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Breakfast Topic: Guilt by association
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. I like to think that I'm a good hunter. I show up to raids on time at least 90 percent of the time, I do my best to bring my flasks and food, I keep my gear properly gemmed and enchanted, I research all encounters, and I do very respectable DPS. But despite all of this, I am not recognized by how good of a player I am. Instead, I am recognized "by association." My best friend is a restoration druid, and he is damn good at what he does. This, of course, means that he gets invites everywhere to various guilds or raids, and I'm simply tagging along as his DPS -- the guy who gets into the guild or raid by association. It isn't all bad, of course. He and I do everything in game together, and we make a pretty good team, so if continuing to stick around with him means staying in his shadow, then that's OK with me. Of course, the problem with being "by association" is how it is taken with others. If my best friend is promoted to an officer, he's going to share everything with me, so I am promoted. "By association." If guild leadership gets too many complaints about his behavior as an officer (which I never found out of line), it would be unfair to still have me as an officer, so I am demoted. "By association." If he leaves a guild over a dispute with guild leadership, I'm kicked out of the guild. "By association." And one time, he was kicked from a guild because he was defending me against some smack-talkers. Guess who also got kicked out? "By association." So, fellow readers, do any of you live in the shadow of another? Or do you cast that shadow? Do you ever wish you could find a way out?
Drama Mamas: Love fool
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com. If we used logic when choosing our significant others, there wouldn't be so many good stories, songs, poetry, etc. in this world and throughout history. Sometimes our hearts make good decisions and sometimes... well... sometimes our loved one turns out to be a Drama Queen or That Guy. And while the objects of our affection may have wonderful qualities that outweigh their faults, sometimes our friends are stuck with only the bad stuff. Today we have a story of some friends who wish to accommodate a friend who is a love fool. Dear Drama Mamas, I have an acquaintance in the game I will refer to as "The Guy". The Guy is the real-life boyfriend of another friend in the game who I'll call The Girl. The Girl was a somewhat dedicated raider, The Guy was not. However, in the past few months, The Guy had decided that he finally wanted to try his hand at raiding so he can run with The Girl and do content with her. At her suggestion, he dropped in an application to The Girl's guild explaining that while he was entirely new to the fights, he was willing to learn and would like to run with his significant other and would they give him a trial run maybe? They agreed, and he was given a trial run in 10 man Ulduar, a raid the guild already had on farm.
Drama Mamas: Don't feed the trolls
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com.When is a troll not a troll? We can't answer that one for you (when he's a Goblin, instead? /shrug) – but we can definitely tell you when a non-troll actually is a troll: more often than you may oh-so-righteously imagine. Only two weeks ago, the Drama Mamas were reminding readers that you cannot "fix" other people. This week, we must add on to this principle: You may neither "fix" your fellow players, nor may you "beat" them. In fact, when you try to beat 'em, you join 'em. The Drama Mamas explain why.
Drama Mamas: Of scrubs and terribads
Let the Drama Mamas guide you through the sticky business of dodging drama, toward becoming that player everyone wants in their group. Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players. And just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com.Sometimes, there simply are no words that do justice to our friends' lack of play skills. You know the people I'm talking about. We say, "He's a good guy, but ..." or "She's a real sweetie, for someone who ..." Argh! It's the last halves of those sentences that wipe the raid group every time.So what's a player to do when his friends turn out to be scrubs, terribads, n00bs or any other variety of out-of-tune toon? Sometimes there's hope – but we'll be honest, sometimes things are beyond repair. Either way, you're going to have to decide: can you fix it, or can you grin and bear it?
