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The Guild Counsel: Lessons from you
Each week, I tip-toe to the sidewalk and plant my soapbox to pontificate on the trials and tribulations of guild life. I'm a little biased, obviously, but I really enjoy the social side of MMOs, and apart from a few brief months when I first started gaming back in 1999 (trying to figure out what the heck it was all about), I have always been involved with guilds. For every frustrating moment, drama-filled clash, and annoyance of management, I can cite 10 moments when being a part of a guild has made MMO gaming more enjoyable and satisfying for me. But each weekly topic has brought a wide variety of opinions from all of you, and while not everyone agrees, there have been some valuable comments. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look back at some of the hotbutton topics of the past and highlight some of the advice and commentary that the Massively readers have had when it comes to guild management and guild life in general. The soapbox is all yours!
Drama Mamas: The prodigal GM returns
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. Actions. Consequences. Drama. Hello Drama Mamas, When I joined over two years ago, our 25-man raiding guild used a 2-headed GM system. Of course, only one had the guild controls, but they would pass things back and forth at times and had equal say in policy. Over a year ago, one of them, the creator of the guild left the game due to some heavy real life issues. Guild control was passed to the other, and another co-GM was assigned. We were told often that the old GM would be returning soon, but none of us ever heard from him.
The Drama Mamas guide to teen video gaming and World of Warcraft
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. Lisa and I love it when parents parent and teens try to reason with them rather than just mindlessly rebel. To the Drama Mamas, I am a teen male who plays WoW and has for about a year and a half. I enjoy playing and have a joined a good guild with several good irl friends and enjoy the game immensely, however my parents don't seem to have the same perspective. My parents limit the time I can spend on the game to about one hour every day which is not something I am particularly fond of. I may not be the Mr. Outdoors my father hoped for, but I get good grades and am not involved in any of the bad things that occur in school or in my age group.
Drama Mamas: The case of the raid leader and his future wife
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. I'm not usually a fan of Coldplay, but my new favorite show, Newsroom, made me like this song. It's also appropriate for this week's letter. Note: You can't fix people. Hey Drama Mamas, I'm writing you guys to talk about a situation that is on the brink of breaking open. Just to say ahead of time, this is a situation of a couple who are in the upper ranks. She is an officer, one of two and he is the raid leader. As the GM, I leave the raid leading to my raid leader. I participate in the raids as well, but I prefer not to be the one giving all the directions in the middle of fights. The issue is his fiance. We'll call her A. Out of the two, she wears the pants. More often than not, she is either talking over the raid leader ( we'll call him B) or running the show through him where the rest of us cannot hear (their computers are right next to each other). This wouldn't be much of an issue, but it undermines the person I put in charge so when he actually tries to lead, our others don't give him the respect and attention he needs. Often times, I will step in and start calling the shots when things get too out of hand.
Breakfast Topic: OK, fine, hit me with your best pandaren pun name
In vanilla WoW, it was gnomes: Gnomebase, Noplacelikegnome, Etphognome ... You know the drill -- wherever an obnoxious pun could be made, it was made. Repeatedly and endlessly. It wasn't so bad in The Burning Crusade, but Cataclysm brought the worgen and another cavalcade of pun names: Worgenfreeman, Captnworgen and so on and so on. Now we've got the pandaren coming in Mists, and I've heard hints of terrible puns here and there as suggestions for horrible names that will have everyone in a 30-foot radius groaning. So let's have it. Give me your best pandaren pun names. Go on, let it all out -- I know you've been aching to share all the absolutely terrible puns you've been thinking up. Here's your chance to unleash all those pent-up puns you've been dying to inflict on people. I'm only saying this once though, so you better get it all out while you can. And when I'm done reading the comments and laughing, I never want to hear another pandaren pun again. Well, maybe one or two more. Just for giggles.
Drama Mamas: Problem guildie vs. inassertive GM
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. Brownie points to the person who can concoct a connection between the above video and this week's letter. I failed. I was just in the mood for the song. Dear Drama Mamas, I've been thinking of writing for some time, and have reached the tipping point. There is one obnoxious and rude guy in guild who ruins the fun for the overwhelming majority of the rest of us. He curses, bullies, and complains nearly constantly in guild chat in what has to be intentionally improper English (since still spells his class incorrectly after years of playing), and yells loud obscenities in vent if he doesn't win a drop. He shows a lack of respect for everyone (and our time) by coming to raids woefully unprepared (like tanking in an alt group without an offspec so he has to be MT, without gems or enchants and improperly specced, while not knowing what he needs to do in his new role and not knowing his own abilities) and causing us to spend hours on wipes and not be able to complete the run. The GM is stuck in a place where she's damned if she does and damned if she doesn't, because if he doesn't come he makes things even more miserable for everyone. No one is sure why she puts up with him, because he's been rude and very inappropriate to her as well.
Drama Mamas: Roleplaying the system
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 fear change. Sometimes change is good, though. Change caused a bit of a problem in this week's letter. Dear Robin & Lisa, I'm in a middling-sized roleplaying guild on Argent Dawn (EU). We hold casual RP just about every evening and when we roleplay any combat, it's usually done in the form of an emote battle, with a simple rolling mechanic (/roll 1-100) used only when it's really, really needed. Then, out of nowhere, our GM and deputy posted up a new set of roleplaying rules on the guild forums. These D&D-esque rules asked that each player pick a series of passive bonuses and active abilities to attach to their roleplaying character(s). Later on, we found out that the idea for and most of the work on this new set of rules had come not from our two leaders, but from a brand new guildie, and that he had worked this out with our leaders on Skype long before anyone else was notified.
Breakfast Topic: What will you absolutely not do in Mists?
I am not farming. I don't even mean the typical WoW sense of farming. I specifically mean I am not going to do daily quests for the express purpose of getting my own farm to toil away at. There are certain things from my childhood I hated doing, fishing being one and working on the farm being another. I loathed both. And I have not fished a single cast in World of Warcraft, not in the eight years of playing it. I am certainly not going to go and farm. I got enough digging up weeds, plowing, pulling rocks out of the ground, pulling disturbingly warm chicken eggs out of a coop, and a whole host of other chores in my real life. I am absolutely disinterested in doing so in a game. As I've said before, I have no problem with content not intended for me. I'm cool with it. By all means, put it pet battles, farms, what have you. But there is no way on Azeroth or Earth that you will get me to farm. It is absolutely not happening. No way, no how, not going to do it. So what about you? What are you absolutely not going to do? It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Drama Mamas: Offensive player is offensive
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. Uncomfortable player is uncomfortable. Hi! Your column is fun to read and helpful so Im sending you my story. I've been playing on and off since BC but Cata was the first time I joined a raiding guild and really socialized. The experience has revitilized the game and I get along well with my 10 man team progressing and goofing around having some laughs. I'm also a gay man and while I'm comfortable with this it never has been my intro card (is it ever?) My orientation has never come up in conversation so I've never brought it up.
Drama Mamas: Too shy for an MMO
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. Dear Blizzard, Please give us a release date so that our friends will come back to Azeroth. Much love, Your Current Players My wife bought me a copy of WoW in the weeks before BC came out. There was a large percentage of WoW players among our friends and family: I, my wife, her brother, his wife- her two brothers, father, and mother all played. When my wife and I divorced, I still played with all of my extended real-life WoW family (in fact, my ex-wife's new husband was in our RL family/friend guild for a while, along with her sister-in-law's second husband, whew I know.). Among these and their real-life friends, I could easily play with any of over twenty different people I was friends with in the real world. Now, in the lull that is the waning days of Cataclysm, I don't have a single real-life friend to play with. It has been over six months since any of my RL friends on my friend's list have played. I'm in a new guild (my first lvl 25), yet their guild roster has many, many toons that haven't played in months.
Drama Mamas: Roommate vs. family
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. Ah, college. Good times. The music was fun, too. On to the drama. Hey drama mamas! So, I'm going to try and keep this short. I have played on the same realm for three years (since I started). My dad and brother have both recently started playing and joined me on this realm. My dad has two 85s, and my brother is still working on his first. I've also developed great relationships with my guild, but its starting to dwindle down. Here's my problem. I'm starting college next month, and my roommate (who played nor only on a different server, but the opposite faction) wants me to join her. I have no problem with this, but she really wants me to just server transfer as opposed to just starting a new alt.
Drama Mamas: Guildie vs. guildie at the Auction House
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. I don't think we've had Auction House drama before. How delicious interesting. Hello ladies I have played WoW on and off since vanilla, but I always seem to return at the tail end of an expansion. I came back this time 3 months ago and decided to start fresh- new server, new faction, new toons. I have alot to prepare for the release of MoP like this but I thought I was doing pretty well. I joined a really great guild who has an unwritten rule that we don't undercut others on the AH, and alot of the members go as far as waiting until others have sold their items before listing the same thing. As such we're all pretty open with our gold making 'secrets' with each other. I have a friend who, like me, has two gathering professions on his main, which are also the same as mine. He was complaining that nothing was selling well anymore this late in Cata, so I shared with him a few of the things I gather and sell, my main money maker was something I specifically told him sells a little slow but does sell, so don't get carried away putting too much on the AH at once. Very quickly I found he was flooding the AH with what I suggested to him, undercutting me by 10-20g each time and soon enough things were selling for less than half of what they were before. I pointed out to him, again, he does not need to flood and undercut so much, but he did not listen.
Drama Mamas: The case of the raid leader and a guildie's wife
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. Should inappropriate behavior always be against guild rules? Help me, Drama Mamas! I'm a newbie guild leader (of about two months now), but I was an officer in my guild for over a year before that. When my GM/RL retired from WoW a couple of months ago, I took over and things have been going pretty well. We're a medium-sized, active PvE guild with a core raid group. My raid leader is my only officer. Recently, my RL (who is also a good friend) told me that one of our raiders, a woman who is married but not to him, had sent him some dirty whispers during raid. He said that she was "in a weird mood" and kept on saying sexual things to make him laugh on Vent. Her husband is also in our raid. The RL told me so that he wouldn't "feel weird about it."
Drama Mamas: When a friend keeps you from leaving WoW
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. Friendship is important, but is it so important that the effort to sustain it be one-sided? Hi Drama Mamas, I've been playing WoW for several years now, and while I enjoy it and am excited for MoP, I'm a little burnt out and want to take a break. However, there's an issue keeping me from taking the break that I want to, which is my friend. My friend Tom is a mutual friend of my friend Kyle, who I've known since high school who has already quit more or less (he's very busy and logs on a couple times a month, if that). Tom is a nice guy, and I enjoy talking with him and occasionally running stuff with him...but he only wants to play WoW. He doesn't want to play anything else, and he doesn't want to even talk about anything else.
Drama Mamas: The absent GM who won't give up control
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. And now for something completely different. Before the automatic option to replace absent guild leaders after 30 days, you had to petition to have them removed. Uneducated guild owners could stay away for a while and not know that coming back periodically would prevent losing ownership. Now, shady GMs can just pop on for a bit every month to keep control. And as long as they have ownership, they are free to do anything they want to their guilds -- even disband them -- and Blizzard can't do anything about it. So around 4.1 i found 'my guild'. I had been in a few that were nothing more than banks. This one clicked. We talked, we chatted all the time on vent and have our own forum. We met up in other games and had a great time. ...Trouble is the GM seems kind of bitter about playing WoW at all.
Drama Mamas: How to deal with profanity in Battlegrounds
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. I'm not one for the profanity filter. Special characters randomly appearing in public chats don't improve my gameplay experience. Also, it's so easy to get around, so why bother? And honestly, I just don't mind profanity. Now, if there were some kind of hate and trolling filter, I might use that. Ah, just think of how slowly trade chat would scroll ... Hey Mamas, I've been playing since vanilla. The reason I preface my letter with that is because I know the drama that goes on in battlegrounds. Really, I do. But for some reason, I feel it's just gotten so bad lately. People being rude or just trolling isn't anything new. But this is a whole new level of mean, and the offenders act like every little (often just perceived) mistake is a personal slight against them, one from which they will never, ever recover from. This isn't just about one instance either. In literally every battleground, whether we're winning or losing, someone is cursing someone else and causing a ruckus over something very little.
Drama Mamas: When marital troubles are played out in guild
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 above video has nothing to do with this week's letter. Deal. Hello Ladies, I am a member of a fairly old casual raiding guild. Coming into Cataclysm, our GM/RL left for a hard core guild and leadership was transferred to other officers. There were some hard feelings and it was a very rough patch but we persevered for the most part. We were even able to recruit as our new raid lead, a returning raid team member who had quit playing WOW for personal reasons. Unfortunately, those personal reasons involved his wife having multiple affairs, some via Wow. Worse, he told quite a few guildies about it when he left. Even more worse, she was a guild member also and as she has communicated, he "allowed" her to come back.
The Guild Counsel: Five ways to burn bridges with your guild
There are ways to leave a guild, and then there are cringe-worthy, horrifying ways to leave a guild, burn your bridges, and never, ever leave the door open for a possible return. We've all heard tales (and sometimes witnessed them firsthand!) of people leaving guilds in ways that defy humanity (leaving right in the middle of a raid is one of my favorites). Surprisingly, there are some guild departures that succeed in severing ties and are unfortunately all-too-common. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at a few ways to really do it wrong when it comes to guild departures.
Drama Mamas: The case of the needy guildies
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. Welcome to this week's episode, in which Lisa compares me to baked goods. I think I'm more like a Disney villain, but benevolent. You be the judge. Dear Drama Mamas I'm the new gm of a social guild. As such we find that we get a lot of players who are new to the game entirely. We try and help the out but lately we have a number of new people who seem to be taking the "we are happy to help" and running it for all it's worth. I'm a firm believer is looking for the solution yourself and then asking if you don't find anything. Particularly with resources like wowhead, noxxix, wow insider and blogs for every other thing you could ever hope for.
Drama Mamas: When a guild splits in two
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. Dig those groovy threads, man. Being caught in the middle of a feud between the raid leader and guild leader does not require you to wear baby blue bell bottoms, but it may help. Dear Drama Mamas, I find myself at a loss for words about recent events in the guild I belong to. Since I can not figure out if I am being unreasonable I've decided to seek outside help. Recently a Raid Leader and our Guild Master had a fight. The Raid Leader and his Raid Team quit the guild we belong to and settled into a level 1 guild together. They were the only people raiding in our guild and the raid leader was instrumental in helping each of them gear and I understand why they followed them. They did not have an issue with the fight between the GM and RL, they just followed the person who had helped them the most and who would see them through their raids. Our guild has a lot of followers and very few leaders so I am not surprised. This was a loss for our guild, but since drama always seemed to follow that Raid Leader its probably for the best.
