In early BC I was a class lead in a friends-family turned raiders (cause of a core of us who knew end-game) guild. Priority was given to the higher ups and their friends, even if they died to Lurker spout every time. With the culture and guild mentality I couldn’t act in my class lead role as playstyle criticism (resto shaman without earth shield, BM hunter without FI) of any of the old farts was suggesting I wanted to pay their 15 a month for them.

So set the culture as one that sees the raid as a whole and not as individual interests. Our criticism doesn’t mean we want to play the game FOR you as the uber-casuals seemed to believe. Rather, we want them to stop wasting the other 360 a month the raid invests in the experience.

To many times I have seen the issue of informing someone they are being dropped done without registering that simple fact. Yes people need to be told (and sometimes no matter how you tell them they react badly). But often this task can lead to a guild or community implosion.

So yes tell them, but please please do it with care and respect, as I hope you would like to be treated.

I think most serious progression guilds tend to be militaristic / harsh /blunt (based on my experience but moreso from reading about them, including interviews at project daedalus).

I then expect a casual guild will be on a continuum between totally laisez faire and harsh, depending on the GM/guild culture.

The guild I’m in now as a tank (I’m not GM nor officer now) is really much more relaxed, and tends to be much softer, albeit occasionally it comes comes out as covert anger (indirectly) which isn’t very honest either. That’s cultural too, but it’s also a very long-lasting guild (5+ years old).

Gravitys last blog post..PhD in WoW

Ulduar is a whole new level of playing, but it wastes 24 other peoples’ times if one person isn’t up to that level of performance and focus.

Handling comments is part of the deal. But the trail raider should be doing a lot of the analysis themselves and asking for advice.