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Why do You Need a Professional Guild Site?

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The Conquest Gaming website received a much needed facelift a few weeks ago. A special thanks to Altered Innovations for the design work that went into it. You’ll see many guild sites aiming for predominantly dark colours. I wanted to go with a different approach and go in a brighter direction instead.  Functionality aside, today we’ll be talking about pure aesthetics.

The looks.

The feel.

The sex appeal.

Why do you need a good looking website?

One of my raiders suggested adding more Comic Sans to help make it a little more “fun”. I shot that down without zero hesitation.

“What’s wrong with Comic Sans? Why do we need such a good looking site? Why does it have to be professional? I mean, we’re not getting paid or anything like that.”

Those are all excellent questions. You don’t actually need a polished, quality site. But attracting players is like trying to pickup women: First impressions matter! You can aim for something that’s clean. Or go for something more bold. Or have a little fun with it! No matter what, there’s something to be said for good design.  Rules and other information should be easy to find. The “apply” page should be in an obvious location.

I’m not trying to be shallow or anything. I’m not saying that the quality of your guild depends entirely on the look of your site. Your guild should have a little substance to it. Your guild is defined by the players, the culture, and the activities. At the same time though, your guild site should showcase those aspects. For progression raiders, it’s all about how many bosses that guild has taken down and when. With potential recruits visiting, a good looking site determines whether or not they’ll leave within the first second.

Just like in real life, adding a little more care to appearances goes a long way.

A few of the other raiders echoed those sentiments. If the site had an old school Geocities or Fortune City look, they wouldnt’ve given it a second glance. That brings back memories of scrolling or flashing text (depending on Netscape or Internet Explorer — My how times have changed). Don’t forget the embedded Real Player.

Or frames.

I digress.

When I’m browsing around other guild sites and I see one that catches my eye, I can’t help but be impressed. Because there’s a guild master who gets it. It’s another way for that GM to express their dedication for their guild. If a GM didn’t care, why bother investing the time or the money in creating a unique site of their own? If you’re a recruit, you can think of that as a positive indicator when you’re shopping for a new guild.

Not every guild has access to the tools or designers for sites. I suspect this is true of smaller guilds. But their activities and communications are coordinated around Facebook groups or Google+. That’s okay too, but I’ve found it harder to find information about them. Then again, most of those groups tend to be invite only.

if you actually are looking for a custom layout with spoilers and rims, I recommend looking into Altered Innovations (check out the portfolio). If you’re already on Enjin, then it’s a bigger bonus as he does specialize with Enjin sites (and that’s what allows the rates to be reasonable). Most of the coding is already built into the Enjin infrastructure which saves time on development.

Besides, these guys actually do  get paid. It’s stipulated in the contract. One drink at BlizzCon*. They just need to be there to redeem it!

* Redeemable for active raiders only or at GM’s discretion.

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Curse Lei Shen!

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On Monday, we had multiple attempts where we were able to push him down to 2%.

Two percent!

But we couldn’t put him away. We simply suffered too much damage and he casted us aside like dolls. The team has gotten better collectively when it comes to the intermission phases. We’re ending the second main phase on an Overcharge and this is where it gets a little tricky for us. Lei Shen will hit the second intermission at 30%. I tend to call for players to split and head to their assigned corners at around 33%. Around this time, we’re going to get either an Overcharge (the donut) or the AoE balls.

  1. If I prepare for the Overcharge but call for the stack, we phase him too early and everyone won’t be in position on the other corners resulting in deaths.
  2. If I hold DPS to eat the Overcharge and then dispatch players to the corners, we run the risk of either Overcharge catching players and stunning them or we don’t have enough punch to force him to phase before the lightning balls come out. If lightning balls do come out while we’re spread out, we’d have to contend with them during the second intermission.

Last night, I blew two calls directly leading to wipes at that time. On one of those wipes, we were short two DPS (we would’ve been on track had them been alive). I’m debating handing the steering wheel to someone else instead because it’s taking me long to get it right. Wouldn’t be so bad if it’s a 10 man. It’s only 10 people that get pissed at you. The pressure is amplified in a 25 man though. I sure as hell don’t feel the most confident waltzing into the final phase. We’re going to try to have range loosely surrounding Lei Shen (not max range) and AoEing lightning balls as they come. I feel overloaded.

We need to crush this guy!

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BlizzCon 2013!

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Two years between BlizzCons is such a long time! Our regularly night guild LFR group was temporarily halted. We opted to run part 4 of LFR first. Ultimately we wiped to Lei Shen at the end (largely because we didn’t have a full guild group, oops). Right about the time we wiped, my cellphone alarm went off and we told the raid that we were going to take a quick break and pause attempts while we attempted to purchase tickets to BlizzCon. Of course, several of the pug players were pissed off. But they could either wait 15 minutes for us to finish or wait 30 minutes for the queuing debuff to wear off. This one rogue in particular was so pissed off that he pulled Lei Shen and wiped everyone again before rage quitting.

Oh well.

All that time spent in League of Legends clicking and using skill shots paid off. I managed to get in line at position 1702 (and using the drop down box to select 4 tickets simultaneously *flex*).

My guild mates were also able to secure tickets. The Conquest contingent will consist of around 20 players (at least)! This is going to be our largest meetup yet! It’s going to be damn tough to find a place where we can simply relax and lounge around at. I figure everything within walking distance of the convention center’s going to be snapped up anyway (or really difficult to accommodate). Next thing I need to do is get some shirts made for everyone. Remember how in school they created printed hoodies for every year’s graduating class? Might just do something like that annually. Speaking of which, any shrewd GMs out there that are looking to recruit should consider making some business cards. Conquest recruited some solid and steady players just by networking there. Someone suggested Conquest branded shot glasses, but I think that statement was made as a joke.

Even though it’s months away, I’m already stressing out about the event. I’ve already met a number of players from the guild in previous events. But we’re going to have some new faces this year. Are we going to be able to get along in real life as we do online? Am I going to get overwhelmed with a bunch of guild business about ideas on how to improve the guild? Are they going to sneak sedatives into my drinks so they can sharpie my face when I pass out?

I’m almost tempted to put together a disguise actually. Every joke and remark I’ve made at a guldie’s expense is probably going to come back and haunt me when I run into these clowns at Anaheim. I’m pretty sure no amount of asskissing I do is going to offset whatever beatings may come my way so I may as well keep making said remarks. I mean how much worse can it get, right? Even though I’ll never admit it to them directly, they’re a good crew to have and I’m happy to play alongside such an excellent team. The players that have left for various reasons will always be considered my guildies to me regardless of what tag they have and they’ll always be welcome here.

I still hate them all though.

In all due seriousness, BlizzCon is such a short time. I wish an extra day were added just so I can see more people from the community. I remember meeting Ceraphus and Xia (she has way too much energy) last time from The Sundering podcast. Looks like Fimlys from the Twisted Nether will be there too! And of course, all my friends and colleagues from WoW Insider. We’ve all attended these conventions year after year and it’s virtually the same crew. We’ve started with greeting each other with handshakes and have since moved on to hugs. If my understanding is correct, I’ll also get an opportunity to run into Medros from All Things Azeroth, one of the longest standing community members around. I’m also looking forward to meeting Twizz (from the Twizzcast).

Anyone else going? It’d be awesome to meet even more people this year! I promise, my guild won’t bite if you run into them (but they have a hell of a bark).

You Shouldn’t be an Officer

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You shouldn’t consider being an officer…

  • If you can’t commit the time
  • If you view it as a simple title without responsibility
  • If you have thin skin and cannot handle flak from anyone
  • If you cannot be objective
  • If you get extremely frustrated
  • If you are impatient
  • If you set a poor example for other players
  • If you are not willing to act
  • If you cannot control your temper
  • If you don’t have the energy
  • If you have absolutely zero sense of tact
  • If you are routinely and consistently late to events (raids)
  • If you are unable to put yourself in the shoes of others
  • If you cannot be objective when it comes to guild matters
  • If you have a flair for drama
  • If you are only good at delivering criticism without feedback
  • If you view it as a free ride to loot
  • If you’re too new and haven’t gained respect from your peers
  • If you are not available for players to reach you (within reason)
  • If you are not reliable
  • If you just don’t care
  • If you want to date the GM (Hah)
  • If you don’t want to

I’m sure you can find exceptions and success stories of those who do fall under one or two of the above bullet points. Think of these as more general guidelines. It’s nigh impossible to find the perfect officer. They may have a few flaws about them but a shrewd GM can find ways to minimize their shortcomings and capitalize on their strengths. The process of becoming an officer is going to vary. With Conquest, it usually happens when I ask someone directly. I actually prefer it if players communicate their interest in assuming more responsibilities and I’ll observe their capabilities and interactions. Makes it a little easier, I think.

In the history of Conquest, I’ve had the pleasure of working with 13 different officers since the inception of the guild. We formed during the fall of 2008, when Wrath of the Lich King came out. We’ve been around for 5 years. That’s a rate of 2.6 officers per year. Now I’m curious, how many officers have served in your guild total?

 

 

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