Drama Mamas: Loot lessons
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm.
Loot drama rears its ugly head yet again this week.
Good morning Drama Mamas,
I was recently joined a guild run (not my guild) of Dragon Soul on my mage. I have never really had problems raiding on my alts. My main is in a semi hardcore raiding guild, and we were 8/8 in the first week of dragon soul. So on the off days I like to raid on my priest or mage. I really didn't think much of raiding with nine other people all from the same guild. It doesn't happen often, but guild runs typically go a lot smoother than complete PUGs.
When I joined the raid no clear loot rules were announced. I typically just wait till the first boss is killed to see how loot works. So we killed a boss and a piece of loot dropped that I could use (a wand), and the master looter in raid chat said main spec roll and linked the piece of loot. I ultimately rolled the highest; however, I got a bit suspicious how long it took for the master looter to award me the loot. The guild didn't say anything after they gave me the loot and I said thanks. I am pretty appreciative when I receive loot.
We downed a few more bosses and then another item dropped (a staff with hit rating) that I could have used for main spec. The master looter again asked for MS rolls and linked the piece of loot in raid chat. I again rolled the highest; however this time he gave the loot to his guild member the warlock who already had the second part of the legendary staff quest. I didn't understand what was going on and then they said that I could only win one piece of loot. I was pretty confused and upset. I offered to give up the other piece of loot for that one. Then in vent some members started called me a greedy bastard. I have never been a part of such a blatant scam. I immediately began to whisper the individual members, and they eventually all put me on ignore. There was not much that I could do. The group disbanded and most of them logged off the game.
I opened a ticket because I really thought that this was a blatant abuse of master looter privileges. I wrote a pretty detailed explanation and linked screen shots of the incident. My ticket eventually got answered 3 days later with a pre-written explanation about loot disputes and how they cannot help me.
I eventually looked up the warlock, who received the loot, and discovered that he gave it to the shadow priest in the raid. Am I in the wrong here? Is there any way for me to get some mediation? I understand that its only loot, but I would hate for this guild to do this to someone else in the future. I have talked with some other people from our server and they have told me that their guild leader has been known to do this in the past. I really want to get revenge, but I'm not sure how. And why does blizzard not take loot disputes seriously? or why do they always send me pre-written responses? Is there anything that I can do or that can be done?
Sincerely,
The 99%
Drama Mama Robin: First of all, /facepalm at your signature, The. Sorry to sound harsh, but discussions about virtual items in a virtual world are not really the same as discussions about the disparity of salaries in the United States. Still, let's move on to the topic at hand. Though things did not go well for you, there are at least some lessons you can learn from this incident.
Lesson 1: Always find out and agree to the loot rules before starting any run that may result in the drop of any desirable loot. Here is the main crux of the problem: "I typically just wait till the first boss is killed to see how loot works." Always get the loot rules before fighting, particularly if you are a non-guildie participating in a guild run. They may consider you a second-class sub and give first rights to guildies. This is not the right thing to do, but it does happen all the time -- as it seems to have done here. If the "only one piece of loot" rule is an actual one and not just made up on the spot to justify bad behavior, then you would have known where you stood and acted accordingly.
Lesson 2:Don't take loot disputes to public chat. If you disagree with a loot decision -- whether the loot rules were stated at the beginning or not -- talk to the Master Looter via whispers. Disputing it in front of the other groupmates will just cause them to voice an opinion, as you saw. Once you have made your claim and get a response (screenshot it of course, to cover yourself), then again, do not take any grumbling (or boasting) to the rest of the group. This will only make you look bad, regardless of any injustices.
Lesson 3:Pleading your case to each (or any) individual involved is rather harassing. Sending whispers to the other people in your raid isn't going to get you what you want. In general, raids are not a democracy. The fact that they ignored you means that you lost advocates that day instead of gaining them.
Lesson 4:Blizzard will help if an exploit was used or some other blatant violation of its Terms of Service, but not on most loot disputes. If anything, Blizzard would be more likely to chastise you for your repeated whispers to the raid members. Yes, they should have been clear with the loot rules from the beginning (which you must also take
responsibility for -- see lesson 1). Yes, they probably made up the one piece of loot rule on the fly. But no, they didn't do anything so wrong that Blizzard would get involved at all.
Again, I'm sorry this was such an unpleasant trip for you, but at least you can learn for the future. If all you get from this is lesson 1, then I think you'll avoid loot drama from now on.
Drama Mama Lisa: As it turns out, your wait-and-see method of researching loot methods worked 100% as intended. You waited to see. You saw. The end. Except then you then proceeded to make a nasty little scene and ruin the night for everyone because you didn't get your way -- on another guild's guild run, no less, where you should have expected legendary drops would be part of some process that was already in progress for the guild as a whole.
Robin's laid out all the right reasons here, but I can sum it up for you quite nicely with the words of my kids' kindergarten teacher: Unless you verify the loot procedures and either agree to proceed under those rules or opt out of the raid, you git what you git and you don't have a fit.
And if you try sometimes, you just might find ... you get what you need!
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with a little help and insight from the Drama Mamas. Play nice ... and when in doubt, ask the Drama Mamas at robin@wowinsider.com. Read Robin's section of this post on how to get your letter answered and please remember that we cannot answer privately.
