Guild Drama: Stopping it before it happens

This will be a frank post, that is to say I will speak my mind, share what happened, & expect the nuclear strike from readers who will be enraged by my observations. Others may agree with me but will lack the courage to speak their minds. I'm talking about the silent killer in WOW: Guild Drama.
Originally this post was going to be about my success in stopping it from occurring in my current guild, I began to think about Guild Drama with a clearer mind. Specifically how does it relate to real world interpersonal conflicts? Can you identify the types of Guild Drama & the Real World counter part. Because after all WOW is an MMO & what makes it special isn't the story as much as the players & how they interact w the virtual environment. Also I've noticed that WOW seems to have built in filters to resolve guild drama. The further you progress in end-game content, the less guild drama can exist since the instances require 100% co-operation. A guild that is cliquey & full of catty members cannot progress to the Eye, they will not have the cohesion and teamwork to handle the boss fights.
So Far I've identified the following types of guild drama:

1.) Nepotism\Cronyism: This type of guild drama occurs when guild members give preferential treatment to their real world family or real world friends. They get first pick @ gear & loot. The downside of this Guild Drama is that it's prevalent with the 5 man instances & 10 man raids (I recall on guild on Fenris 'since-disbanded' that was leading the progression through Kara. It's leaders were all brothers & their friends, so they got their tier tokens before anyone else. This however cannot progress past the 5 man \ 10 man instances since the requirements of the 25 man raids demand some system be put in place to distribute loot fairly.

2.) Cliquishness\Exclusion: This guild drama occurs when specific members of the guild become a clique & determine who can come to guild runs & who can't because of interpersonal differences, not because of requirements. Ergo, your one of the best healers in the guild, we're running gruul's but since you & I don't like each other, I had the raid leader who's a buddy of mine not invite you. This drama can progress to the 25man content, but it gets stopped @ Tier 4 content since you need specific classes for the Tier 5 & 6 boss fights.
This occured to me in my current guild about a month ago (it's been resolved since!) One of the raid leaders felt my character offered nothing to the raids so if he was doing the invites he'd never invite me. This climaxed with a Gruul's pug run where I didn't tank ziggler the crazed, Which raised the attention of three other guild officers & the guild master. He was summarily told to start inviting classes that he had dismissed as ineffective, or he would be gkicked.

3.) Sex\Cattiness: In other words Vaginal Aggro.
This was the topic that I was most concerned writing about because I never know if someone is going to flame me about my opinion. In general I find that women cause the most time consuming drama in the game. Since playing wow I've seen the following.
Women using sex (real-life or chat) to
get gear\gold
dominate guild politics
Get preferential treatment with guild runs
(we can't run until she's back from the grocery sorry ppl!)
Have guild members kicked\stripped of rank
Have gear that guild members found through grinding\non-guild runs be given to them through intimidation.
- This one strikes a chord w me, In my previous guild I found a BOE 280 JC recipe & was told to give it to WomanX since she was a JC. However the alchemy world drop that she found was put on AH & I was told that she didn't know I was a Elixir master & that she really needed the money for her epic mount.

So there's the Sex Aspect. On top of that they're the cattiness between women. As I've mentioned before about my pet chinchilla's, we like to joke in my house how female chins act like human females, plotting scheming & willing to kill a woman who's not in the tribe.
This also extends to WOW. If all the women in the guild get along, I heartily recommend that you never ever leave that guild. This means they're all friends & the rank structure has been hammered out. If you get a women who decides that she wants to be queen bee, flee that guild! unless the GM steps in (and mark my words it takes a tough GM to be willing to go into that fray.) it will turn ugly & nasty & no guild progression will occur until the other woman nip her back into place.

This leads me to the title of my post stopping guild drama before it happens. Last week I noticed on of my ex-guildies (specifically the one who caused all the vaginal aggro in my old guild) on my guild vent. I asked the guy running the 10 man kara run & he said yes, she's running w us tonight. Faced w the possibility of her joining my guild I proceeded to inform every female guild member who she was & what she did in my old guild. I also made it clear to the female guild officer that I would gquit on the spot if she was accepted. I then contacted another old guildie, who was a woman & had to deal w her antic's. She informed me that she was blacklisted from the top raiding guilds (except ours) because she would pull her vaginal aggro during 25man's.
Since this occurred I haven't seen her sniffing around.
Thank God

The Burdens of responsibilty

As I've posted previously at my office several co-workers who play wow. We're all married men, some of us have kids, & all of us no longer have a life were we can work, then go home & play all night then go back to work on 4hrs sleep. Nor can we spend all weekend sitting in front of the computer until we pass out in the middle of an instance. That time in our lives has passed away.
So for me it was a bit of nostalgia when we got a new temp in our dept. He's 22 lives with a friend & is a young geekling. Within an hour of him starting I knew that he played WOW had started after Burning Crusade & was in awe of our 733T'ness. He was cute, it reminded all of us of a simpler time, when the burdens & responsibilities that we have to deal with everyday were not placed on our shoulders. When our lives revolved around just going to work & coming home to play games all night long.
At the same time it also reminded me of how small my world used to be. Last week he called out 'sick', and my co-worker & I both knew he wasn't sick, he had been up all night in Kara (his guild finally went into kara..they spent 7 hours on the first 5 bosses) That alone was worth a good half hour of guild chat as we all reminisced about when we were lvl 70's in blues trying to get our first epics. When we dreamed of seeing hyjal \ black temple. Now we are there and with it comes all the burdens of that level of the game, the preparation, the reading up on strategy, the guild drama not because who isn't invited, but who can't go because they're not ready yet.
As I said the burdens of responsibility.
Yesterday when I got into the office, He looked like he hadn't slept, he had the greasy, waxy skin & hair that gave away an all weekend session without pausing for basic hygiene such as washing the face, hands or brushing his teeth. When I asked him if he got sleep over the weekend he replied "I got tons of sleep."
At that moment, I felt old. Not because I was jealous of his single life, but because I knew that he was lying to me since I had done the exact same things at his age. I felt like the father of a teenage son who'd gone to a party & came home w beer on his breath, and didn't think his father could tell.
He's a good kid, I like him & it's nice to have a youngling around, but if doesn't start growing up soon, he'll be gkicked from our office without an ounce of pity.

Love in the time of Warcraft: A primer for the married man

My wife hates video games. Although she'll deny it or say I was too extreme in my belief, she really does hate video games. In her heart she views them as childish & immature. She's not alone, she holds onto a view that many adults cling to from the earlier ages of video games. That they're for kids & teenagers, that grown adults don't play them. Or if they do play them they're acting childish.
Of course the paradox is that her along with many other adults who share this archaic view but play videos games. She loves Zuma, but to her Zuma isn't WOW, it's a diversion. Just like the Wii she bought for her conferences. The adults who come to her booth & will play Wii Sports aren't gamers, they're just goofing around.
And I'm the Pope.
It's cognitive dissonance, it's the ability to hold the matter\anti-matter together, Adult's don't play video games, When I play Wii sports I'm not playing. I'm not going to rake my wife about this, I'm just saying that she & a lot of people have this view.
With that said, I have started to come up with advice for married men (or men who are in relationships) that may help you with your significant other if she's not a gamer.
1.) Sometimes you'll need to logoff: I cannot stress this enough, the dailies will be there, there will be another daily heroic, they're will be another raid. Logging off when she least expects it goes a very long way.
2.) Don't bother explaining the game: Again, she may fawn interest, but it's not the same interest that you friend who doesn't play wow but plays COD 4 will give you. Also you may annoy her as you explaining game mechanics, talents, & lore.
3.) VOIP may be beyond her: VOIP is getting more common, but for most non-geeks they only see it through the office or a digital phone. Headphones & Mic though may be beyond her. Therefore be prepared that while you chat over vent, she may be baffled.
Take care for now..

Guild Drama it never ends

Over the last couple weeks I've been slacking on the blogging, it started in late march when I went on an epic quest of my own design to bag the greatest of wow lewt, My wife. I spent a week farming for the blue dragon whelpling in azshara & in the process I offered one to my night elf queen, she who rivals Azshara in Beauty, as a simple lure to get her to play WOW, it failed, she dismissed it as simple male tom-foolery. Although it did grace her mind breifly that if she played wow I would have to give my gold & gear (just like real-life) but she went back to her own machinations.
The 2.4 came out & I committed any free time to grinding rep with the SSO & the new daily quests (fishing anyone?) While this was going on I noticed that I wasn't being called for raids. Which was making me ancy since I had left my home to join w my new guild. In fact I almost left & went Ronin, but @ the last moment I was saved by the casuals...AKA they in the guild who have a life besides wow.
I realized quickly that my guild was split into two factions, those who only wanted to progress & would only play w players of the same 'caliber' & those who understood that to complete the end game you needed more that a L337 Tank. You needed the right groups with the right makeup & the right skills. Our leadership was able to view above this bickering & keep the peace, but he's been slacking...well slacking isn't the right word...real life has taken a priorty...apparently buying a house is more important than running a raid =P Regardless though without his leadership the guild is cleaved between the two camps.

Is attunement neccessary?

I've been slacking on my blog the last couple of weeks. Mostly because if I'm not working, doing chores being a good husband etc. I am doing the new Heroic Dailies. I am such an Rep Whore it's not even funny, the need to be exalted w a faction can make me into a daily running machine. But hey on fenris we're not even @ 60% of phase II & I'm already revered with SSO.
In the mess that is 2.4 Blizzard removed attunements. While at first I supported them on this change, after experiencing several sunwell pugs with players who don't know their ass from their elbow I have had to change my view on the attunement process. Attunements in the game are necessary, you need to separate the wheat from the chaff, but it needs to be balanced with letting casual players have access to content. Otherwise you get players who cannot complete the content becoming frustrated & frustrating fellow players.

April Fools

Blizzard has outdone themselves again, the molten core console game & the new bard class look awesome.
Have a great April Fools Day!

New Posts on Patch 2.4\Mag Terrace & De-Attunement Coming Soon!