This week is the last week of Uni and work is slowing down a lot. So I'll be back to a more involved GM role. I want to thank the officers for doing such a great job. In particular I would like to thank Sven although he tells me the guild runs itself I'm sure there was a bit of work to do.
I will be returning to raiding in the new year however, I will try to get my ilvl up to a more appropriate number i.e not 850 more around 870 to match the rest of the raid team. Thanks for taking me along last raid it was much appreciated. The item on the agenda is to obtain a shadow priest with the ilvl of around 870, if you have any real life friends or WoW Pals who might like to join us in that role they will get first pick.
I might be a bit tougher this time around. I need to practice a less "Passive Aggressive" approach. What is Passive Aggression anyway, it has become a bit of buzz phrase recently like Psychopath and Narcissism. Unfortunately, like most of these buzz words they are often misinterpreted and everyone gets diagnosed with these conditions. Unless you've done 12 years of University try to refrain from diagnosing people with any kind of disorders or labeling behaviors that you aren't qualified to use.
Everyone decided they didn't want to progress rather just hang out, so if we are just hanging out then shut the fuck up if people aren't doing the appropriate dps, healing or whatever for their gear level. It is not appropriate behavior to subtly force people out of the raid by not being pleasant to them. This is a form of bullying and dare I say it a shining example of Passive Aggression. We advertise ourselves as a "casual" raiding guild with a "family" feel. Since when do you force people out of your family for not meeting a dumb made up requirement, especially when we have raiders who are doing exceptionally well in dps who can cover the loss. If people are nervous and are having difficulty I can assure you that picking on them is only going to make them more nervous. Calling it "helping" by the way is shit. If you want to help, tolerate their lower dps until they get the hang of it. If you want you can direct them to a good website, addons etc that is all. Do not week after week hound someone until they leave the raid team. That is just bullshit and you know it.
Seeing as we are "Casual and just hanging out" also opens the door to gearing up your alts again. If you are sick of your toon and want to try another class go ahead that's fine. Make sure they have an acceptable item level before coming though or ask Sven. He might give you an idea of what is lacking in the current raid team and direct you to a class that might be interesting for you.
Cliques are my pet hate as you know because of the excluding nature of them. If you find yourself in a clique I am requesting that you remove yourself from it by including some people who aren't in the clique thus, making our guild more inclusive rather than exclusive. Make some new friends guys. Now if you think I'm creating a drama about this clique thing here is a link to why cliques are bad and should be avoided. So get out of your comfort zone and get to building a community. The core clique members know who they are so please do stuff to alter this negative behavior. I know who you are too and so does everyone else in the guild. It's been our biggest problem in the guild. I can write a list of non -clique Rifties if you like next time.
