The weekend brought a Guild meeting on our Vent, and the possible dissolution of us as a raiding 25 man guild.
Its not that we can’t kill the content, we are 13/14 Ulduar 4/5 TOC on our 25 ‘s The bosses can be killed, we are just not being immediate successful on hardmodes and they are the true progression measure.
It seems its been a long time coming – There is a division between the people who want the hardmodes , and those who don’t.
Where do I sit? I recognise that Hardmodes are progression, and I want progression, Clearing content in 1 or 2 nights without challenge would get old fast.
What I don’t want is feeling like I am hitting my head against a brick wall.
Apparently to be a hardcore raider I am supposed to enjoy hitting said head against the brick wall. I disagree. I think there is a massive difference between productive attempts and attempts for the sake of it, and I think too many attempts are Die. Run Back, Die, Run back ect I want more dialog with the raiders as to why we died. What we did right, what we did wrong but too much dialog increases the chances of another dc, another afk, another slow person running back after a buff. Maybe we just aren’t hardcore enough.
I wrote some more points, but they came out as more handholding, even to me, real life doesn’t like Machiavellian approaches, regardless of the sense he can make. “It is better to be feared then loved” he said in The Prince, because fear lasts longer. However no one wants to be afraid while they are playing a game, and maybe that’s the distinction. I am a gamer that raids. I am not a raider that games.
More people would be interested In the hardmodes if they were easier, that’s not the point though, hard modes are the new division between hardcore and casual raiders it seems, and the most often quoted ( mis quoted ? ) stat is that only 1% of people playing are expected to get the hardmodes.
I said before that this was my last raiding guild. Would I have said that if I realised that I could be this far off the next expansion without being a raiding guild? I think not. So as soon as the first lines came out of the Gm’s mouth about that the guild could not survive in the direction it was heading, I was on another guilds recruitment forums looking. Just looking, because that’s the decision, flog a dying horse, or revive the horse, and hope it stays on its legs long enough, to get to next destination.
I am fence sitting, because If I was a dedicated raider, I would throw it all in, and start apping elsewhere because that hardmode call needs to be greater then guild loyalty if they can’t deliver. I’ve found a guild where I am content, but maybe I like it because I can raid and have my friendly pieces of cake too, but one of those pieces of cake server transferred for better progression, and it looks like the raiding might disappear. I don’t want to be in a social guild. I am beyond that. I want to be in a place where I can see new content and succeed at it.
Maybe the Asshats of the serious raiding guilds are just products of that progressive drive, because that’s what you need to be come better, become the best. Too many people not willing to lose ‘friends’ because they won’t make hard calls. I worried a while ago I would need to be more detached – I thought I found a place I didn’t have to be so.
Maybe I am also still scrub, and that the standards of raiding fell down to my level, instead of me getting better, and that self doubt is also bad because I potentially have been comparing my performance to mediocrity. I am doing ok in my fishbowl, I don’t need to look for another, or so I thought.
The likely-hood of a success should be clearer in a week or so, and an injection of some fresh recruits, and a new or at least a defined attitude with the raiders in the guild, but it seems that maybe another hard choice is coming up soon.
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Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 