Isn’t that always the way of things?

Birdfalls last blog post..Gear is God, or "When You’re the Cause of a Loot Dispute"

However because of the buddy system, or managing ‘people’ rather then toons, I end up giving up raid spots for ‘friends’ or to try people out or something of that nature. I’m “just DPS” for the most part. I’m just ‘that guy’. I would much rather find a guild that respects the roll I play in the raid, rather then if I spend half the day on vent being friendly and all that. I don’t have time in my day for that. I basically only play WoW to do one thing, and to do that the best I can, if not better then everyone else, however, it sucks getting stuck on the short end of the stick because of the lack of the social aspect. It’d be like tossing one of your best running backs because he didn’t want to go out for a beer after the game right? See I don’t see anything wrong with being ‘just a player’ or just ‘dps’ as long as you do that good, you shouldn’t carry any more or less weight then that guy that’s on vent all days making everyone his friend. My guess is during the raid he’s going to be the reason we’re taking to long or making jokes when he shouldn’t be

I think a raiding guild, perhaps more so than any other guild is about being a team. A successful team relies on mutual respect. The team needs a strong leadership structure to aid cohesion and progress toward common goals but the leadership also need their team because without them there is no achievement of those goals. Mutual respect requires recognising that people are involved and they are fallible – all of them.

Jezraels last blog post..Pew pew….. Zzzzzzz…

The tone of this article describes a very toon-centric style of leadership.

I feel this distinction is important to point out because day-to-day Conquest life is very people-oriented and less toon-oriented, but most of the readers here are not Conquest members and may get a skewed view from the position presented in this blog post.

While Holy Paladins may be a dime a dozen, people are not. Relying upon bargaining positions and viewing people as expendable is shaky ground for a leader when taken over the long-term.

Conquest is currently very successful. Success will always increase recruitment options as every Tom, Dick, and Harry will be attracted to a well-progressed guild. Very important for a leadership team to remain grounded and not use flexibility or options as a reason to forget that their energy is best spent first trying to nurture existing players, and only when necessary to seek replacements.

Turnover is inevitable. Most raiders in WoW have contributed to turnover at one time or another, unless you are still a member of your first and only raid guild. Knowing that turnover is inevitable and that the need to recruit replacements will always exist should not lead us to be so jaded that we forget the people behind the toons.

It is fantastic for Conquest to be building up a solid reputation. If I had to pick between the challenge of choosing a few high quality players out of a mass of applicants, versus the challenge of actually getting people to even apply, I’d gladly choose the former.

A robust organization will adapt to a player leaving through the strength and character of the remaining people.

It has been a short time since WotLK raiding began. Long-term retention of quality players will only be achieved via leading people instead of toons and developing a strong core that can react to dynamic situations.

People are not easily replaced, even if a toon of their class/spec can be located quickly.

Amavas last blog post..Phoot >>> Bang

If he stays in Conquest he is in an environment laden with burned bridges. Even if he comes back, he will have lost his spot and the respect of his guild mates. Not a good situation.

If he moves on he could either join a new raiding guild or stop raiding. It sounds like he wants to raid in the future, so joining a non-raiding guild would likely leave him unfulfilled. Honestly, this might be his best chance at WoW happiness. Unfulfilled yes, but hopefully surrounded by friendly players.

If he joins another progression guild it sounds like a bit of a rude awakening. From the writing here, Conquest sounds like a relatively respectful and courteous guild. They don’t raid 5-6 nights a week, so the time investment is less than many. If he joins a fully progressed guild now, he will be slaughtered when Ulduar is released and his new guild demands 6 nights of progression wiping and his soul.

Where does he plan to go? Matt’s misconceptions show his opinions, but many of them hold water until the gas hits the flames. Gear does mean something, till new content comes out. Then the misconceptions get revealed for what they are.

So where do you go from there? Quit WoW?

Even on a raid by raid basis, this will likely lead to some lying by raid members. Like it or not, there are times when a person just doesn’t feel like raiding but there’s no way they can just tell the raid leader that. If they did, it might be held against them. But if the person has a “work thing” or a “family thing”, then people aren’t likely to hold it against them (even though they’re lying). Honestly, you’ll get that in every guild but maybe even moreso in a loot council.

As to the “dime a dozen” comment, I think you know that it’s not true. It’s hard to find someone with skill, gear, consistent time for raiding, and an amenable attitude. If you could always find a great replacement for a raider who leaves, there would be far, far fewer guilds disbanding.

This means that on any given night when I sign in for a raid, I might be asked to roll for a raid spot, but it also means that on any given night that I can’t make it, I won’t have to stress out and try to find a replacement. It’s easier this way, and helps relieve burnout.

A side effect of a guild like this is that all of the people I play with are more interested in the guild moving forward than their character’s personal gear progression. When I started in Naxx, one of my competitors for a piece of gear bowed out because of how large an upgrade the drop was for me. I never forgot that, and have done the same for others.

he’ll just come back, want a spot. and when he doesn’t get loot because he is a jagoff, he’ll start trouble.