Eh, it really just isn’t that important.

I beg your forgiveness for my last post.  Guild drama is just that, drama.  And that, my friends, is something I definitely do not want to promote here.  So I took a little time off from writing, played a little wow, and started dabbling a little in photo editing.  I hope to have  a new header image up each day, and hope even more that my somewhat meager skills will grow as I muck about with it.

So what have I been doing in game?  Playing a little on my Death Knight, a little on my Shaman, and a LOT on my army of alts.  I am attempting to level a pally again, as well as a warrior.  And, for the first time ever, I have managed to get a priest to level 40.  Shadow Form is pretty darned cool.

With so much of my focus being on my alts, I have not really been making much gold in game.  I have been doing my gathering, but in order to turn a profit, you kind of have to put those mats up for sale.  My little auction house mule is gathering dust, and I really need to empty out his mailbox before passers-by start noticing the backlog and mark me as an easy target for a late night BnE run.

That said, I am off to dip my toe in Icecrown realm’s economy.  I have an epic flyer to buy for a certain Death Knight, and gold just doesn’t grow on trees.

Happy Gaming!!

Oz

The dreaded guild post.

For the past couple of posts, I have been hinting around at shedding a little light on my social/endgame experience with Wrath of the Lich King.  I have written this post about 6 times but have never really liked the finished product.  This may be time number seven, who knows.  But I wanted to get his out there, if for nothing else than to get it off of my chest.  Sometimes the act of writing (or blogging, in this case,) something down allows you a little distance from which to step back and see it clearly.

For the past year, I have been enjoying my status as a member of a mid-level guild on the Icecrown Realm.  The recruiting ad on the forums was very well written, and threw about such lofty ideas of honor, integrity and COMMUNITY.  I applied, and in short order was welcomed to the fold.  Turns out the ad wasn’t a bunch of flowery spiel and empty promises.  It was a wonderful place to be, and I quickly convinced several friends to apply as well.  I sang the praises of my guild to anyone who would bother to listen.  I was a fanboy.

As we all know, the honeymoon has to end sometime.  After a while, I began to see things that didn’t quite feel right.  Just little things, mind you.  Changing loot rules after a drop didn’t go a certain way for someone.  Taking issues with certain members for things that other members are applauded for.  There was an “IN” crowd and a “THEM” crowd.  Somehow, I managed to straddle the two, so I got to see things from both sides.  I saw the frustrations of people struggling to get groups together for needed gear runs,  pleas being buried in chat by calls for breaking guild records on timed heroic runs. I began to view the guild as three distinct groups.  The officers, the members, and the fillers.

The first two are pretty much self-explanatory, but I may need to get more in-depth on the last group.  These people, no matter how hard they try, will just never “belong.”  Not through any fault of their own, mind you.  I don’t know what the determining factor is, to be honest.  Maybe they haven’t sold themselves, maybe it is just something as silly as what was happening when they joined the guild.  But their presence in the guild serves one purpose; to help pad the numbers for raiding.  To help further the progress of the other two groups.  Sure, they progress as well.  But that invite for Naxx 25  is most likely going to be the only run the get included on from the guild that week.  Heroics?  Don’t need them.  We have enough in the “IN” crowd to successfully fill any number of 5 mans.

Shortly before the launch of Wrath, a good friend of mine left the guild.  He was definitely in the “IN” crowd, and definitely privvy to some of the “inner workings” of the guild.  I stayed in touch, played some WAR with him, and was not shocked at all to find out that he saw the same things I did.  He was what was called a “Master Chief” in the guild.  He saw /o chat, and the stark contrast to /guild was not sitting well with him.  His departure was played off by the Guild Leader as a sad case of “Intense Spouse aggro.”  I happened to have toons on the opposing faction that were guilded with both him and his wife, and I knew this was not the case.  Why would he say that?

Enter Wrath.  And enter the holiday season.  Anyone who has ever worked in the restaurant business will tell you that the holidays are a tough time of year to be in the biz.  My playing time took a hit, which was expected.  By the time I take my first steps into Northrend, many of my guildmates are already 80.  I expect this as well.  When I level, I tend to be a heads-down gamer.  I focus on the quests, and don’t socialize much when I get in stride.  I still see guild chat, but I don’t participate as much unless I am in town or in flight.  I am a solo-leveler, and pretty much don’t instance as a rule.  When I do need or want a run, a quick request in guild chat or from my friends list, and I am knee deep in dungeon.  But, I see other members who aren’t so lucky.  I see the same thing I saw in BC.  I help out where I can, but I can’t put out all the fires.

Okay, this post has deinitely gotten away from me.  I will do a follow up this evening or tomorrow.  Sorry to break it up like that, but if this was a forum post, I would likely get trolled with tl/dr.

Happy Gaming!!

Oz