Looking for a guild

Goodbye to raiding (for now)

It’s the second time this year I’ll have to look around for a new guild. Me, being away for a month to south America, then raiding three weeks and then again taking a break for two weeks to move into my new home was obviously enough for the officers of my guild too lose confidence in me and myself ever being a reliable part of the raiding team.

I can’t blame them as raiders. This is how successful raiding works. Having raiders with low raid attendance is annoying. It slows down progress. And it’s not fair for all raiders with high attendance, to just let lazy raiders who show up once in a while grab purples (even if DKP and similar systems somewhat help steer against an unfair loot distribution).

Still, losing my raiding status hurts my competitive gamer ego. So, dear reader, allow me to vent a tiny little bit. Even if my raid attendance absolutely justifies the loss of my raiding status, there are some little things surrounding the whole story, I just didn’t like:

Low raid attendance can have two faces: People getting lazy, not caring about the raid schedule, signing up very infrequent and never giving a reason for not signing up. People who just disappear for a week. Then there is low raid attendance, that is communicated clearly and has somewhat reasonable causes: like being a month abroad. Or moving into a new apartment. I always try to sign up for raids and if I can’t attend a raid, I try to give a reason as often as possible. If I can’t attend raids for a longer period, I post in the according sub-forum every guild has, why that’s the case. Yes raid attendance can just be judged by the numbers, but I think it makes great sense too look at the reason behind those numbers as well.

I don’t like still being the new guy after such a long time in a guild and not being judged like senior guild members. I’m absolutely clear that there’s a tighter connection between people knowing each other for a long time. This is a good thing. But I’m not very fond of being judged very differently as other members of a raiding community. Again, my raid attendance was low and if you really want to look at the cold facts only, that’s all there is to say. Still, it’s annoying to see other raiders being away for 1-2 months or even dramatically quitting raiding to then come back again without any consequences while I lose my raiding status without much consideration.

I don’t like being talked to indirectly. The whole thing went down in form of /tell and in-game post between me and my class leader, who has in fact no big say at all. No officer showed any interest in talking to me. And I’m somewhat too proud to go begging for a raid slot, especially if it’s pretty obvious I’m not welcome anyway. If someone decides something I don’t like and that affects me, I’m very happy if he at least talks to me in person.

I don’t like if people don’t give me a chance. I knew my raid attendance was low, but losing my raid spot was very unexpected. I could have lived with a lower guild rank and having to prove myself again. In fact, as the wetter is getting worse and after such a long time without constant raiding, my fingers are itching for healing in a 25 man raid. And to just lose my raid spot with any chance to prove my willingness to raid, two days after my ISP has finally set up the Internet in my new apartment, that just bugs me. Especially on a low-population realm, where there is actually nothing else to do, than raiding.

In retrospective, I don’t like having my character deleted from the raid planner without any comment or warning.

It is somewhat frustrating to notice, that nearly no one seems to notice that I left the guild at all. After all, raiding 2-4 times a week over months adds up to a decent amount of time I spent with those guys.

Last but not least, I don’t like if my blog is hold against me. My blog is my personal meta-view on the game. It is mainly a resto shaman blog, but it’s a personal blog as well. It is and it always will be a critical blog. This critical view includes mainly the game, but of course myself as well. So I can’t and won’t exclude critical thoughts on my overall play time. About the thin line between best computer game ever and total waste of time, that WoW balances along. About conflicts between real life and the virtual world. About the possibility that my job might somewhen in the future not allow raiding, which is as probable as me getting a job that goes perfectly hand in hand with raiding. About the motivation to play this game, which surely isn’t always at the same level. If you want a blogger in your raid, that just praises your guild in every way possible, comments his willingness to play this game forever and thinks about the possibility of getting a nice tattoo of your guild name on his bottom, well, that’s not me. Having a WoW related blog doesn’t make someone a better player (a fact I’m very very much aware of), but it at least shows a great deal of dedication to this game.

Okay, that’s it. Actually I already feel a lot better. And rereading my post, I really wonder if it isn’t all for the better, to no longer be a part of this guild. Which I could have been, if I had accepted a non-raiding status. Everything considered, this just wasn’t for me. Sadly, most of the people I joined the guild with or had good fun with, have quit the game, left the guild or quit raiding. A lot of the new people in the guild I just didn’t know yet. This became pretty obvious to me when I realized, that I couldn’t raid with this guild anymore. I’m even not sure if I’ll stay on my current realm, being on a new, low-population realm without a guild any many fellow players I know is rather frustrating.

Of course I’ll end this post with kind words, as I’m a kind person, outside of football stadiums. All my thanks go to the two officers, which recruited me and are just nice and cool people. I know they have a good time since they stopped raiding, I wish them the best of luck. I’m also grateful for the great pace of raiding I enjoyed since the start of Ulduar until I took of for South America. A big “thank you” goes out to the only person who asked my, why I’m no  longer part of the guild, I really appreciate it. After all even the meanest resto shaman has a little teddy bear in his heart, who needs to be cuddled from time to time.

Anyone who was looking for some quality resto shaman posts, please be patient. If I don’t raid, I don’t have a big motivation to write up resto posts. I might unleash some pretty off-topic posts on you poor guys. Some UI related posts are in the works as well.

Comments are welcome as always. Tell me your stories about your /gquit or even your guild kick. Comments are wide open for poor, neglected, brilliant players. If you’re playing on an EU realm and currently recruiting, don’t hesitate to contact me.