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All the World's a Stage: Oh the drama! -- When to "/ignore"
All the World's a Stage is a weekly column by David Bowers, published on Sunday evenings, investigating the explorative performance art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.We've talked before about roleplaying as an art form, whether you think about it as acting or puppeteering, fiction or improv, there's definitely something creative going on here. But like any art form, roleplaying is best when it means something; that's to say, when it expresses something ultimately "true" about human experience, and perhaps even illumines the minds and hearts of the roleplayers in some way.Roleplayers all want to achieve that creativity, of course, but one problem often stands in our way: it's a rare work of art that really works for everyone. That's why the regular old art world is such a complete mess -- one man's fingerpainting is another man's post-modernist masterpiece. People constantly disagree about what subjects make for acceptable art, whether some art pushes extremes too far and becomes obscenity, and whether real art actually requires talent and skill. One person may curl up with their favorite Jane Austen novel and read it for the 10th time, while another may come home from the comic book store with the epic adventures of the Bone cousins. Each story conveys very different things to the reader -- but then the people who want to read these stories are looking for different things to get out them as well. Each form of storytelling speaks its own language for its own special audience.We have the same problem in roleplaying. To illustrate, imagine there's a teenage boy going through public school and not getting along with his peers very well. When he roleplays, he plays an intimidating character who likes to try to get in your face, pick a fight with you and insult you to show how very powerful he is. That power fantasy may be very annoying for you and me, but for him it really means something. That's not to say it's high-quality art by any means, but nonetheless, his feelings are important too, and he has his right to play a character on an RP server the same way we all do. It's just that for us, the "/ignore" command starts to look really tempting every time his sort comes along.
Guildwatch: Salute to guildleaders
Who are these poor souls who lead our guilds, who gladly (in most cases) take on what is definitely a part time job (if not full time) in order to outfit 25 people with epic gear and provide an online social outlet? Who are these folks, that they bend over backwards to make everyone they've /ginvited happy and sometimes get so stressed that they, for lack of a better term, flip out and /gdisband? We don't know where you guildleaders get your drive from, but from signing the charter to /gkicking everyone and ninja-ing the guild bank, we salute you.Time once again for Guildwatch, your weekly look at drama, downed, and recruiting news from around the realms. As always, your tips fuel this space-- send them (anonymous or otherwise) to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Click the link below to see today's GW.
Guildwatch: The most important thing
Guild drama is a lot like falling in love. It's the most cliche thing in the world-- everyone's been through it before, usually more than once. But when it happens to you, it seems like there's nothing more important. When you're the one cursing out your guildleader on Vent for giving the loot to his friend instead of the person who rolled 100 on it (you), you feel like you're the only person this has ever happened to in this way.And that's why I love writing Guildwatch, your weekly look at drama, downed, and recruiting news from around the realms. We can't cover everything, but we can absolutely cover everything you send to us-- tips go to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Hit the link below to see who fell not in love, but out of their guild this week.
Guildwatch: Wish you were here
I like it when people spend a little time to gussy up their guild's raiding pictures. A good, detailed guild kill picture (like the one from Order of the Raven on Aggramar above), is like a nice little postcard, a souvenir for everyone on the raid. If your guild has a particularly nice or well designed kill shot, send it to wowguildwatch@gmail.com (along with your drama, downed, and recruiting tips as always) and we might have a whole gallery of them to show off next week.In the meantime, click the link below to get your weekly dose of drama, downed, and recruiting news. It's all the guild action you'd want, without ever signing a charter!
Guildwatch: Cookie drama
Wait, does that really say 17 healers on Maiden? That has nothing to do with the actual story, but 17 healers? How do you take 17 healers on a 10 man raid?This week's look at guild drama, downing, and recruiting starts right after the jump. Don't forget to send us your tips at wowguildwatch@gmail.com, as they're how this whole thing gets done. Click the link to read on!
The real story behind the iPhone unlock GUI drama
So as you may have seen on some other sites, there was a little bit of drama today around the iPhone unlock program written (in part) by our own Erica Sadun. Lots of rumors are flying around, and lots of folks have it almost right. But none of them knows the real story. And since Sadun works for us, we have kind of an inside track on what really happened. So here it is. var digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/apple/The_real_story_behind_the_iPhone_unlock_GUI_drama'; First of all, Erica didn't write the unlock application itself. The iPhone Dev Team did that, and it apparently is a real, no-code-stolen software unlock-- put it on your iPhone, run it, and then use any SIM you want. Erica only started to write the barebones of a GUI application for the unlock, and gave that code to the dev team.Which is where this haRRo person gets involved. He, a Belfast, UK man, is not a member of the dev team, but pretended to be. He apparently took Erica's code out of the IRC channel, with the intent of selling it as his own application. He even got an offer from an Australian company, $50k AUD, to allow the application he said he'd written.But he didn't write it. At all. Because while yes, the code he tried to sell was updated from Erica's code, it wasn't by haRRo. He actually contacted another coder to do the job-- who we spoke with, and our IM conversation can be seen after the jump.Update: Post updated below.
Guildwatch: Careful what you ask for...
I was just joking when I said "video or it didn't happen" to a guild's announcement of a Paladin-tanked Prince kill last week, but they weren't messing around: they actually got me video. You guys didn't have to go to all that trouble! But since you did, I'll say this: Ok, some Paladins, in some situations, with the right group makeups, may possibly, at times, be able to tank.Happy now? I still won't sing the praises of Paladin tanks until I can see one for myself, but I guess I'll allow that yes, sometimes, Paladins might have the ability to tank. This week's Guildwatch, your weekly dose of drama, Paladin-enabled downing, and recruitment, starts right after you click the link below. Tips may be sent, please (by Paladins or anyone else), to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Thanks!
Guildwatch: The drama trifecta
I never, ever thought this would happen, but apparently people are actually trying to be the biggest Guildwatch drama story now. Someone emailed a tip in hoping that his drama would be highlighted here on the front page, and unfortunately, while his tip was good (a massive PvP battle after a forum flame war), it just didn't match up to this mega ninja/ gquit/ game quit from Barthilas. But better luck next week, drama queens!This week's GW starts right after you click the link below. And don't forget: the place to send all your info about drama, downings, or recruiting notices is wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Onward!
"The Karazhan mistake"
AFK Gamer's got a great post up about what he calls "The Karazhan Mistake." At BlizzCon, and now in Leipzeig, Blizzard has been patting themselves on the back for the 10man raid of Karazhan-- it's clearly the most popular raid in the expansion (does that have anything to do with the fact that it's the first raid most guilds do?), and so they say the 10man raid idea of theirs is the bomb. Along with the new Zul'Aman, we can expect to see more 10mans in Wrath of the Lich King.But AFK says they've learned the wrong lesson. While Karazhan is definitely popular, creating a 10man raid in the guild progression path (remember, UBRS didn't start as a 10man, and it wasn't really a progression instance) was a mistake. It's more or less where all the guild drama and frustration in the expansion has come from-- guilds with only 10 people are rare and far between, and so most guilds have to schedule and run multiple raid IDs just to get everyone through there. And now (eight months after the expansion has dropped), while most guilds have finally got Karazhan (and all that raid coordination) down pat, they're dealing with another problem: beefing back up to 25 for the rest of the raids. Blizzard's making guilds jump through all these hoops, and deal with all of this group A/B drama, and they're citing Karazhan as a success?AFK's solution is a simple one: lower the cooldown on raid IDs. (His other solution is to have raid IDs be guildwide, but letting only 10 people in a guild run Karazhan weekly is a terrible idea.) That would more or less take the raid out of progression (in essence, turn it into UBRS), and let you go there whenever you had 10 people ready and willing, leaving the real raiding to the 25 mans.Personally, I love Karazhan. It's a great dungeon with some cool bosses and lore, and Blizzard's right: it's how raids should be done. It's just too bad that, by creating a great 10 man in a world full of 25 man raids, they caused guilds (especially guilds just starting to raid) so much trouble.w[ via Mystic Worlds ]
Guildwatch: Happy birthday, GW!
Yeah, I can't believe it either, but as of August 8th (which was actually a few weeks ago), Guildwatch, just like some realms, has been going down every Tuesday for a year. Well, not quite every Tuesday-- most guilds took a little break from raiding when Burning Crusade dropped, and we took a little break from reporting it. Started up again in February, and have been rolling ever since then.But I have to say, when I thought up this little slice of guild drama, downed news, and recruiting from around the realms, I had no idea anyone would share my appreciation for news like this. Big thanks to everyone who sent their tips in (to wowguildwatch@gmail.com-- and you can send tips right now for next week's column), and an even bigger thanks to everyone out there who got really angry about something happening in their guild, and decided to do something irrational about it. You're the oil that greases our wheels! Thanks!Click the link below to see this week's GW.
Guildwatch: An honest mistake
Sometimes you just mess up, you know? In today's GW, a guy gets to go on a trial run with a Black Temple-bound guild, and after seeing the amazing sight of Kael'thas being dropped for the first time, gets a little confused during the looting. Happens to the best of us, really.To get your own guild news here (or share with us some juicy drama that you've heard about), send a tip to wowguildwatch@gmail.com-- every time you drop a tip to us, a level 40 gets their mount. To read this week's GW, click the link below.
Harry Plotter and the Ninja of the Phoenix
Long, long ago, when dinosaurs roamed Azeroth and barely anyone I knew had their epic mount, we used to argue about what would happen if the tiger mount dropped in ZG. This was back when the epic mounts themselves were the expensive part, not the training. There were two different schools of thought on the subject. There were some who thought that people without an epic mount should get first dibs, as it would essentially be only a cosmetic upgrade for people who had their epics. The other people thought that epic mount-holders shouldn't be prevented from rolling on a rare, awesome thing just because they had taken the time to farm for their epic. This argument largely died when the cost of mount training became the expensive thing. Or did it? Recently, a guild on my server killed Kael'thas and received the Ashes of Al'ar, also known as the phoenix mount. The guild leader/master looter linked all the loot, said that they would discuss the phoenix mount later ... and after the rest of the loot was handed out, proceeded to masterloot it to himself. A few officers of the guild defended his actions by saying that some officers had encouraged him to take it, which somewhat neglects the fact that this guild runs on DKP instead of officer loot, and that running a guild is a tough job that deserves some extra recognition. This has prompted a spirited discussion about what to do when ultra-rare mounts drop. There seems to be five options here: masterlooting it to yourself, having everyone roll, having everyone with 300 skill roll, bidding DKP, or having everyone with 300 skill bid DKP. Most people I've talked to seem to think that masterlooting it to yourself is a cheap option, but are undecided as to whether you should have to have 300 riding skill to roll. Personally, I think that this would be an excellent opportunity to use a bidding DKP system, even if you have fixed DKP values (like my guild does) because it's hard to assign worth to a cosmetic upgrade. That way, people who really, really want a phoenix mount can blow all their DKP to get it. What do you think guilds should do about rare mount drops? Is it really a ninja if the masterlooter takes something? Should guild/raid leaders get some sort of bonus when it comes to loot distribution? Edited to add: Uxorious and Chad are not the same person.The GM of this guild is a good person, and I personally do not believe he's a "ninja" in the classic definition, of maliciously taking an item. Officers from the guild in question have said in the comments that they were unprepared for the mount to drop and, in the confusion, they encouraged the leader to take it.
Guildwatch: A turn for the worse
I've seen some pretty harsh drama here on Guildwatch, but this week it seems like all the drama just got turned up to 11, and it's gone from being fun to just plain being lame. I don't want to ruin the fun (and hopefully next week we'll get some good old ninja looting news to laugh at), but it's just a game, folks. Hate to see people get hurt over any of this stuff.At any rate, you can find this week's guild drama, downed, and recruiting notices right after the jump. If you do have a good story to share, make sure to send it to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Click the link below to read on.
High infidelity
If you've been anywhere on the WoW forums this weekend, you've probably heard the tale of Demeter and Gilgamesh from Onyxia. Demeter, the guild leader of Dirty Sons of Liches, posted on his realm forums that he had discovered Gilgamesh, his wife, was being "too friendly" with members of his guild in Vent. In return, he offered GMship of his guild to anyone who could provide him with more information and details about the Vent infidelities. The drama exploded, featuring screenshots, videos, supposed confessions from cyberers -- all without the involvement of Gilgamesh, who is suppposedly away for the weekend. Demeter attempted to backtrack and claim the whole thing was a hoax, but he eventually printed the character name of one of the accused -- and the real name and phone number of another. I assume that post is going to be deleted quickly, so I'm not going to link it. Whether it's real adultery, or merely the best troll ever, remains to be decided. Yes, it's just another tale of sordid e-drama, but it's a good example of something I've seen happen more than once in WoW. A couple plays WoW together, they join a guild, maybe they even rise to guild leadership -- and then one of the two hooks up with another player they met online, destroying the relationship/marriage/guild. A friend of mine, "Skwisgaar", had this unfortunate series of events happen to him some time ago, and he's agreed to talk to me about what went down, and how other WoW players can avoid getting e-cuckolded.
Live performance in a virtual world
This piece on Terra Nova got the gears turning in my head again about something I've been thinking about for a while: a live dramatic performance in the virtual world. The article goes a little deeper than that-- basically, it suggests that we're all performers in the virtual world, and all the world (of Warcraft) is a stage for us to perform on. You may not be a roleplayer, but you still play a role in the game, whether it be the stalwart main tank or the ganking PvP moonkin.But I'm talking about something a little more concrete: an actual dramatic production performed inside a virtual world. Unfortunately, my background in drama is tiny (I did some production stuff in high school and college), which is probably why I've never mustered up enough effort to pull it off, but others have, and I'd love to see more of it. The colorful, fantasy world of WoW seems perfect for putting on a production-- can you imagine Hamlet in the corridors of the Stormwind castle, or The Tempest down in the tropics in Stranglethorn Vale? It'd be a lot of work (not to mention a lot of typing) for all those involved, but a finished, complete production created entirely within the world of Azeroth would be incredible to watch.There have been a few groups aiming for something like this (the Synthetic Worlds Initiative even planned an entire online world about Shakespeare, at one point, though I'm not sure what happened to it). And I can't believe this idea is original-- someone has to have performed something in WoW at some point, I'm sure; I just haven't heard of anyone really taking the time to do it professionally (and live). We're already playing our own made-up roles in the virtual world-- the idea of going one step further and recreating fictional characters in that world fascinates me.
Guildwatch: How casual is casual?
Do you consider your guild to be a casual one? If so, how often do you raid? Today in Guildwatch, we've got news of a guild that considers themselves casual, but has downed 3 bosses in Serpentshrine, and raids three nights a week, four hours a raid. Is that casual or hardcore? What is casual raiding, exactly? And have you ever heard of a guild that's working through Black Temple while only raiding once a week? Is that even possible?Along with all those questions, we've got your weekly dose of guild drama, downed, and recruiting notices, as we do every week on Tuesday (and feel free to send us your own for next week, at wowguildwatch@gmail.com). Hit the link to check out this week's GW!
Guildwatch: My GM may be trying to kill me (not joke)
We got some crazy, cop-calling drama this week-- there's violence, sex, and even a little partying. I think it's just the summer-- WoW players get a little loony when it gets warm out, I guess. Fortunately, I've got the music from this guild video to calm me down.If you've got a tip about drama, boss kills, or recruiting happening out there on the realms. drop a note to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. In the meantime, hit the link below to see this week's Guildwatch.*Update: Movie was autoplaying, sorry about that. Don't listen to the haters, Chaotic Precision moviemaker-- I like the music.
Guildwatch: A good healer is hard to find
Maybe it's just because Karazhan is full of undead, but it seems like healers are in dire need by guilds these days-- used to be that tanks were hard to find, but now almost everybody needs more healers-- holy Priests and Pallies, and resto Shamans and Druids. If you can cast a healing spell, we need you!Guildwatch is your weekly look at drama, downed, and recruiting notices from all over the realms, in both the US and the EU. For this week's glance at guild turmoil and triumph, hit the link below. And to send your own info in, just drop a line to wowguildwatch@gmail.com!
Guildwatch: A strange form of payback
Imagine for one second that you're an amazing raider (Yes, I know it's hard, but do it anyway). Imagine that a guild working on the Black Temple actually invites you out of your guild to come and raid with them. Would you do it? Would you leave your own guild behind just to go to the Black Temple? That's the choice that one guild's main tank was faced with, and he chose to leave his guild behind. And then they chose to log on to his account, and as payback, as you can see in the movie above, delete every one of his characters.Ouch is right. Not quite sure that was called for (although, as someone points out, since he's got such a clear record of everything that was deleted, he'll probably be able to get it back from Blizzard). Still, not exactly the best way to congratulate your guildie on getting "promoted." That drama, and much more in this week's GW, which starts right after the jump. Want to send us juicy drama of your own? Drop a tip to wowguildwatch@gmail.com.
Guildwatch: The other side
Attumen sure talks a big game, doesn't he? But just like all the other little dominoes in Karazhan, he falls down easy when you push him hard enough. Lots of guild are finishing Karazhan by now-- so next week, let's see some big Gruul kills, ok?For this week's dose of drama, downings, and recruitment, just hit the link below. And send your own tips (please!) to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Always knew... someday I would become... the hunted.
