Love letters…You’ve Got Mail!

So I got a love letter in-game this weekend!!! I kicked a few people out of the guild, and a somewhat expected response was a love letter. It was exactly what you could imagine, “You suck, you are the problem, its all your fault, everyone hates you, no one likes you, no one thinks you are good, you need to leave, quit, get out, get away.” Yadda yadda yadda. So, the letter was from an unguilded toon that was never a member of my guild. I am assuming its an alt of someone who was in fact kicked by me. So a quick look at the 3 I kicked…

1. Young new member (yes young in age). He was chatty, very very very VERY chatty. I found him annoying, but tolerable. He was not insulting or anything, and I think was more guilty of trying too hard to make people like him more than anything else. However, I was getting tells constantly, “I can’t stand this kid!” “Please remove him!” “Hey, just an fyi, he blows. He can’t play for squat.” Well, I felt bad in a way, but if you have an overwhelming number of folks wanting him gone, your hand is played for you. /gkick
2. Buddy who I have not seen on before (joined within the last week or so) starts asking how long server transfers take. I ask why he wants to know? He won’t answer insisting someone just tell him how long it takes. I suggest to him that since none of us work at Blizz doing server transfers, it might be prudent to go onto the WoW website and look for FAQs regarding transfers and I bet his answer will be there from the experts. He recoils and says to effect “Just tell me how long! I want to move a toon here from another server” Yeah, right…I almost believe that. Within a few more pokes and prods he admits he is transferring as soon as he can and wants it to go through right away to get off our server. /gkick
3. Now the same fool who my previous post was in regards to jumps into gchat with all he wanted to do was get information! I respond with, “Says the same guy that told his guild how he hates the server and can’t wait to transfer.” He of course insists the Server and Guild are not the same…so even with a few days of some level of reflection he still does not get it. You can’t say you hate all dogs, but love German Shepherds. You can’t tell me you hate the entire server but love us…we are a part of the server!!! /gkick

I asked folks in guild if they new the toon name…no one did. I did some research and found their guild history and matched additional names that corresponded and narrowed it down to a reasonable conclusion. Numerous people defended me in g-chat, so I felt a little bit of love from folks which was nice.

Here’s the point: Disagreeing on the direction, tact, tone, rules, etc that your RL, GM, officers put forth is fine; however, ensure you are doing the mature thing to have a conversation regarding said disagreement. In other words, get together and discuss it. No screaming & yelling. DISCUSSION!

Hey, I don’t like the way you speak to us, can you maybe turn it down a notch!
Oh, I didn’t realize that; I certainly can!

We aren’t making any progress, what the heck is going on?
We’re analyzing the raids and trying to figure it out now. Do you have some suggestions on what we can change?
Yes actually, let’s start with this…

I am not even going to get into the obvious things like speak civilly, use your main to speak (not some alt that no one knows), and be sure to give some practical information and constructive criticism not just “we hate you”. Everyone wants to get better, and no one has all the right answers in their back pocket. Collaboration is the key. Benjamin Franklin said it perfectly, “We must all hang together, or assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” The strongest and best foundation is and will always be that of solidarity. Sappy? Perhaps. But very true.

Work together toward one common goal and you will have success. Continue to fight amongst yourselves casting blame, taking credit, and disparaging character; you will assuredly fail. I told my new raid team who may not be the best players, but are for the most part good people who I am beginning to enjoy playing along side…”TRUST! Simply trust us that we are guiding our raid team to a point of success. If you have suggestions or see things that need correcting, let us know. Myself and the co-raid leader Tank are here to help everyone have success. Trust us!” Trust is the hardest thing to establish, but the most powerful tool in building a cohesive team.

Sappy? Perhaps. But very true.

Q

It’s not me…its all of YOU!

So, last night a guild social/new member says in gchat, “UGH! I hate this server! It sucks, I can’t wait to xfer!”

Ok, um…wait, What?!? Moments like these I refer to as “teaching opportunities.” This is where the statement “it’s not what you say, but how you say it” totally comes into play.

So, after a long in guild “discussion” in which I stated numerous times to said person, “I empathize and agree the server can be difficult as can dealing with the people…I just don’t think telling your guild mates that you cant wait to get away from them is the best course of action is all” his final statement was in effect: “I state my opinion and you all jump all over me, what is wrong with all of you?!?

Again, last chance effort to teach here…”Ok, hold that thought…so you said something, and you ‘meant’ one thing, but EVERYONE else took it another way; you don’t think maybe its how/what you said that is the problem? You are convinced EVERYONE else is wrong, and you are right?!” response: “Yes”

/sigh. Ok. Have at it then. Sometimes you cannot teach people. And honestly, it’s always the same situation…immaturity. I don’t mean he likes to play with GI Joes and pull girls’ pony tails, and it isn’t about age either – I have met plenty of immature 50-somethings before. The immaturity I am referencing is more the “full of piss and vinegar” attitude. These “kids” always know what is right. They are never wrong. They are misunderstood and it is always the person listening who is at fault, never the words or tone coming from them.

I have made mention before about how harsh we as a player base are with our criticism and judgment, and perhaps I am as guilty of it as anyone else. Articles like this I am sure are seen as condescending or preachy to any number of players. My apologies for my part, certainly isn’t my intent.

But seriously…we’re dealing with human nature here. Late teens, early twenties everyone goes through a phase of “knowing it all” and that older people are so full of it and curmudgeons that are disrespectful to the younger generations. They are mean and put everyone down, just jaded by life and such. Those youthful folks have a “take on the world” mentality and that they know what is right and need NO ONE telling them what to do or how to do it. In game terms, I have played a hunter since day one…that’s nearly 7 years now on the same class. Methinks I know a thing or two on how to play it and yet I still am always reading and researching, looking for more info and better ways. I am always open to learning more and improving. And yet I routinely run across the player who “has” a hunter at almost 85 and begins to tell me everything I am doing wrong. They are almost always a Wrath baby or the typical “I’ve played every class and have 12 toons at 85, working on my 13^th!!” “I used to raid as a rogue, then went tank, then changed to pally, and then healing shammy. Got bored and chose a mage, leveled my lock for PvP and did that for a while. Then switched to a DK full time. Started working on my hunter and rolled a new priest after that for shadow cause its AWESOMESAUCE!” Same old story.

A couple of points are here, trust me…

1. If you continue to hop around classes and roles, you will never master any of them. Mastering a class or role does not come after playing for 3 months, even 3 years. It in fact NEVER comes. The game evolves, things change. You will ALWAYS be learning new things, and should ALWAYS be seeking out that knowledge!
2. All servers are the same. Why is that? They all have the same foundation….players. i.e. PEOPLE! While an individual is great, people suck…I quote from Agent K because he states it so eloquently and perfectly: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was flat. And fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.”

I’m not trying to put down all people who have the drive to prove themselves. I am saying to please have the thought, the possibility, that maybe – perhaps – just possibly…someone else was there too! They stood in your shoes, and maybe they are trying to offer some advice and criticism to HELP you. They are not trying to be-little you or demean you; they are genuinely trying to help you not make the same mistake they made, not end up with the same regrets they may carry with them.

Yes, this is just a game, but it’s still a valuable lesson in building relationships with others. I’m no saint and I have ticked-off plenty of others in my day; in RL and in-game. Trust me when I say, I am trying to help. And do not read “tone” into my text based chat. If you want to read “tone” hop in vent or mumble and we can TALK. You will hear that my voice will always be laced with sincerity.

So, if you have made it this far in the post, great! Lesson to learn: be patient with your fellow players. Either in helping to teach them and steer them in the right direction or in listening and understanding they are trying to help you. 2 sides, same coin. Will a change of scenery really help? Maybe, but I have played extensively on 3 different servers (2 actively conversing and participating, one was merely observational)….they all have been the same. You’re bored. You have a fail raid, or at least not a truly successful one. You don’t like the players. You don’t like the scene. What do you do? Try something, but don’t be shocked to find the same pervasive attitudes and issues on another server. Transferring is not always the solution.

Q

It’s a marathon, not a sprint…

So a new content patch goes out and we get a new tier of raid content as well as a new “lootaloth” in Baradin Hold. So let’s start with some commentary on the little bit of Firelands I have seen….

• Its Molten Core. No seriously…even if you remove the end boss being the same guy…ITS MOLTEN CORE! Dog packs change to Turtle packs. Molten Giants – check. Core hounds – check. Packs of fire naga type elementals – check (albeit, they now roam in packs in lieu of guarding one of themselves – see Major Domo and Gehennas). Random pathing elementals – check.
• So, like the days of MC – let the Hunter pull. Seriously…LET THE HUNTER PULL! Tanks (be them pally, warrior, or DK) have great pulling moves now available to them compared to Vanilla, but they are still inferior pullers to Hunters. If your Hunter can’t pull properly…they are not a Hunter. They are a DK in a Hunter disguise. Allow us to use our techniques and abilities. We will drop a handful of traps, just stand on them…right on them…DON’T MOVE! The mobs will come to you, you need not lift a finger.
• Loot…Looks nice. Looks really nice all in all! I have to say the T12 hunter armor looks sweeter on certain races than others (as opposed to Cryptstalker which looked good on everyone!). I’ll take the fiery pirate over the murloc-stalker any day, though I still don’t love it.
• Stats…Doesn’t seem we need anymore hit then before. Still seems that haste and mastery are competing to be our best stat after Agility and Crit. It depends on spec and situation. If you just think about it logically more mastery should be better, but the complicated nature of haste clouds those waters. (NOTE: I really need to try stacking the hell out of mastery to see what I get. I know others have tried it, but I like to experience it for myself).
• SURVIVAL! Yes, Survival becomes a touch trendy again. How I love this spec and its abilities. Frostheim over at the WHU made the suggestion to rename the tree from Survival to something more apropos. Bonus points if it could remain “SV” as an acronym. BM and MM make sense for their trees abilities and focus. SV really should change to something like Elemental Hunter, Arcane Hunter, Naturalist, better yet…Ranger. Its really want an SV Hunter is…a Ranger. Marksmanship Hunters are Archers through and through….Survivalists are Rangers.
• Dailies…a lot more dailies available. I have heard it’s the longest dailies grind to date. The Crusader dailies were very long if you intended to be a completionist, you really only needed to become a champion with your own race. The Netherwing rep grind with those dailies also took roughly 2 weeks to get to exalted. The Ogri’la and Skyguard reps also were quite long based on there being relatively few dailies involved.
• Nerfs. T11 content becomes puggable for most folks. I don’t like the trade off from Valor to Justice. I would have kept it Valor, just made the amount half of what it was so that its worthwhile if you still need/want some 359 level gear, but not attractive enough to be a grinding spot. In theory you could have made it into a daily quest similar to the old daily raid quest for ICC/Sarth/Uld and awarded a nice sum of Valor.

So far there is nothing that I have seen that has overwhelmed or underwhelmed me. I have said to folks that I really think Blizzard has funneled a lot of creative energy to Diablo 3, SC2, and project: Titan. I feel like WoW has suffered from that. It still has a long way to fall before I would classify it as a dud, but they raised the bar high early on themselves.

Let’s remember folks…it’s a MARATHON not a sprint. Rushing to complete content before anyone else really gives you no advantage other than being bored sooner. Take your time. Enjoy it.

Q

The WoW Hunter’s Hall….

I don’t often plug other sites, but this is one that I fully endorse and champion. Thank you Frost for putting it together, I suspect it will be a big boon for the hunter community and larger WoW community as well.

I won’t attempt to preface the site, Frost does it better over at the WHU:

Intro can be found here: http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2011/07/introducing-wow-hunters-hall/

The WoW Hunter’s Hall is here: http://www.wowhuntershall.com/

EDIT: Frost has taken me on to help Admin the WHH (may the WoW-gods help him!!!). I promise to not slack on my own blog any bit…though, I think my playing time may take a hit outside of raiding leading.

Q

Guest post over at Marks-365

Just a little retrospective and compare of where we started and where we are now. Did my best to ignore the meat and potatoes of BC and Wrath. In my humble opinion, nothing has changed. We still go pew pew, we still bring raid non-dps utility. The only change is our dps options are unmatched. Give it a read.

Housekeeping note…

Finished up Bastion of Twilight last night, and as those 10 achievement points dinged, so did “It’s over nine thousand!!”

Nice little double success moment. 9k achievement points has been a long time coming. I have been sitting in the 8000 range since last fall. Cataclysm gave me a good set of points that were simple enough to attain and get me over the hump.

Next major Achievement on my horizon is 100 mounts. I am at 96.

So close….soooooo close.

Q

Guest comment on World of Matticus…

Matticus reached out to a handful of his GMing contacts. We all provided some commentary on how best to start a guild, or at least our number 1 thing to do. Individually we all have differing views on what is tops on the list, but collectively one can get a very well rounded list of what to look for when it comes to starting your own cat-herding project.

http://www.worldofmatticus.com/2011/03/28/11-suggestions-for-the-new-guild-leader

My full commentary is as follows….

So, you want to start your own guild?
RUN AWAY! RUN FAR AWAY! Hehe. Ok, kidding aside (for now). Starting your own guild is daunting. It’s not something to venture into lightly to be sure, but can be an extremely rewarding venture within the game. You will get no loot, no achievement points, and much like being a Community Manager for certain MMOs you will face harsh criticism and vitriol far more than you will receive accolades and praise. You have plenty of things on your plate to start, some trivial some not. Guild name – check. Guild tabard – check. You can think those ones are trivial, but you would be amazed how many times I have had to change a tabard because everyone is a professional designer and artist.

What’s the most important consideration? Well, in my opinion – it’s the WHO of the guild, from GM to Social. You may be starting the guild, but that does not mean you will be the best GM. A GM should always be fair and open minded. The GM must be objective to situations as best as they are able and remain calm and even tempered. If you are prone to lash out or quick to rage, don’t be the GM. What about officers…gone are the 40 man raiding days of 10-15 officers all friends and buddies with little or no actual “officing” to do. Any guild should not need more than 1 officer per 5-8 players. Example: a 20 – 25 player roster (which should amount to 80-100 characters) should have no more than 3-5 officers). Be sure to pick the right person for the right job, you’re in game or RL friends may not be best fit. And because someone is a nice person or great player doesn’t mean they are necessarily a good fit. A great player could have a condescending tone and attitude, not a good fit for an officer whose tone can easily be misconstrued. A friendly sub-par player with the awesome personality may not have enough clout to provide the right constructive criticism.

In short, it’s never easy to pick the leadership core, but it is the first and in my call the most important step.

Matt used the center portion, which is the meat and potatoes point. Choose the right people. It doesn’t matter that they aren’t your best friend, what matters is they are the best for the job. Personality counts, but so does reputation, knowledge, skill, ability, etc.

I have to say this hit home for me with my officer core in CR. I had 4 officers, 1 is a close in-game friend, 1 is a perfect complimentary player who would do their best to remind me of the role/responsibility as GM and keep me honest, the other 2 were not really friends – it was complicated. They were 2 people I raided alongside for a while now, and have had my share of disagreements with both of them. We differed in thought process of what an officer should and should not do, and what kind of guild we were to be. In the end, I could not continue to lead where half of my officer core did not respect or agree with me.

That is really an important step for you to consider and get right from the start!!!

The morning after…

Ok, so I gquit last night. Was it rash, maybe. Was it necessary, yes. Like any player, my ultimate responsibility is to my own happiness and enjoyment of the $15 a month subscription fee I shell out. For the past couple weeks, every time I logged in I was faced with another emergency of epic proportions. A few weeks back we had a mass exodus of people off to form their own guild. Right around then we had a Main tank quit, a new main tank join us, then a main healer depart in anger, and the “new” main tank leave to play another 4 letter MMO permanently.

I have 4 officers, and 3 of them have openly expressed “perhaps you should step down as GM, maybe its best for the guild, maybe a new or different direction was in order.”

Thanks for the support? Well, maybe they were right. What I know was that I weathered us as a guild beyond the issues above to see us down more content than we had previously, expand our raiding team to include a handful more capable players, and help stabilize our core group and provide a solid foundation for continued in-game success.

I know not everyone has liked some of my decisions…asking people to sit is never easy, and no one likes it, but in this guild EVERYONE has to take a turn on the bench. And when the only 2 people who complain are 2 of the very officers suggesting I step down as GM…well, call me paranoid, but I can see a picture getting much much clearer.

Well, having one of them snap at me that “no one gives a s*** about what you have to say” regarding a brief conversation with another guild member…well, ok its either they go or I go. The decision was clear with 3 of the officers having expressed previously that I should step back. And honestly…I didn’t feel like anyone was very sad to see me go. There was one “Can we discuss this” but my response was simply “what do you expect me to do?” Can someone be the GM of a guild when the officer core has little or no respect for them? Can someone continue to be a contributing member of a guild when forced out as the GM? The logical conclusion is to simply step away entirely and say, Thank you, but no thank you. A choice had to be made: GM A vs Officer B…Clearly they would choose the later. I don’t know how they will do without me, I suspect nothing will change, but time will tell.

Do I regret my decision…yes and no. I could no longer take the disrespect and constant looking over my shoulder, walking on eggshells, and fear of opening my mouth for how it will be construed. One can not effectively lead in that kind of situation. I do regret it coming to this. There were a couple things I could have done differently, they may have been better, perhaps worse.

How would you or have you handled this? Have you seen a GM forced out regardless of a guild’s measurable success simply over differences or dislikes?

So…anyone need a raiding/PvP Orc Hunter? Ilvl 358

What to do when they think its your fault.

So, you have an officer, and he/she is unhappy with how you are managing the guild. They express their concerns and voice their opinions. Now what….

Well, lets look at some possible alternative scenarios:
Officer: “WTF! YOU SUCK! I HATE YOU!”
GM: “Goodbye.” /gkick

Officer: “WTF! This isn’t working. None of this works, this is broken, that is broken, this  makes everyone mad, and that is not getting us anywhere.”
GM: “Ok, how do you propose we fix it? What are your alternatives and solutions to the issues you are raising? Do you have a plan, course of action, perhaps an inkling of an idea on HOW to fix these ‘problems’”
Officer: “No! That’s what the GM does, you fix it.”
GM: “But I do not see these things as issues beyond people growing up and putting on the big-boy panties. Wiping is a part of raiding, loot not dropping is a part of raiding, mix ‘n’ matching the raid group and swapping and subbing people in/out is a part of raiding. I can’t change these things outright; but I am open to new and creative ways to accomplish the same goals. Do you have any suggestions on what we can do differently?”
Officer: “No! You suck.”
GM: “Goodbye.” /gkick

Officer: “hey, I wanted to talk about a few things that have come to my attention. I had some discussions with various raid members and they have some feedback and criticism I’d like to bring to you for consideration.”
GM: “Good, let’s get it on the table and see if we can address some of them, or at the very least agree upon a unified response to the concerns.”
Officer: “Ok, here they are….”

The discussion continues with a good debate regarding the positives and negatives of any possible changes or solutions, the impact of said changes on the guild and raid, as well as the implications of future changes (always be mindful of setting precedence).

GM: “Hey, thanks for bring this to me; glad we could discuss this before anyone blows up or causes a drama storm for no reason.”
Officer: “Yeah, me too. I hope you know we appreciate as a guild what your doing for us and we all know this can be a thankless job…so, thanks.”
GM: “No need to ever thank me. I do it because I want to help all of us in one form or fashion. And honestly…you guys in the officer corp make it possible. Without you, I couldn’t do a thing.”

There are certainly more than these 3 scenarios, but they are the simplest and I think make up the 3 main “emotional” situations we all face. I have said over and over to officers, raiders, and social guild members alike…”Do not gripe and complain solely for the sake of complaining. If you have issues or problems, then bring solutions and ideas to the table. I am ALWAYS open to alternative points of view and courses of action. Be polite, be respectful, and be open-minded.” If you come at me with something petty and trivial, be prepared to face harsh criticism on my part. Nothing grates or irks me more than whining and complaining that does nothing but stir up drama. I have kicked people and had them leave for this very issue. Do I regret the ultimate resolution – NO. Do I wish an alternative course could have been taken – YES. I would have preferred a civil discourse, and sometimes that conversation has happened and the offender continues to just bemoan their situation, well, then bemoan elsewhere.

Its never going to be perfect, and the grass is not always greener on the other side. The issue is you don’t know what the other side looks like until you go there, and often times we settle in and live with the imperfect situation telling ourselves, “Better the devil you know…”

One should always self reflect…

• Am I doing my best here to help?
• Have I been playing my character to the best of my abilities?
• Have I helped others who I see faltering?
• Am I part of the problem?
• Can I be part of the solution?

It is far easier to point at someone and blame them…its far more rewarding to shepherd in solutions to the problems in hand.

Q

Hunter achievements…

Thank you Big Red Rhino….I pet tanked Argaloth this past week. It was a lot of fun, and definitely a worth while effort. We actually tried a few pulls on Atramedes with a pet tank again….not successful. BUT….the results weren’t terrible.

Pet tanks take a seriously greater amount of damage than a standard well geared tank, however, they get no stacks of sound. So, good – no sound mitigation on the tank; bad – increased burden on the MT healer. We may try that again at some point, we shall see. I am curious to know what other Raid level bosses Hunters have tried to pet tank to date. Please leave your comments on success or utter failures. We can always learn from either scenario!!

Also, last night I took the neck drop from Valiona, Necklace of Strife. That leaves me 2 more armor pieces for upgrade: Helm and Shoulders. There are some minor bump ups still available, tier legs would be better than my Magmaw dropped ones, and the Valor back piece (Viewless wings) is slightly better than the Maloriak dropped one that I am currently sporting.

One shot on Argaloth, Magmaw, Omno, Chim, and Maloriak on Tues….with a good number of pulls on Atramedes.

Wed night was Halfus and then a lot of work on V&T…we’re still getting used to the movement on that one. Trash was kind to us with 3 BOE drops – Tank gun for our MT, Healing staff for our Druid Healer, and 1H DPS sword for our DK (OT/DPS).

Q