drama
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Breakfast Topic: Have you ever been the cause of guild-killing guild drama?
I admit it: I've been the first domino in guild-killing guild drama. It wasn't anything I said or did that set off the firestorm. But over the course of, oh, nearly 15 years of guild-based MMOs, my curt and final departure from two utterly dysfunctional guilds was most definitely the event that precipitated a cascade of drama leading to the spectacular implosion of both groups. (See? I told you so. Shoulda left when I did.) Still, I didn't actually cause the guild-killing drama. I can't say the same for my intrepid spouse, who is quite content to march into the breach of guild dissension with guns blazing. He's not the type to just pack up his toys and go home, like I am. Yeah, he'd be the first to admit he's probably said some things that caused people to go for one another's throats, eventually choking out the entire guild in a frenzy of righteous accusations. Good times. (Not.) 'Fess up: Have you ever said or done something that's set off a guild-wiping drama bomb? Was it a mistake on your part, or would you actually do or say the same thing again? (Yikes.)
Drama Mamas: Playing on multiple levels with different groups and partners
Sometimes having so many appealing playstyles to choose from makes deciding how to settle in to play WoW more difficult, not less. That's certainly the case when you're trying to enjoy the game with multiple sets of groups and partners -- for example, guild raiding twice a week, leveling and exploring with a significant other, and battling the enemy in battlegrounds now and again with a crew of longstanding gaming friends. Is it even possible to connect all those threads into an enjoyable gaming week without blowing every last minute of free time (and then some)? Fortunately, you can learn to combine different playstyles and groups. The trick is learning how to adjust your expectations and approach from group to group and partner to partner. Never assume that everyone "needs" or wants to cover the same content or achieve the same type of goals in the game. With a little time management and a lot of clarity among gaming partners, you can enjoyably indulge in WoW on multiple levels without the time crunch and without any drama.
Drama Mamas: Conflicting personalities
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. This week we have two letter writers having personality conflict problems with fellow guildies. Hello Drama Mamas, Long time reader, first time writer. I'll keep this as short and sweet as I can. My problem arises from two things 1. a misunderstanding between two guildmates and 2,) limited activity. A guild mate and I, in an out of game chatroom, have had some misunderstandings. While I attempt to not bring said things up in game, believing that OoGD (Out of Game Drama) remains OoGD, I am worried that this person should we have to work together, or talk to one another would shun me and be very nasty to me. A point I brought up to one of the Officers and explained that I wasn't sure if I was good a fit in the guild do to the "limited activity." The Officer told the GM, and that was when that whole mess got started. He put most, if not all, of the blame on me even though I had screen shots to prove otherwise. I have tried to smooth things over, even apologizing, and tried to explain to the GM what was going on-with the screenshots-only to be rebuked and told off, presumably (though I don't know for certain as they are good friends) with the other person also told off.
Drama Mamas: The case of the disagreeing duo
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. The duo in the letter disagrees and so does our Drama Mamas duo. Hello Drama Mamas! I recently moved in with my boyfriend, Sam, who I dated long distance for two years. I have never been happier! As you know, sometimes certain things that weren't a problem when long distance can become big ugly problems when living together. When we were long distance, Sam and I made several WoW pairs together, so we could play and be together and have fun. Almost all of those pairs have me tanking (because I love leading and tanking and fast queues keep us entertained) and some of these pairs have him healing me as I tank. All too often tanks are treated poorly. I understand that tanks may not seem necessary when leveling, but I wish more DPS would understand that many tanks find proper tanking fun, and so pulling ahead and ripping aggro can be an act of outright funsucking.
The Daily Grind: What was the worst guild meltdown you've ever seen?
Guilds break up. Just like bands, it's a sad reality. Sometimes they just slowly drift apart because some people are leaving The Secret World and other members are developing differing interests, so the guild shuts down with no animosity. Other times the shutdown is accompanied by an explosion of drama so profound that you'd swear you were undergoing multiple simultaneous divorces instead of just dissolving a gathering of EverQuest II players. There is GM intervention, there are angry phone calls, in extreme cases there may even be bricks thrown through windows. At the time, they're not fun to watch. But those horrible drama-filled guild demolitions do at least make for entertaining stories after the fact. So today we ask you: What was the worst guild meltdown you've ever seen? Were you involved in it or were you just an observer? In retrospect, was everyone blowing things out of proportion or blowing things far out of proportion? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Drama Mamas guide to going AFK
Life happens; we all get that. But should your life be happening to the 24 other people in your raid group? We (and your 24 raidmates) think not. After all, if you're here to play World of Warcraft, why do you keep going AFK? The need for and the etiquette of going away from the keyboard (AFK) was stronger in WoW's earlier days. During classic WoW, 5-manning places like Blackrock Depths was an all-night affair. Players were more forgiving of a quick dash to the bathroom, and groups doing longer content tended to schedule natural breaks along the way. Today's WoW is a much more terse affair. Scenarios, group instances, and raids are likely to be over long before your bladder is. It's not so difficult to simply plan ahead or wait for a group to come to a natural conclusion. Yet people don't always do that. Like That Guy who's always texting and checking his Twitter feed instead of looking you in the eye during a conversation, That Guy in game is likely to wander AFK just when you need him the most. Tuning out the people you're with, online or off, simply is not socially acceptable behavior. (You've heard what they're calling those tuned-out types who'll be wearing Google Glass, right? It's not a complimentary term.) The best way to handle going AFK is to avoid it in the first place. For the rest of those moments when something comes while you're grouping that's beyond your control, let's look at the best ways of managing the interruption and getting you back into the game.
Yep, it's more 38 Studios drama
Ah, 38 Studios. What would we do without the dried husk of your long-dead corpse to kick around the sanctified halls of American journalism, both actual and gaming? The latest drama from Curt Schilling's former studio comes courtesy of the New York Times, which reports on Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chaffee's latest attempt to distance himself from the fiasco surrounding 38's inability to pay back state loans. "I had so many reservations about this being a bad deal, that I was reluctant to micromanage, to have it be 'Chafee screwing this up,'" he told the Times. "And don't forget, we had our hands full in this state."
Drama Mamas: Girlfriend gamer
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. Do you remember when WoW was shiny and new? Ah, memories. Dear Drama Mamas, I am fairly new to gaming. I started playing about 4 months ago and have since become borderline obsessed with how much fun I am having. There are tons of things to do and I love discovering new things all the time. Currently I belong to my Boyfriend's guild. We play on a very low pop server and there are currently only 4 active members in the guild. He and His friends like it that way- and that's fine. They are all in charge and have been gaming forever. Mostly they focus on occasional PVP (and pet battles- don't tell him I told you!). I really enjoy playing with them and don't feel self conscious about my occasional noob-ness,However I feel that being a part of his guild/ playing on a low pop. server is a limiting experience for me as a newer gamer.
Storyboard: Dramatic community
A couple of friends of mine recently found themselves knee-deep in roleplaying community drama. For those of you who have not seen this dread beast before, let me assure you that it is the most vile of all forms of drama, in which people wind up angry at one another over elements that virtually no one else cares about. I've seen it strike many times, and it's always frustrating and unpleasant due in no small part to its sheer pointlessness. I've talked about community drama on one occasion when it comes to the Final Fantasy XIV roleplaying community, but the fact that I'm seeing it passed around elsewhere means that it's a topic worth addressing in a general sense. This isn't drama centered around what happened within the game but drama about the managerial aspects of the community, about handling site ownership and moderation and all of the associated stuff. And there are a few tricks to help minimize this before it starts.
The Drama Mamas guide to handling in-game harassment
You've tried being clear, and you've tried being firm. Somebody's on your case in game, and they're not letting up. What are your options for managing in-game harassment? Rule #1: Managing harassment is about protecting you and your enjoyment of the game, not about stopping or changing a harasser's behavior. You can't change other people. It's extremely unlikely that anything you do or say will inspire someone to see the light and become a thoughtful, more compassionate person. Managing harassment, then, is not about how to "fix" your harasser but how to extricate yourself from the situation so you can get on with playing your game.
Officers' Quarters: Charter pirates
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. I never thought I'd be writing an OQ column about intellectual property, but here we are: Hi Scott, I'll make this short and to the point, because I'm honestly at the end of my rope with just how disrespectful, inconsiderate, and shady some folks who play this game are. Without going into too much detail, we removed some folks from our guild a few weeks ago; they tried to poach our members and couldn't, so they ended up stealing our charter instead. I found out because I noticed them advertising in trade chat, so I scoped their website out. Lo and behold, there were MY words I worked so dutifully on, for many hours, over the course of a few weeks, with my co-GM and other officers. This charter was the result of almost a year's worth of questions, concerns, comments, and experiences we all have shared since forming our guild, and to see another guild just blatantly rip it off was infuriating.
Drama Mamas: Of flings and friendships
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. Harassment is as harassment does. Dear Drama Mamas, To put it simply, I am incredibly overwhelmed by a mix of issues with my guild both online and off. I have been with the same guild since about 2009(ish) and was one of the founding members. I assisted with raid leading, recruitment, and many other facets of keeping things running. Myself, our guild leader - who I will call J, and a fellow officer, W were all very close friends for several years. Until I made a fatal mistake. During a guild event myself and W got... a little too close. I know it was a mistake and it has been having a negative impact on my life for several years now. Whenever I would date anyone else, W would become incredibly jealous and angry, to the point of threatening me, and making incredibly lewd remarks to me via e-mail or messenger services. J, on the other hand did not want to become involved (reasonably so, I think) and would not address the issue.
The Think Tank: Does studio drama affect your opinion of a game?
Drama is a human condition that plagues some more than others, but it's generally unavoidable. When drama comes from a game developer, we, as players, usually respond with our own drama in the form of forum posts containing lots of all-caps. Whether it's an out-of-context interview faux pas or whatever the War Z devs are up to this week, studio drama makes the news. Some of us love it; some of us hate it. But our reaction to developers behaving badly is what we're most interested in exploring today. I asked the Massively crewmembers how they react to drama from their favorite developers. Does it affect their purchase of the game? How far is too far? Or do we need to keep studio views and the game itself separate?
Officers' Quarters: B teamed
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. This week's email comes from a player whose guild recently made the always-difficult, always-drama-fueling decision to form an A team out of their raiders. Is creating an A team the right move? When you wind up on the B team, what's next? Hi Scott, I'm a member of a medium-sized guild that has been running two raid teams simultaneously up until recently. These teams weren't fixed; group composition was mixed up every week. I rather enjoyed that, as it meant that I got to play and interact with lots of different guild members, and there was little room for cliquishness. However, the other day guild leadership announced that this was all going to change. Going forward, most of the officers will be in a fixed "progression team" while the rest of us will be left to our own devices. There should still be enough of us left to form a second team, but we'd pretty much have to make it work ourselves.
The Drama Mamas Drama-Buster Guide
Social drama -- sticky, sticky stuff. The problem with drama in a multiplayer game is that even acknowledging its existence usually engenders more. That's why so many guilds prohibit airing drama as well as any potentially controversial topic in public chat channels. Smart gamers don't manage social drama -- they dodge it. The first line of defense against drama for most players is membership in an effective guild. Savvy guilds provide a drama-free zone by offering clear, explicit guidelines and rules on common bones of contention such as loot, raid attendance, and player behavior. Debate and controversy are handled in private chat channels or forums. Not at all an attempt to squash freedom of expression, a no-drama edict is designed to free players from being forced to bear witness to an outbreak of drama, allowing guild officers to clean up the mess quickly and effectively behind the scenes. (Learn more about the structure and habits of highly effective guilds in WoW Insider's weekly Officers' Quarters.) But no guild can protect every player from the ravages of social drama. Where there are people, there will be drama. Fights with your mom or your spouse over game time, finding a guild whose definition of PG chat matches yours, handling an inappropriate player crush ... Let the Drama Mamas show you how to prevent most drama and dodge the rest.
BBC commissions first iPlayer-exclusive drama, sees which way the wind is blowing
A few weeks ago, the BBC began to ask "Where Next?" and just like magic, it's now revealing its future direction. The corporation is commissioning its first strand of original dramas that'll air exclusively on its iPlayer VOD service. The deal's rather minor, given that it'll feature six short films in two years that are aimed at BBC Three's "youth" audience, but we can't imagine this won't be followed by something meatier down the line. Perhaps we could see the corporation remaking its seminal series House of Cards... oh.
The video gamer's guide to time management
Aside from the lingering social stigma that tells us that hours immersed in an interactive game world are somehow less acceptable than hours connected to an intravenous TV drip, most of us have come to accept that video gaming has achieved full-fledged hobby status among its aficionados. Like most hobbies, it's a hungry one. Even in console games that spin a story to an inevitable conclusion, replay and achievements and hard modes and alternative endings beckon. With a subscription MMO game like World of Warcraft, the entertainment is designed never to end. Unfortunately, your supply of time to play is not equally boundless. Those hopeless, choked nights when you fear there is no possible way to hack your way into the thicket of tasks waiting to tear you to shreds come dawn are no reason to cut off your game subscription entirely. We'll show you why, and we'll follow up with tips and resources that help you keep all the plates spinning at once -- including some well-deserved game time.
Daily iPhone App: Ridiculous Fishing is ridiculously good
Vlambeer's Ridiculous Fishing is finally out on the App Store today, after a long and rough development cycle that included a well-publicized battle against a clone. But in my humble opinion, the guys at Vlambeer should never have worried. No clone could ever match up to the design talent, brilliant wit and just plain love that's been put into this game. Ridiculous Fishing lives up to its foolish title and then some. You play as a fisherman. To begin, tap to toss a hook into the water. The game then runs in three phases. First, as your hook descends, tilt the iPhone back and forth to guide it past as many fish as you can, as deep under the surface as possible. As you reel it back in, you switch tactics. Tilt to grab as many fish as possible, trying to avoid the jellyfish if you can. Finally, the game gets really silly when your hook reaches the surface. The fish fly up into the air, and you've got to take them out of the sky with whatever firearms you have lying around. Each fish you kill earns money for line and equipment upgrades and finding new species can unlock new areas with new fish to hook and deeper waters to plumb. It's a very addictive gameplay cycle, and it's all backed up with some brilliant art, great sound effects and very catchy music. I've been playing the game for about a week now, and have found it hard to put down. Ridiculous Fishing has seen a little drama even before release, but the team never needed to worry, in my opinion. This is a great game that is among the best we've seen on the iPhone, ever. It's well worth the purchase at US$2.99, though I'll bet we'll see Ridiculous Fishing (and with any luck, more of Vlambeer) around the App Store for a long time to come.
Drama Mamas: Overreacting
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've got a twofer for you this week. Are these letter writers overreacting? Dear Drama Mamas, Hello! I have recently ran into a problem with my GuildMaster, who we will call C. I was questing in a zone, when one player says in General chat, "He (referring to Sha of Anger) is not up yet." My GuildMaster, who was also in the zone says, "That's what she said. ;D" Now I would have no problem with this, if our guild rules did not say specifically, "Each [GUILD NAME] is held accountable for his or her actions. Everyone is subject to a "three-strike" rule, meaning that an infraction of the above guild rules, and/or doing foolish or thoughtless things that would cause [GUILD NAME] to be seen in a poor light to the general populace of the realm will win you a warning." and one of those above rules include..."Keep chat and Ventrilo chatter PG-rated. Stay away from political, sexual and religious discussions."
Drama Mamas: Unrequited romance
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've dealt with relationship difficulties and online cheating before, but this week our letter writer has neither of those problems. The issue is that he has an admirer who seems to wish that weren't the case. Hi I have a problem in my guild and don't really know how to resolve it without hurting someone's feelings. Basically I'm a married man who's partner doesn't play WoW but I still love her regardless 😜. My guild is a friendly social guild but I mostly do pvp (not important but explains my bouts of free time) so when I'm not pvp'ing I tend to help other members of the guild either by helping run dungeons or guiding them around The place.
