4.22. The Loose End

Jungard shares his opinion on the possibility of
allowing Crasian to return to DoD (1/3),
Vashj'ir

 Regarding Collusion

[To: Crasian] I'm afraid I can't give you a re-invite.

[From: Crasian] Why not?

Because you're a selfish, ungrateful bastard that conspired against my guild.

[To: Crasian] I have reason to believe you were at the forefront of loot collusion during Ulduar and ToGC

[From: Crasian] What?! What are you talking about?

[To: Crasian] Do you deny that you were involved in any loot manipulation while a part of Eh Team?

[From: Crasian] Can we go to Vent?

[To: Crasian] Sure.

He was irritated and bitter. Crasian sounded as if ready to pounce on the real perpetrator. I had yet to be convinced that anyone was more guilty than him.

"Alright, that's better. So, who was it that said this?"

"Doesn't matter who said it; we can deal with that later. What I want to know right now is, in your own words, how and why you felt it was OK to manipulate the loot rules of this guild for your own personal benefit."

"Hanzo, I swear to you, I have no idea what you are talking about."

You're lying.

"Start at Ulduar. Eh Team is in its prime. You all decide to set up a private chat channel to talk shit about fail players in the 25. Continue."

"Ok, yeah...yeah we were in there. But it was just, y'know, like you said, there was some stuff people wanted to get off their chest, but it was mostly just a bullshit session in there."

"What was Eh Team's loot distro?"

"Need Before Greed. We worked out amongst each other who could really benefit the most from each drop."

That's not Need Before Greed.

"You actually just described 'Loot Council'."

"OK, I guess you're right, it was more of a loot council, then, but we were pretty fair about it, how we worked out who got what."

In your eyes, perhaps it was fair.

"How exactly did you 'work it out'. Describe the process to me."

"Well, it was just like you'd expect. We'd take a look at the piece, and figure out who it would benefit the most and then hand it over. Y'know? And if multiple people wanted something really badly, we'd work it out. Like I'll take it this week and then maybe you get the next one."

If there was a next one.

"Name some of the pieces you remember this situation coming up with. Where you decided to work it out with someone else, to take 'turns'."

"Ah, jeez. Ok. Let me think. Well the trinket in ToC was one for sure, what was that, Death's Choice?"

"Death's Choice drops in 25-Man"

"...What?"

"The trinket you just named, Death's Choice. It drops in 25-Man Tournament of Champions."

I know because I ended up with Bheer's after he left the guild, thanks to your stellar people skills.

"Right. Er, wait. Maybe that wasn't the one I was thinking of."

"This 'agreeing' beforehand that you did while in Eh Team may have been your business, Crasian, but when you started doing it in the 25-Man...that's collusion. Friendly or not. I'm sickened by the mechanics of Loot Council in general...but to hear that it was going on in that private chat while a part of the 25-Man? I'm sorry, chief. It's inexcusable. I can't have it in DoD."

I could hear the frustration building in his voice, trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces.

"God! Listen, Hanzo, I am truly sorry about this. I'm telling you that I really had no idea this went against the rules, I mean, I never once thought about it that way. I never once considered it to be collusion. I mean, there were a bunch of people doing it, and I thought it was the right thing to do, to be fair to folks on the team, so that we could divvy things up. But when we chatted about it, everyone was participating."

Everyone? Or just you.

"I know you're smart enough to know that doesn't make it right."

"So, why are they all still in the guild?"

"Because a single person was responsible for facilitating this 'tit-for-tat' looting behavior. And they've put the finger on you."

"That's completely unfair!"

"Actually, let me back up a step, Crasian. Here's where it gets great. The official word from Eh Team is actually...nobody! Nobody is the ringleader. Nobody was in charge of the decision making. Which is extraordinarily convenient. But what they do say, individually, when questioned...is that when it came to working out 'deals' on who got what and when and who should take the next turn and who should step back...they all agree that you drove the conversation."

Jungard shares his opinion on the possibility of
allowing Crasian to return to DoD (2/3),
Vashj'ir

Regarding Officership

Crasian was stunned. He scrambled for the words to explain his behavior in Eh Team, making every attempt to draw attention to the group as a whole, rather than his own personal behavior in the matter. But before he had a chance to gather his thoughts in his defense, I shifted into Round 2.

"The problem, Crasian, is that you're greedy. Your focus has been on loot for a very long time, but you've played the political landscape very well, chumming up against folks, offering to help with dungeon runs and heroics and achievements and all that...so you gave off this great perception of being a super awesome guy in DoD. Meanwhile, you're making deals behind closed doors to ensure you have a steady stream of loot funneling your way."

"Hanzo, I genuinely did not do this with ill intent. Honestly. I never meant to wrong you or go against the guild rules."

I doubt you've even read the rules.

"Oh? So it wasn't your intent to break the rules when you stormed off in a huff when you lost your shot at Shadowmourne and officership?"

I waited a moment for him to process the topic shift. He'd have to build up an entirely new defense; it was only fair to pause for reconstruction. And I'm all about being fair. Being fair is my middle fucking name.

"I admit that I was pretty upset about losing out on Shadowmourne to Jungard. It was shitty."

"Yes, it was. But see, here's the thing, Crasian. You were an Elite. Remember? Elite! That means you're expected at every raid. You're raiding. You're signed up and showing up every Friday, every Sunday. Without question. Not just when it was convenient for you. Not just 'until skiing season starts'."

"Right, but I told you I was planning on skiing, didn't I?"

"No, no you didn't. And even if you did, and I just forgot -- because, it can happen, right? I miss things, sometimes. So, let's say I did forget, and you really did tell me you were planning on skiing in December, effectively taking you out of the 25-Man...then why would you have ever accepted your promotion to Elite? Why wasn't the very first thing out of your mouth, 'Hanzo, thanks so much for the promotion, but I have to respectfully decline as I'm going to be flying down a mountain in a couple of months'?"

"...I...see your point. That was a bad judgement call on my end. I guess I was a little more upset about losing the officer position to Jungard than I thought."

"So, as you can see, the case building up against you is not good. You made deals for loot in private chat channels. You took a promotion to Elite, a rank that mandates your presence, knowing full well that you'd be taking off in December. And you have the nerve to be offended that I chose a player over you that has been here longer, proven himself to be more objective, and more concerned about the long term health of the guild?"

Crasian was silent, processing my diatribe.

"Y'know, Jungard confided in me that he did actually try to work with you over a couple of items. So, even he isn't perfect. But, at the risk of making you look worse, Jungard claims that you never even bothered to follow through."

"Which items?"

"The cloak off Vezax was one. He passed to you, with the agreement that you would squeeze him into an Eh Team Algalon run. It never happened. As long as you get what you want, there doesn't really seem to be a huge priority for you to make time for others to get their stuff...even though the guild sees you as this 'super helpful guy that loves assisting with achievements'. Or is it really that you're assisting with achievements that you yourself still need?"

"That's not fair."

"Neither is loot council. Jungard says you tried again in ToC, to barter with him on passing for Death's Choice, with the plan that you'd then let him get Dual-Blade Butcher if it dropped. What's really great about that story is you already had a ilvl 245 weapon out of 10-Man heroic ToC. So it must have been just such a huge sacrifice for you to offer up a weapon you didn't need for an item you did."

Crasian still had no response to the repugnant claims being vomited into vent. It was time to wrap this up.

Jungard shares his opinion on the possibility of
allowing Crasian to return to DoD (3/3),
Vashj'ir

Regarding Bheer

"So, before we conclude this conversation detailing the many reasons why I cannot, in good faith, extend you a re-invite to the guild, I have to ask: what was it exactly that you said to Bheer to make him leave the guild?"

He paused a moment, then replied, "You mean when we were re-assembling Eh Team? He left because of that?"

What do you think?

"Yes."

"Bheer and I never really got along all that great to begin with..."

No shit?

"...and I was just getting tired of dealing with him. A lot of us were. He was very combative in vent, always arguing about a particular strat, how we were doing things. He'd bitch and moan during repeated wipes on some of the really hard stuff, and constantly question how we'd do things. It pissed me off and really just didn't have the patience for it...for him."

Carry on.

"So, I came back, and was like, look, we're going to do this ToC shit, and we don't really want you along this time around. Y'know? I mean, no offense, Bheer, but you're annoying the hell out of me. And if you decide that you're going to stay with Eh Team, well...then I'm just going to go ahead and start a brand new 10-Man, and there's a pretty damn good chance that the majority of Eh Team are going to come with me."

Wow.

"So, you squeezed him out."

"I mean, I personally didn't tell him to hit the road...I'm pretty sure it was Taba that gave him his marching papers."

"...but under your order. Under your very strong recommendation."

"I guess so."

"I have to say, Crasian, in a team without leaders, it sure seems to me like some people called the shots more than others."

"I guess when you say it that way, it really does make me out to be the bad guy. Which is totally unfair."

"Well, in my mind, I have the word of folks like Jungard and Bheer, both of whom I trust, both of whom are loyal to the guild. Both have made sacrifices to make this guild what it is today. Versus you. A player that's constantly demonstrated two sides: this wonderful make-believe side that everybody loves and thinks is awesome, and a second side, carefully navigating his way through loot tables to get what he wants until he's the #1 geared death knight on Deathwing-US...and then leaves the 25-Man progression team in the midst of its work...to go skiing. Now. Put yourself in my shoes. I decide to favor you and your story vs. theirs. What do you think DoD would make of that? Do you think they'd think I was being fair?"

"Look. Let me at least talk to them. Will you do that? Can I at least send them some kind of apology or message or something? I mean, I really want to fix this. At least let them hear my side of the story, before you make any final decision."

I stared at my screen and shook my head in disgust.

"Sure. Whatever. If you think that'll make a difference. Why not? I haven't disabled your forum access, you're clearly still able to get on Vent...though I don't know for how much longer. But yes, I think it's perfectly fair for you to try to make amends. And I'll see what the officers say. But I wouldn't get my hopes up."

Word on the street was that there was some finger pointing going on in the old Eh Team chat channel. A private message did go out later that evening, sent to the entire officer core, and as many members of the 25-Man progression team that phpBB would allow Crasian to jam into the CC: field. It did little to change people's minds. The court of public opinion had already cast its verdict, and the sentence was for Crasian to find a new home, far enough from Descendants of Draenor so that his selfish behavior became someone else's problem.

---

The next day at work, I fired off an IM to Bheer.

"Crasian won't be a problem anymore. We can rest easy."

"I appreciate it. Can you do me a favor, though?"

"Of course," I typed back, "Ask and ye shall receive."

"You have administrative privileges on the forums, to do things like delete threads and posts and such, right?"

"Yup, I can pretty much do anything."

"Can you go ahead and just delete Crasian's message out of my inbox for me?"

I furrowed my brow, "Um...why?"

"I just don't want to have anything to do with it. I don't even want to look at it."

So...why don't you delete it yourself? It's just a message.

It was no secret that Bheer wasn't Crasian's best friend...but full avoidance behavior? It struck me as very odd. Very surprising.

Very...red flag...ish.

3.76. Burying the Leader

"WoW: Lich King"
Artwork by Grampsart

An Inconvenient Truth

Much transpired between the end of July and the launch of Cataclysm in December. The transition event marked the coming of Deathwing, and the land suffered many earthquakes as elementals sprouted forth, calling us to battle. The dedication of many players in the guild continued on into the summer months, returning to raids for gear and achievement acquisition. Players rolled alts, flipped to the Alliance to secure a Lich King kill on the enemy's side, and even returned to older content to wrap up outstanding achievements.

As you probably guessed, I headed off on my annual summer vacation, albeit taking a different route, likewise returning with a different mindset. The 4.0.1 patch eventually made its debut come October, and we settled in to our new talents and abilities. I even returned to BlizzCon that year -- my first time returning since the original "Deckard Cain" visit in '05. A great number of changes happened in the roster as we approached Cataclysm, and...just as I had done near the start of WotLK...I rolled out refinements to our guild rules, closing what I hoped to be the last remaining loopholes left unattended.

These paragraphs could produce a hefty amount of blog posts. And they will, I promise. But those posts belong to a different story, however, one we can't begin until the current story ends. In the meantime, there remains a bit of unfinished business to attend to. For this final part of the story, we'll have to leap ahead to the first week of December 2010, a few days before the launch of the expansion that ends it all.

---

I rolled the last of my raiding rule updates out to the guild forums that morning, preparing to answer questions as they arrived. I popped Pidgin open, fired off an instant message to Bheer, asking him what he thought of the updates. I expected he would be impressed and thankful; Bheer was in a group of a select few people to hold me accountable several times throughout Wrath, pointing out loopholes that needed to be closed. I remembered his state of mind when my Wrath changes were announced, two years previous. I remember being nervous, predicting the worst. And I remember Bheer being one of the first people to acknowledge the changes as exciting and beneficial for us, sating my fear and providing the validation I needed. He made me believe I was on the right track.

This time, he gave me a different response.

"So, no more guaranteed spots?"

"Negative. The day of the Elite is over. It had a good run, but...I'm concerned about how the title grew into their head, changed their attitudes over time. It changed how they treated people. Privileges became entitlements. That's not quite the direction I intended. Once their spot was 100% secure, they...well, some of them...began to act like they were untouchable."

"I'm not sure the new incentives are gonna be worth it."

Perhaps my wording wasn't entirely clear. "Look, functionally, it is the same thing as it was. If you behave responsibly and are consistent...essentially, the Elite of yore, you'll still have the same spot week-after-week. I've just removed the language about a permanent guarantee." To add clarity to my stance, I framed an example around Bheer himself, "Let's look at your spot. You were in a highly sought-after position. There were no other enhancement shaman. You were a model citizen. You signed up. You showed up. In this framework, you yourself would be present in practically every raid you request."

"But you still have the old rule written in the new Elite rank that they're expected at all raids."

"Absolutely. Again, it's not functionally different than before. The new Elite rank is still going to grant perks, but they're going to be held accountable this time. The same goes for the changes to 1st-round bidding. They're going to have to really think about what they want to burn their first round bids on, because in doing so, they reset their pool. Just additional guardrails in place to prevent people from abusing the loot system. They can still bid 1st round...it's just that now, the price to come to the table is far more significant."

I sat back in my chair, confident I'd clarified the change to Bheer. His response popped up a few moments later.

"Hopefully, that will fix the problem with folks like Eh Team colluding behind your back."

The excitement and energy in talking about my changes to the guild rules instantly came to a halt. At first, I thought I misread it. I tilted my head, squinting, leaning closer to the monitor, and re-reading the words next to his name.

.........What?

"What do you mean 'colluding'?"

As Bheer's words began to appear in the IM window, a debilitating rage welled up inside me. My teeth clenched as his story unfolded, and the glow of my monitor took on a reddish hue.

Mechanism of Convenience

A cycle repeated as Bheer revealed the grand conspiracy. Part of the story would appear in the IM window, causing my mind to leap back through time like a movie on rewind, trying desperately to pinpoint what happened when, and why I wasn't able to pick up on it. The further back I rewound my memories, the more lost in a trance I was, tightening my fists until my knuckles were white and my fingernails dug in to the skin. Then, I'd snap out of it, re-focus on the story, only to have each successive reveal toss me back into the projector of the mind, the anger blinding me to my own self-mutilation. And I scrambled to isolate the individual pieces. What had I not paid attention to? How had I let this happen? What signs had I missed?

It came about during Ulduar, Bheer claimed. The "initial discussions". They set up a chat channel in-game, protected by a password. Originally, it was to serve as a private bitching area for members of the Eh Team to collectively shit on players they felt were being carried in the 25-Man. Nobody was to share the existence of the channel to anyone in officership. Guild members that were deemed "too close to Hanzo" would also be excluded from this information. Once all of the individual members of the Eh Team acquired a rank of Elite, an alternate looting strategy was floated to the group. As items dropped from bosses, there would be a quick discussion among the group on whether or not the item would be beneficial to Eh Team. If it was, they coordinated their bidding, ensuring that someone locked down the item via a 1st-round bid, denying the item to any potential Raiders that were working towards their own upgrade.

"Were you in on this?"

"I refused to participate, as did Guns. Everyone else had a hand in it."

"Why didn’t you tell me about this before?"

"It was a mechanism of convenience that allowed the Eh Team to flourish, and we were doing well. Really well, actually. I didn't agree with it, but I also didn't want to jeopardize our track record."

I zeroed in on the irony of that statement, "...even though they kicked you to the curb, anyway."

"Well, yes, but that came later. I didn't know they were going to turn on me like that."

I took a deep breath. "Whose idea was it?"

"Crasian was the one who initially started suggesting it. The rest went along with it."

Crasian. The death knight who came and went as he pleased. The player who earned Elite, only to leave to go skiing, who claimed to have thrown a hissy-fit when I chose myself as the first to claim Shadowmourne. The death knight who lost a melee officer promotion to Jungard by a simple lax in judgement. Jungard himself had warned me about Crasian's two sides. There was the popular, guild-friendly face who loved to help fellow members knock out achievements. Behind closed doors, the other face emerged, following his own agenda to establish a steady flow of upgrades to himself, no matter what promises to guildies went unfulfilled. As long as he got his skiing in, that was the most important part.

Crasian.

He would never set foot in this guild again.

The Unusual Suspects

There was nothing I wanted to do less. Staring at the Eh Team's vent channel made me want to just draw a box around all of their names, right-click, and mass ban in one fell swoop. There's your mediation. But I owed it to them to hear them out. I was obligated to consider both sides of the story, to get a clearer picture of what actually went down. It was all part of the job. Kicking out a wife on account of her husband's bad behavior, or removing a stand-up guy from officership because he couldn't cut the mustard were tasks that seemed lightweight upon reflection. Now I was going to have to call people's credibility into question. Was Bheer's story a fabrication? Or had they genuinely lied to my face about their behavior -- Enron-esque loot funds diverted into their own accounts.

One by one, I plucked them out of the channel, dragging their name down into "Officer" for interrogation. The line of questioning was the same for each Eh Team member. I'd like you to take a moment and explain to me your point-of-view of the events that transpired in the private Eh Team chat channel with regards to loot. It should have been enough to convey exactly what I was speaking about, without playing my full hand to the table. They didn't need to know Bheer was the one who revealed the conspiracy; in the absence of that knowledge, I felt they'd give me a more accurate story.

In some cases, they really played dumb. When I fished the answers out of them, you would've thought they had just joined the guild yesterday -- manufactured shock and surprise to mollify me. They all told me something different, speaking as though they were an outside observer to something they had all been privy to. It only fueled my rage further.

Gunsmokeco: "That was going on? Really? I guess I wasn't paying attention to it."

Just like you weren't paying attention to your addons that I specifically required all players and officers to have configured for the 25-Man? At what point did you feel like you wanted to start paying attention?

Larada: "Had no idea anything was going on like that. I definitely wasn't doing it, though."

The ignorance defense seems to work incredibly well. I wonder how that works in the real world.

Sixfold: "I knew that they were trying to find a way to keep things in the inner circle, but it...I dunno...it felt unfair. I wasn't happy about them doing it. I didn't really like the idea."

...and yet you didn't feel the need to bring it to my attention, that perhaps maybe this was going against the rules.

Bulwinkul: "I dunno why I didn't say anything, but I'm not proud of it. It started as a way to vent frustrations at some of the other players who weren't contributing as much as we were."

Except that you don't get to decide what level of contribution is rewarded in this guild...I do.

Omaric: "Crasian got a little loot hungry, sure, but I wouldn't call it 'collusion'. They were just trying to work out what the most efficient path was for a certain set of upgrades."

And working together to decide who bids on what and when, under the guise of 'efficiency', you wouldn't call that collusion, eh?

Bretthew: "This is an absolute lie. Who told you this? I mean, this really pisses me off, Hanzo, I really really want to know who it was that gave you this info, because it is totally false and unfair. God, this makes me angry! The stuff that we chatted about in that channel was not collusion. Totally not collusion. The kinds of things we talked about regarding loot were no different than anything that was talked about in the officer chat. Officers did exactly the same things as we did, and nothing more. I'm offended, Hanzo."

So, what you're saying is that when I type "Please let it be heroic Deathbringer's Will" in officer chat, that's the same as you typing, "Anyone here need Voldrethar? Should we snatch it up?" Thanks for clarifying that for me.

One thing they all agreed on: when questioned on who the ringleader was, no individual member ever stepped up to take responsibility. Crasian certainly took the brunt of the bus' tire treads when it came time to place the blame on someone for the idea itself...but allowing the idea to take root and flourish fell squarely on the shoulders of the Eh Team's leader.  Yet in a stroke of either convenience, genius, oversight, or simple dumb luck, nobody in Eh Team claimed to be the one calling the shots! The one thing they all believed to be true was that they made decisions together -- a democracy of misfits and anarchists whose plausible deniability absolved them of any accountability.

What they didn't realize, however, was that there was someone who was responsible. Someone who had long since taken their leave from World of Warcraft. Someone whose ideals weren't quite aligned with my own -- especially when it came to loot. Someone who had the means to let their belief system justify a new world order of their own. Someone who had an obligation to the guild to report bad behavior and greed, rather than allow it to flourish.

Someone who really should have known better than all these bit players in the Eh Team show.

Someone that I trusted.