07-08-2009, 11:05 PM
I know I'm usually long winded with these "state of the guild" speeches so I'm going to try and simply bullet point everything I feel needs to be addressed. Also keep in mind that the things on this list are MY feelings, not necessarily the guild's or anything like that. I'm not asking for a magical solution to fix the problems and I'm NOT BLAMING ANYONE. I'm just calling it how I see it.
1: The reason I have raided since my very first UBRS is to prove to my peers that I am a skilled player. I like having good gear, I like looking like a total badass in Ironforge while everyone runs around in their green and pink colored quest items. Call it conceited or elitist, but I like being the best at whatever I do, and I like people to know it. I have said for a long time now that the Blizzard loot system (including badges) is horrible. We had ONE person roll on the IC cape last night, and they only rolled after it seemed like no one else was going to. There are probably ~7 casters that could have used the other cloak from Hard Mode, me among them. But do we get it? No. Everyone knows about the staff fiasco by now. 9 straight weeks of never screwing up that fight, attempt after attempt, popping pots, using spells at the right time, honestly topping meters. And how am I rewarded? With a big "FUCK YOU SHAR" every single week. Mean while Aragon (no offense to him in any respect) gets 4 pieces of gear in literally 20 minutes after being MIA for over 2 months. This is further exemplified by all the casual fags running around in 3.2 with all their epic badge gear that they did little to nothing to obtain. Same gear appearance, negligible stat differences... Why even bother raiding?
2: WLPH has had a player base problem, in my eyes, since Lich King came out. I have subtly expressed that concern to a number of people over the months since release, but I really don't think anyone can do anything to fix it. If you think back to Sunwell, our player base was so fucking solid, a nuclear blast couldn't have shaken it. A national epidemic could be spreading outside but God Dammit at 7pm we had 32 players online, fully gemmed, enchanted, geared, and experienced on every single facet of every single fight in the game. People sat out if we needed, people came in for a single boss and did their job, each boss dropped like 2 pieces of loot so you always KNEW that if you killed that boss you would be justly rewarded with the gear you wanted. Now we have friends' friends and alts' alts, casuals and honestly lousy players that, as Abe even said, he didn't even know who they were.
3: Core player base going casual; it's happening every day. I can't even count the number of our core players who we have lost on two hands anymore. Be it leaving for another guild, another game, quitting all together, personal schedules, whatever. We have lost an absurd amount of our best players. Having this huge flux of new people sifting in and out in our sheer desperation is horrible for raid syngery, morality, and progression. We cannot keep up with the bads and the casuals who continue to pop up like blemishes on our once silk smooth 25 raid roster. Logging in every night for 4 hours of raids, leaving work early, detaching myself from an honestly pretty nice social life should I choose to embrace it...It'd be worth it if raids didn't turn into afk fests and "who can we get in for _______?" Wiping on 1 Tree Freya after downing HM General and doing Algalon attempts just doesn't sit well with me. I feel like the people who are contributing the most, the people who haven't given up or gone casual...we're the ones who are suffering. Poor Abe is going to have a heart attack and he just doesn't deserve this shit. None of us do.
4: World of Casualcraft- Like a lot of other people I am increasingly disgusted by the direction this game is taking. An entire "content patch" for a single circular room with two inverted color scheme Jurmongers in it. And even if I care enough to kill the purple one AND the green one, it doesn't matter because everyone and their sister can run Utgarde Keep a few times and get the same damn gear. Where is the challenge? Where is the feeling of epicness? I logged in to raid SSC, TK, Hyjal, BT, and Sunwell because I felt POWERFUL. I got that sense of urgency and desperation...I felt immersed in the game lore because I really was one of the few in the entire realm of Azeroth strong enough to defeat the might of the burning legion, Illidan, etc etc. That's what made this game fun for me and killing a slightly larger version of a Jurmonger for a piece of gear that looks identical to every caster's and every casual's who decides to log in once a week just upsets me to no limit.
TL;DR version:
1: I'm not getting gear and it's pissing me off.
2: This guild used to have dedicated and skilled players and now it doesn't.
3: The people we are replacing our good players with are awful.
4: WoW isn't fun to play anymore.
So what does all this mean? I have no idea but I've been stewing on these issues for a while now and I felt it was about time to vent. What I can tell you is this- I have no intentions of quitting the game and leaving the people I've played with for a year and a half high and dry. I'm not going to ninja all the loot I can and gquit, I'm not going to quietly just list off into casualness and not tell anyone. All I'm trying to do is express my concerns and hope that someone can relate and even help fix them. Because honestly I'm at a crossroads and putting forth the effort to fix them myself just doesn't seem to be worth it.
1: The reason I have raided since my very first UBRS is to prove to my peers that I am a skilled player. I like having good gear, I like looking like a total badass in Ironforge while everyone runs around in their green and pink colored quest items. Call it conceited or elitist, but I like being the best at whatever I do, and I like people to know it. I have said for a long time now that the Blizzard loot system (including badges) is horrible. We had ONE person roll on the IC cape last night, and they only rolled after it seemed like no one else was going to. There are probably ~7 casters that could have used the other cloak from Hard Mode, me among them. But do we get it? No. Everyone knows about the staff fiasco by now. 9 straight weeks of never screwing up that fight, attempt after attempt, popping pots, using spells at the right time, honestly topping meters. And how am I rewarded? With a big "FUCK YOU SHAR" every single week. Mean while Aragon (no offense to him in any respect) gets 4 pieces of gear in literally 20 minutes after being MIA for over 2 months. This is further exemplified by all the casual fags running around in 3.2 with all their epic badge gear that they did little to nothing to obtain. Same gear appearance, negligible stat differences... Why even bother raiding?
2: WLPH has had a player base problem, in my eyes, since Lich King came out. I have subtly expressed that concern to a number of people over the months since release, but I really don't think anyone can do anything to fix it. If you think back to Sunwell, our player base was so fucking solid, a nuclear blast couldn't have shaken it. A national epidemic could be spreading outside but God Dammit at 7pm we had 32 players online, fully gemmed, enchanted, geared, and experienced on every single facet of every single fight in the game. People sat out if we needed, people came in for a single boss and did their job, each boss dropped like 2 pieces of loot so you always KNEW that if you killed that boss you would be justly rewarded with the gear you wanted. Now we have friends' friends and alts' alts, casuals and honestly lousy players that, as Abe even said, he didn't even know who they were.
3: Core player base going casual; it's happening every day. I can't even count the number of our core players who we have lost on two hands anymore. Be it leaving for another guild, another game, quitting all together, personal schedules, whatever. We have lost an absurd amount of our best players. Having this huge flux of new people sifting in and out in our sheer desperation is horrible for raid syngery, morality, and progression. We cannot keep up with the bads and the casuals who continue to pop up like blemishes on our once silk smooth 25 raid roster. Logging in every night for 4 hours of raids, leaving work early, detaching myself from an honestly pretty nice social life should I choose to embrace it...It'd be worth it if raids didn't turn into afk fests and "who can we get in for _______?" Wiping on 1 Tree Freya after downing HM General and doing Algalon attempts just doesn't sit well with me. I feel like the people who are contributing the most, the people who haven't given up or gone casual...we're the ones who are suffering. Poor Abe is going to have a heart attack and he just doesn't deserve this shit. None of us do.
4: World of Casualcraft- Like a lot of other people I am increasingly disgusted by the direction this game is taking. An entire "content patch" for a single circular room with two inverted color scheme Jurmongers in it. And even if I care enough to kill the purple one AND the green one, it doesn't matter because everyone and their sister can run Utgarde Keep a few times and get the same damn gear. Where is the challenge? Where is the feeling of epicness? I logged in to raid SSC, TK, Hyjal, BT, and Sunwell because I felt POWERFUL. I got that sense of urgency and desperation...I felt immersed in the game lore because I really was one of the few in the entire realm of Azeroth strong enough to defeat the might of the burning legion, Illidan, etc etc. That's what made this game fun for me and killing a slightly larger version of a Jurmonger for a piece of gear that looks identical to every caster's and every casual's who decides to log in once a week just upsets me to no limit.
TL;DR version:
1: I'm not getting gear and it's pissing me off.
2: This guild used to have dedicated and skilled players and now it doesn't.
3: The people we are replacing our good players with are awful.
4: WoW isn't fun to play anymore.
So what does all this mean? I have no idea but I've been stewing on these issues for a while now and I felt it was about time to vent. What I can tell you is this- I have no intentions of quitting the game and leaving the people I've played with for a year and a half high and dry. I'm not going to ninja all the loot I can and gquit, I'm not going to quietly just list off into casualness and not tell anyone. All I'm trying to do is express my concerns and hope that someone can relate and even help fix them. Because honestly I'm at a crossroads and putting forth the effort to fix them myself just doesn't seem to be worth it.