These Days of Light and Darkness

It's odd to come to a juncture in your gaming at what is, to be honest, getting to a fairly critical time in your overall playing time. But I think I can honestly say it's where I'm at just now. Wrath of the Lich King is almost upon us, less than 2 months away now, my enthusiasm for all it may bring remains for the most part untarnished. It's a new door opening and new opportunities to be explored, a class to be re-learned, etc. Interesting times indeed.

Or at least they should be.

Maybe my natural instinct is to be the WoW equivalent of the Kensai, a swordsman for hire, or maybe I'm just cursed with exceptional bad luck in terms of never finding people with a shared vision. DUTY was a model, that failed, that I'll fully admit, and take my share of the blame in all the things that happened to help it become the failure that some people seem to see it as. The truth be told though, the premise was right, a lack of motivation was the problem. Partly my fault on the recruiting, partly people not living up to the expectations placed on them. I do believe that a casual raiding guild can exist, but it must fit within certain parameters.

You have to have a common goal, everyone singing from the same hymn sheet, but with enough wiggle room to ad lib.

You have to have a fair system of loot distribution, not certain people getting items over others because they are officers, friends of officers, "special" in the guild, etc.

You have to have all the officers working towards those goals, not all coming at the guild from completely loggerhead positions.

People have to turn up, there is no point joining a raiding guild, and then never raiding with them.

Flexibility. Enough room to allow people to be who they want to be, without strictures. If you tell someone they must spec a certain way to get a place in the raid. You've crossed the boundaries between casual and hardcore.

These are basic staples of casual raiding. Yes the attendance thing may seem a bit on the hardcore side, but it's not a set in stone, you must be here 3 times a week. It's a if you don't want to raid, why join a raiding guild. I'm not talking about social characters, where someone has an alt with a guild to just pop in and say hello every now and then, more people who join guilds and then never raid, or only seem to go raiding with their old guild mates.

Now you're thinking, where is this all going Ren? You've waffled for ages without really making a point, I'm skilled like that, what can I say.

Truth is, I've become dis-enchanted with my place in WoW. It's hard to stay focused on that goal when things are going on that directly or indirectly affect your gaming experience without you being able to do anything about it. People trying to alter the goals without any prior consultation, people seeming to have agendas in the game that only benefit themselves or their clique. Having one rule for one person and another for another, "This person can bring their dps, but you can't bring yours," or "This person can get another piece of tier armour to get a set bonus, but you can't." Some people can't change their alts for mains, others can't. Some people can sign up on alts, others can't. The list goes on really. It's like hypocrisy in motion.

Now you maybe see where the thought process was going. I've seen every side of this game now. Guilds ripped apart by officers, GMs and the members. I've seen guilds that work, even if it is only in their only tiny niche market. The thing is here, how much do you accept as the status quo, and how much do you just get pissed off about? There have always been things about every guild in that I haven't liked, or at least haven't sat well. This time feels much worse than that. It feels like someone is deliberately trying to rip the fun out of the game for me, so that they can reach their personal goals, guild be damned. This is fine when other people see what is happening and proactively move to stop it, but when it becomes a divisive element that really all you can do is step away and collect your thoughts. Find something else to amuse you until such a time as you find a new purpose or things get sorted to something that you can like, something you can be a member of again. For the time being for me, that's a step away from characters I've worked exceptionally hard to create, and a step into the shoes of yet another alt. If alts were a sign of times that things have gone wrong or not been working out, I'd be slightly alarmed by now.

So I guess this is a chapter of the book getting left unfinished for now. I'm starting the next one now, with the hope of finding a better ending to this story, or coming back and finally being able to write the rest of the ones I did start.

So for those that are interested, WTS 2 Knives, only been used once, and my back isn't likely to have left much of a mark on them.