A break from WoW

I've decided to take a break from WoW I guess because I began to find it too depressing to play the game at some point all of my guilds became raiding guilds and it was like my social world imploded. If you look at my previous post about guild life in WoW I said that a guild is only around as long as it is pertinent for its members and my guilds became irrelevant to me even though my friends were in them.

Raiding

Here is my final word on the subject (for now) You can't raid casually either you raid seriously. do your homework and prepare right or you don't and anybody who tries to tell you that you can raid casually is lying to you and/or themselves. Raiding is serious business and I don't want to play a game that's like a job, if I want a job i will go out and get one, I go to school I don't need to do extra homework. Ok maybe raiding can be fun for some people but it seems like a lot of work to me, a lot of work where I will get screamed at a lot. I don't need that.


Another thing about WoW is that it was full of many millions of little goals I needed to do such as get exhalted with every faction (except the bloodsail buccaneers, I hate those pirates), get all the mounts, get all the JC/cooking recipes, get as many achievements as possible and in the end I found that sort of not fun buyt stressful. I mean what is the point it was like work and it was becomeing less fun as time passed.

An ending of sorts

The other day Sadie asked me to leave her guild, well not exactly. She left her guild to start a new one because she was tired of all the guild drama, drama I assume between the higher level players, drama that I did not notice much of. This is pretty typical for me I did not notice Drama in the guild Sadie and I were in before she started her guild and I did not notice the higher level drama in her guild. In any event I had my mage leave her old guild and join her new one. Before this changing guilds was always a big deal for me and I did not do it lightly but the truth is I knew I was not going to be staying in that guild for much longer so I did not think twice about leaving. Also a lot of the friends I had in Sadie's guild, friends I had made in the guild before that one, joined this new guild. I still have an alt in Sadie's old guild like I have an alt in the first guild I joined Alliance side but I will see what happens with that. I think that being in a guild can be a very important choice since in all likelihood it is guild members that I will interact with most, so I think I want to be in a guild where players want the same or similar things from the game that I do. For instance: I am not a hardcore raider so I would not ever want to be part of a big raiding guild. While social interaction is never limited to one's guild, a guild can be the backbone of one's social life and that makes the choice so signficant. My friend Jacobe who is a really good raider and a raid healer changed guilds because he felt that his guild was not doing enough raiding as a guild. In any event I left a guild I always had mixed feelings about, it was a guild with people I liked and people I disliked intensely I was never sure whether I loved or hated it and that ambiguity frustrated me but ultimately I realized that the guild had done nothing to earn my loyalty so I left.

A small conclict that got resolved

Nacirema joined Jaer's guild in December when computer problems made it impossible for me to play. Until that moment the guild had been mostly me and him chatting in guild chat and I like that alot, but Jaer being the amazing and popular guy he is had friends want to join his guild and Nacirema was one. We became friends and would chat a lot about many different things, she would complain about her real life and I would listen and try to give advice when I could and she would do the same for me. She knew another of the new guild members and she had a complicated past with this person, this past eventually became the source of a lot of drama that really upset Jaer. In the end he had to kick Nacirema from the guild because she caused too many problems, the drama culminated in a fight in Ventrilo that I expressly logged out to avoid.

I will say this I in no way condone what Nacirema did, I think that drama is bad and I don't think there is any excuse for the way she behaved with Jaer and some of the other guild members. That said she was always nice to me and I still think of her as a friend. I understand that the other guild members don't like her and I don't expect them to, their grievances are legitimate.

One day after Nacirema was kicked from the guild some guild members made disparaging remarks about her. Because I still consider her to be a friend I found those remarks kind of hurtful or more I did not like them so I asked my fellow guildies to please stop. They responded that she brought their scorn on herself and that they were not going to show her respect when she deserved none. I think they felt that I was either trying to apologize for her or asking them to stop out of respect for her or something but that was not it at all. I felt that by making those comments they were putting me in a really uncomfortable position, either defend her and get into a fight or don't and feel like I was betraying her. When I asked them to stop it had nothing to do with her it was because thier mean jokes were making me feel bad, but they did not listen to me.

If they want to they can make a "We hate Nacirema channel and say mean things about her all they want there, or whisper about her to their heart's content, my objection was having to hear them.

In any event I spoke to my guild leader and Jaer pointed out that she was on their shit list and that it was only natural after what she had done. I told him my point and he told me he would speak to the other guild members which I don't doubt he did and I know that he explained things well because I have not heard about Nacirema in guild since. I know he understood my point and explained it to the other guild members and I know my guild members had not meant to make me feel bad. In this case because of the goodwill that my guild members have shown me in the past I don't even need an apology from them to move on. I felt like I was being left out of guild business and they apologized for forgetting about me. They try to include me in guild things when the can and I do get along with them most of the time. When I felt that Jaer was being unnecessarily sarcastic with me and I spoke to him he apologized to me and made an effort to be more pleasant. Even though sometimes he worried that he is too laid back as a guild leader I think he is a good one. It is not fair for guild members to expect their leader to act like a babysitter, they need to at least try to resolve conflicts on their own, the way I did. I ended up turning to him for help but only after my own efforts failed. I am a good guild member because I try to solve my own problems in a polite manner but do not hesitate to ask for help when I need it and in all cases aim for an amicable resolution of the problem. Jaer is a good leader because he supported me in this even though he is really upset at Nacirema, he is a good friend because he cared and a good leader because he made sure I understood that I was right to come to him and he assured me he would do what he could to make the situation better.

The story of Bunny

Bunny was a guildie who had the unfortunate bad habit of keeping his caps lock button pressed, this means that HE SPOKE IN CAPS ALL THE TIME no matter what he said. For those of you who don't know using all capital letters in chat is the equivalent of screaming in a face to face interaction. Not only did he keep the caps button on but he always felt the need to type out the lyrics to songs that he was listening to in guild chat. I can understand that sometimes people use caps to indicate frustration, but he was not doing that, it was like he was screaming everything he said for no reason. I found this very obnoxious and so the first few times I saw him do this I asked him to stop, and I asked politely, the conversations went something like this...

Bunny: I'M A LITTLE TEAPOT SHORT AND STOUT

me: Um, hey there Bunny would you mind taking off caps?

Bunny: WHY?

me: Well I find it sort of obnoxious and I would appreciate it if you did not do that

Bunny: HERE IS MY HANDLE AND HERE IS MY SPOUT

Basically he refused to listen to me so I went to see the guild leader and I complained to her telling her that I understood that sometimes using caps could be important but that Bunny was being really obnoxious. She told me that she would speak to him and eventually did. When she did Bunny through a fit and insited that he was not changing to make anybody happy and that if somebody had a problem with him that they should put him on ignore. I was really pissed off at this and I promptly put him on ignore. I thanked my guild leader for her help and that I chose to put him on ignore but that I was not happy about it. My guild leader reminded me that I could not like everybody and that especially in a big guild that lack of manners was to be expected sometimes. I told her my problem with Bunny was that he was rude and unreasonable but that she could count on me to not cause drama and that is what happened. I put him on ignore and then I tried not to think about him.

Then one day my guild was raiding with this new person. Bunny did not like her and he trashed her as much as he could, he said many very unpleasant things about her in guild chat but when she joined the guild he was very polite to her face. His hypocracy really got on everybody's nerves and because he would not stop being both polite and rude behind her back the guild leader kicked him out of the guild. That's when he started badmouthing the guild in trade chat, that is a very public channel. After he did that and was not angry anymore he asked Sadie to be let back into the guild again. He would quit the guild with alarming regularity for no reason and come back as quickly so I think he expected to be let back in again but this time she said no. He got really upset and started begging and so she decided to ask the officers if they thought he should let him back in. He told her that he wanted to apologize so she let him and he then sent an apology to every guild member. I had been offline while the actual drama had taken place and despite my dislike for Bunny, stemming from the fact that he's a rude idiot, I was willing to let him back in provided he had really changed. He spammed his apology to every guild member. Spam is generally considered to be a rude thing so he was apologizing for his rudeness by being rude, interesting approach. In any event I don't think he is back in the guild and I'm hoping he never comes back.

Jerac also disliked Bunny, he felt morons like Bunny were taking over the guild and turning it into a really not fun place. He also felt that Bunny was up to no good and that he and players like him were out to con the guild and take the good honest members for all they could.

Bunny wanted to be the only member of his class in raids so he would not have to compete with other players for the items that dropped, I think he was really mean about that other player because he was jealous of her, she had a hunter and he did not want to have to even contemplate sharing loot with her. One day he told the whole guild why a specific kind of weapon should be usable only by his class: so that he would get it when it dropped in raids and not have to compete with anybody. That kind of attitude is really offensive, he felt he was more entitled than anybody else to get epics and even though he was well geared he still acted like he needed them more than anybody else. To be honest I never want to raid with people like Bunny because they are so unpleasant and stupid.

The beggar and other shorts

One day I was in guild chat when a guild member begged for gold in trade chat and when he was refused he then began begging for other things. When we pointed out that he was begging he got defensive and claimed he was waiting for a friend in the guild who would be willing to help him out. As the debate continued he took offense at the fact that people were asking him to stop. In his eyes he was doing nothing wrong and that is what was most galling about his attitude. Begging in WoW is not well accepted because much like in real life most players have to make efforts to amass (virtual) ressources and begging devalues their efforts and more importanly it undermines them. Why bother doing anything if you can have it handed to you for no effort? Beggars simply profit off of the generosity of others and are veiwed as parasites, profiting off of the efforts of others.

Interesting side note when a random stranger begged for gold in guild chat the guild leader pronounced the behavior as unacceptable, when an individual she knew did the same she half jokingly asked him to stop.

Another day I was riding out of the Undercity when I stumbled across a male blood elf in fur covered bikini briefs and a small fur vest. He purred at me "Hey big boy." having checked out his equipment I said " My that's brief." to which he said "How much you pay?", not entirely sure what was happening I asked "Pay for what?" and that's when he told me "hahaha j/k" indicating that he was only joking. I was amused by the encounter but not fully convinced he was joking. Now I don't hate cybersex or think that anybody who does it is wierd or anything like that but in all honesty I would never think of doing that in WoW, the game is stunning graphically but it's not sexy, the graphics don't turn me on. I'm not sure how I feel about the prostitution that was implied in the random elf's sexual advance, that more than the fact that he was possibly offering ERP (erotic roly play) made it seem skeezy.

Interesting both begging and prostitution are seen as social problems in WoW just as in real life for some of the same reasons. Prostitution is skeezy and in WoW can result in players engaging in sexual activity in public areas which is sort of off putting, if you know what to look for it's depressingly easy to spot a cybering couple especially if they are trying to act some of it out. Begging on the other hand is about profiting off of others and laziness, unlike in the real world people don't have a reason to beg other than laziness or maybe stupidity you can get gold through playing the game and you never really need anything in WoW it's all about what you want for your character. What I mean is that gearing a palding to be a main tank in raids, for instance, is a want not a need cause one's life is not dependant on it. Low level characters can simply wear grey or white gear and don't need greens and higher levels get items as quest rewards.Both selling cybersex and begging are attempts to get in game ressources for minimal effort, although cybersex being a minimal effort can be questionnable... >.> in any event these are two short stories of things that I saw in WoW.

guild meeting

Just after my argument with Pegolas the guild leader called a guild meeting to go over guild rules and regulations. We talked and a bunch of things came out of the meeting.

1) Discriminatory language is unacceptable in the guild, a guild should be a place where people are free to be themselves and not worry about harassment. If something happens put the person on ignore instead of fighting with them and contact the guild leader or an officer in order to discuss what happened so appropriate action may be taken.

2) Helping guild members is done on a voluntary basis, if somebody agrees to help you be patient and wait for them to get around to it.

3)Begging and/or demanding help iis unacceptable we are al trying to play the game and have fun and it is not our responsibility to play the game for you, sometimes learning to help yourself is important

3) Basic principle is respect each other and respect the guild, this helps keep drama to a minimum. This means trying not to spam in guild chat or taking other people's feelings into consideration and also not randomly leaving the guild and expecting to be invited back.

How well these rules have held up is debatable but the meeting did give me a renewed sense of hope. It also made me realize that there were many members in the guild that saw things the way I did, which was good.

A occasion of friendship

I first met Jerac when I changed guilds, I left the guild after all my friends did and eventually lucked out and found the guild they were in. Jerac and his friend Nac were among the first new people I chatted with in the guild. I found that Nac was an unplesantly sarcastic person who annoyed me to no end but Jerac and I got along well. Jerac was a new player and when he would have questions about the game I would try to answer them if I could, I also helped him out occasionally by sending him some gear. While I was helping him he also spent a lot of time with Nac, who I knew was also helping him. I think that my dislike for Nac was fueled in part by jealousy but mostly it was because Nac is a very sarcastic individual and I had never seen him say anything that was not sarcastic. In any event Jerac and I got to be good friends, we did some dungeon runs together, he helped me quest occasionally, we even made alts on another server. Both of us even sort of had the same frustrations with our guild; that there was a bunch of players that was disrespectful, immature, and unpleasant to deal with. At first Nac was one of the few guildies that I disliked but as time went by my list got bigger and it got to the point that I could not even claim Nac was on that list, mostly because Nac was actually pleasant to me. He sent me a few items and when I bumped into him one day in Ironforge he simply waved politely at me. In any event one day Jerac left the server, he transferred his toon off the server and did not tell me about it. The only person he told was Nac, whom he left a deeply hurtful message to. Not seeing Jerac on my friends list I messaged Nac, something I had thought about doing for a while and Nac told me what had happened. My friend had been very angry at the guild for a while and one day in a fit of anger he left the server. Nac was very angry and hurt mostly because Jerac had been a person that he got along well with and that was rare for him. As stupid as I felt that he had left and not told me I felt sorrier for Nac who had lost one of the few close friends he had made in the game. On a hunch I went to the other server, the one we made alts on and he was there, he was friendly and he was almost acting like nothing had happened. He told me that he felt the guild had provoked him into leaving the server and I really had no idea what to say to him. I'm stilll not sure what to say. Speaking to Nac and then later Jerac I saw a completely different side of my friend, I saw him as petty and vindictive and I felt it was as if I had never really known him in the first place. I'm torn, part of me wants to move on and forget I ever knew him and another part of me wants to hang out with him but I know it can never be like it once was between us. One good thing that has come out of this is that I am friends with Nac, once I got to know him I realized that he was a good guy if somewhat sarcastic and I now know that he never really meant to upset Jerac, which was mybiggest problem with him.

Arena of Anguish

Last night Jaer invited me to do a group quest with him and I discovered he had told the team that I was one of his guild's best DPS. That filled me with pride because he had never seen me as ret and he accepted that I would be good DPS on faith. Also he boosted my confidence by showing me some DPS meters in whisper and she showed me that I was doing well and he made sure I understood that. Yesterday and the conversations I have been having with him recently have made my feel much better about his guild. I felt isolated and now it's been confirmed that nobody ever meant to make me feel like an outsider. Even though we don't talk all the time like we once did Jaer and I have regained some of the closeness that we lost when guild drama threatened to tear the guild apart. I also realized that I was unfair with Jaer, I know that we will be friends for a long time to come and that sometimes we may not hang out together much and sometimes we will hang out more and that's just how things are.

Welcome to World or Warcraft!

Azeroth and the Outland, the fictional world that is the setting for World of Warcraft. This is a world at war, a world where two factions the Horde and the Alliance vie for wealth and power. It is a world of dungeons and dragons, paladins and wizards, magic and might. Azeroth is a large world of many graphically rich environments, rich and complex lore, and much content.

The game takes place ten years after the demons of the Burning Legion and the undead of the Scourge tried to take over Azeroth and remake it in their image. The conquest of the world by the forces of evil was stopped by an alliance between all of the races of Azeroth but now that alliance has all but broken down. The Orcs, and their Troll allies, the Tauren, the Blood Elves and the few Undead not aligned with the Scourge (the Forsaken) have formed a faction called the Horde. The Humans, Gnomes, Dwarves, Dranei and Night Elves form the Alliance, the rival faction that vies for power with the Horde skirting outright war by the thinnest of margins.

Touch my PvPness!

Waiting on a queue for a battleground I wonder why I am even bothering, my avatar is too low level to perform correctly, I don't know my class well enough, I will be a burden for the other players, and I HATE waiting. Eventually an instance of the Warsong Gulch battleground becomes available, I enter; much of the time I get killed by other players when I fight , in fact, because of my low level players go out of their way to attack me, but when the Horde wins Warsong Gulch yet again it feels like a victory.

Setting: World of Warcraft http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml


For those of you who have never heard of it World of Warcraft is an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), that is a computer game that people all over the world play on the internet. Perhaps the easiest way for me to describe it would be a computer game with a complex chat room attached. Though these are virtual worlds they host complex social realities that users navigate through as they play the game.

My project: to get an insider's perspective on what it means to play WoW, more precicely to better understand Player versus Player (PvP) practices in World of Warcraft.