So, surprise surprise, I left the guild about a week ago.

Everyone knew it was coming for a very very long time now. Since my grandma got sick, I’ve been struggling to juggle taking care of the family and my in-game duties. My parents tried to be understanding with my only outlet, but I realized that they’re “letting me play the game” was just a way to try and hide how bad things were in the house. Sure, there are plenty of other reasons I decided to leave now of all times, but I’m constantly getting in and out of my chair to help out with whatever my family needs.

So it may seem counter-productive that I started my own guild.

WAITWUT?

7.5 hours/week is 4.5 less hours than with Summit. And those were just the official raids. Though it was optional, it always felt like I HAD to be there for 10s, for a variety of reasons I don’t feel I need to justify to the all-knowing Internet. So 10’s were another 3-6 hours of my week. Being an officer (DKP, at that) ate up about another 2 hours accumulated over a week, assuming there were no initiates that got promoted. So all in all in Summit, I had, at its most forgiving, 17 hours a week being eaten. 17 hours a week isn’t a full-time job, but it wasn’t justifiable anymore.

My job, employed by the state, is to take care of my mom. Normally, this means rushing off to get her 6 coca-colas in a day, or giving her her medicine. Sometimes, it means [this part has been cut to protect your fragile and easily-offended minds]. I spend anywhere from1-4 hours, off and on, each day, just doing random shit for her. It’s not enough to go to the doctor to pick up her Rx—she has to be with me, and she has to be healthy enough to go, and if that’s during a raid, too fucking bad.

The biggest factor though, was the stress. Not of being an officer, but of being in Summit. Even if I were a regular member, there is no way in hell I could stay. Everyone carries their baggage and it’s impossible to avoid bringing some of it into game. 30-50 year olds (I’m about to turn 20) are the norm in Summit. And as you can see by my post a few scrolls down, they’re not that mature. Like I said, we all have our shit in life, but it was sickening to deal with people sometimes twice my age, expecting us officers to solve their marriage problems, tell us how to raise their kids, issuing death threats to children in the guild, and… that’s just some of it.

I was losing sleep over it. I’m making this gross fact known, but I lost my period for 4 months over constantly stressing out over the guild. I began to age and lose hair, and had to buy products I couldn’t afford to combat it. I was fighting an uphill battle with everyone over guild philosophies, including other officers.

I spent 2 years with Summit.

It was not always bad. It took a turn for the worse long before I took up the role of an officer.

I’ll just ramble if I continue. Bah.

Summit always had a more stable atmosphere than most raiding guilds could only dream of. Mature older gamers that each had their place in the guild, even if they weren’t the most skilled or extroverted, and we progressed. Just before 3.0 hit, we lost a few of these gamers to lost interest and pre-expansion blues. After transferring from Blackwater Raiders to Silvermoon, we gained a few good apples from Ulduar. There was always drama, but it was kept to a minimum and squashed rather quickly.

Now? We have a server culture where guilds use our name and progression as a warning or a threat to perform better. We are what PUGs call “a guild full of psychos.”

Thing is, I can backtrack all I want, and point out the exact points in a timeline where we should have done something differently to prevent this from happening. It’s not going to help now, nor will it bring me any peace. Which begs, what will?

No one ever takes responsibility for themselves. They’ll claim they do and give examples, but they fluff it up to sound like more than it really is. We try to hold everyone to the same standards, but each person honestly believes that they are above the rules, and don’t see it. They don’t see when they’re being completely psychotic and nasty to people. They’re so focused on imaginary injustices that they perceive to be true, and make sure to get everyone on the bandwagon with them. They say they talk to officers, but they really just bitch.

Have an issue with a member? Here’s how the conversation REALLY goes:

[Officer]: “Did you talk to them first?”

[They do not reply at first. Soon]: “OMG you see that? They just did it again. Kick them.”

[Officer]: “Put them on ignore.”

[Them]: “That’s not a solution.”

Um, yes, it is. I’m sorry, but when you’re so emotionally unstable you can’t keep your goddamn mouth shut in a raid and focus… when you put your petty differences ahead of progression and cause us to wipe to retarded shit over and over… when YOU are the one SCREAMING in vent that you’re “the sane and well-adjusted person” in this argument, I’m sorry, but you’re just psychotic. I’m sick of it.

Psychos in Summit were the rarity, and never lasted. We never kicked ours, because we reassured ourselves they’d leave on their own, like they always have. And that is one of our largest mistakes and biggest regrets. These psychos lasted for months and months. We should have kicked them the first time they blackmailed officers or threatened to kill themselves over a raid spot. I’m glad 2 of them are gone, but honestly, more remain; it’s most of the guild now.

And I’m sorry, but if you’re screaming in vent, calling each other “cunts” and issuing death threats, you are not a sane and well-adjusted person. You are a psycho. Get some goddamn help.

With that said, I don’t know what to do from here. The guildmaster is leaving to focus on his studies, and leaving the guild in the hands of a very capable officer. Thing is, I think I’m done. The stress really kills you. I get a high when I kick my own alts from the guild and look at other servers, fantasizing about just dropping it all, stating afresh, and never looking back. But I never do it.

I’m turning into a psycho. I need some goddamn help.

I'm obviously a better artist than Eristhan.

My name is Sin, and I come from the land of Vashj to drink your booze, steal your women, and BoP your tanks. I’m here to start posting about anything and everything I happen to feel could possibly help my fellow healers, as I am an exorbitantly empathetic and benevolent person, and value your opinions above all else.

Oh wait, no, I really don’t give a fuck. I just like to rant about some of the stupid shit I hear and/or deal with. Realistically, if I cared about your view on any subject matter I would most likely speak to you personally about it, yet I find it much easier to skip the whole me-pretending-to-listen-to-you-while-really-just-picturing-you-naked-thing and spit it all out here. Much more efficient, if you ask me, and I’m all for efficiency.

If you’re not one of the few world/server first guilds out there, then chances are you’re at some point going to have to recruit just about any warm body. You might have to teach them how to gear properly, if they’re geared at all. They may have 0% raid experience and don’t know the patterns almost all bosses show. All Down Syndrome jokes aside, they have the potential to be competent raiders.

Then there are those who simply shouldn’t be raiding.

1. You can’t take criticism.

Criticism, for the purpose of this post, is any instruction, critique, or even a joke at your expense.

During progression through the Plagueworks, raiders have backpedaled from Gas Clouds, Big Oozes, and oddly enough, Gas Spores. People either deny fucking up/being bad, claim we hate them because we called them out, or /gquit. The behavior strikes me as childish as hell, especially for being in a guild that claims to be a progression guild.

If you have a huge deal with being in the heat of the moment and being told to get out of fire (c wut i did ther?) then you really have no business raiding. I know a lot of people will cry, “But he didn’t have to call me a retard!” No, no he didn’t, and that is incredibly rude. But if that’s what it took to get you to fucking move, I’ll make note to keep calling you a retard until you stop.

Reality Check: Summit is mind-blowingly lax on calling shit like this out, often to the point where it hurts the raid. If you leave thinking we’re assholes, you’re in for a cup of boiling coffee to the face.

2. You don’t have the time.

Many raiding guilds recruit for long-term consistent players. Players that will show up on time and stay till the end of the raid, then do it again the next day. Not much else needs to be said.

3. You don’t care.

“I don’t really care.” This is the reply I get from most casual raiders when asked why they aren’t performing (which is normally followed by “i has a lief LOLOLOLOL” or “RL>WoW”) or why they don’t show up.

<POST HIJACK>
Btw, there’s no difference between a real life and a gaming life, since they very much inhabit the same dimensions of time/space. I don’t refer to my doodles as “Oh, these are just a small part of my Artist Life.” No. Therefore, don’t let me catch you saying “RL>WoW.” Say something that makes some sense. Like, I don’t know, “My pet that’s been part of my family died last night and I wanted to mourn her.”
</POST HIJACK>

I could go on and on about different motivations, how they fit within the raiding scheme, all that glitter. But it can all be summed up quite succinctly.

You spend real time to play this videogame. Why the hell would you waste that time not taking it seriously?

~

Me and Sïn should be getting together to do a vlog soon expanding on criticism.

じゃね。

When most people think of this specific type of douchebag, they automatically think of a 5 year old threatening to run away from home if they don’t get ice-cream for breakfast. But really, hardly anyone who does emotional blackmailing or displays tardbucket behavior realizes that they’re being unreasonable. In their minds, they’re just offering constructive criticism.

But still. Some are just cockweales.

“Do it or I’m leaving! >.<”

Summit’s getting some pretty awesome threats lately. Mostly if we promote this person/don’t bring them to this raid/invite this person to the guild, they’ll leave and we’ll never have someone as completely awesome as they are.

Blogs all over the place get this one out of the way quickly, and they all agree; don’t succumb to threats. It undermines your power, shows they can do it again, and shows others that they can do it too. Just don’t.

“But what if…!”

No.

“OMG EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT!!1!”

The first type is saying “other/most guilds” are doing what the manipulator wants. It could also come in the form of “everyone else in the guild thinks I’m right.” The purpose is to imply that if the majority believes it, the majority is correct (making you, the minority, wrong).

To be fair, you could be wrong. You could just be a complete hardass who refuses to admit one’s wrongdoings. If so, take a good look in the mirror and knock it off. If you’re positive that these “everyone else”’s don’t exist, I suggest the following:

Don’t trip up and try to defend yourself; it opens up argument. Make it clear. “I’m thrilled it works for them, but we don’t do that.”

“You owe me for letting me down before.”

Guilt’s a powerful motivator. Guilt-drivers suggest something completely outrageous that they knows you’ll say no to. Then they can frolic up to you later with a more reasonable (by comparison) demand. Why did their needs change so suddenly, and how come the alternatives weren’t presented before?

Why did you bench them for the second week in a row though? Are you still working on hard modes? Do you dislike this person? Are they not performing? Or did you just drop the ball and forget to rotate them in? Man up and apologize.

“BUt u always put me on shepp =(“

Maybe you’re a dick who keeps putting one specific person on sheep duty the entire instance despite having 6 other mages. Most likely, they’re exaggerating.

All you have to do to discredit the problem is ask how many times “always” is. Pretty simple; if you keep drilling them, they’ll realize that “always” might be as little as “once.”

“I WILL RUIN YOU!! >:|”

I used to be the vengeful type. If I was ever kicked from a guild, I would wish death upon your raid and a stall in your progression.

And yet, that doesn’t come close to the audacity I’ve seen in others. They hate you with every fiber of their being because they fell behind in DKP due to a child being born, and they’ll do everything they can to make sure you PAY. We’re not sure what we did to offend them, but by God, they will have revenge.

Like threats, these fall under the “no tolerance” policy. Kick them, move on.

~

That concludes the manipulative ones. There’s plenty of other problem-people you can deal with, but that’s for another post.

じゃね。

Though the date hasn’t been announced, and the tickets not yet on sale, some members of Summit are planning a get-together in Anaheim next year for Blizzcon ‘10!

Sïn, Larthin and I will be driving down California, picking up Ceph and Aeggy around the Bay Area before continuing south. 10+ hours in a car FTL, but the price of gas will be split amongst 5 people.

Everyone’s last chance to sign up on the trip with us is the last day before tickets go on sale. I’d recommend taking us up on the offer, as we’ll be booking rooms together and splitting the cost up. Room and bed mates could get messy, but we’ll deal with it.

Gogo!

How am I emo,
Let me count the ways,
One is for the lag that keeps loot from my bags,
Two is for the lag that turns my PuGs into hags,
Three is for the loading screens that seem to take an hour,
Four is for the emo people who make this PuG so sour.

Yo dawg! I herd u liek blogs so i put a blog in ur blog so u can blog while u blog! This is Eris actually, not Xzibit. But I do love blogs, and so do my friends. So I started up a blog about our World of Warcraft raiding guild, Summit. Anyone who wants to write in it can just ask me in-game for permissions.

Topics will include: guides (which will also be posted on summit-wow.com, our guild’s homepage), recent big events and accomplishments, and QQ & ranting. Expect a post to come soon from me & Sïn! Huzzah! :logs onto her paladin to bubble-hearth dramatically::

777777777777777777777774oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii111sdtgrfffffffffffffffffff

<3th Jr. says hi to y’all. She wrote that as I was trying to type this up.

PS: I know the site’s messy and needs some love. I’M WORKIN’ ON IT, GAWD.