As you know my guild has been progressing pretty well. While there are thousands of guilds that have already put Kara on farm, it’s still a big deal to us. And, apparently, a big deal for other people on our server too.

Since we successfully downed Nightbane, Netherspite and Prince and had a full clear, we have been inundated with requests for guild invites. A common refrain? “You guys have a good reputation for raiding”. Lol. What, after one clear?

On the good side, we’re seeing some really good people coming in, nice and friendly folks, that seem honestly attracted to being in a guild that is mature enough to actually go out and DO something, but still early enough into progression that they don’t feel like they are too undergeared to start with us.

I can certainly understand that approach, ’cause I’d never dream of trying to join a Black Temple raiding guild with my Kara-entry gear. You have to start somewhere, and at least we’re doing, not just saying ’someday’. And a lot of people seem to be attracted to the idea of joining a guild that is stepping up to the challenge and learning for the first time, so they feel like they are making solid contributions. It’s all very cool.

But then there are the others… the ones that spam requests for run-throughs for their low level alts. Constantly. And who ask when Kara is going, and obsess over what loot they’ll get, and don’t run a single Heroic, or attempt a standard 5 man, in an attempt to gear up to prepare to be a solid presence in Kara. Instead, they blatently expect all their gearing up to actually happen IN Kara, as the rest of the group hands them leet loots.

Last night we had the epitome of this type… and I was fortunate enough to be there for all of it.

To set the stage, just after we cleared Kara for the first time, last week, we had someone, a level 69, ask to join the guild. He quoted the “I heard you guys raid well” line. When we told him that we weren’t hard core raiders, far from it, his first statement in game was, “Well I’ll just have to get you up to speed and make you hardcore.”

He then immediately started asking for help on various quests, the Kara attunement chain, etc. Not a problem, certainly, just showing he’s eager and enthusiastic, that’s cool. But the comments he kept dropping made it clear that he just couldn’t WAIT to get into Kara and get leet epix. He had ‘his’ gear all picked out, and he quoted it all as though none of us had ever heard of it before. Let alone D/E’d it caus eno one could use it.

Someone pointed out to him specifically that he shouldn’t expect to just walk straight into Kara when he dinged 70, because you need to be able to pull your weight.

For those of you thinking this sounds like we’re a bunch of jerks… well, we are, that’s true, but mind you this is the stream of chatter coming off this guy in his first 30 minutes in the guild. “Oh I can’t wait to do this, oh I can’t wait to get that, oh when is the next Kara run, etc etc.

His reply, and I quote, is “Oh, I know I can’t go right into Kara. I understand I’m going to have to spend a month running Heroics to gear up first.”

I remember it exactly, because I’d been starting to cringe every time he typed, and when he posted that, I immediately relaxed, because that was a smart, well thought out response that reassured everyone that he didn’t intend to be carried, but that he expected to work hard and prepare properly so he was an asset to the team. It was a wonderful thing to say, and I noted it and was grateful.

Within a few days, he finished most of the level 69 Kara attunement. And he continued being a chatty loot fiend, dwelling long and lovingly of all that Kara held in store for him. We have other folks in guild that do that, and they’re all great folks. People play for different reasons, and if the pursuit of upgrades was what drove him, okay, that’s cool.

Fast forward less than a week. To yesterday. For those reading this in archives, Friday afternoon.

The guy logs in, and says, “I’m going now, you guys have fun and whatever.”

Someone replies, “Bye?”, and someone else asks him what he meant, so long for the afternoon? Or what? Because the phrasing was off, but could have been a wierd so long today, kinda thing. And he comes back with, “No, I’m leaving this guild, you guys only run Kara with premades and dont let others in the runs, and your DKP system is confusing and unfair.”

Now, as you might imagine, I responded with clarity, wisdom and patience.

Oh wait, no, that was Jayboi and Gerolan. They responded with understanding, patience and kindness to try and draw him out. I’m the one that responded instantly with bile and hate.

I first made sure that my feelings were clear in the discourse by asking him if he was insane. Then I pointed out that he had been in the guild barely a week, and then I threw in his face his statement that he knew damn good and well he wasn’t gonna walk right into Kara, that he told us flat out that he understood that and intended to gear himself up for a month first.

His first reply was that he had read on forums that his current gear was good enough. Before I could reply to that, Jayboi and Gerolan intervened. I went and found their channel in Teamspeak so I could hear their chat as they responded in typed guild channel.

Between the two of them, they got him to admit that he was basing his assumptions on a weeks’ worth of not hearing anyone asking in random guild chat for people to come to Kara. Since Group 1 cleared 90% of it on Tuesday and Wednesday and hadn’t been scheduled to be back yet, it made sense he hadn’t ehard from us. But Group 2 had been struggling to find enough players all week. WTF?!?! Well, since he himself hadn’t heard any broadcast LF players in guild chat, naturally he assumed that we ran all premades and the ‘outsiders’ were being intentionally excluded. naturally. Isn’t that the first thing you’d think? WTF WTF WTF.

Apparently, from that, he drew the conclusions that only the special people in the clique in the guild were allowed to run Kara. And that our DKP system was designed to keep outsiders (outsiders in the guild? What?) from getting gear.

Jayboi, love him, asked him when he dinged 70 and finished his Kara attunement.

The reply? “Umm… today.”

Jay calmly pointed out that, appearances to the contrary, our Raid Leaders actually didn’t have their heads totally up their asses, and knew who was attuned in the guild for Kara. That, in fact, many is the night where Kara could not be run because both Groups were short just one or two people of the right classes. And that instead of blind spamming guild chat, the Raid Leaders utilize that seldom-heard of feature, private whispers, to ask people that ARE attuned to come to Kara. And maybe, just maybe, he hadn’t gotten one because he was bloody 69th level and not Kara attuned.

And finally Jayboi told him, “Why not wait until tomorrow, let the Raid Leader know that you are attuned for Kara now and eager to go, let him inspect your gear and verify whether he thinks you’re all set, or suggest some things you could do to be ready. If things work out, you’ll probably be going to Kara this very week.”

And that seemed to be that. He didn’t say much for a little while, then logged.

We, meanwhile, having been talking about the situation in Teamspeak the entire time, which he could have been in but chose not to, move from this to a discussion of how to get the guild rules and charter and communication out there better to try to head this crap off. We’re all a little tired of people making their assumptions about the way things in the guild work based off of the School of ‘What some guy wot I know said.’

I bring up, for the umpteenth time, the necessity for guild websites with forums. And online calenders. And such. then I go off Teamspeak to play with Mrs BBB… who is close to dinging 39.

A little later, Jayboi calls me back online to talk more about guild websites, and where to figure out how to make them. Only one I know that is free that has nice features is Guildportal, so I mention it.

Suddenly, it’s three hours later (2 AM), and there is a new guild website with forums and all, and we are giddily posting new comments in the forums along the mature and sophisticated lines of “Gnomes will Rule the World!”, “Punted!”, “First!” and “Jayboi Sucks!”.

So here it is, it’s 2 AM, I’m ready to go to sleep… and the guy that kicked all of this off logs into the game… and announces “I’m leaving the guild, you all suck” and goes /gquit instantly.

And I don’t know what reaction he may have expected, but we all just howled. The roaring laughter and delight was just amazing.

Talk about your bad timing. The way to make a bunch of people feel like they aren’t doing enough to address a problem and let you down is NOT when they’ve now spent 4 hours making a new tool to spread communication and fellowship far and wide, and make it easier for everyone to see who is scheduled to go to Kara, and what openings there are well in advance.

Instead, that IS the best time to let everyone know exactly what a selfish little loot whore you want to be and how you’ll act if you don’t get instant gratification of your every desire… and to ensure that your former guildies will follow your upcoming guild hopping on Warcraft Census with glee in the days ahead.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 at 3:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.