Purchasing your titles - a Cataclysmic future

As always, in World of Warcraft, the time before an expansion usually sees many guilds folding, or some guild even go dormant. It's also a time where you see many new guilds get created. On Eitrigg, this time period had shown the return of a guild that was strong in Burning Crusade and around the beginning of Wrath only to disappear as people transferred off server. The top guilds on any server rarely completely disappear. The guild is still usually in existence when these types of things happen. Usually alts are kept in the guild to preserve the guild tag. In this case, the tag became active again. A few people transferred back in, and the previous members on server, who had left to join the remaining top end game raiding guilds, returned "home". The reformed guild started recruiting again. It completely crippled the top raiding guild on server, and threw server rankings out of synch at two guild ranking sites – since they allow cumulative kills to count. The reformed guild became server 2^nd – in a quick swoop just by the members it added on most ranking sites, without actually clearing the content as a group.

Most of this is just what happens these days with guilds, and maybe that will change with the guild changes in Cataclysm. What really just bothers me is seeing posts like this:

This is a post on the Eitrigg forums - selling drakes and titles. Yes, this is virtual currency. Yes, it is up to them if they want to do this. But has this become what this server and the gaming community here is about? The guild below is currently ranked number one, yet due to the mass departure of several of it's members, you can see below that they are asking for people to come and fill their raids with an enticement of the top performers getting gold. (Guess that means they have their own discipline priests and tanks.)

The point is.. back to why do you raid? Is it the prestige? If so, what prestige is to be had from buying the title so you can show it off, or the drake? There's other ways to make money for your guild. What's even worse is that most of the guild doing the selling of these virtual items hasn't cleared most of this content as a group on 25. 10 mans, yes, and rightfully earned that but as a guild, the 25 man achievements/hard modes were basically grandfathered in.

For me, a raid is about the guild. It's about the thrill of the kill. I've occasionally ran a friend through Stockades, or something similar to help them level, but I've never sold my services as in the post above. It makes the achievement or kill that much sweeter to earn it, than to be carried - to complete it with friends, with your raid group, and know that you did this on your own.

The expansion has obviously shaken up a few guilds on the server, but definitely not this one. As a guild that still farms drakes, we generally have people their titles in the first week of being in guild. It just is a bit shocking to see a guild selling these services when they still have folks that don't have it within their guild.

The Wind Down of Wrath

Looking back over the content that Wrath brought us, the several changes that rippled through guilds, the different versions of raids and dungeons, and constant emblem changes with each content patch release, it's finally drawing to a close. This sense of impending closure is more brought on by the release of Operation Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall events. It seems by no means complete, but it is the start. These events bring back several memories of the last two expansions, and everything leading up to the expansion release. It also puts a sense of urgency in completing things.

We are shifting focus. While we want ICC 25 completed on hard modes and our drakes, it's also time to finish up the Ulduar ones as well. It's time to focus and buckle down on the few hard modes that are left, a drake waiting, and a very cool title. As we look ahead, there are also other things to consider. Guild dungeons to complete, quests, and achievements linger on the horizon. The entire guild perk system is looming ahead, to counter balance the ease of a faction change and/or server transfer, to disappear forever.

We almost have our first Frostmourne in guild, which will be quite an achievement. I'm excited about the future. There is a strong loyalty base in this guild, and with that, it means we have allot of new opportunities about to pop on the horizon. We are seeing our second Pirate's Day as a guild – with a new guild picture in the works. We're working on some cool new ways to recruit but honestly, while we had a drop in attendance the prior week, the roster is back to being very solid this current raid week. We've got an influx of healers, which is probably good because who knows what main changes Cataclysm will bring.

Many people say that Cataclysm will fix most of the things that Wrath broke. There are also many skeptics about, thinking this will be yet the end to this game. Personally, I don't see the game in a downward spiral, just a shift of focus. From a business perspective, it makes sense to cater to the masses then the few. Hopefully, Blizzard will have balanced that with the folks that want notoriety which comes from spending the extra time, pursuing the harder things that the game can provide, and offers a way to at least give some sort of way to differentiate between these players that strive for a higher level of game play, and the player that logs in on occasion. Something should be there for the effort. In a 25 man guild, I'm hoping the extra time we've taken on recruitment and to mesh up players with 25 man interest has paid off.

Looking back, this guild was formed for Wrath. I'll need to revamp our website opening pages, because at this point, we have weathered the many storms that Wrath has thrown at us. It's been a roller coaster of a ride. I know what challenges we faced as a brand new guild for Wrath. I'm glad we are facing a slightly different set of challenges for Cataclysm. I know some people may go but I also know we've many people that have raided together for more than a year. That fact alone gives me such faith in this guild for what we can accomplish in the next expansion.

Casual Raider Mentality vs. Old School Raider

As a guild that focuses on progression on our own terms, we take people from all World of Warcraft backgrounds. We look for people that want to raid, to see end game content, and seek to do so on their own terms. We try to balance real world with our love for seeing content – and it's always on OUR terms as a guild. As a casual raid guild that brings a hardcore mentality, the guild walks a fine line. We're all very human, and we all make mistakes – it's knowing or taking the initiative to fix them that make the difference. We often take ventures on new people that have never seen an end boss die – or have yet to experience the bittersweet kill of a boss that you've worked on for weeks. The mindset is everything. Are you performing? If not, are you working on it? There is a difference in guild mentality. In this guild, we do not believe in handing out "pink slips", because we want people that want to be here to raid – but raid instances have requirements – for healing, damage, and threat and let's not forget about survivability. Criticism is a hard thing to give, and even tougher to take. The approach has to be a delicate one. Old School Raiders may well be used to commands being barked out, wiping, and running back was all part of the process of conquering content. A casual raider may have never experienced this type of process: wiping on content for progression. It comes with a price. The emotional player does not fit in well to the guild that seeks progression. It can be a source of stress. It can also be frustrating for this type of player to struggle with the structure that most successful raid guilds have in place.

While this guild has policies on real life taking precedence, the raid is ensured to always continue. This means that the expectations are clear cut coming in. The tone is set during the interview. Fun is relative to how each person defines it. The goal of this guild is a focused raiding environment. This means that we have a good time at the appropriate time. Casual raiders do not always understand the importance of consistency, focus, or following instructions. As someone that's been recruiting for two guild guilds over the span of World of Warcraft, many things have changed. The most important resource in World of Warcraft is human capital and locating the right type of people to make your guild a success is challenging.

The casual raider may sit and think that spreading dissension is acceptable or ranting is ok. The problem with this is it spreads drama. If there are issues, you need to take them to the "management". If you don't like the answers, and the explanations are not valid from your viewpoint, you should ask for clarification. If it becomes obvious that you aren't a good fit, we will maintain the right to remove you. It's a guild, not a jail. Our atmosphere is solid and the people in this guild want to be here. It's not everyone's play style – and we understand that. Before you apply to any guild, you should ensure that you agree with the terms. By applying, and specifically in our process, you are agreeing to the guild's charter and expectations – and that holds true with any guild. The idea and concepts of having policies isn't to make up a bunch of things to inhibit you – the member- but to ensure that the policies apply across the board to all. It makes the policies clear and defined – and thus the expectations are set, and we are all accountable.