Bathing parrots and eating cake

THERE are days when I’m extremely grateful for our happy little guild of which I have the privilege of being GM. Today is one of them.

Commanders of the Earth poodles along, having fun, helping each other out and running heroics and raids. Dang it even on New Year’s Eve we had a mixed group of between level 70s and 80s clearing Kara.

No big deal, you say.

Did I forget to mention we did it wearing festive costumes? Ah well.

So there you have it. We are a casual, have just started making inroads into 10-man Naxx but most of all we’re friendly and enjoy ourselves.

No pressure.

So why am I particularly grateful today?

Well yet again another of those hardcore outfits has covered itself in cra@p for bad attitude. The player Evilgai - now formerly of Instability was running a random pug in a dungeon and when it looked like they might complete it other guild members came calling asking to be let into the team to grab the loot at the expense of the randoms.

Needless to say they were told where to go, they then quit the guild and when the GM was next on line he reinstated them and kicked Evilgai!. You can read more at http://www.wowinsider.com/

You want to join a guild like that?

Me neither.

So it makes you wonder how these types of guilds would cope with some of the interruptions we have during dungeons and raid runs as members apologise and hit the /brb key.

The following examples are absolutely true:

Can we take a break I’ve got to take the dog for
a walk

Sorry, I have to be away for a few minutes mum says I’ve got
to bath the parrot

/brb – just got to put the bin
out

I have to go, mum’s just baked a chocolate cake, back in a
minute

Then there was run of alts to Nexus. The lock had to drop out just as we were about to start. We replaced them.

They came back online 15 minutes later and explained that they had needed to go to the loo, had run out of paper and had to rush out an buy some!

Was there any chance he could drop back into the team?

Fortunately his replacement was having to juggle with the run while helping his girlfriend who wasn’t well so he dropped out and the lock was back in.

Oh – and did I mention the time last week when we wiped in a five-man cos the healer was having to urgently texting his girlfriend? He still hasn’t lived that one down.

Guildies? Love ‘em!

How could you not.

Do we want it on a plate?

I HAVE been reading of late some of the info spilling out about Nihilum – which has now merged with another guild and called itself Ensidia. In the middle of it all has been the inevitable stories of splits, rows, people flouncing off and others getting chucked out.

All very entertaining.

It’s sort of comforting to know that this elitist hierarchy is subject to the same frailties as we mere Wow mortals.

In the stratosphere in which these guilds operate there is a striving that goes on. They want to be the first to clear game content – the instances, the raids et al.

I was interested in a couple of articles, brought to us courtesy of Larisa, which gave a mere glimpse into the mindset of these guys - pinkpigtailinn

Part of it involved working out the bosses for themselves. Well I guess they had to if they were going to be first!

I will never be a hardcore raider – I don’t have the time for a kick off, or the inclination, to be honest. But I could buy into this ethos of pioneering and being first.

Being a competitive individual in RL (I have the sporting trophies and medals to prove this) it appeals to a side of my nature.

At the launch of WotLK there was a huge rush to get videos out there of how to take down this boss and that boss. What nasty tricks they unleashed on you, where you had to stand, lie or run at certain stages.

And the question that popped into my mind was this:

‘Do we really want it all laid on a plate for us?’

If you go by the amount of info available ‘out there’ the answer would seem to be: ‘Yes we do.’ But I’m not so sure.

Sure all bosses are hard, relatively speaking, depending on where your guild is at, but it doesn’t mean we want someone to hold our hand through the encounter.

The temptation to run to Wowikki for the low down, or to charge off to Matticus or TankSpot to ‘watch the video’ is, dare I say, an easy option. But aren’t we missing something here?

We may not be Nihilum – sorry Ensidia – but it doesn’t mean to say we don’t have a brain.

Dare I suggest that if we’re prepared for the wipes and cost of repairs, there’s a lot of fun to be had going into raids and instances ‘blind’ and actually work out the fights for ourselves.

Our guild actually did that the first time we went into Nexus and Utgarde Keep and it was absolutely fascinating to watch the initial fights and then work out what was going on and how to take down the bosses.

The sense of satisfaction, let me tell you, was HUGE.

Sadly it has been near impossible to maintain that, because as we’ve progressed, the faster-levelling guildies have invariably run stuff with pug groups and so they ‘have the knowledge’ or others have got bored with the wipes and the workings out and run to Wowikki.

I sometimes wonder that if we engage our brain a little more, whether running instances and raids ‘blind’ would actually stir something deep within our being.

Or maybe we do just want it all served up on a plate and ready to consume.