Blog: Balance of Skills

Taking a page from the developers at Blizzard I thought I would take the opportunity to start writing a blog here. The blog has a few purposes: first, to inform current guild members of our ideas and directions; second, give prospective new guild members an idea of what we're about and what to expect; and third, give me the opportunnity to blabber my proverbial mouth (that's my favorite reason); and fourth and finally, give the front page some much needed content.  Honestly, we have a lot of fun, but very rarely is any of it easy to explain in website news update.  Oh yee haw, you ran a heroic and didn't wipe... fun and exciting, but not front page news, yunno?

So without further adiue I begin with my first blog post. I'll be encouraging the other officers to contribute as well and maybe we'll get some things going here, eh?

Today I'll be writing on "Balancing of Skills".

     What does this mean? Well, as I've noticed over the years we're more a "Christian" guild than we are a "Casual" guild. By that I mean many people have substituted their preferred play-style to be a part of our guild. This doesn't always mean hardcore raiders dealing with casuals. It sometimes also means more casual players adopting a slightly more aggressive approach to the game.

 

     Personally, I have played since the beginning of Burning Crusade. I began playing on a server that came out around the same to BC did (Nordrassil). Our server was behind from the start. Where other servers had scores of level 60s bored out of their mind ready to race through Outland, we had a bunch of mostly noobs. I remember when Moose and I were in our 30s able to raid Crossroads and other Horde towns without ever seeing anyone above level 50 show up. Occasionally you'd spot the odd level 70 running around, but most of the server was still in the leveling phase. Anyway, Moose and I remember the game before it was nerfed heavily. I started off with a Human Mage (now Anastashia on Medivh) and boy was leveling in early BC tough! I died SO many times and needed Moose to help me with many, many quests. Not to mention leveling took way longer than it did now too. Now you can't get halfway through a zone before you're leveled out of it. Back then you could scrape and claw for every quest in a zone and still find yourself needing to move on to another zone of similar level in hopes you'll not have to complete that one too.

     This atmosphere mixed with it just being the two of us on our server in our own little <Christian Force> guild forced us to fend for ourselves. Moose and I made it a nightly habit of two-manning dungeons. I remember spending 3 hours clearing out Scarlet Monestary's library with me on my 28 mage and Moose on his 45ish hunter. We had no heals. It was a challenge, monotonous, but a thrill. This may sound like one of those "when I was your age..." spiels, and maybe it is, but the point I'm trying to make is that we came into this game learning to embrace challenges and be self sufficient. Over the course of the next few years I learned that not everyone shared that same adventerous spirit. That is not necessarily a bad thing (although in some circumstances its terrible). As the game has progressed and changed and our guild has grown we've had to find happy mediums. Everyone wants to play the game their way. Its our responsibility as a guild to learn to mesh those sometimes conflicting styles together.

     This has lead to some basic core ideals about how the game should be played. We believe that these ideals are necessary for a game that involves playing with other people. Some might say "Well I pay $15 a month and I'm not going to be told how to play."  That's all fine and dandy until you start joining a dungeon group or even a raid group. Our collective 4, 9, or 24 $15 a month say that there needs to be a compromise.

 

1.  
   1. Hardcore players need to be patient with new players. We're here to fellowship, and nobody should be made to feel inferior because of a video game.
   2. New or casual players should not abuse the fact that hardcore players have put in more time and dedication. Its great to have them as mentors, but it shouldn't be an excuse for not trying your best, coming prepared, or intentionally not reading up on a fight.
   3. Its good to help other people, but its not good to make other people dependant on you. What do we mean by that? As a Christian guild it has been suggested that we should do whatever anyone wants when they want however they want as much as they want. No. Sorry. We are FRIENDS. Not servants. Players should help each other, but the old adige "give a man a fish, feed him for a day. teach a man a fish, feed him for life". Everyone should strive to be self-sufficient and be patient. Just because Bob has lots of time to play and has thousands of gold doesn't mean he should give it to you. It may take you weeks longer than him, but EARNING things is part of the game. Sure, running a dungeon with PuGs might be painful, but it doesn't mean you should be ran through. Learn to overcome and deal with difficult players.
   4. Fellowship-guild does not mean everyone can come to every event. This is especially true with raiding. If we have four or five things going through a week, it is perfectly acceptable for one of those things to be for more experienced players. Just as it wouldn't be fair to have only hardcore raiding, it isn't fair to make skilled players sit around bored. Everyone should be given the opportunity to do what they like in the game. The amount of events we have for a particular group of people will always be disproportionate to the interests of those who step up and lead them.

 

      To sum this up I think that everyone should be accepting of other people's play style. At the same time I think that ALL players should do their best. Fellowship or "not enough time" is no excuse for not trying. Fellowship is people coming together and getting to know each other and support each other. This can be done in a level 1 raid of hogger or a level 85 hardmode raid. Everyone should strive to learn the game. Veteran players should be humble mentors, friends who lead by example, and new players should be open to advice and improving their game. Both being understanding that the other person may have different in-game aspirations

 

Matthew Edmund
Christian Expeditionary Force
Founder & Leader

 

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