tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post8484162520833400364..comments2024-03-26T09:53:50.263-06:00Comments on Eight Years in Azeroth: 2.19. Blizzard's First MistakeShawn Holmeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110605868875966328noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-7488629060851424802018-02-03T18:34:26.244-07:002018-02-03T18:34:26.244-07:00Lead the #1 guild on Gorgonnah-US. And this proble...Lead the #1 guild on Gorgonnah-US. And this problem landed in Vanilla. It was ruinous. Look at the +hit rings a)Band of Accuria (40man efforts and had to kill Ragnaros to obtain) and then look at b)Don Julios Band (PvP simpleton item, basically free) and understand the shear stupidity of what they had added. Why was +hit needed in PvP? Its a PvE centric stat.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-48067896740382548642016-08-25T09:02:39.384-06:002016-08-25T09:02:39.384-06:00This blog is a lot of fun to read - it takes me ba...This blog is a lot of fun to read - it takes me back to my raiding days in Wrath. I was in a series of smaller guilds, but with all the same issues as yours: the A team vs. the B team, carries, hurt feelings, stagnation in progression . . . <br /><br />I'll never forget the day I was absent from a raid and the others FINALLY downed the Lich King. Or the day two months later when I finally downed him myself as part of another guild.<br /><br />What strikes me the most reading this blog is the set of unrealistic demands that progression raiding puts on the player base: not the boss-fight demands, but rather the demands of leadership and emotional maturity on a player base that is largely devoid of either. Personnel management is challenging even for real-world people who are trained and experienced in it - and that's when their subordinates are being paid. WoW guilds are essentially groups of unpaid employees, and trying to manage that dynamic takes an incredible amount of sophistication - which most WoW players (and gamers generally) frankly just don't have. Reading the comments from ex-guild members, years after events, only cements that view. And your guild is not unique - we had all the same problems in the guilds I joined. As you have pointed out, the way the game is designed makes it even harder to keep people engaged and having "fun", because rewards (gear) don't drop equitably.<br /><br />Being in a similar casual/hardcore raiding guild was certainly an interesting experience, and like I said, this is a fun read. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-16223391878947074232016-07-12T17:34:09.687-06:002016-07-12T17:34:09.687-06:00I agree that it was too easy to get PvP gear that ...I agree that it was too easy to get PvP gear that was on-par or better than equivalent PvE gear starting in BC. I never found it difficult to recall which palette swap was which, though; the sight of a paladin in full Crystalforge was always more impressive than a paladin in full season 2.Russellnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-37640567607198703552016-07-12T01:15:52.229-06:002016-07-12T01:15:52.229-06:00I played throughout BC as my guild's sole raid...I played throughout BC as my guild's sole raiding DPS warrior (Under New Management - Blackhand), and ironically I had to pvp to fill gaps in my gear. In Tier 5 specifically there was no good offhand option for fury, so I had to do several weeks of arena to get the pvp offhand. One of our holy paladins went Ret in T6 after picking up a full set of pvp gear, and he regularly out DPS'd me until we were well into Black Temple. All the time I heard people in my guild complaining about, roughly paraphrased, lousy pvp'ers getting raid gear, complaints that were equally about appearance as stats, and that I never heard about the PVP armor sets in Vanilla. BC had a lot of problems (ridiculously overcomplicated attunements, overly-difficult encounters, a dozen super grindy reputations), but the equivalence of pvp and pve gear, both cosmetically and functionally, was definitely one of the bigger ones. I'm not sure I'd say it was their <i>first</i> mistake, but it was definitely a big one for BC.Ardonishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09367774331046599521noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-7181354675136589682016-07-11T13:19:58.319-06:002016-07-11T13:19:58.319-06:00@Kevin,
Hard to say without hearing more about th...@Kevin,<br /><br />Hard to say without hearing more about the specifics of your guild and leadership, but a few things to keep in mind:<br /><br />- I wouldn't put it past the broad majority of guild leaders to just rotate through the people they had the closest personal ties with. That's a common "path-of-least-resistance" strategies. If I had two guys that were rockstars on the meters, but one was personable and chatted with me until all hours of the night, and another kept to themselves outside of raids, I was more inclined to take the person I could relate to. Sucks, because that tactic shits heavily on introverts...a huge percentage of the gaming public.<br /><br />- It doesn't surprise me that the default strategy for a lot of guild leaders would be to try to treat everyone equally. Logically, it makes sense, and logic drives a lot of the gamer mentality. Unfortunately, people are nuanced, where as completing a quest or defeating a boss is the exact opposite.Shawn Holmeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05110605868875966328noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-66852750911437573922016-06-30T12:34:13.405-06:002016-06-30T12:34:13.405-06:00I know you posted this ages ago, but this post rea...I know you posted this ages ago, but this post really resonates with some frustrations I had in raiding during BC. I would always beat other players on damage output, and basically never stood in fire, but would sometimes find myself sitting out of fights that still had gear I wanted... twiddling my thumbs and waiting to see if I would get in the raid. That always made me feel very unappreciated, as I worked hard to maximize my impact on the raid's success.<br /><br />It's eye-opening to see that maybe the leadership in my guild were trying to just treat everyone equally, rather than ignoring or downplaying my merit.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00043210048064618990noreply@blogger.com