Great Debates: Your Love of Your Guild vs Your Love for Yourself

Ladies and gentlemen! Today is a very special day! World of Matticus is holding the ultimate debate! Your guest debaters are world renowned for their egos and have a combine experience of over 20 years and share over 200 levels of WoW playing!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Today’s topic is a question that has confronted many WoW players, strained relationships, and has toppled many raiding Guilds.

"If given the opportunity, should I leave my Guild for one that is more progressively advanced?"

Before we go further, let us examine the backgrounds of our 2 speakers!

Matticus: He is a law student, a writer, and a competitive player who answers to but only one ethos: reason. He is guided by facts and evidence. From the information, he weighs the choices to decide is the better way to go. He shoots for the best possible outcome. He is willing to roll the dice and gamble because he is willing to take risks and come out ahead. Every movement, every action, every thought has a purpose behind it.

He will be arguing for the "Aye" side.

Mallet: He is one of the star quarterback healers for the Carnage organization. He logs enormous minutes trying to keep his friends and companions in play and alive. Mallet is fiercely loyal to his friends and to his companions. The choices made by him tend to reflect what is best for the group as he is a self sacrificing individual who will do what is asked of him in order to progress and get far. To describe in two words, Mallet would be considered a "team player".

He will be arguing for the "Nay" side.

The rules for this debate? There are none. Each side will present its points and then attempt to argue down their respective opponent.

Matticus

Given the opportunity, you should. The fact that you’re even wrestling with and considering this question proves your internal and intrinsic desire to see more of the game. It’s also obvious your Guild doesn’t seem to have what it takes to elevate their play to the next level. Why should I stick around if all they’re going to do is run nothing but Kara, heroics, and Gruul all week long? It’s getting boring and stale. I’ve done this for so long. I deserve better then that.

Mallet

But yer’ missin’ the poin’ here, laddie! Yeh’ve levelled ter 70 wi’ th’ same crew! Wan’t that the reason why ye stayed in yer guild fer so long? Who cares about yer progression and your "gettin’ ahead" game? Yeh’ve been playing this game for so long with tha same peeple that they’re practically family! Would ya dare tern ye’r back on them after so long? It’d be akin to slappin’ them across their face wit’ troll feces! Do yeh honestly think they’d take kindly to THAT now?

Matticus

They don’t share the same dreams that I do. They no longer have the same goals that I do. Why should I stick around in an organization that no longer has the same ideals that I have? We’ll still be in the same server. I will still check in on them from time to time. The internet and this game provides anonymity. I will be forgotten the next day over, anyway. I’m being HELD back by my friends! They would have no problem picking up another player to replace me!

Mallet

And thas’ where yer wrong, lad! You are the cornerstone of the guild. If ye leave now, it will fall apar’ and collapse! No one, Dwarf, Dranei, Human, or otherwise can completely replace anyone. Ye’r unique! Yer friends will feel betrayed if you leave them now! Do you really wan’ them to go through the pain of losing you, the jealousy? Don’ do that to them! You owe it to them to stay a bi’ longer! It’s what they’d wan’ yanno!

Matticus

And what about what I want? Why do I always have to cater to them? I’ve worked long and hard to get this point. They stopped trying! I don’t want a Guild full of goddamn slackers. You think they really are friends? They’re more like business associates. Real friends wouldn’t make you feel guilty about staying behind. Real friends would encourage you to chase after your dreams and what you want to do! They wouldn’t feel envious or jealous. They might feel sad, I’m sure, but I know real friends would be proud of what I’d do!

Mallet

*quietly* Even if tha’ means forsakin’ yer friends, then? Is’ a huge commitmen’ ye know. Ye realize that if ye’ go through with it, a lo’ of  things will change. Ye’ won’t be able to catch as much PvP time or hang out with them as much. Because yeh’d have a duty ter yer new guild. Yeh’d have more responsibilities. The expectations increase. The pressure goes up. Do yeh really think yeh’d want that? Ye won’ be able to see the same crew.

Matticus

The only constant in the universe is change. If I lose friends because of something petty like this, then I’ll adapt and make new ones. For some reason, people have this stupid idea that changing Guilds is an absolute. If you join one, you’re absolutely forbidden from hanging out with the old. Assuming both guilds are on the same server, then it’s no problem. You can still hang out with them from time to time. No one says you can’t switch vents every now and again and hang out with them. Being in different Guilds doesn’t mean it has to be mutually exclusive.

Mallet

And if ye were banished? Wha’ then?

Matticus

I would be saddened, but I would understand. If they choose to expel me because I intend to go after what I want, then I can think of no better reason. Friends come and go on a daily basis. Think about the transition from high school to university. How many friends have you lost then? How many friends have you made since then? The ability to adapt is what allowed our species to survive to this day.

Mallet

Ye don’ even know if this progression guild will even accept ye! Yeh be let in on a raid one day and kicked out tha next. No stability. Yeh’d have to relearn everything. Yer DKP would start at 0. Yeh’d be considered at the bottom of the food chain.

Matticus

The fact that they made me an offer proves that they want me and my skills. They’ve given me the opportunity to show off what I can do. I’d be crazy not to take them on it.

Mallet

Yeh’d leave a lot of good people behind and be lettin’ them down, ye realize.

This is the same argument that has replayed in my mind countless of times ever since I left my old Guild. Sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened had I stayed. That same Guild collapsed a few weeks later before splintering off into two different Guilds while I watched from the sides. I can’t help but wonder if I was directly responsible. Maybe that Guild would be at the same progression point I’m at now if I stayed a bit longer. I’ll never know. 

But life is like a game of poker. You can only play the cards that you’ve been dealt resulting in winning big pots or losing your shirt.

Lessons in Relationships: Between the Raid Leader and the Raid

One of the few activities in life that I’ve never given up since getting out of high school is reading. I’m not referring to sitting on your butt in front of the screen reading blogs all day. I mean actually reading a book in a coffee shop or on your couch or on your patio on a sunny day. Anyway, the latest book I’ve started reading is called Brain Rules (12 principles for surviving and thriving at Work, Home, and school) by John Medina. It’s a great book and I encourage everyone to see if they can pick up a copy from their local library. There’s lot of great concepts in there that apply in almost every situation.

If you’re a guild leader, a raid leader, a class leader, an officer, a healing leader, or someone in any kind of authoritative position that the rest of the guild looks to, then the story here becomes that much more relevant.

The Story

In the book, there’s a brief story by a flight instructor and his student. This student of his was a literal ace. She kicked total ass on the ground in all of the classes. She beat the simulations and dominated her courses. Her practical lessons in the sky showed she had a knack for flying was listed as a natural with the ability to improvise in different weather conditions.

The instructor was having a bad day during one of these lessons. He saw her do something completely naive. He yelled at her and pushed her hands away from the plane’s yoke (a steering wheel for planes, I believe. He pointed at an instrument, still angry. The student was stunned and she tried to fix her errors. But you and I both know that stress causes more errors. She wasn’t able to think as clearly. When you’re flying in a plane, that alone can prove to be fatal. She started crying and buried her head in her hands. The instructor assumed control of the plane and landed it without any more incident.

And for the longest time, the student would not get back into the same cockpit.

The Pulse: Definitions of an Epic Encounter

Did I mention how much I love this web app yet? Several days ago, I posted my thoughts on the new information released about Wrath of the Lich King. The night after, I went to a birthday party with a few friends. Some of them were former WoW players and they asked me if there was anything in the expansion worth coming back for.

I told them Arthas is now 10 mannable. They were stunned. Immediately, I could tell they didn’t believe that the fight would be "epic" enough with only 10 players. This lead me to ask a quick question on Twitter to my WoW playing colleagues:

Question: What makes an encounter, raid or otherwise, considered "epic"?

As you can see, no one player or blogger mentioned anything about player limits. The "epicness" of an encounter falls solely on Blizzard and how their design team is going to set up the bosses in raids. I’m willing to bet Arthas and Malygos will truly be memorable fights on their own whether they’re fought in 10 or 25 mans.

Mother Shahraz Down, Crosshairs on Illidari Council

Mother is too easy. We 2 shot her. If anything, the trash leading up to Mother was a pain. How quaint and ironic it is that we downed her on Mother’s day. Having capped our Shadow Resist helped incredibly.

Installing EasyMother made this fight a piece of cake.

Illidari Council

When Carnage first started raiding, we had minor difficulty on High King. We entered the caverns of Serpentshrine and manhandled Fathom-Lord and his lackeys. Following that, we infiltrated Tempest Keep and surprised Kael along with his advisors. Now we end up at the last of the multi-mob encounter before Sunwell: Illidari Council.

Healer Arsenal

2 Holy Priests (1 CoH, 1 Imp DS)
1 Resto Druid
4 Paladins
1 Resto Shaman

After 3 hours of wiping, I can say with absolute certainty that I want to bring in another healer for the time being.

2 Paladins and 1 Resto druid assigned to Gathaios tank
1 Imp Ds Priest on the mage tank
1 Paladin on the Rogue tank
1 Paladin on the Priest tank
1 CoH Priest on the melee group, the raid, and the tanks whenever possible
1 Shaman on the raid

And we’re still dying. Even after I devote myself to paying more attention to the Divine Wrath and Poison damages that ensue, we’re still dying. This is an endurance encounter, it appears to me. The enrage timer is like 14 minutes.

Cause of Wipe

The two things that lead to our demise:

  • Tank death: Specifically, the Paladin tank can dish out 17k damage within 1 second. He gets gibbed.
  • Raid buckling: We lose a player to a blizzard or a flame strike, or a combination of the Divine Wrath and poison. This player is usually someone important who is kicking or interrupting. Another player tries to compensate before another one goes down. Eventually, we lose this battle of attrition and our raid starts to slowly buckle before a wipe is called seconds later.

I really want another healer. I think that would help ease the pressure a little.

20 Questions with Ratshag

 

We’re back from the hiatus that is post secondary finals! Every week, Matt gets a chance to sit down with a WoW Blogger chosen this week by TJ’s HAPPY FUN ROCK. Find out a little more about your favourite bloggers as he tries to get to know them a little more!

This week, Ratshag of Need More Rage gets to sit on the hot seat!

Your name consists of two words: "Rat" and "Shag". When the are looked at independently, they bring two completely different images. What are the origins of "Ratshag"?

Me mum were a fan of the great orc warrior Shagrat, who were the captain of the troops at the tower of Cirith Ungol. If ya reads Tolkiens The Two Towers you’ll come across him. Unfortunatelies, Tolkien were a bigot who done wrote the orcs up ta be lowlife thievin’ buggers bent on starting wars and whatnot. So don’t believe a lotta what ya read. Anywho, ma just took the two syllables of Shagrat’s name and reversified’em.

Dreams provide an internal metaphysical portal to another dimension. People frequently refer to it as "real life". It is said that when you sleep in the game you’re busy doing something else in "real life". Can you tell us about what your "real life" is like and what you do?

Bleh. Real life dreams. Yeah, I gots this recurrifying dream where I’s this geeky bugger what be nearly 40 years old. And he be stuck at a desk all day doing some sorta engineering work, but he don’t got no epic goggles or fly a ROFLcopter or nuthin’. He don’t even drive a train. It’s just lots of mathifications, and those make me head hurt, I tell ya. He ain’t all amazingly virile like me; when he walks down the street, wimmens don’t cry out "I waaaaa-aaa-aa-ant!" And he’s a wimp, too. Drop 200 pounds of hardened adamantite plate armor on him and put a fifty pound felsteel/khorium axe in his hands, he’d just make some sorta squeaky sound and collapse. Pffft.

But I guess he ain’t a total loser. He’s got hisself a pleasant enough house in someplace called Texas, where it be pleasantly warm. And he’s got a wife he loves and a beautiful daughter. Sometimes Ellspeth’s hunter friend dreams she’s the kid, which is all a little strange, but there it is.

What has been your most glorious campaign thus far? Or at least, most interesting story.

Well, me date with Jaina were certainly me most interesting story. But I already done told that one.

Dunno about glorious. Is always been about helping out the good guys by killing the bad guys (ya can tell the differences by which is the buggers what be paying ya), and bein’ satisifed with yerself at the end of the day. I did a lot ta bring peace and stability to places like the Barrens, where quillboars and centaurs had been running amok. Grinding me up to exalted with the Consortium as a prot warrior were an accomplishments I felt pretty good about. And I’s pleased with meself fer having rallied my small guild when our two tanks retired, leaving everyone all dazed and confusified. We did pretty good fer a while there, me learning ta tank proper while we cleared out places like Mesh and Steamvault.In the end the guild broke up anyways, but fer a while we was able ta do a proper job. And in the end, that’s enough glory fer me. Being able ta look back and say, "Self? Ya did a proper job."

What advice would you offer to young, lumbering Ratshaggian wannabes (in terms of writing style)?

Great googly moogly, don’t imitate me. Yer brain’ll explodify.
Ya gots to write fer yerself. It’s gotta be about you wanting to tell stories or get the facts down or whatevers be fun fer you, but not because ya wanna be popular. Find yer own style, even if ya gots ta try a few on fer size first. Practice helps a bunch, so keeps writing. Meself, I takes a lot of pictures when I’s adventuring, and go look through them afters. Sometimes a story just jumps out at me when I do that, what I hadn’t realized was there at the time.

Words like "numperlugger" seem to be scattered throughout your blog. Where does this… "Ratcabulary" come from and what other examples are there? Is there a Ratshag dictionary somewhere?

Hmmm. A dictionary be about details, and I can’t be bothered ta keep track of the details. But I would say that if there were such a thing, it would come from a blending of Bill Mauldin’s Up Front cartoons, some of the more colorful citizens of Ankh-Morpork in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, a bit of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and a smidgeon from the movie Tremors. All held together by me own special enthusiasm fer languagifying.

How did your origins into the World of Warcraft begin?

Were me friends Tarsius and Ungarosh. I known them buggers fer about 25 years, and they’d been begging me ta come adventure with’em. We’s trying ta do timed Dead Strat and Dire Maul Tribute runs, and we needs somebody with yer awesome virility ta helps us out. So I picked up an axe and started down the road, killin’ boars. Course a few weeks after that the Dark Portal done opened, so by the time I caught up with’em a few months later we was all in Outland.

I understand that you’ve deviated from your brute force, gnome handling ways and embraced the dark arts of a Shadow Priest. What exactly happened here? Last time I checked, you were cleaving bodies left and right. Now you just burn them.

What happened? Is a good question. Still ain’t entirely sure what all happened meself.

Basically, facts is, last fall me guild died when everybody done retired. Weren’t planned, weren’t announced, weren’t expected. We’d cleared Black Morass and saved the Universe, and I’d got me my Kara key, and then we took a bit of a break. And then it were SayThankYou Day, and the break got longer. And then it got longer still fer Winter Veil, and I realized they just wasn’t coming back. So all this time I’d been messing around, keeping busy, waiting, and I realized I knew I hads ta do something or retire too.

‘Bout this time teh Squeeky and BRK dropped a few hints about how awesome it’d be if I could raid with’em. Some of these hints were pretty fuhggin’ explicit, but they’s classified I’s afeared, so I can’t talk abouts’em. Anywho, it became clear ta me what if I got me arse in gear and up ta 70 I might have opportunities a lot sooner than I expected. So I did. Since what I’d been messin’ with in me dwarf disguise were a priest, is what I were stuck with. Didn’t wanna waste time rerollings a warrior.

I misses swingin’ the big axe, sometimes. And it do be fun knowin’ yer the toughest dubberpunker in the room. But in the end, what counts is puttin’ the fuhgger’s arse down, and I finds doin’ that as a priest is just as fun as doing it as me regular self.

A personal question I’d like to ask, if you will. Which girls are hotter? The ones on the Alliance or on the Horde?

They’s all damn fine attractive wimmens, I tell ya. And since many of thems want theyselves a piece of Ratterflesh, who is I to deny? Horde wimmens, Alliance wimmens, Aldork wimmens, Scrybaby wimmens, goblin wimmens, naga wimmens, even them six-armed demon chicks, they’s all hot. Only exceptions is deader chicks ’cause, well, they’s creepy, and fer a long time I weren’t inta treeform druidesses, but me friend Bellwether‘s been helping me ta understands and appreciates the unique charms the veggie kingdom gots to offer.

Have you found it difficult to adapt to the short stature of a Dwarf versus your Orc? And why a Dwarf anyway?

Worst part be cramming me feet inta them tiny shoes.
Me dwarfish self were never intended ta amount ta nuthins. Just wanted ta be able ta walk inta Ironforge withouts the guards gettin’ violents and say "howdies" to all them cool bloggers on Drenden. So it didn’t really matter what I were. It were only after I got invited inta Aetherial Circle and I started thinkings about getting to 70 and being in on the ground floor when them fine buggers headed off ta Wrath up the Itch King what the dworc became important ta me plans, and then it were too late ta think about anything different.

What future plans might you have?

I’s hoping to reach a point where I can go on the 25-man raids Aetherial Circle does. They’s getting real close ta killing Lady Vashj and Prince Kael’thas, and I would really like ta at least be good enough to be a backup raider before they puts Illidan’s arse down. The facts what I writes an amusing blog and is damn pleasant company ain’t gonna get me a slot, so I’s working hard to improve meself as best I can, and I’ll see where that takes me. Once it be time ta invade Northrend, I’s planning ta stick with these buggers as long as they’ll have me.

As me regular orcish self, I just don’t have that many plans. Me friends is all retired, and there ain’t much soloable work left ta do. But I’s keeping me gear in good order, and meself in good shape, and I’s hopefuls what they’ll come outta retirement when the invasion of Northrend starts up.

Not real clear at the moment where the rest of the team is going. Ellspeth is still slowly working her way through STV, and Pali’s having fun hanging out in BBB’s new guild. DangerMouse is nearly done earning 19th season doodads from the Whore’s Thong Gulch ninnies, so at some point she’ll start adventuring again. Don’t know if any of them’ll ever make it ta Outland or not. And Galertruby’s doing a bang-up job running items from the bank to the mailbox and back gain, so he ain’t likely ta ever goes anywhere.

Speed questions

When you’re out doing your Orcish things, do you listen to any tunes?

Yeah, I likes ta listen to a mishmash of stuff, mostly older tunes. Fer example, the next five songs in me library is … ummm …. lessee here … Cyndi Lauper’s Time after Time, Judas Priest Love Bites, Styx The Grand Illusion, Minas Morgul theme from the LotR movies, and the suite from the Buffy episode Restless.

What is the official beverage of Ratshag?

Uncle Bonechompers Day-Old Piss

So uh, how was Jaina?

Damn, she were good. She could time her Frost Nova ta hit at juuuust the right moment, ya know?

Who is next on your list?

I never has a list. Is justa take things as they happen process. But I has noticed what Lady Liadrin been checkin’ me out as I get me daily quest assignments…

Sexiest bloggette:

Heh. They all is.

Night Elves taste great with ______ :

-out hardly having ta work at it.

Axe, Sword, or Mace?

Axe. Always.

Silk or leather?

Yup.

Cookies, cake, pie, or brownies?

Pie.

Shoutouts to:

Hydra, who were the first friend I made through blogging.
TJ, who encouraged me ta take me blogging to a higher level.
BRK, who opened me eyes to the idea what adventuring can be a science as well as good, bloody fun.
Fio and Cay, fer running a guild what I’s most happy to be a part of.
Sonvar, who always got something worth saying. Even when he’s bein’ a smart-ass.

Thanks again to Ratshag for participating this week! Don’t forget to subscribe to his blog!