How Blizzard is creating a PR Nightmare

Forum RealID - How Blizzard's newest RealID implementation will affect your guild

Nap Time with Napps - What do you do when people RAGE!?

Video Blogging????

On my Downtime

I stupidly acquired some sort of spyware on my laptop of which I do all my home based work and game time on. I'm pretty sure I got it from clicking on someone's link to a WoL report on their application to our guild and I am not sure how my anti-virus programs did not pick it up. (note - I am in no way suggesting that WoL contains malware of any sort, just relaying that I might have been linked to some sort of phising site instead.)

A Val'anyr story - by Napps

We finally did it. I have been sitting with 30 shards in my bags for months now. Myself and my guild, focused on progression, felt it was best to continue work on the new content as much as possible. Every month or so we spent a few attempts on Yogg-Saron when our group make up wasn't stellar for a progression night or we would pug people in once awhile to try 3 lights.

Happy New... Resolutions!

Let me start with wishing each and everyone of you a Happy New Year with much health and prosperity, love and comfort in 2010.

With 2009 behind us and the bright promise of 2010 in front of us, I felt it was time to finally post my resolutions for the upcoming year for everyone to see and perhaps hold me accountable to.

I'm taking my guild and you're taking my money! (An answer post)

A few weeks ago Thespius from World of Matticus had an interesting post on the possibility of paid guild transfers much like you would for a paid character transfer or faction change. In the article, he relayed some tidbits about a possible future service Tom Chilton from Blizz let his interviewers know may be coming down the line at a much future date - Guild Transfers, speculation being released with Cataclysm.

Although I commented that I felt that the transfer service would include one toon (the Guild Master) and the guild name, bank contents and levels (as Cataclysm will offer guild "leveling") and not every member of the guild, I was curious to guess at what cost a full guild transfer would entale if all members of the guild were to be included.

Day 6 - 8 - The Announcement

Last post I wrote before After Midnight transfered servers...
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Someone let the cat out of the bag. "Thanks for not inviting me, I guess I am not good enough to be in your 'clique'." It tore at my heartstrings, but made no sense, as that particular player hadn't raided with us in months. Oh well. I was expecting people to be upset; just not tonight.

I hadn't planned on telling people until Thursday. I wanted to make sure everyone got a good week of raiding in with the guild, got a few upgrades for those that were staying and make sure I ran wowmeteronline reports in case people needed them to find another guild. Looks like I'll have to tell everyone sooner...

Had we been able to tell everyone on Thursday, it would give a night of goodbyes and we would disband the guild on Friday. I wasn't quite sure what to do or say when one of our "Friends" status guildies exclaimed that he knew and was upset he wasn't asked to come in guild chat. A couple of people freaked out. "OMG STFU WTF are you talking about?" No one really believed him. I wanted to cry but didn't say a word. In fact, no one said anything and the topic died right there rather quickly.

We raided good and hard that night. Regular ToC on a loot Tuesday for some people if like waving donuts in front of Homer Simpson and him exclaiming "Don't mind if I do!" People were happy, I was happy.

Wednesday. I stressed out all night about telling the guild. I knew that I had wanted to tell the guild on Thursday but I found out that the rumour (well truth) that a lot of players were leaving the server was spreading like wildfire. Time to talk.

I started raid invites. So far so good. Everyone was called into vent. Breath. Officer chat is notified I'm announcing. People are on the edge of their seats. Exhale. "I have something I need to let you all know."

Most of the guild took it well. It helps when most of the guild is coming with. A few players I knew couldn't come and I knew they would be upset. One person was devistated. I felt bad but a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I felt much much better.

Most people who know me know I don't like keeping secrets. I find that if I keep them in I tend to blow up or get incredibly stressed out. Upon telling the guild I felt as though I had opened up the flood gates and any and all stress left my body. Of course, I didn't like the fact that I hurt a few players feelings. Some people left the guild that very night. It was painfully obvious no one was able to focus through the raid that night and some of the players coming felt it was no use waiting to transfer on Friday.

Thursday, a lot of people had already gone. I didn't see a point to staying any longer. Everyone in the guild knew that it was time to say goodbye. We had planned on disbanding Friday but hanging around for posterity's sake made no sense at this point. Some people not coming had already left and with After Midnight actually being a shell of what it was just the night before, there would be no raid tonight.

I said my goodbyes to some of the other GMs on the server and my friends I had made outside of guild. Told good guilds I had some players not coming who would be great fits with their guild and they should snap them up while they could. (And tapped Arkness on his hand for trying to take Dovi! Grrrr :)) I then said my goodbyes to the guild. It took about 5 minutes from start of my goodbyes to the end and then After Midnight was no more.

Our guild did not implode. Our guild didn't go down in a blaze of drama. Our guild changed. Our guild grew and moved onto what most felt it should. After Midnight might be no more on Uldaman but the players of the new guild remained for the most part the same with renewed zest for the game on another server under a new name.

I transfered tonight. Uldaman was like a little town. Little towns were never for a city girl like me.

Day 4 and 5 - The Wait

Second post I wrote about After Midnight's Move. Please remember this was written a few days ago and is meant to chronicle my thoughts on the matter.
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So we started a private post to the players who have shown interest in coming with us and whom we'd want to come to a server transfer with us. I feel bad. I hate having to have to keep secrets like this. I have always toted that we led transparently; I think that is why my husband and I have been so respected. Hiding this just feels... dirty. But, this is a new begining and new beginings sometimes means going cold turkey. Time to think about myself.

Here's the problem, we want to raid, drama free, without the BS and with everyone carrying their weight. I like everyone in After Midnight, I do. I just don't think everyone will fit in with what we are trying to build. Also, do I really want to bring the girl who distracts my raiders by showing pictures of her boobs to everyone? No. Do I really want to bring the player who only shows up to loot tuesday and whines when we wipe on progression bosses? No. I'm sure looking from the outside looking in people are going to hate me for this move and not inviting everyone to come with me. I pay my $15 bucks too (oh wait, I pay more like $45... website, vent, account... but that's neither here nor there,) do I really have to spend my time dealing with that BS? Even when I did deal with situations like that with a gkick or something, no one can let things go and I end up being trolled for months. Fun times.
 So we have 24 people who are coming. We almost have an entirely balanced raid group. I know we're going to have to recruit when we get there and it will be hardtimes for a bit to get the raids off the ground. With 24 trusted players, I think we're going to make it through the tough times.

The buzz is exciting. People are cleaning out their banks and doing crazy farming sessions in anticipation for the new economy. Some are scrounging up the cash to make the jump in a few days. We are scheduled to leave on Friday; many are set to leave before then. A couple of people have already transfered over alts and are doing pugs to get to know people on the server. We know we're going to need some melee dps and healers; everyone is instructed to keep their eyes out for players who fit our bill.

The plan is to have open concept leading. Of course we will have the regular officer structure and will be holding our own version of "Raid Leader Idol" but we're not going to have class leads anymore. The original setup will be voted by commitee on how the players want things to roll. I'm thanking lucky stars that we all want the same thing. Progression in a non-hostile envrionment; I trust everyone will do what's best for the guild.

Our website is being revamped by my husband and one of our main tanks whom we found out was a programmer. Out forums sucked horribly so we're hoping to find another provider that has the widgets we need but more functional forums. We also need to fix up our application process; After Midnight's questions didn't make sense for what we wanted to achieve. There is lots of work to do.

I'm terribly nervous about the move, it's been 4 years since I have been on another server. I'm also going to have to eventually tell the players who are not coming. I know there are people who we have asked too that are not planning on coming in the end. I'm hoping they can keep the word to themselves before I do announce it. I doubt that will happen but we'll deal with it if the time comes. I want to be able to be the one who tells everyone what is happening. I don't want anyone else to have to deal with the brunt of this. It's my responsability to deal with the harsh reality of the secrecy, and I know there will be people who will not understand why.

Day 1-3 - The Decision

I haven't posted in awhile because the game had gotten me down and stressed out to the point where I almost quit the game. After thinking long and hard about the situation I decided to stay and the guild decided to to rally around and transfer for a fresh start. I started to write about the process and will start posting what I wrote over the next few days. After reading back through the posts it almost feels like I went through some "12 steps" program. I hope you enjoy...
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Burned again. I have been on Uldaman for more than 4 years now. I have been leading guilds for about as the same amount of time. Since I have started leading, I have heard it all. Seen it all. And, seem to have been through it all. It hasn't been always a barrel of laughs.

Uldaman is like a small town. Everyone knows everyone else's business. All it takes is one good trolling in trade or the forums and you seem to get blacklisted. The people here never ever forget. Ever. Pugging is horrible, the progression even worse and the trade trolls are the kings of the server and are immortalized. Ranked 175th out of 200 some-odd servers, low rung doesn't even come close to how I feel about this place.

Uldaman has been good to me and it has been bad to me. Uldaman will always remain Uldaman to me; a crappy instance that once done with it no one wants to go back.

Over the 4 years I have struggled against the odds to keep my guilds going. Not once have I disbanded a guild or had a guild fall apart on me for reasons that I could control. I have kept my guilds going until the last physically moment that I could bear. Quitting the game for a year due to pregnancy being the only reason why I have had any previous guild end. 

Having discussed this with my male counterpart GMs on this server, as a female it seems that I carry a heavy load of criticism daily on how I run things. I have done nothing different than any of the other guilds out here, yet I have been called every name in the book the favourite being "Bitch". This really only happens when I put my foot down and assert the rules implemented for the guild. Someone breaks them, they are in the wrong, I am the bitch. Go figure.

Once again, I have been burned. A couple of guildies break a few rules; hey, causing drama, sexual harrassment and abuse of our loot rules is not that bad right? Not in these people's minds it seems. After immediately "laying the law" the bigger issue starts. The offending players are gone, and the rumours start to fly. "Get out while you still can. The guild is falling apart." is whispered to a player on trial status. She immediately gquits. "I hope, naps is taking the high road and not bad mouthing us, that would be unfortunately immature of her."  They were lucky that I didn't tell the guild at first what was done. The gloves came off when the applicants started asking me why I would invite them to a guild that was about to fall apart.

After letting loose, and telling the guild exactly what took place in order to maintain the peace and stop the rumours, I had guildies come to me saying "thank god I don't have to go through this alone now". The stories of sexual harrassment were sickening, the comments made in private that were brought to light were depressing. I am done.

The constant attacks from exguildies. The hate mail from deleted toons. The level one alts whispering me just what they think of me. The rumours from ex guildies meant to destroy what our guild has worked so hard to do. I am done.

1 week ago I was about to delete my toons and quit the game. A game is only a game until someone gets hurt. 1 week ago my officers banded around my to take the brunt of the work off my back and keep the guild going. 3 days ago the show of solidarity of those within the guild was astonishing. I know that for the most part the people in my guild are awesome. The ones who are able to work as a team have remained and we will strive on to reach our goals. Just not on this server.

3 days ago. The majority of my guildies decided they are done with this server and we should leave together. After Midnight is not dead. After Midnight is surviving and transforming into what it should be, into what it deserves. Just not on this server.

The idea came up during an officer meeting. The idea was presented to our core and 17 to 2 voted in favour. We then presented the idea to most of the raiders and so far reaction has been positive. Many of us are finished with this server and are hoping to start fresh somewhere else.

The research for a new home has been arduous. We wanted a PvE realm. We wanted something with better progression, player base, economy, pugging situation and mature population. We found what we are looking for an players wanting to come have unanimously voted in favour. Were going to go.

There are much more planning to do before we do go, but the situation is ripe for change. ICC is at the brink of being released, our DKP is about to reset, our website subcription is up and so is our vent server.

I will be keeping a log of our transfer process here and will most probably post this when we're done. As I am expecting major trolling I will not be disclosing where we are going or what our guild will be called. This is a clean cut. We're ripping off the bandaid in one fell swoop. After Midnight as it is will cease to exist and hopefully we'l be finally left alone.

Selective Raiding: When guildies don't show up.

What happens when content gets so stale your guildies don't want to do it anymore? What do you do when only a couple of players are not interested in doing the majority of the raids your guild runs, save for the ones that will upgrade their gear?

It's no surprise that hot on the heals of patch 3.3 players are becoming burnt out and bored with the lackluster, lore devoid 3.2 patch. The fear of being left behind in progression and not completing the content before release is stressing the few that are still trying to master it. Yet, because repeating the same 5 bosses (6 including the revamped 4 year old Onyxia) is less than appealing to most, many are looking to these instances merely as a means to gear themselves for the final fight, Arthas.

Many guilds have now abandoned the now out-of-date Ulduar and are treating it like yesterday's news, Naxxaramas. However, there are still several guilds who run Ulduar hardmode achievements as a guild goal since not many have seen Algalon 25 man let alone completed all the instance's hardmodes.

We have been lucky here at After Midnight. We have most of guildies dedicated to what the guild voted for in patch 3.2, continue Ulduar hardmodes as well as focus on Trial of the Grand Crusader. We rarely have had guildies get selective with what they show up to.

How can you figure out if you have players who are trying to pull the wool over your eyes by only showing up to certain raids or the proverbial loot days?

Our guild has implemented a tracking sheet housed by one of our officers. Each raid our officer notes attendance and who steps out of what boss. At the end of the month we trend who has been showing up to what instances and check to see if we have anyone abusing our 60% raid attendance system in this way. There are also various attendance tracking tools you can use as well such as EK Raid Attendance which can automatically take attendance for you at various points of your raid.

If you are in a guild that has opted to continue with Ulduar on top of the "new" content, how do you deal with the players that only show up to what people have aptly named "loot Tuesdays"? Or, how have you reacted when top dps have asked to sit out or have not shown up to the old content because it is beneath them, even if the guild's focus has been to complete it?

When Guildies Lie

People who know me know that I hate being lied to. Whether I have known you for years or a few months, by lieing to me you've pretty much lost all credibility and might have cost the friendship in my eyes. Whether it's big or small getting the full truth and nothing but the truth is the way to go to win points with me. Not only does telling the truth win you respect but allows you not to go on anyone's shit lists.

I consider most of the guildies in my guild, if not all, friends. I would hope that all my guildies tell me and my officers the truth when it comes to situations, whether it is why they were not at the raid that night, why they have to leave the raid or why they can't do something during a raid, etc. Egos, for a raiding guild always need to be put aside. While for personal issues you don't need to tell the whole story (Hey, I need to go RL calls right now), making excuses and lying about why you are not able to perform are different.

If your computer is crapping out, you really don't get the fight or for whatever reason you need to be carried because you don't want to be replaced those reasons need to be told. The difference of downing a boss on progression might be the difference between 24 people understanding and performing to having the whole 25. Keeping performance issues to yourself is wrong. Be truthful as to why you can't do something within a raid and you may very well find out someone has a helpful solution to work whatever it is out for you. I have found that some people are so scared to be embarassed that they don't understand the strategy of a fight that they just hope they will blend in with the encounter and mistakes would go unnoticed. People who speak up and do what they can to get it right will just end up performing better once they fully understand.

If you are just not into the raid; your 10 man group is not that appealing to you tonight, you'd much rather go play around on an alt and be left alone. Don't lie to your guildies and say you have company coming over or your house just caught fire. A simple, "hey guys, I'm not into this tonight and sorry I need to bail," goes a really long way. Lieing and getting caught (or in some cases not being good at all at hiding the lie), is very detrimental to your reputation and could possibly cost you much more than a raid spot the next time. Guilds, especially tight knit ones, are full of friends, would you lie to your friends in real life?

What about people who don't show up? I once had my suspicions one of my guildies used to share raid nights with another guild and alternate between the two always showing up for our minimum amount he needed to so he wouldn't lose the raid spot. Upon further investigation, and finding out that was the case, that player immediately lost the raid spot. Being truthful wouldn't have gotten the player booted from the guild.

I have told guildies that have been less than respectful and have lied to me or anyone else for that matter in the guild that this game is played with real people behind those screens. As much as the little chracters might look like NPCs at times, the respect needs to be there for the reality of the players on vent, in front of their computers, sitting at home and very much real.

What are your thoughts? Do you think lieing is just another aspect of MMOs? Or do you think that being truthful in game as in real life is the way to go?

Goodbye to a WoW community pillar

It's been a long time since I have gone and checked over at Dwarf Priest since the writer of the blog mysteriously dissapeared almost a year ago. However I was doing a little catch up reading at my favourite "Gobble Gobble" blogger and saw that Bob Turkey posted that MK from Dwarf Priest finally posted!

There was much speculation as to where she went from dying, to /quitting WoW due to real life or becoming ill (the real reason).

I for one am glad the Dwarf Priest is alive and alright. Dwarf Priest has been an indispensable resource for many priests who play wow. Ever post was a tome invaluable information on every subject, from gearing to her famous leveling guides.

Although due to illness, we will be losing out on MK's interesting theorycrafting and insightful posts, I wish her well in her battles with health and hope that everything in real life works out.

Check out the Dwarf Priest's latest and last post here.

When /played means /quit

I haven't entirely fallen off the face of the planet. Things have been really crazy for me in real life so I haven't had time to actually sit down and actively write something. My daughter has been sick and cranky. Work has been hectic to say the least with the end of the year coming close. And, I have been devoting free time (when the little one is asleep of course) to managing the guild and optimizing our raiding structure.

The article I am working on is taking longer than expected due to the aforementioned lack of time.

On the WoW front, things have been going great for AM. We're working on hardmodes, getting closer all the time to our target goals. Players are working together to achieve more and more progression. We have become more rigid in our ways than we were almost a year ago; players know what they are expected to do and when they are not performing do not make excuses of why. At the end of the raid night we almost always have people who might have been off their game asking what they could do to change or asking for advice. The majority of players within our structure are actively bettering their skills with every raid. Recruitment has been ongoing and going smoothly. I anticipate great things come IC when it is released.

In other news, I want to stress the fact that World of Warcraft is indeed a game and please please please treat it as such. After Midnight was hit recently with some incredibly sad and disturbing news. One of our officers unfortunately might have spent a little too much time on the game and is facing a possible divorce from his wife because of it. With promise to delete his characters, stopping his subscription and having his kids destroy the game CD's he may be able to salvage his marriage. I hope and our guild hopes that everything does work out for him in the end.

I know I play the game way too much than I should but I don't feel the brunt that our guildie has felt; playing with your significant other helps in that regard. But at what /played is too much or is it relative to your situation?

For example, my husband and I only play when our daughter is asleep. The game is our down time. Nothing on my end really suffers due to the game (except maybe chores, but who likes to do chores anyways?) But lets say I was working 2 jobs, I had limited time with my family and I chose to play the game rather than hang with them. Or, if my husband didn't play would it be right to not be spending my free time with him instead?

The news that we were brought about our guildie was an eye opener to say the least.

What have you put off / given up in order to play the game?

Yoggy is Soggy!

Sorry for such the delay in posting. Things have been mighty busy for me in real life as in the game. Work had been nuts and we have been pushing super hard on progression content that I have not had the time to step away and write.

I am on vacation this week and have been working on a collaborative effort article on what every recruiter should know about each class and the most important questions you should ask during interviews. It's going to be more of a guide with input from some of my guildies rather than a commentative article.

In other news After Midnight is finally over its progression road block; we downed Yogg-Saron last night. I always hate running into bosses that the guild can't seem to wrap their head around. Everything clicked last night and we finally got it just after midnight. (very fitting)

So other than Algalon, that makes After Midnight as having cleared all WotLK instances with having downed Anub'Arak this week as well.

I'm mighty proud of my guildies on their dedication and hard work this week. Onto to hardmodes!

How Guild Recruiting Helped My Career

I just hired my first employee.

The experience was a little nerve wracking; Would they like the job? Are they going to accept the salary? Will they fit in with my team? I didn't realize how similar it is to guild recruiting until after the experience.

In February 2009, I was promoted to my first supervisor position which included several management duties including some human resources tasks, hiring being one. I was extremely nervous during the search for a replacement for one of my employees who had decided to leave the company. This wasn't a game; I had full control over who would get the job and who would not, which meant I got to decide who would be on our payroll. This was real.

How did being my guild's recruiter help me with my employment practices? I had aligned our guild with real-life day-to-day practices and viewed our in-game goals and tasks as being similar to real life situation as you would run an organization. This made it easy for me to make allusions to situations I would encounter during my work day. Here's how guild recruitment aligned with how I played out the hiring:



1. Screening the Applicants

We expect our guildies to apply to the guild via our forums. They must state experiences, skills, previous guilds, etc. Effectively, this creates a raiding "résumé" that we use to screen potential recruits before offering them an interview for a potential raiding position.

I have become a pro at screening applications to our guild and this skill has helped me in screening the applicants to the position I was hiring for at my work. Being able to scan through a multitude of curriculum vitae, picking up on highlights and skills that would be a good fit for the position is a must. Going through hundreds of apps over the years, has help tremendously.

2. Interviewing

My biggest fear during raider interviews is that once they get the inside scoop of how we run things, they won't want to join. This goes back to what I was very nerve wracked for during the interview process I just went through. Would they like the job? Are they going to accept the salary? Will they fit in with my team?

The criteria for joining my guild are not necessarily being the best player in the world. We have brought in players who we knew at the time weren't the greatest but were incredibly eager to learn and we saw potential in them. Team players are a must and they best fit in with the personality of our guild to be up for consideration. The "salary" is our ability to clear the content and the raiding spot we offer; are they willing to put in the work to get the raid spot?

Since the job opening that I had to offer was an entry-level position, I wasn't necessarily looking for someone who had tons of experience. Someone who has done the job before would have been nice, as there wouldn't have been such a learning curve. But, an eager fresh out of school worker, willing to learn and put in the effort to do their best was all I was looking for. Since we work in teams it was important for me to find someone who would work well within our work environment.

Since I have already gone through the interviewing process with my guild and expectations for the position I had to offer were not a big stretch from the game, it was surprisingly easy to make the jump from play to reality.

3. The Formalities

Bringing players into the guild, advising them of the raiding schedule, asking them to adhere to the rules and having them sign up for the website are all normal things that I ask/tell my guildies upon joining.

Formalities in every organization are the norm. As in work, the guild has a structure in order for things to work smoothly. The basic information I supply or collect from my guildies allows me to manage my resources better.

Upon hiring the new employee, I had already made a mental note of what I needed them to submit for the position. I just assumed that there was info like SIN numbers, start date, blank cheque etc. which were asked of me on my first day in the office needed. Knowing that I myself had to be prepared within the structure of my workplace for things to run smoothly, as in my guild, I scored brownie points when my superiors asked if I made sure the new employee would be bringing the items of info they needed.



In the end, the whole experience was a positive one. Something I attribute from having so much experience with various types of personalities during interviews in game. I am quite looking forward to doing my next one and perhaps fusing more tips and tricks from the game into my workplace.

Gear>Progression or Progression>Gear?

That is the question.

Everyone loves getting a fresh shiny new piece of gear. The joy of upping your stats making your toon hit (able to be hit) harder or heal better is very satisfying. But at what point is getting more gear moot for progression in the current content?

This is the issue that the new raid lockout extension has brought about. For example, After Midnight is able to clear Ulduar right through to Yogg-Saron now within 2 raid days should we stay focused and not run anything else such as VoA or ToC to interrupt our timelines. As long as everyone is able to stay on track and we don't have to switch people in an out this is not a problem. However, we still haven't downed Yogg yet, something I attribute to never having the same team of players each night and having to re-teach the encounter constantly. The majority of the guild would like to see the SOB go down, turned on his back floating in his own filth no matter how many times we attempt it.

Here's where the lockout extension comes in; we can now have those multiple attempts past the original lockout to work on Yogg WITHOUT having to re-clear the instance. This means more nights to work on him, more nights to get his health percentage lower and lower and less chance the guild will get rusty as time passes between attempts. Locking out may mean that a progression kill may be had with the little extra time we were able to get but it also means that it is a whole week without new gear drops. Something which excites most guildies who are progression minded and upsets those that lose out on a week to get a potential upgrade.

According to imba.hu our guildies have the necessary stats/gear to down any encounter in Ulduar, and although having best-in-slot everywhere sure adds a slight pack to the punch, we should be able to easily down the Yogg-Saron encounter in our current situation. Yet, some players still argue that if we had more gear we would down it. The complaining from a vocal few (very few) makes me believe that they would rather have those grapey goodness drop like candy from the sky rather than spend the time for the thrill of a first kill.

This leads us back to our first question, what is more important for a raiding guild, encounter progression or gear progression?

In my honest opinion, and according to the goals listed in our guild rules, it is to see the content and conquer it no matter what the stakes. Having a gear level appropriate for the content is key, surpassing it is not necessary. I think the raid lockout is a great way for a guild on the cusp on downing a new boss to have the extra time to do so before a raid week reset. There is so much content in the game now that the guild can be doing to still receive their new upgrades; through the heroic 5 mans and 10 man instances. Badges are acquirable anywhere, from any instance, the heroic dailies now even spew forth the new Emblems of Triumph should you pick up the required quest first.

My advice to players upset with guilds extending raid lockouts for an additional week in the name of progress is the same to anyone who is not happy with their current guild; if the grass is greener elsewhere, no one is going to hold it against you if you go. Think about your priorities in game and find a place that is appropriate to them and stick with it. Most Guild Masters' are happy to accommodate their players as much as they can, but if a player's personal goal or ambition varies greatly from that of the guild's manifesto, it may be time to look for another guild lest your Guild Master asks you first.

Gut Feelings: Part Deux

So as promised, I did some soul searching and polling of a few of my friends, officers and coworkers about how to deal with gut feelings about a situation or someone when you don't have any proof to confirm what your gut is telling you.

It seems to me that gut feelings are just a precursor to investigating what is the root cause behind why it is you feel that way. Are you having a bad day? Are you being particularly paranoid? Are you noticing subtle trends regarding something that your subconscious is picking up before your conscious?

Let me give you an example of how I took care of my uneasy stomach this week with the advice I was given:

I suspected for awhile that one of my long standing guildies was unhappy. However when approached all responses were "I'm ok." So I let it go. I also, from keeping my eyes open recently saw indications of another guild (that recruited some of our notable drama laden ex-guildies) were trying to get this guildie to leave and join their new guild.

With that scenario painted, here are the steps I took to figure out if my gut feelings were justifiable.

1. Weigh the Evidence

As with most of my long standing guildies, I have set up communications outside the guild to keep up on day to day news whether it is MSN, Twitter, Facebook, etc. I noticed that statuses and conversation that had subtle undertones to it, which probably gave me my first warning that something was up. That, combined with prodding comments from said ex-guildies probably solidified the gut feeling that some poaching was going on. Add a little late night private vent channel discussions with said players and you got yourself a very suspicious situation.

2. Discuss the Situation...

...In confidence, with someone you trust.

I spent a good while talking about my thoughts and feelings with a trusted officer who gave me a little perspective on the situation and compared with me his views and feeling on the subject. It helped get my thoughts in order and find out if others might be seeing the same thing I was.

3. Confront with an open mind

The last step I took was to bring the guildie into a private vent channel with the officer I had my discussion with, and had a no-bullshit, guild related only conversation with the player. I laid my suspicions flat out on the table, and asked flat out if it was true. In fact, the guildie confirmed indeed they were thinking of leaving to join the guild I had suspected. That yes they have been unhappy for awhile but haven't done anything because they have been in the guild for quite a long time and thought maybe it was just a passing feeling. Although, the guildie couldn’t give us any direct point of which to work on to make their situation in the guild better, it still opened the lines of communication that seemed to not be there before. I believe if you are very direct with the player it prompts the player in return to be very direct with you.

The officer and I did not get angry, did not give ultimatums, kept an open mind, stayed professional and open to anything that was said; I believe that to be one of best things to do when confronting suspicions. You just don't know what the actual situation is and can't yet form an opinion about it without actualizing what is going on with the person in question.

In the end, my gut feeling was confirmed and my uneasiness with the situation calmed by now having the flat out facts. By taking these steps, I avoided days or weeks of agonizing supposing or speculation and embarrassment if my suspicions were wrong. By doing less internalization and more communication (which is key in any organization whether it be a workplace or a guild) we were able to pinpoint the problem (or in other situations lack thereof,) and come to a conclusion or understanding about it.

Napaeae's To Do List

1. Finally Organize my bank space so I can easily access gear sets for 3.2 changes

2. Finalize my 3.2 gear wish list

3. Decide how After Midnight is going to approach the Coliseum and how that affects our raiding Ulduar.

4. Decide what we are going to do with Raid Lockout Timer Extensions

5. Decide if we are making a new DKP tier for the new instance (I'm thinking not until T9 is released Tier 9 "Trophies" are showing up in loot tables already)

6. Farm (Raiding is getting expensive!)

7. ???

8. Profit?