humans. We need adversity to grow and yet if we see the easy route we will almost always take it. Stop being humble because I've seen full t9 232 players pass on doing ICC because they thought they weren't geared and players in worse gear join and rock the meters. I have even tanked up to putricide ICC10 on a death knight wearing mostly naxx gear with a couple bits of T9. Sure it was harder and I had to work really closely with my healers to make sure if they were boner spiked, for example, I'd use something to try to stay alive but it was also a hell of a lot of fun. Coasting through content as soon as its nerfed isn't.
To the players who don't believe they deserve or are ready for higher content:
Only you know how good you are and only you can deny yourself opportunities. Sometimes it will be legitimate but remember: Failure will make you a better player because the awful feeling you get when you do let the side down is the perfect motivation to get better and never do that again.
Echosnare - Motivational speaker (2010)
And accept my goddamn invite to the purp train
/echo out
Thursday, 11 February 2010
So it seems I can't take my own advice...
After getting in too late to raid the other night I decided to grab some dinner and sort my random and the seasonal etc. A guildie mentioned a TOC25 pug they were in and I got invited as they were wiping on Faction Champs. My problem it seems is even though I knew it would be a fail pug I still thought I could change things.
So the setup we're facing is only 3 melee, as I zone in I ask "who's taking what". The Raid Leader responds "just warlocks fear stuff" followed by "FOR THE ALLLINANCE" By that point I'm saved to 2 bosses and we wipe rather spectacularly followed by another round of people leaving the raid because their dogs are on fire.
I bully the RL into promoting me. Mark up and wipe again. Apparently when you say "interupt the shaman" its code for "just dps the kill target then die when you fail to move from a bladestorm". So more people join and I get a couple people I trust on the melee, 1 reliable interupter on the pally and whack 2 dps on the shaman to interupt. Wipe again because a hunter can't wait for me to mark and had left his pet on aggressive.
Finally we killed it. Only to wipe once on twins because it turned out the RL not only couldn't form a raid worth a damn but also couldn't do any threat and left one of the twins to run around munching the casters and was sitting on the literal other side of the room so they healed once. Then by that point so many people had died to orbs we had another round of fake DCs and we decided to call it.
I'm not sure why but it really bothered me. I guess I'm just used to getting into these pugs and eventually sorting them out. Still I had a number of the players from the larger guilds on the server thanking me for taking control and we even had one of the dps following our kill stream on xfire and announcing to the raid that we'd just killed sindragosa.
Anyway, it's just reinforced what I already know, even if you have to start it yourself it's better than trying to repair someone else's raid.
/echo out
So the setup we're facing is only 3 melee, as I zone in I ask "who's taking what". The Raid Leader responds "just warlocks fear stuff" followed by "FOR THE ALLLINANCE" By that point I'm saved to 2 bosses and we wipe rather spectacularly followed by another round of people leaving the raid because their dogs are on fire.
I bully the RL into promoting me. Mark up and wipe again. Apparently when you say "interupt the shaman" its code for "just dps the kill target then die when you fail to move from a bladestorm". So more people join and I get a couple people I trust on the melee, 1 reliable interupter on the pally and whack 2 dps on the shaman to interupt. Wipe again because a hunter can't wait for me to mark and had left his pet on aggressive.
Finally we killed it. Only to wipe once on twins because it turned out the RL not only couldn't form a raid worth a damn but also couldn't do any threat and left one of the twins to run around munching the casters and was sitting on the literal other side of the room so they healed once. Then by that point so many people had died to orbs we had another round of fake DCs and we decided to call it.
I'm not sure why but it really bothered me. I guess I'm just used to getting into these pugs and eventually sorting them out. Still I had a number of the players from the larger guilds on the server thanking me for taking control and we even had one of the dps following our kill stream on xfire and announcing to the raid that we'd just killed sindragosa.
Anyway, it's just reinforced what I already know, even if you have to start it yourself it's better than trying to repair someone else's raid.
/echo out
Monday, 8 February 2010
PuG Raids - some tips
I was having an argument in trade chat with a warlock (no, really). Now I like to think I've matured enough to rise above that channel where the only thing being traded is insults but something this lock said to me stuck.
I've been raiding since the end of Vanilla (Nothing special, a bit of a go at MC and lots of ZG) and its only really in the last year or so I've gotten back into forming my own raids to have a crack at the content. I've been an officer for around 4/5months and now help lead our progression raids but as an aside I still run our alt ICC25 and TOC25 runs.
Before I start I should probably point out that the dedication some of our main raiders show to their alts means I instantly have a much easier job a lot of the time we raid. Generally those who aren't Guild members are drawn from the social circle of those I play with or have played with in the past. But this wasn't always the case...
Research
Possibly the biggest advice I can use if you want to start forming your own raids is the Raid planner tool on the MMO Champion website. Play about with it and work out the different places you can bring the buffs in from. The second biggest piece of advice is to try playing every class or role because the better your understanding of the game the easier the time you'll have in the instance. It makes it a lot easier to overcome boss mechanics if you know what each class can do and where the unique buffs are coming from. Also, at least try and know what you're walking into fight wise. I've led without having a clear idea of the fights and we wiped because I couldn't point out what was going wrong. Also pick a time for each run and keep it regular.
Also - make sure you're playing your character properly. It's hard to maintain authority when you're putting out tank level dps.
Whore yourself around
Play with lots of people - its the only real way to meet players you'll be happy to invite. As I pointed out at the start, I have it easy these days but it wasn't always the case. Back in Naxx days although I knew we'd clear the place, I'd often have to shuffle lots of people around and mainly fill with PuGs. Having a good social network in the game will lead to better quality raid.
When you do get more people asking to come than you have spots, tailor the raid to the difficulty of the instance. I tend to do more entire guild alt runs of TOC25 than I will of ICC purely because I set the standards high and warn people I'm doing so. As long as you don't fanny about and are honest, most people won't stalk away with their nose in a sling when you tell them you think they need to gear up more. If they do and it causes drama make sure you have a concrete reason for keeping them out.
Learn to be a jerk
Often people will do things that are stupid. You have to tell them not to do it and (because its a PuG) give them incentive not die in fire/goo/explosion every attempt. I use a system to distribute loot that punishes poor performance. I'll state before each boss what I don't want to see happen and if you do one of them - I add a gear point. You also get gear points (or GP) for each piece of loot you get. If you have 2GP and you roll against someone with 1GP - they automatically win the item regardless of roll.
This does cause nerdrage and a whole load of excuses, but generally if you're sensible it's appreciated by the mage who's done a steady 7k dps the entire instance who'd have otherwise lost the roll against the mage doing 4k dps and dying in every boss ability. Being fair with the loot and keeping the run free of idiots means over time people who are sensible will gravitate to your run and it will get easier.
Don't use GearScore
If you're relying on a gear rating addon to tell you whether people can play their class you're a lazy douchebag who needs to learn to use the armory. 5s looking at their enchants/gems and gearchoices says a hell of a lot more about a player than an arbitrary number will.
MMO champ featured an addon called EliteGroup which actually might help and comes recommended by a couple people I play with.
Make realistic goals
Set an easier target to reach and build from there. It will help focus the people in the raid. Its an anticlimax if you say "we'll" down putricide and we spend the whole night wiping on precious and stinky.
Have fun
Don't let other people fuck you around and enjoy it. It's one of the most rewarding things the game has to do. If it isn't for you, then find someone who is prepared to stick their neck out and reward them by playing sensibly and turning up once a week.
/echo out
"I've done heroics but now I'm as geared as I can get. I can't do raids because everyone wants an achievement"Which struck me as a little depressing. My response was for him to form his own raids which he veto'd on the grounds that he's semi retarded (his words not mine). So I had a little think about what I'd do. I'd form my own raids and gear up that way.
I've been raiding since the end of Vanilla (Nothing special, a bit of a go at MC and lots of ZG) and its only really in the last year or so I've gotten back into forming my own raids to have a crack at the content. I've been an officer for around 4/5months and now help lead our progression raids but as an aside I still run our alt ICC25 and TOC25 runs.
Before I start I should probably point out that the dedication some of our main raiders show to their alts means I instantly have a much easier job a lot of the time we raid. Generally those who aren't Guild members are drawn from the social circle of those I play with or have played with in the past. But this wasn't always the case...
Research
Possibly the biggest advice I can use if you want to start forming your own raids is the Raid planner tool on the MMO Champion website. Play about with it and work out the different places you can bring the buffs in from. The second biggest piece of advice is to try playing every class or role because the better your understanding of the game the easier the time you'll have in the instance. It makes it a lot easier to overcome boss mechanics if you know what each class can do and where the unique buffs are coming from. Also, at least try and know what you're walking into fight wise. I've led without having a clear idea of the fights and we wiped because I couldn't point out what was going wrong. Also pick a time for each run and keep it regular.
Also - make sure you're playing your character properly. It's hard to maintain authority when you're putting out tank level dps.
Whore yourself around
Play with lots of people - its the only real way to meet players you'll be happy to invite. As I pointed out at the start, I have it easy these days but it wasn't always the case. Back in Naxx days although I knew we'd clear the place, I'd often have to shuffle lots of people around and mainly fill with PuGs. Having a good social network in the game will lead to better quality raid.
When you do get more people asking to come than you have spots, tailor the raid to the difficulty of the instance. I tend to do more entire guild alt runs of TOC25 than I will of ICC purely because I set the standards high and warn people I'm doing so. As long as you don't fanny about and are honest, most people won't stalk away with their nose in a sling when you tell them you think they need to gear up more. If they do and it causes drama make sure you have a concrete reason for keeping them out.
Learn to be a jerk
Often people will do things that are stupid. You have to tell them not to do it and (because its a PuG) give them incentive not die in fire/goo/explosion every attempt. I use a system to distribute loot that punishes poor performance. I'll state before each boss what I don't want to see happen and if you do one of them - I add a gear point. You also get gear points (or GP) for each piece of loot you get. If you have 2GP and you roll against someone with 1GP - they automatically win the item regardless of roll.
This does cause nerdrage and a whole load of excuses, but generally if you're sensible it's appreciated by the mage who's done a steady 7k dps the entire instance who'd have otherwise lost the roll against the mage doing 4k dps and dying in every boss ability. Being fair with the loot and keeping the run free of idiots means over time people who are sensible will gravitate to your run and it will get easier.
Don't use GearScore
If you're relying on a gear rating addon to tell you whether people can play their class you're a lazy douchebag who needs to learn to use the armory. 5s looking at their enchants/gems and gearchoices says a hell of a lot more about a player than an arbitrary number will.
MMO champ featured an addon called EliteGroup which actually might help and comes recommended by a couple people I play with.
Make realistic goals
Set an easier target to reach and build from there. It will help focus the people in the raid. Its an anticlimax if you say "we'll" down putricide and we spend the whole night wiping on precious and stinky.
Have fun
Don't let other people fuck you around and enjoy it. It's one of the most rewarding things the game has to do. If it isn't for you, then find someone who is prepared to stick their neck out and reward them by playing sensibly and turning up once a week.
/echo out
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Why being an Officer in a raiding guild sucks sometimes
I don't mean to QQ here but I feel this is a valid topic that some players in raiding guilds will understand. It's a bit of a rant but bear with me.
So here's a short list of why sometimes it just plain sucks a bag of dicks to be the one cracking the whip.
1) You're never "off duty"
You can log on intending to play for 5mins and you'll get spam whispered by someone who's annoyed/upset or possessing some other drama that NEEDS to be attended to now. If there are pugs going and you just want to chill out you'll often have people expect you to take charge and organise it for them. A lot of the time our members are very good about this but sometimes you just want to hug them (until they stop breathing).
2) If you ever take anything for yourself it's "Officer Corruption"
Now this doesn't happen a lot in my Guild at the moment but it has done and its happened to me personally in the past. An item drops, say a rare mount, anyone can use it and you raid roll. You win the raid roll - you get 24 people telling it's you its someone different. We had an officer pass Death's Verdict recently because he didnt want to cause drama by taking it. Even though this guy attends every raid and has the most priority. Another reason to make loot rules crystal clear which is something I think I've learnt the hard way over the years.
3) You're under constant scrutiny, often from people with half the facts
Being second guessed is never fun and this is often just part of the job. However there will be situations where you just have to sit on your hands and not do anything. As an officer you will typically be privy to the inner workings of the guild and will know the real reason Player X's recent attendance is low. Even if Player Y is complaining that they haven't shown up for 2 days and should be demoted.
I've had people running their mouths about how they've been excluded from one raid then whinging that we're not trialling enough players. They just don't see the connection. Or they look at the number of healers online and the number of tanks and make the assumtion that just because they match the number we're after we should take them even though there might be a healing class lacking or a tank who's completely inexperienced or not geared for the encounter. Lack of understanding of the tools needed for a successful raid is one of the most annoying things I've come across.
You also can't slack like you used to. No slacking on buffs or waiting to enchant new gear. You have to be the example or you don't have a leg to stand on when you come to ask that holy pally why he's only using 50spellpower on his weapon. If you're standing in fire or doing any other easily avoidable nono you'll also come in for a lot more flak than a normal member because you should know better.
4) You occasionally have to kill your friends
Ok so not actually kill them, this isn't China . But sometimes the people who you like and play with a lot will step out of line. Now often you can just have a friendly chat and remind them to "pull their finger out". But sometimes you'll have to go further than that and do what you'd do to any underperforming player and demote them/kick them. I've never had to do this is my current guild but I've had to before and it's never nice. This sounds melodramatic but if you raid I'm sure you know each raid squad contains its fair share of drama queens.
Generally having to be serious and demote people is never nice either. Especially when you have underperformers making up all sorts of reasons for why they're not performing and promising they'll be fixed by next raid. Experience teaches you that the problems never are fixed or the excuses are completely inadequate. We do accept friend ranks and we have a pretty good community inside the guild, but the fact of the matter is, our main squad is here to kill internet monsters.
5) You have to be the bigger person, a lot
Surprisingly enough a lot of people who play this game can be incredibly immature. Speaking as someone who once rolled a character on an RP realm called "Dildo Baggins" I'm no different. I'm not saying you have to be srs bsns all the time its just that when people are being awkward or refusing to work with each other, or even cursing each other and you out. You often have to put your personal feelings aside for the time being and sort out the problem so it doesn't affect the other 20odd people. Always remember that afterwards you can remind them that you'll tear them a new bumhole if they speak to you like that again.
Being in charge is often a thankless task. Don't get me wrong, being an officer can be rewarding and actually provides a different level of playing. One of the reasons I stick with it is because its constantly giving me experience that come in handy in my working life. People management, performance management, organisational skills etc. (That said I think its incredibly nerdy that I know a fair few people who, if they could get away with it, would put down their raiding experience on their CVs :s )
I'd also not read so much into this. I know people who are incredibly serious when they raid and I'm generally completely not. Several of our first kills of hardmode bosses we've nearly wiped due to people laughing at me or one of our other officers "raising morale".
So in conclusion;
If you're an officer and your guild is prospering then I tip my hat to you. Remember, its a game at the end of the day and if being in charge is ruining your enjoyment then you can stop. The guild will generally not fall apart without you.
If you're a raider and you're wondering why the officer you've been whispering every 30s for the past hour about when invites are starting has steam pouring out his/her ears please just remember they've probably got enough to deal with.
/echo out
So here's a short list of why sometimes it just plain sucks a bag of dicks to be the one cracking the whip.
1) You're never "off duty"
You can log on intending to play for 5mins and you'll get spam whispered by someone who's annoyed/upset or possessing some other drama that NEEDS to be attended to now. If there are pugs going and you just want to chill out you'll often have people expect you to take charge and organise it for them. A lot of the time our members are very good about this but sometimes you just want to hug them (until they stop breathing).
2) If you ever take anything for yourself it's "Officer Corruption"
Now this doesn't happen a lot in my Guild at the moment but it has done and its happened to me personally in the past. An item drops, say a rare mount, anyone can use it and you raid roll. You win the raid roll - you get 24 people telling it's you its someone different. We had an officer pass Death's Verdict recently because he didnt want to cause drama by taking it. Even though this guy attends every raid and has the most priority. Another reason to make loot rules crystal clear which is something I think I've learnt the hard way over the years.
3) You're under constant scrutiny, often from people with half the facts
Being second guessed is never fun and this is often just part of the job. However there will be situations where you just have to sit on your hands and not do anything. As an officer you will typically be privy to the inner workings of the guild and will know the real reason Player X's recent attendance is low. Even if Player Y is complaining that they haven't shown up for 2 days and should be demoted.
I've had people running their mouths about how they've been excluded from one raid then whinging that we're not trialling enough players. They just don't see the connection. Or they look at the number of healers online and the number of tanks and make the assumtion that just because they match the number we're after we should take them even though there might be a healing class lacking or a tank who's completely inexperienced or not geared for the encounter. Lack of understanding of the tools needed for a successful raid is one of the most annoying things I've come across.
You also can't slack like you used to. No slacking on buffs or waiting to enchant new gear. You have to be the example or you don't have a leg to stand on when you come to ask that holy pally why he's only using 50spellpower on his weapon. If you're standing in fire or doing any other easily avoidable nono you'll also come in for a lot more flak than a normal member because you should know better.
4) You occasionally have to kill your friends
Ok so not actually kill them, this isn't China . But sometimes the people who you like and play with a lot will step out of line. Now often you can just have a friendly chat and remind them to "pull their finger out". But sometimes you'll have to go further than that and do what you'd do to any underperforming player and demote them/kick them. I've never had to do this is my current guild but I've had to before and it's never nice. This sounds melodramatic but if you raid I'm sure you know each raid squad contains its fair share of drama queens.
Generally having to be serious and demote people is never nice either. Especially when you have underperformers making up all sorts of reasons for why they're not performing and promising they'll be fixed by next raid. Experience teaches you that the problems never are fixed or the excuses are completely inadequate. We do accept friend ranks and we have a pretty good community inside the guild, but the fact of the matter is, our main squad is here to kill internet monsters.
5) You have to be the bigger person, a lot
Surprisingly enough a lot of people who play this game can be incredibly immature. Speaking as someone who once rolled a character on an RP realm called "Dildo Baggins" I'm no different. I'm not saying you have to be srs bsns all the time its just that when people are being awkward or refusing to work with each other, or even cursing each other and you out. You often have to put your personal feelings aside for the time being and sort out the problem so it doesn't affect the other 20odd people. Always remember that afterwards you can remind them that you'll tear them a new bumhole if they speak to you like that again.
Being in charge is often a thankless task. Don't get me wrong, being an officer can be rewarding and actually provides a different level of playing. One of the reasons I stick with it is because its constantly giving me experience that come in handy in my working life. People management, performance management, organisational skills etc. (That said I think its incredibly nerdy that I know a fair few people who, if they could get away with it, would put down their raiding experience on their CVs :s )
I'd also not read so much into this. I know people who are incredibly serious when they raid and I'm generally completely not. Several of our first kills of hardmode bosses we've nearly wiped due to people laughing at me or one of our other officers "raising morale".
So in conclusion;
If you're an officer and your guild is prospering then I tip my hat to you. Remember, its a game at the end of the day and if being in charge is ruining your enjoyment then you can stop. The guild will generally not fall apart without you.
If you're a raider and you're wondering why the officer you've been whispering every 30s for the past hour about when invites are starting has steam pouring out his/her ears please just remember they've probably got enough to deal with.
/echo out
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