I feel misunderstood

| Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Here is a forum thread:@Serious guilds with "friends" ranks
Apparently WoWInsider noticed it, and my post in it.

The way I read the article, I feel as if the writer thinks I expect people to armory everyone or check guild tags or whatever. I don't. Instead... well here's my thought process for the post.

Hm, looks interesting. I anticipate: elitist jerk.
*open thread*
*reads*
Yep.
Hm... how to mess with the trolling alt? Well let's see, they invited based on an assumption. Also they're being jerks. Perhaps they shouldn't use flawed inviting processes. Hm. Aha! The trusty armory. "Hey jerk, go check the armory if you're going to whine so much!" I should phrase that better. Ooh, fail is always a good word. Anything with "fail" is a sure-win. Ironic?
*types*
*posts*
*feels a smug sense of satisfaction*

On to the actual point of the (article?): No.

Guilds with friends, even bad friends, are not bad guilds. In fact, they may be better guilds because of it. Oh sure, they're not much help with raiding or PvP or whatever, but so what? Guilds can be social and good. Just keep the social and good separated properly.

Think of it as a party: you can invite coworkers and friends and what does it mean? It means you have friends and you have coworkers worth spending non-work time with. What does it not mean? It doesn't mean your party is bad or your company is bad: the friends aren't part of the company.

Oh sure, argue that in this analogy the guild is the company. Fine. Different people have different jobs. Some guildies are friends, some workers are janitors. Some guildies are raiders, some workers are programmers that could set you on fire with a string of binary. Don't expect the friend to raid or the janitor to be a digital arsonist.

If you're going to make assumptions, you're not always going to be right. When you fail, blame the person that made a false assumption: yourself, not the guild. They probably were not named : "Everyone here is awesome, guaranteed." If you were doing something important enough to complain about it, then check the armory ahead of time. Or inspect them at least. Maybe ask them their experience?

Guilds with friends are not bad, bad assumptions are bad.

4 comments:

Beth said...

They probably were not named : "Everyone here is awesome, guaranteed."

*laugh* True.

Making assumptions about guilds based on their rank or just talking to a few (raider!) members usually doesn't give a full view of what the guild is. Yes, a lot of guilds are cookie-cutter this or that, but every guild has some sort of variation, and every player goes to that guild with expectations. The problem is that people often expect the wrong thing.

My guild is a family/friends guild that raids, but all anyone on Zuluhed ever cares about (or notices) is that we raid. It's such a small server that we stand out because we're able to do 25's. The result is that people assume we're just a raid guild, treat us that way, and expect us to recruit based on raiding criteria, but we are not raiders first, we're family first. And nobody EVER tries to understand that. It's so frustrating.

Anyway, I totally agree with you. Bad assumptions are bad. And dumb. And full of fail, because "fail" is sure-win.

LarĂ­sa said...

Hm... I think I read something about this recently. A suggestion that you could make some kind of certification process - that people from certain guilds could have a "approval" or guarantee to be of a certain level. And then you could hire them as foot soldiers sort of. I guess it was Gevlon's idea, it must have been.

Anyways I think it's pure laziness to expect that everyone from a certain guild is fully-equipped raiders sort of. You have to do your homework and check out a bit. As you point out.

Kiryn said...

Guilds are overrated.

The only time I ever make any assumptions on someone's performance due to their guild tag is when it's a bad guild.

When I have met more than five people from the same guild who have all been complete jerks who are likely to wipe a group on purpose just for laughs, and I have not ever met a single likeable person from that guild, I tend to make the assumption that that kind of behavior is acceptable in that guild, and anyone who doesn't agree would have left by now.

A few servers ago there was a guild called "PaPeR CuTtErS" and I swear everyone in it was a 13-year-old boy from how they acted. I'd never have invited someone from their guild to my group, just because I find them annoying as hell.

Never does my judgement in groupmates have anything to do with their DPS. I like to raid with friends, or when they aren't around, people I would like to become friends with in the future.

Unknown said...

Well, you know what they say about making assumptions.

And that person that started that forum thread, indeed, made an ass of themselves.

~Syrana

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