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Drama Mamas: The case of the badgered scapegoat
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. We're still looking for responses from people who have received our advice. If we've answered your letter, please tell us how things worked out. Send it in to robin@wowinsider.com so we can add it to our annual results column. This week's letter comes from a returning player. Hi. After a year long hiatus, I'm coming back to wow on my own, my friends have either stopped, migrated, or are doing Heroic Mode which I can't. So I just joined a random guild as a slightly-undergeared Priest, we're at 11/14 Normal. I'm having issues though. - One is I'm not very good in the meters (usually 20-ish % below the similarly-geared RCham my GM plays), and the RL/GM is constantly on my case about it. No matter that I'm usually not the first healer to die, causing the wipe, or that my tasks are done (don't let Thok's kiter die, solo-heal one side of the Spoils...), the Truth is in the meters. Also, on the rare occasion I die first, I've got to justify myself over vent, on top of my spontaneaous apology. On the numerous occasions the GM does die first (usually twice, she's a shamy), she's quite mum about it.
Storyboard: Only mostly dead
Dead is dead. I can't stand when comics endlessly bring back dead characters, I can't stand when shows bring back dead villains, and I can't stand when death is treated less like the final note and more like a brief inconvenience. If you want someone to come back from the dead, don't kill the character in the first place! Death needs to be permanent to have any impact. So this week's article is all about ignoring that and bringing characters back from the dead anyhow because the only reason to have rules is to know when to occasionally break them. Roleplaying deaths are already rare, of course. I can count how many characters I've actually killed on one hand, and that's stretching back to roleplaying in Final Fantasy XI (abortively). But sometimes you decide that you want someone alive after all. And when it's done carefully, you can actually make the revival interesting again because you're not doing it for shock value so much as making a point.
The Guild Counsel: What EverQuest Next Landmark means to guilds
With the arrival of EverQuest Next Landmark's alpha, the buzz is all about how the game is a fresh change from what we've been used to in MMOs. And actually, in some ways, it's a return to the roots of the MMO industry. But EQ Next Landmark is also redefining the whole concept of guilds, perhaps in the process raising the question of what guilds will look like in the future. In this week's Guild Counsel, let's look at how Landmark could drastically change the way we think about guilds in MMOs.
Ask Massively: Vanguard's CE, Pandaria, and region-locked servers
It can be easy to forget how awesome MMO players are when we're knee-deep in troll-infested comment threads, but a note from a reader named Joshua this week served as the perfect perspective-reorientation: I was helping my brother demo and clean his father-in-law's home today and stumbled upon what appears to be a mint-condition Vanguard limited edition (collectors edition?). It looks to have all the goods, so I was wondering whether anyone at Massively would like to have it. Knowing how easy it is to get attached to these games, I figured someone would want it for sentimental reasons (I still have my DAOC boxes and books!). I don't know whether our staff will take you up on it, but just the fact that you thought of offering it to our bereaved fans instead of making a beeline for eBay warmed my heart.
Drama Mamas: The mechanics of handling our drama
A curious reader writes: This isn't actually an advice question, more a curious query. I've noticed some topical overlap between the Drama Mamas column and the Officers' Quarters column on WoW Insider. Do you guys ever punt submissions over the fence to one another? What criteria should people use when deciding which column they should send their request to? Thanks! -- Josh Guild drama is everywhere ... But yes, there is a method to divvying up all the madness! The Drama Mamas have invited along Scott Andrews from Officers' Quarters this week to help explain how and when they share reader letters. We'll also look at ways to increase your chances of getting a letter published, plus what really happens behind the scenes when Robin and Lisa disagree over a particular letter.
Storyboard: Secrets that aren't helping
Roleplaying characters are often secretive sorts. This is understandable; a lot of people are secretive sorts. Sure, you're not deceptive, but you harbor a secret affection for Lady Gaga that you don't want to tell anyone about, or you secretly did forget to feed the cat that one time she broke into the cupboard and ate an entire bag of cat food, or you're secretly cheating on your girlfriend (but it's fine because she's cheating on you, you think). The problem is that in roleplaying, some secrets are just plain better than others. Keep in mind that I'm talking about specific secrets here, not just things that people might not know yet. There are certain secrets that are just plain counterproductive, and it's better to have these things stated outright rather than held in reserve for the future. Even if it's supposed to be a secret, some secrets are better revealed than kept because keeping 'em isn't doing you any favors.
The Guild Counsel: Guild-friendly Vanguard features I know I'll miss
When the news of Vanguard's sunsetting broke, I got thinking about what best describes the Vanguard experience to those who didn't play it. And the one feature that sums it up best is the /rope command. When the game launched, it came with more than a few bugs, and one nagging problem was that players would get stuck in the terrain or even fall through the world. To help solve the problem, players could target the stuck player and use the /rope command to summon him out and up to their spot. Much of Vanguard was like that: moments of frustration from bugged content, but also moments of teamwork and community pulling together to make it work. Vanguard was the diamond in the rough that never got polished. It was a gorgeous world, with some hints of truly innovative gameplay, but it was often overshadowed by intrinsic problems at the core of the game. Despite it all, Vanguard has one of the best communities around, and there were many ways in which the game brought players and guilds together. Let's look at what will be missed in this week's Guild Counsel.
Drama Mamas: Addiction or no?
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. Have you had your letter answered here on Drama Mamas? If so, please drop us a line at robin@wowinsider.com and let us know how things are going. We'll round up your responses into our annual results column. Let this week's drama commence. I have an issue that's probably not uncommon to some readers of WoW Insider. I play WoW. I adore it, it's the most fun I've ever had with a computer. I live with a person who LIVES WoW. I don't mean that in a glancing-blow type way. That's what she does. She wakes up, goes to her computer, and plays WoW, then goes to sleep when no one else is online. She wakes up in the middle of the night to check guild chat on her phone. Her daughter is failing Math? It can wait, Raid is in an hour. Full raid gear on one character? Time to level another and get that one geared too. Relatives living in the same house want to talk? Hang on, quest turn-in time. You see where I'm going with this.
Storyboard: How to say goodbye and mean it
So you know it's time to say goodbye. Your previous group of roleplaying companions just isn't filling that need you have for roleplaying, and that means it's time for you to pick up shop and move on. Great. Your metaphorical bags are packed, you're ready to pick up shop, and all that remains it to figure out where you're going to go. Right. That part. Where are you going to go? When you've been with one group of players for a while, it's tempting to see the game in pretty narrow terms because the focus narrows. The game is less about the whole server and more about the people whom you spend your time with in the game, naturally. But when you take away the group that you've been immersed in for so long, you're back to looking at an overall environment you hadn't considered. So here are some tips to make leaving as painless as possible.
Looking for Guild: WildStar
In this week's Looking for Guild column, we have a WildStar beta player looking for a home. The game may not be officially launched yet, but the videos and guides from other beta players are getting many fans excited for what's to come. Are you looking for a guild in a new game? Even if you're just looking to try a different guild in an old game, the Looking for Guild column can help. Follow along after the jump to read more on how to get listed.
The Guild Counsel: Seeking a guild? Watch for these red flags
Each week in this column, we explore common issues in guild management, with a focus on tips to be a successful guild leader. But this week, let's turn the tables a bit and look at things from the perspective of an unguilded player. With the rise of free-to-play in many MMOs, there's a larger pool of players from which guilds recruit. But before you take that guild invite, there are a few red flags to be wary of when joining a guild. For every good guild, there's a guild out there that makes you regret clicking that "join" button and leaves you wishing you had those misspent hours back after you leave. In this week's Guild Counsel, let's look at what to avoid when you're considering joining a guild.
Ask Massively: You get a gold star
Since the introduction of the new "featured comments" highlighting in Massively comments section, several community members have inquired about how it works, who selects the comments, and what the point is other than to give seemingly random people a mild internet ego boost. These are excellent questions whose answers do affect our community, and I posed several of them myself in a meeting with a Livefyre rep just a few weeks ago. Let's talk about how it all works in today's Ask Massively and create a convenient link to add to our growing site FAQ.
Drama Mamas: Guild friends without benefits
In an era when it's so easy to open a group or raid to a casual acquaintance, what value does guild membership still hold? Are individual contributors vital to building your guild's strength? Can your ship carry the weight of barnacles that don't contribute? I'm the leader of a small casual guild. We do a lot of achievement, transmog, and mount runs, and just old stuff for fun. The only current tier raiding we do is Flex mode. Everyone enjoys it and we do fairly well. Awhile back I read a post on our server forum from someone looking for a Flex group since his guild doesn't do too much of anything. He didn't want to leave his current guild, which was fine with us. He sounded like a cool guy so I invited him to our Flex group. He's been doing well and is a great group member. The issue is this: This guy we picked up on our server forums (and his guildmate friend which also joins us. Both are good group members) has integrated himself to our guild, and Vent server, and a couple of times he was the 8th person in a group for an old raid which we're still lacking in guild achievements. I guess my question is this: Am I wrong for having a problem with these 2 joining our guild runs when they're not guilded? I personally would leave my guild if I had to look elsewhere for the things I enjoy, but that's just me. They have a loyalty to their guild leader for reasons unknown, which is fine, but are we being used here? Am I wrong if I ask these two to either join the guild or work on recruiting for theirs (in a diplomatic way of course!) Guild achievements are a big reason for my issue with these two. Not to mention the communication barrier with people not in our guild chat when someone blurts something out. Opinions? Am I being a total jerk and should just live and let live? LOL Or should I tell this guy to join us or go away? Thanks for any help you can give, and Happy New Year!
Storyboard: Being who you aren't
There is, as I have discussed, a group of roleplayers for whom the game is the thing. If the game doesn't allow you to be a moisture farmer, then why would you want to pretend to be a moisture farmer? Similarly, if you're not actually a master of the marketplace or sitting on huge assets in the game, why would you want to pretend that you are? I am not one of those people. I'm playing a financial wizard partly because I am not a financial wizard. And it's not that I don't love games where that's a viable option, but that's a different discussion. However, this does raise the question of how you can pretend to portray something you aren't intimately familiar with. If I'm playing a doctor, I'm going to run into the simple problem that I'm not a doctor in real life (full-time writers rarely receive extensive medical training). All of roleplaying is some degree of pretending to be something you're not, but how do you do so when it's something that's a bit harder to fake?
The Guild Counsel: There are no bad players, only bad guild matches
If you had to pinpoint the source of what causes most guild drama, it almost always comes down to the guild's screening process. We've certainly looked at recruiting before and how important it is to create a system that effectively matches up your guild with like-minded players, but all too often, when there is a problem with a new member, the frustration boils over and the finger pointing begins. Is it the player's fault for being a bad seed, or the guild's fault for poor management and vision? Guild leaders and players often hold long-standing resentment, and you can see it in the comments section here at Massively as well, but it's time for a change. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at why even the "worst" player has a good guild match out there and why popular thinking needs to change when it comes to judging who is "bad" and who is "good."
Drama Mamas: The case of the drama magnet
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. Every year we round up the previous drama into a results column. If we have answered your question here, please drop us an email at robin@wowinsider.com and tell us how you're doing. On to this week's drama. I've been playing mmo's for years now, I've played all different sorts with all different people. I've played PVE, I've played PVP. I've acted as mentor to new players, and I've taken the role of leader in endgame or guilds. But I made a realization recently- no matter what game I go to, no matter what role I take, I am a drama magnet.
Storyboard: Maybe I should go
Friendships don't always last forever. The people who made great roleplaying partners a year ago might not make such great partners for you today. Sometimes it's time to stop hanging out with the same old crowd and start finding yourself a new group to call home. Maybe it's a clash of personalities. Maybe it's a change in characters. Maybe it's just that you know as long as Tim and Anna are your main roleplaying partners you're going to be doing the same three plotlines from here to eternity because Tim really likes those three plotlines. The point is, there comes a point when it's time to say farewell and move on to a new group. So when is it time? That's a slightly more difficult question. Obviously, the people you gather around you for roleplaying are people you like to roleplay with; otherwise, you wouldn't have them around you in the first place. Telling them that you just don't want to any longer is a bit of a step. So let's talk about the when, and in a couple weeks we can talk about the how.
The Guild Counsel: Recruitment tips in the age of free-to-play
Free-to-play is here to stay, and in just a few short years, the MMO landscape has changed dramatically. It seems like just yesterday that games like SWTOR and RIFT were adamantly insisting that the subscription model was the best plan for them. And four years ago, if you had suggested that most MMOs would adopt a free-to-play business model, people would question your sanity. Today, if you claim that the subscription model is the best bet, you'll get funny looks. The change has had an impact on guilds, and it's caused many guild leaders to have to rethink the way they recruit and manage their guilds. Let's take a look at how the free-to-play movement can actually help guilds build and maintain a healthy roster.
Ask Massively: Giveaways, zombies, and capturing the spirit of Ultima Online
This week in Ask Massively, we're answering questions about eerily quiet games, giveaways, and capturing the spirit of classic sandboxes and The Walking Dead. Holden asked, "Why has Perpetuum dropped off the map? I never hear about it anymore. The only time I even remember it is when I am doing searches for (more) robot/mech desktop wallpapers. Once monoclegate blew over, it was as if Perpetuum fell of the face of the earth, but it seems that it is still around from glancing at the website." This was such a good question that we went digging for an answer before we even added it to Ask Massively. It had been a long time since we'd reported on Perpetuum because it had been a long time since Perpetuum had made a big splash in the news. Readers speculated that the game's playerbase has shrunk over the last two years, but in fact over the winter holiday, developer Avatar Creations posted a dev blog detailing plans for a newbie tutorial island intended to bolster the new player population. Hopefully Holden and other fans of the game will enjoy this "island of noobs" (Avatar's words, not mine!).
Drama Mamas: Voice communication etiquette for MMO players
Photo: Moe_ Headsets and voice communications have become ubiquitous to group play in MMOs today. Guilds freely share their server addresses with pickup players. PvP groups rely on tight communication to sweep to resounding battleground victories. Even players in random groups often meet up on voice comms to simplify strategy and tactical coordination. Headsets have become quite affordable, and USB connections make it easy to simply plug in and play. Despite all this, speaking up in a channel full of strangers can be one of the more intimidating and awkward experiences in your group play experience. And then there's the other side of the coin: bearing up under the onslaught of That Guy in Vent who's cursing up a blue streak at every turn of the encounter, leaving his mic open so the rest of us can fully experience his barking dog, his blaring television and his half-chewed mouthful of pizza. The Voice Comms Etiquette talk probably wasn't part of your mama's standard coming-of-age advice repertoire, so consider this the heart-to-heart advisory every player should receive upon reaching grouping age. Go forth with awareness and the facts!
