Month: July 2008

The problem is raiding successfully. Guilds are social creatures. Imagine that a guild is your family and raiding is your job. Do you see your co-workers as your family? Are they the ones you want to talk to socially and be in constant touch with? Maybe. But, would you work with your family members? Would you want your mom to do what you do, be your boss, or be your employee? Unlikely.

I have been enamored by the Leftovers concept. It detaches the progression that raiding demands from the social stigma of guild hopping. The fact is that raiding does not demand lots of in-game socializing and contact. There are very few practical advantages to building a raiding group around a guild. There are very good reasons to build your social life around a guild. Before I saw this Leftovers concept, I had an idea for the No Guild Guild. Individual members in WoW would join a guild they liked, or be guildless. But, they could join an offline community whose sole purpose was to coordinate raiding and progression in the game. No more social tangles of having to leave your guild to raid. No more guild shopping to find a guild that offers both social interaction AND raiding at the right level for you.

Detaching guilds from raiding is the future.

No one joins a guild because they want to join a guild. Especially a raiding guild. There is only one reason to ever join such a guild. To get what you want out of the game.

Socializing? Bullshit.

Making friends? Liar.

Enjoying content with like-minded folks? Your pants are on fire.

Get in, get what you want, and get out. Planning to leave? Spend all your DKP! Can’t get your alt into runs? Don’t offer to run some alt-raids, just play alts in other guilds and leave the moment you aren’t getting what you want. Don’t like how the guild policies work? Quietly grumble under your breath and tolerate the guild stepping on your freedoms to get loot until you can’t take it and bail.

WoW isn’t about being friends or having fun. WoW is about greed.

There is something about high end, hardcore, raiding guilds. Something that instills a sense of political maneuvering in it’s members. When ex-hardcore raiders join my “casual” guild, they rarely voice their opinions in the open. They find the group of technically proficient players and join that group. They begin complaining about mistakes and poor decisions of others. They don’t point out errors or problems publicly in the forums. It’s all hush-hush, and “I don’t want to rock the boat.”

Like we can’t take it. We’ll be offended. That someone else is a good player with good ideas. Instead of “Hey man, try doing X and see if your DPS goes up.”, we get snickers behind people’s backs.

Jerks.