Seven Deadly MMO Sins: Lust & Gluttony

Earlier today I encountered a situation that got me thinking about the seven cardinal sins and how they apply to (or can effect) MMO games such as World of Warcraft. A quick disclaimer before we go on:

Sections of this article will contain references to actual players and situations that have occurred within an MMO. Ordinarily I'd let these sorts of things slide under the radar and allow the lessons to be learned privately (which is the ideal outcome for these sorts of things) however I view this as an opportunity to teach other potential leaders of the various pitfalls and possible solutions to these kinds of events.

No names will be used. Even if one were to guess who I am referring to, I must make it absolutely clear that I do not intend for them to be vilified in any way. Redemption is always possible and I do not wish it to be prematurely denied to them. Please keep this in mind throughout the following.

One of our newer members had managed to completely stun me today. Within the space of a few hours, this new member had very publicly committed five of the seven deadly sins.

I was immediately (and rightly) bombarded with complaints from other guild members, even though I had already cautioned the offending party in private. It seemed not enough just to rebuke the offender, but also to go into damage control mode for the offended.

In the end we laughed it off, but it did get me thinking about how the cardinal sins come into play in these environs.

• Lust:

This one will be well known by quite a few guild leaders and officers I imagine. I'm bending the meaning slightly here for use in MMO's.

Online relationships of any kind, be it boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife, siblings or even just RL friends can cause quite a bit of disturbance in the overall harmony of what was once a functional guild.

For example: One of the well liked and valued members has a friend who is a complete tool (this has not happened in Harms Way yet, but it has happened recently). The guild leaders may find it difficult to rein said friend into acceptable behaviour due to the real life relationship.

I won't go into any more detail as this topic has been covered many, many times - most recently by the Drama Mamas over at WoW.com - and the solutions given there are as good as any I could provide and, much more likely, better ones.

• Gluttony:

Yet another one I need to bend the meaning for - in this case, constantly asking for more.

In most cases guilds will experience this in the form of a player who keeps asking to essentially be carried through things, be they quests, dungeons or even raids. Such players are effectively a parasite that latch on to a well-meaning guild and start sucking. The obvious solution is that the parasite should be removed.

Of course, there's a distinction between MMO gluttony and a guild member simply asking for assistance. The key to identifying a glutton from a desired member is all about their attitude. There's no clear line in the sand here, so it's up to your guild or raid leaders to decide the course of action.

I must stress though, don't be hasty to label someone as a glutton when they're simply asking for help.

***

Of these sins, so far I've only encountered Gluttony within Harms Way, and even then it was only from one member, so we're doing quite well on those fronts. Like I said before, the ideal course of action is to handle the matter privately and to give the offending party an opportunity to redeem themselves before grabbing your banhammer and swinging for the fences

Watch this space for more details on MMO Sins. Next time: Greed & Sloth!

-Reverend Ahz

Image by Solomon Russell

Another Quick Update

Official Progression Standing:

NAXX: CLEAR

OS: 1/1 (+1)

VoA: CLEAR

EoE: 0/1

ULD: 1/13 *new*

Last night was our first look at what our proper progression encounters are going to be like. After 2 hours and an insane repair bill, Malygos was still flying about and gibbering about us having the nerve to use magic against him.

We decided to skip Malygos for the moment (though we'll be back for him, oh yes) and beat the crud out of something else to raise our dwindling morale. We went to Ulduar and totally demolished Flame Leviathan which made everyone feel a bit better.

So for now we'll be focusing on Ulduar and Naxx achievement runs. Let us never speak of Malygos again...

-Ahz

Progression Update and Scrapbook

So far the various members of Harms Way have completely blown me away. I am truly impressed by the amount of skill these supposed "newbies" possess.

Official progression standing:

Naxx: CLEAR

OS: 1/1 (1 drake) *new*

VoA: CLEAR (4/4) *new*

Last night we decided to take a stab at VoA in the morning. Which we did.

Now this here is something that's gonna make the elitists egos shrivel up - only two of our members had a gearscore over 5k, and almost none had the Toravon achievement. Oh, and the mammoth dropped.

I'm not usually a fan of the gearscore addon, but today I'm using it to rub our victory in the scorewhores' faces, so I forgive myself :3

Feeling more confident than ever, we all went to Obsidian Sanctum for a shot at 3 drakes up and the nice dragon mount it provides (we all had mount envy after Rozie won the mount in VoA *shakes fist*).

Despite not knowing what we were doing, we charged in eagerly... and promptly wiped. A few repeat performances later and we decided baby steps towards 3d was the sensible option.

We then barreled through Sarth with Shadron up with ease.

We also went back to Naxxramas to get the achievements for two of our members who had to leave early last time. The construct quarter through to Kel'thuzad, totally one-shot. Despite the guild having been up for only two weeks, Naxx is officially on farm :D

Big congratulations to everyone involved (especially Rozie *shakes fist again*). We're facing off against Malygos tonight and I'm more confident than ever.

-Ahz *still fist-shaking* :P

Raiding Basics: MS/OS Looting and Raid Rolls

Even though I knew I was taking on completely fresh players who've never raided before I still take certain things for granted.

During our first loot distribution, I explained how the MS/OS looting works (much like I'm about to now) and afterwards I sat back all proud of myself for doing such a great job teaching people the ins and outs of raiding. About three or four bosses later I got a message from two raiders asking what to do if they wanted a piece of loot.

It turns out I'd forgotten to explain the /roll command. I then felt like a complete tool for the remainder of that raid.

Looting rules should be of of, if not THE, very first things you explain to any raid. There are a huge amount of different rules regarding loot distribution: DKP, GDKP, Loot Council and more.

Today I'm going to focus on MS/OS and Raid Rolls.

MS/OS:

It stands for Main Spec/Offspec. It is generally accepted (though it can vary depending on the raid) that your main spec is the current talent tree you're using in the raid at the time.

Eg. I'm tanking for a naxx run, my main spec at the time would be Feral.

Offspec is for any set of talents you can use, but aren't using currently.

Eg. While I'm tanking my Offspec would be Restoration.

Anytime loot drops, it will be announced to the raid and the MS/OS rolling will take place. It normally follows this procedure:

• Item is announced to the raid
• Raiders are given an opportunity to /roll if the gear is suitable for their Main Spec (MS)
• If no-one rolls MS, Raiders will then have an opportunity to roll OS (they can still use it, but it would not be suitable for their current or main spec)
• If nobody rolls for the item during OS, the distribution is decided by the raid leader or master looter.

So using the example above, if an item dropped that would be terrific for my healing set of gear, I would have to wait until the OS roll to get it (as I'm tanking). If anybody rolled on it for their main spec, they would get it over me as they take the priority.

This system is one of the simplest and most useful of the loot distribution methods. It ensures that loot goes to someone who can use it straight away and gain maximum benefit from it. Keep in mind though that some variations to this rule exist - I'll go through these at another time.

Raid Rolls:

Raid Rolls are relatively simple. For an item that everybody wants (a sack of treasure for example), instead of having everyone roll individually, the master looter will perform a raid roll to determine who gets the item. For a ten man raid, the roll would be: /roll 1-10

A number between 1 and 10 is then generated (an unmodified /roll is between 1-100). The master looter uses that number to determine who gets the loot based on their position in the raid tab in the social window.

In group one, the member at the top is assigned 1 and 2, 3, 4 and 5 to the members below sequentially. Group two is 6, 7, 8, etc.

One thing worth noting about this system is that occasionally the order of people within the tab might appear different to a few people in the raid. Unless you suspect the master looting of cheating (giving the item to someone they like, rather than who should've gotten it) it's best not to argue over it. The point of raid rolling is to shorten the exercise, not draw it out for eons.

***

UPDATE @ 5.51pm:

I've decided to go against using raid rolls for Harms Way run from here on in. I tried one before and it was leading to a bunch of bickering as the raid tabs weren't lining up for everyone. So I'm not rolling for you anymore, you can all roll for yourselves and make me sort through a bunch of numbers! In the meantime, I'll just grab some pills for my headache...

***

That's enough from me for the moment - I have a (perhaps doomed - I'm such an optimist, eh?) VoA to attend in ten minutes. More raiding basics to come, so watch this space!

-Ahz

Progression Update

I know, I know... You've been staring at Banakin's ugly mug for almost four days now. I'm sorry, alright?!

Anywho, big things have been going down over the last few days, namely all of Naxxramas! Just before midnight on Tuesday Kel'thuzad went down in spectacular fashion.

Official progression standing:

Naxx: CLEAR

OS: 1/1 (0 drakes)

These would-be "newbies" have already developed some serious skills, I'd almost be frightened if I weren't having so much fun.

We've signed up for VoA this morning (not my decision by the way, I can't stop these guys now!) and we'll be taking down Malygos later today. Wish us luck!

-Ahz :D

MTC Monday: Banakin

Meet the Crew Monday is here again to give more helpful and possibly disturbing insights into some of our guild members. This week is Banakin, second in command and lead recruitment officer of Harms Way.

Banakin

Tauren Warrior

(Protection/Arms)

Second in Command

Location:

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Age:

24

Likes:

Finding teeth stuck in his shield.

Dislikes:

Paladins, clean shields.

Most epic moment:

"Starting (and winning) a four hour war with the alliance at Lost Rigger Cove in Tanaris. Was the last man standing after roughly thirty alliance troops came to reinforce their allies."

Banakin wasn't always the ice-hearted killer he is today.

Innocently leveling through Ashenvale, determined to be a protector for his people, Banakin got caught in an alliance raid on Splintertree Post. Despite a valiant defense from Banakin, Splintertree Post was overrun by alliance.

Members of the horde that were now effectively captured in an alliance occupied Splintertree called for reinforcements, but it seemed no-one would come for them.

Banakin was attempting to rally the horde into counterattacking Astranaar in the hopes of causing enough chaos to allow the rest of the entrapped horde to escape, when their captors began to scatter. A feral druid had begun attacking the enemy from behind, catching them off guard.

A newly brain-snapped Ahzae had arrived in Ashenvale, spotted the alliance occupation and had immediately begun tearing into them. Banakin happily joined the fray by his side, dispatching any alliance that had been left behind. Ahzae seemed delighted about the proposed attack on Astranaar and, with all the other horde they could muster, quickly swooped down on and crippled the alliance establishment. The two Taurens held Astranaar for hours before finally relinquishing control to the pleading alliance. That day was the turning point for Banakin.

Since then the two have been near inseperable (and near unstoppable when working together). Though Ahzae has since tried to change his violent ways, Banakin still has an unquenchable lust for blood and extreme contempt for the alliance. Following Ahzae through thick and thin, Banakin has become a key component of Harms Way - all too happy to deal out the faceshields when Ahzae becomes too complacent.

That's it for this week, but there'll always be more! Come back next time for a look at some of our more recent additions.

-Ahz

(Note from Banakin: "And remember: Which way? Harms Way." -Bana)

Of Guild Ranks.

Every guild I've been in since I started playing has always made a bit of a mess of the rank/promotion system. That's not to say that there aren't guilds out there that have a good system in place, just that they might be somewhat hard to come by.

One of the things I wanted for Harms Way was for guild ranks to actually mean something. I want to see promotions as a joyous occasion and demotions as a hurtful and feared consequence of un-guildlike actions. They had to matter.

I'd thought about it for a long time - aside from emulating a sort of leveling system based on DKP I was stumped.

Ranks on their own seem to do very little. Sure, a lot of guilds have a Silence-is-golden rank to shut people up and there's officer chat too, but that's really all there usually is. In order for ranks to mean something I had to create privileges that people would actually want.

So far I have three:

• Guild repairs (25g/day currently, see last post about cashflow) for member rank and above.
• The first guild bank tab is available to all at member rank with almost no withdrawal limit.
• The second tab, dubbed the enchanting tab, is available to essentially give free enchants to people at member rank.

Opening up the gbank tab for members was something I've been wanting to do for ages. Again, almost every guild I've been with didn't really seem to know what to do with them and inevitably end up stockpiling hundreds/thousands of items that no-one can withdraw. Freedom to take whatever you like from a guild bank should be a little more appealing.

The enchanting tab is one of my favourite ideas thus far. Anyone can deposit, no-one can withdraw bar officers and above.

The whole point is that members can drop in any BoE greens and up they come across, I'll disenchant them later (taking notes on who does and does not contribute) and stockpile the materials gained back in the same tab. Then whenever a member needs an enchant, we can simply check the materials available and either enchant them on the spot or send them a vellum if we can't be online at the same time.

The guild repairs are fairly self-explanatory.

There are drawbacks to these sorts of privileges though. The big one is that it only takes one week with us (without being a total jerk) to go from initiate to member. It's not that big of a deal for someone to jump on, hang out for a week then take everything they can get their hands on and gquit, or at least feign ignorance.

For this I choose to put a bit of trust in my members not to abuse the system. For the most part, they can take whatever they want without question - if they take everything, there's gonna be some 'splaining to do. Anyone who betrays that trust will have their toys take from them.

The same principal goes for the enchanting tab. If any members ask for an enchant they'll get it free, whether they've contributed or not. If they keep asking for enchants and haven't contributed anything back (be it disenchantables or gold for repairs), they'll be put on a full enchanting embargo until they decide to chip in.

I know it sounds harsh, but the goal of Harms Way is, in a nutshell, to filter out the bad people (personality wise) so that the only members we have are all people worth spending your precious time with. So much more time is spent with these people outside of raids than in; it seems so ridiculous to judge a potential member's worthiness to be a part of this (or any) guild based on their skill, gear or experience.

Ugh, on the verge of ranting again. The point is that the good members/people we have are going to find their loyalty constantly rewarded and their company enjoyed. The jerks, not so much...

-Ahz

Success! ...kinda

Today I hosted what I hoped would become a new Sunday tradition: The Harms Way Charity Fundraiser Auction Deluxe (or HWCFAD). It went quite well, but there's always a glitch.

Here's the deal:

• Start a raid - each player pays a minimum 20g "donation" to get in.
• Then raid numerous areas that have rare drops (eg. Zulian Tiger from ZG)
• When a rarity drops, the players who want it can bid - highest bidder takes the loot.
• All gold gathered after all the runs have been finished goes into the guild bank to help fund repairs, new tabs, etc.

In theory the idea works; it's very similar to GDKP runs, except that the guild benefits overall instead of just the raiders.

In practice the idea still worked too; we had 6 people in total (about a third of our total members at the moment) and everyone had a blast.

We made 304g in total - but there's the catch. None of the rare mounts had dropped (as I had expected), and nothing else that did drop was worth bidding on. We made a little over 300 gold in the space of three hours (despite having loads of fun doing it) and had really nothing else to show for it. In terms of pure profitability, a gold mine this ain't.

Like I said however, the idea did work - but it's not going to be the ultimate solution to guild finances, even for small guilds like ours, that I had perhaps naively hoped it would be... but it's a start.

Having these runs in addition to whatever other fund-raisers we come up with over time should be nothing but a positive mark for the guild's cashflow. Despite the fact that I could make about three times as much farming in Sholazar Basin in that time, it's easier to think of it as just a standard mount farming run - just with added benefits for the guild.

-Ahz

(By the way, in case anyone was wondering, we ran Sethekk Halls(H), Magisters Terrace(H), Zul'Gurub, Karazhan and took a stab at The Eye as well. We managed to get Al'ar down before calling it a day, so fitting all of that into three hours with six people certainly isn't bad at all)

Why do I have the Blues Brothers stuck in my head?

It's past midnight. We won wintergrasp... again. I just ran out of lemon drink and I desperately need a shave. So yeah, typical Friday night for a WoW gamer.

It occurs to me that I haven't written anything since Wednesday. I was going to write about guild promotions and their usefulness, but it's late and I have nothing to quench my thirst (I'm also very lazy).

So in its place will be gibbering nonsense. Enjoy.

Part the First: This.

It turns out that I'm quite late to this particular party, but I'm a druid; I juggle five different sets of gear which leaves me no time for funnehs. Until now that is.

I've decided to petition Blizzard to create a title to honour this particular track:

Ahzae, Lord of the Trifling Gnome

I will not rest (probably) until it's been implemented.

Part the Second: Goblins vs. Taurens

I've been watching a few goblin animation videos lately. After seeing these, every last part of my being wants to reroll a goblin. I'm too tired to actually go into details just yet, but suffice it to say that I'm agonisingly torn between sticking with what I know and rerolling and losing everything I've worked so hard for.

I'm leaning more towards staying a druid at the moment, but I don't think we'll know until Cataclysm hits.

Speaking of Cataclysm hitting - has anyone noticed that Dalaran has begun shaking more violently lately, or is it just me?

Part the Final: Banakin and Myself

So far the raids we've had have gone quite well. Only Banakin and myself have acted as a raid leader at this point. The next raid has been booked for tomorrow at midday.

I was reminded earlier today that I'm playing guinea pig for a friend at that exact time. From what I'm told I'll be subjecting my brain (eep!) to all sorts of machinery... I hope I'm getting paid for this.

Anywho, I got into contact with Banakin to make sure he could pick up raid leadership for Saturday, and it turns out that he can't make it either! Some nonsense about his interwebs being violated or some-such, I was raging too much to really listen to what he had to say.

Now, we're left with what is mostly very new raiders, a schedule to keep and no-one to lead. My first reaction was to simply cancel the event (which handily sends an in-game mail to all who signed up), but as I thought about it I became curious as to what they'll actually do:

• 90% chance that the raid simply shrugs it off and gets on with life.
• 5% chance that someone takes the lead and they then one-shot the entire place.
• 4% chance that the absence of their beloved leader leaves them confused and scared and they begin to cry.
• 1% chance that the absence of their "beloved" leader leaves them angry and violent and then everyone immediately gquits.
  Then I begin to cry.
  Then something explodes.

Guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

More serious posts up on the weekend!

/endgibberish

-Ahz

Of Confidence - Addendum

I had meant to put these in the original post... but I forgot. Don't look at me like that, dammit!

Anywho, these links go directly to the wowhead.com pages I use for information regarding a certain class. Everything is there, from PvE/PvP talent builds/specs, gear priority, rotations - everything. Make sure you have a read through on your own class (and even more for budding tanks):

Death Knight

Druid

Hunter

Mage

Paladin (Hurf Durf) :D

Priest

Rogue

Shaman

Warlock

Warrior

-Ahz

Progression Update

Holy crud that was a long post! Not deducting any points from anyone if they didn't read it all. Anyway, progression standing:

Naxx - 5/15

OS10 - 1/1 (0 drakes)

6 guildies came along for OS. I had honestly forgotten how easy it was *shrug*.

Everyone did superbly though. Big thanks to Ekki for doing a marvelous tanking job.

Maybe next time we'll try with some drakes up! *evil grin*

- Ahz >:D

Of Confidence

One of the things all new raiding guilds have to tackle eventually is player confidence. So far we've run some of naxx and completed OS10 earlier today and, despite both being the easiest endgame raids available, we've had at least two guild members unsure of whether they were good enough to come with us.

Now, although our recruitment and in-game discussions have all been about learning as we go with no pressure on whether or not we succeed, we have members already who seem to be afraid of letting us down. This is a much bigger issue than you might think.

See, either camaraderie or reliability will be the glue that holds any group of raiders together; a lack of confidence is the solvent that makes it fall apart, leaving your raid in a gooey, flammable puddle on the ground. The problem with this is that even the most hardened player's confidence can be quite delicate. Avoiding situations that totally sink a raiders confidence, whether new raiders or veterans, should be paramount to any guild.

The two we've had so far:

• A fury warrior who was hesitant about tanking, and
• A death knight who didn't think (or wasn't sure) that they were good enough.

In the warrior's case, things took a bit of a left turn. Despite being hesitant, he decided to give it a go and was promptly two-shot by Patchwerk. While this is all part of the learning experience of becoming a tank (as any veteran tank will tell you), it was enough to convince the warrior to stick to dps from then on.

In the death knight's case, he whispered me earlier in the day wondering asking if he was good enough to sign up for OS10. I told him that he was, of course (mostly 232 geared), and that we would explain everything while we were there. The death knight excitedly signed up for their first raid, which went perfectly well shortly thereafter.

Can you see the point I'm trying to make?

Even though we're (hopefully) providing the same friendly, positive environment for both players and both tried something new, it had a different affect on the confidence of each.

The death knight is now excited about trying out new raids and has now signed up for the naxx progression runs we've scheduled, but our fury warrior might never try tanking again. Honestly, I think he'll give it another shot after we've gotten a core team together, but if he never does then that's fine too.

Confidence has a direct affect on performance, and not just on the meters either. Confidence can affect whether or not your raiders turn up at all, and in severe cases lead to a silent gquit.

The best way to deal with this is not to attack the problem head on - doing so will only lead to more confidence losses. For instance, you shouldn't say to one of your players "Hey, you tried tanking before and you sucked so listen to me and I'll make you better.".

That approach might work, but it might kill their confidence either immediately or if they wipe a raid after having dutifully studied under your own self-proclaimed divine tutelage. One way or the other they may end up resenting you for what went wrong, or for putting what they feel is too much on their shoulders and then hating themselves because they couldn't live up to what was expected of them.

It sounds terrible and I know it's "just a game", but these are some very realistic outcomes from these scenarios. So how should you deal with it?

Mostly, it depends on your guild's philosphy. For most guilds the best approach is to do nothing directly, continue to encourage your raiders to keep their confidence and enjoyment levels high and simply wait for them to begin to wonder themselves what/if they can do better.

When/if they eventually ask for some guidance, rather than straight out tell them what they should be doing, lead them to the resources that helped you learn what you know today.

For instance, a death knight asks me, a druid, what he can do to be better, I'd guide them to the wowhead.com class forums and show them to the helpful threads section.

Don't say "lol wowhead nub" (though if you're reading this then I don't think you're in much danger of that... but just in case).

Don't tell them that your keys should be bound like this, and you should be specced like this, now press 1-1-2-2-3-3-6-repeat.

A big part of confidence is the pride that comes from learning various aspects of your class yourself, and the improved performance that results once you put what you learned into action. The added bonus is that from that point, they then have the knowledge to help other raiders in much the same fashion.

Confidence is the foundation for all other raid skills and the desire to keep on coming back for more. Don't underestimate the impact it can have, and I guarantee* your raiders will stick around and be a major part of all successes to come.

-Ahz

*Guarantee subject to availability. Any similarities to a genuine guarantee, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Guarantee not valid in conjunction with any other offer, or in Texas for some reason.

MTC Monday: Ahzae

Meet the Crew Monday is our weekly feature that gives a little more insight into the members of Harms Way. As much as I dislike tooting my own horn(s), Banakin was unavailable for this and I'm not quite willing to subject my newly found members to the full force of teh intarwebz... yet.

Ahzae

Tauren Druid

Founder of Harms Way

Location:

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Age:

26

Favourite food:

Beef Jerky (oh the shame!)

Most epic moment: The very second I finished the Swift Flight Form quest and went from the worlds most sluggish bird to "wth just whizzed past my head?!"

Ahzae, a peaceloving druid since release, has been pottering around in one form or another for the past five years. Essentially "growing up" on PvP servers, Ahzae had to find numerous ways to avoid conflict, or fight for his life. Specialising in feral talents early on meant he could sneak past most threats undetected. This also led to tanking for groups, where he got a taste for being the supply for group demands.

After a fateful encounter in Nagrand with a very persistent night elf druid, Ahzae snapped. Now convinced that the alliance were nothing more than murderous children intent on killing anything at first sight, Ahzae went on a violent rampage, gleefully tearing apart any alliance members he encountered without a second thought. Despite his newly found lust for blood, he spent so much time killing alliance that little else was getting done. It was time for a change.

Shortly after transferring to a PvE server (Khaz'goroth) along with his ever-more vicious brother-in-arms Banakin, Ahzae founded Harms Way - a group dedicated to discover and hone the skills of some of the greatest overlooked heroes and to try to get back in touch with his peaceful side.

Well that's enough from me. There's always more to tell but I don't want to give the game away early, now do I?

Stay tuned next Monday when we turn the spotlight on Banakin and his rise to power.

A "Quick" Progression Update

(I intended for this to be much shorter than it turned out to be - apologies in advance for the essay).

Harms Way official progression standing: Naxx 5/15

Not bad I thought. We took down the Spider wing in around an hour with a single wipe to Anub'Rekhan, so we di-

Wait, what? Anub'Rekhan? Really?

Yeah, we wiped on our first attempt at one of the easiest bosses in the whole place. There were a few mitigating factors though:

*It was the very first raid encounter for quite a few of our players.

*A lot of our players didn't realise that standing too close to the Locust Swarm was stopping them from using their abilities.

*We only had seven people in the raid.

After getting their feet wet on the first attempt, we flew through the rest of the wing with flying colours. All up, we did wonderfully.

After clearing the Spider Wing (downing Maexxna with no trouble at all), our confidence levels were through the roof. Everyone was keen to get started on the next wing. If it weren't for me stupidly double-booking myself we likely would've gone further but, just between us, I prefer shorter-than-a-decathlon raids anyway.

Continuation is rescheduled for tomorrow and I have high hopes.

...I hope I don't regret saying that.

UPDATE (Sunday, 9:52pm): Continuation was a little rocky. Banakin couldn't make it due to difficulties with his connection. With some spectacular effort from some of our newer raiders we still managed to get down Patchwerk and Grobbulus. Big thanks to Naarah and Atastycookie for being so patient with us.

-Ahz

It Begins!

It's done and Harms Way is officially under... erm, way.

The separation from my old guild didn't turn out as bad as I'd thought it would, though it didn't seem like it at first. When I first told my GM that I was leaving, she immediately logged off and didn't come back. That worried me a bit.

I managed to chat with one of the other officers later on. She had called him, told him what had happened and promptly went to bed. To be completely fair though, it was 2-3am in her timezone.

Anywho, I took the reigns from Banakin today (he'd been recruiting players since he left the day before last) and he introduced me to the guild members - hopefully I'll get to share some more information about them when I get to know them all a bit better. About eighteen members so far, which is very encouraging.

The whole point of creating Harms Way was to effectively establish an environment that new or less confident players could find some friendly faces where they could hone their own skills without the fear of hearing "NUBZ0R!" being yelled at them around every other corner. Y'see, elitism sh*ts me. I'll expand on that another time (for fear of starting a rant now), and long story short: Find good people, ignore their gear/skill/epeen, rescue them from the "PST GS/CHEEV OR NO RPLY" limbo that is currently WoW's endgame and see what happens.

I've already organised a water-testing raid, Naxx 10, for tomorrow. Both for Harms Way so I can get a read on where my new members stand and for my former guild (it was something I'd set up before I left). Hopefully it all goes well and a strong partnership is formed between us. We'll see.

-Ahz :D

A New Hope

Ugh, yesterday was a rough day.

I transferred to Khaz'goroth (along with Banakin) about six months ago with a plan. We were going to do our bit to fight against the elitist culture that's ever-present in World of Warcraft's endgame. Well, that was the plan at any rate.

While I waited for my transfer to come through I began leveling a death knight alt. During this time I received a random whisper asking if I'd like to join a "friendly, social guild". Ordinarily I'd ignore these sorts of messages, but that moment I thought to myself "Eh, what could it hurt?"

Turns out it could hurt plenty. Over the last six months I've become good friends with the people in that guild. No tolerance for elitists, great sense of humour, raiding aspirations - they were basically everything I was looking for when I switched realms. The time I spent with them was easily some of the most enjoyable since I started playing.

Over the last few weeks, things had begun taking a downward turn. Members began leaving; either taking a break until Cataclysm or just outright quitting for greener pastures, our raids became non-existent and all of the people I enjoyed spending time with began logging on less and less. Even the guild master would be missing for days at a time.

Personally, I was determined to stick it out to the bitter end. These people had become my friends. Banakin, however... Banakin had been thinking about our original plan - He knew the end was nigh for our guild and had been wanting us to put the plan into motion. That would mean leaving our guild, which would've been yet another nail in the coffin for them and I didn't want to be the one who pulled them apart, but I could see the wisdom behind his thinking.

Banakin and I discussed the situation at length. It took the better part of a day to finally reach a solution. Banakin would leave the guild and begin with our original plan - I would stay behind for as long as I could because I wanted to give them the proper farewell that they deserved.

Of course, this was made a little more difficult due to the fact that many of the members I wanted to give my thanks to were online infrequently at this point.

Banakin left yesterday and I stayed back to pick up the pieces he left behind. Banakin was well liked in that guild and there were quite a few members saddened by his departure. They all asked me why he left and where he was going to... I simply told them he was leaving for another guild, but he'd always be available when we needed him. I didn't have the heart to tell them that he had essentially left to join my guild and that I'd be leaving soon too.

That was yesterday.

The plan, since the beginning, was Harms Way; a guild in which new players could find their feet in the endgame. Essentially, we wanted to bridge the gap between "fresh 80" and "LFM ICC pst cheev". Any mature player would be welcome and elitism or a**holes of any kind wouldn't be tolerated. A guild that made raiding fun again.

Sounds cheesy, right? Well it is, but if all goes according to plan then it should be a lot of fun and maybe - maybe - we can rescue some of the "noobs" (I hate that term so very much) who keep getting shouted down by veteran players because they don't know absolutely everything that they know themselves.

That was the plan we came up with six months ago. The plan we began putting into action yesterday.

It is likely that I'll leave the guild sometime today - definitely by the weekend.

This is easily the second saddest moment of my gaming life, and it's only going to get worse when I have to actually leave. I'll have to tell them that I'm leaving them to form my own guild (which essentially implies that they're not good enough, which was never the case). I'm not sure how they'll react, but I know I'm not going to feel good about this.

"Eh, what could it hurt?" I thought...

-Ahz