Forged Alliance

I went to go peel some wallpaper, but I couldn't shake off the fact that I got called out for being a self-aggrandizing asshole.  I've heard it referred to as the prima-donna "god complex" tanks get.  I'd like to open this up for discussion.  Lets talk about me for a minute.  I'm perfectly willing to step aside - defer loot to someone more "stable" if that's what my raid team would prefer.  Personally , I think someone who feels as passionate about endgame is the best person to be in a MT role, someone willing to say the tough - yet necessary things.  But again, that's my opinion -- and my opinions have come under question recently.Fortunately or unfortunately, it's not all about me.  So let me have it -- should I shut up?  .. should I step aside?

Speaking up is what we need more of in this guild

Okay, you asked for it ... be warned, this is going to get personal (but stay game related) ...

I have not run in group 1, I am committed to helping group 2 BUT I have known you for some time ... we worked together for almost 7 years at a continually failing start-up company (Why are we not millionaires?). You have natural leadership skills, which is a MUST for a MT, raid leader, guild leader, etc ... and you got it BAD I do not know if you had formal training, but you have more "people management" skills than most managers I know. That said, you have been known to be a little "passionate" about you opinions ... I know, I have tried to change a few of them

I personally think, from the stand point of being an MMO veteran and working with you for some time, you are the best man for the job period. (If there was a election for an official guild leader, you would have my vote)

Mason is just a puppet for the true masterminds of the guild. /cackle

Seriously though, keep doing what you're doing. If you don't keep spouting off, and forcing people to use the forum at an all time high rate, what else will I spend all my non-in-game time doing?

Get a life maybe? A woman to have meaningless sex with? Play some Sports? Find a hobby that doesnt require a computer? Get a pet? Take a trip? Tell your parents you love them, and your grandparents? Hang out with friends ( no not in the game)? Anyhow mike just a few suggestions, let me know if you need more Now as for you Mason, you and i dont see eye to eye very much, possibly because i dont take the game as seriously as you or because i too have a bit of leadership qualities myself ( I am the captain of my hockey team ) and dont like being told what to do . But you can come across a tad arrogant at times , i find most of my posts where im asking for something or if i have a suggestion it seems your the first to contradict me or tell me im wrong and the odd time have a helping suggestion. But then again maybe it is just the way you are, you are very dedicated to end game this i can see. There is a large group of you in the guild i would label Hardcore, so for those of you that i think are i dont take to much personally from you guys and do sometimes take advice and use it. The rest of us casual gamers just need to stay out of your way and let you guys go all gung ho woopty woopty doo 25 man blah blah blah. To me this is a GAME first and foremost, if i wanted to do something that pisses me off every night before bed id try and get wanda in the mood for sex after shes been asleep for a few hours. At least that way i might go to bed happy once in a while. Anyhow Mason the guys in the guild for the most part seem to like the way you do things and besides the odd snide remark or little stab in chat or forums i could care less how you act, you do know your stuff and are truly excited for guild progression. Just one little peice of advice if i may is just try to keep some opinions to yourself until more people voice a concern.

I dont know who or when you were called a self-aggrandizing asshole, but I can assure you that I don't see you as that.  There are quite a few in the guild that really know their role, and do a good job helping others find theirs.  To all of you (You know who you are) I must thank you.  I must assure all of you that I appreciate the way that you have all explained things in details for me to be able to play my part well.  This is a game to me, but there is nothing wrong with wanting to play the game to the fullest and enjoy smashing hardcore bosses in Kara.  I don't know if I am considered *HardCore* as I work full time, go to school full time and have 4 children under the age of 6 to boot.  I enjoy my break from the Real World to play.  You enable me to do that *with* your advice.  Without it, I would get frustrated and probably quit because sucking at a game never is fun. So Mason, THank you!  I think that you are a perfect maintank for Grp 1.  Please do not stop giving me your opinion.  If I suck, I want to hear it so that I can figure out how to not suck!  LoL!

You do what you do well.  Very well, and it's very appreciated.  It's the outspoken, opinionated, passionate people that get things going.  Without Chuunks, Dude, and Fargol group 1 might have never got off the ground.  You are not the only passionate one either.  I am thankful that Mahnalor and Blave have stepped up to spearhead group 2.  Without them that group would have gone nowhere instead of progressing like they are.  We need more people to step up and tell it like it is.  Everybody isn't gonna get along... this isn't "Hello Kitty Island Adventure", it's a competative game and we are competative people.  I don't see anything wrong with being "hardcore" about it.  When we were level 39 the goal was 40, then 41, and so on.  Now that we are 70 the goal is Kara, then Gruuls, then SSC(?).... and hopefully someday Black Temple.  I mean I guess you could hit 70 and sit around in SW chattin in trade 10 hours a day like some people do... (/die bunnyloaftwo...).  Anways, keep doin it well man... It is appreciated.

Thanks for the comments all -- I ended up leaving for my oldest's soccer practice right after I posted and regretted the post the whole time. I wasn't trying to fish for compliments honestly, and had a secret hope that there would be no replies and I could purge and move on. I will, however, try to make my responses less hard-nosed black-and-white -- and celebrate the beauty of the grey.  Everyone is entitled to their own opinions whether or not I think they're right doesn't matter at the end of the day. I also notice that I spend too much time waiting for responses and pounce on them with my own follow-ups -- I'm sure this fosters certain negativity too.

"lets go get you some better equipment" > "Your equipment sux" "Try getting agro using x skill in Y situation" > "If you cant keep agro, you're an idiot" Being positive > beating X member with a stick 'nuf said Tim

Leadership Quotes for Highly Effective Leaders ...

http://www.leadership-tools.com/leadership-quotes.html

Tig, now that's just plain comedy.  Laughter is probably the best hope for our guild progessing, seriously. In music it's called LSD: 'Lead Singer Disease'.  I would say that you have the MT version of that, Chuunks. Concerning forum posts I think I know you well enough now that you write under a pen-name.  You may flame me or other people, but generally when raiding and being in vent there doesn't seem to be personal anger directed at folks and the raids go smoothly.  You stepped up early to be MT in Kara and have done an outstanding job in the raids.  As the guild progression is still in Kara, and as you are the MT in the raid group that has gone the furthest, the guild is revolving a lot on your decisions concerning raid nights/make-up/etc.  So that is a reality and your decisions affect our in-game time and therefore our real lives.  I have been frustrated with some decisions and brought some of those frustrations up in forum posts in the past and recently.  On the other side of the coin, you were and still are a critical driving force in guild raid content, so any negative comments have to keep this awesome contribution in mind. Could some of your raiding agenda be done more diplomatically, definitely.  I think it's the visibility, communication, fairness, and some diplomatic qualities of the raiding agenda you've pursued that I would have a real problem with if you were a Guild Leader.  I think Dude, Fargol and some others including myself have had to do a fair amount of balancing/damage control for some of the comments, etc. that have occurred and that people have mentioned to me and I've agreed with.  But you are a good MT, but MT does not equal dictator.  You're still part of a larger team, albeit an important one but it's still 1 out of X people in the raid.  The fact that we're having this discussion when you're not either a Raid Leader or Guild Leader probably means something. With that said keep doing what you're doing as a MT but don't try to run the guild unless you really want to step up on the other fronts and look at how to help the guild overall, not just raiding.  We've known from the beginning that we're not a hardcore raiding guild, so raid progression does not equal guild goodiness, although it is a factor of enjoying the game.  I believe running a guild well takes a lot of listening, or people get fed up and leave when they are ignored.  I wouldn't want to personally be part of a guild that has an attitude of get on the raiding bus or take a hike...so I'm talking about balance here. It's hard to keep things inclusive and progress through content.  But also having 2 successful Kara groups with members that have reached a point where they don't even want to interact with eachother is not where we need to go. I think it's safe to say we want to try 25-man content as a guild.  Do we need two successful Kara groups to get there?  I'd say no.  We need 25 talented and geared players who can make a time commitment to raid and have organizationally crafted their class specialization as part of a larger group.  Talent: Is a second Kara group going to produce talented players: no.  That's just paying attention to the details and getting past a huge learning curve that this game presents (2 years in and I'm finally feeling like less of a noob).  Sharing knowledge is also key as Kaittlynn mentions.  That reduces the learning curve drastically for those that are willing to reflect on contructive criticism and advice. Gear: yes Kara epics can be nice for some classes.  But I think we all agree good gear can come from a lot of different places.  It's specializing your talents and playing style with the right gear that's the key.  Time commitment: We've come far in this respect.  Chuunks, you've spear-headed this extremely well and I think it'll help in the long haul.  Get prepared people showing up on time. So as far as coming up with the 'organizationally crafted class specialization', what I mean by that is a good 25-man raid roster.  For druids do we want a bear tank? do we want a tree or moonkin?  Who's taking Improved Mark of the Wild?  Where are our weak spots, do we need to recruit, who needs rep for gear, who needs nethers, who can craft, etc, etc.  It's this type of thinking that can help make everyone feel included, and can then encourage more of this type of thinking...not please come to our kara raid, or please don't try to take from my kara raid.  My initial raid roster was part of that attempt to get organized.  My thoughts for doing a pre-BC instance was to take inventory and feel like 1 guild again.  I think we're extremely ahead of the curve in this respect: we're mostly mature players who are all glad to stay flexible for the guild good.  You need help getting keyed: NP.  I should respec tanking instead of balance: NP.  Our guild is great in this respect.  Let's plan this out and take advantage of it. I've put Gruul's on the Group Calendar for 9/19 just to see if we can try. If we want to try sooner, fine I'm all for it.  If anybody is interested please sign up and we'll see where we are at.  Guess it was my turn to write a novel =)

People will always disagree.  The good thing about this guild is that we've got people from both ends of the 'commitment' spectrum who play the game.  It keeps FA level and fun.  Not too serious, not so lazy that we never get anywhere.  Checks and balances, people, just like in government (except the Executive brach, which is immune to everything).  We're a casual raiding guild, and a balance of harder-core players and casual-er players keep us in the middle.  Naturally people on the opposite ends of the spectrum are going to be at odds with each other from time to time.  The only problem with this is when it becomes very vocal and bothers others and it affects THEIR enjoyment of the game.  We should all try to be considerate of each other, refrain from taking others to task, and enjoy the game and have fun as a group - acknowledging, yet not complaining or lamenting about, the play-styles of others.

Some personalities just don't mix, which leads to people's play styles or game philosophies (the game is my life, the game is just a game, etc) not mixing either. Which is why I am not raiding anymore, and I'm a lot happier now. Leveling is fun to me, as are 5-mans. I just realized that raiding and casual gaming do not go together. It's not fair for me to show up to raid and not have played at all since the last raid (and thus not be prepared with any pots etc), and I'm certainly not spending every night on WOW "preparing", so I don't raid. I think an easy solution is to stick with what you find fun. If you can't committ to raiding and the commitment that requires (is that redundant?), don't try to raid. Dat's it.

You guys are shitting me right? ... If Mason had not been constantly in our faces the whole time group 1 would NOT be where it is today, he goes over every fight with the new guys every time, he knows EVERYONES roll in the raid and explains it to us ALL, I know what everyone else in the raid is doing because I should know ... it's not just about spamming heals as I've learnt, it's about knowing why people are OOR, who's going to need a heal next, what happens in phase 2 of x fight and how to heal through it .... Mason has never ever ever wanted to be guild leader, he wants us to progress, that's it, he wants to see the end of THIS GAME, before they bring out the next expansion and we miss it like BWL, NAXX etc. etc. and if taking charge of the situation and explaining (POLITELY I'd like to add) to people why we're/they're not, in an effort to get them to wake the hell up and stop being airheads about raiding and turning up in greens, expecting the raid to carry them through to the purples ... well then good for him ..... and if you're one of those airheads expecting the guild to carry you through, well then I can see why you'd be cross about being caught with your hand in the cookie jar, but don't take it out on Mason, he's NOT the droid you seek. He gets tells constantly from people asking him why/how things are done, people get pissed at him because they can't get in raid group 1 ... that's not even his choice, Dudepal does the invites, get your balls out and step up with your complaints people, stop sending sneaky tells behind his back, if you have a problem with Mason, stop pretending it's not you and speak up. He cops a lot of flack for things that aren't even his fault, we're sorry group 1 is doing so well, we REALLY are, we get made to feel guilty over it every week .... I wish you could all raid with us, why don't you set up a roster system where we ALL get to be in group 1 on alternate weeks? I'm happy to step down at any time, this jealousy is making raiding unbearable for me.  

I don't know if you're responding specifically to my post Dionia, but I'd like to think that I've helped as well getting through Kara fights, getting people attuned, grinding Lower City rep all one weekend to help get the Nightbane quest done (which I still hope to see the encounter).  But I am being critical of some of things I've experienced recently in the guild, mainly concerning some of the non-raiding points I've hopefully made, and also addressing the postive things that Mason has done.  As I hope I'm making clear I'm not concerned with Kara or care too much about raid group 1 vs raid group 2, my concern is helping move this guild past Kara as a team.  Kara does not have to be a roadblock to what we want to accomplish with 25-man content. "that's not even his choice, Dudepal does the invites, get your balls out and step up with your complaints people, stop sending sneaky tells behind his back, if you have a problem with Mason, stop pretending it's not you and speak up."  - that's fairly surprising.  I think I've been vocal pn the issues that I've tried to work out with Mason in the past through the forums and in-game, I'm not sure if you are talking to me however.  I tried to be as honest as possible with my thoughts on this thread, and I would consider that speaking up and not sneaky.  But sorry I'm not going to put anybody on this game on a pedestal, especially with some of the flaming done through the forums.  What qualities can we work toward to bring the guild more together.  And I'm not sure who's feeling jealous?  I'm not too interested in turning my icons from blue to purple as having any meaning in my life, I've enjoyed the good loots I've gotten when running the instance, and am glad to raid when I'm able too.   I'm pretty much at a loss here....I should probably just not worry about it too much?   - Jon

Jon wrote   I think it's the visibility, communication, fairness, and some diplomatic qualities of the raiding agenda you've pursued that I would have a real problem with if you were a Guild Leader.  I think Dude, Fargol and some others including myself have had to do a fair amount of balancing/damage control for some of the comments, etc. that have occurred and that people have mentioned to me and I've agreed with.  .

Fairness and some diplomatic qualities of the raiding agenda HE'S pursued? What fairness about raiding are you specifically talking about? Dude, fargol and yourself have had to do a fair amount of balancing/damage control .... ok ..... so who said what? How specifically is Mason the asshole here?

I feel like I backpedaled a little on this early .. I'm here apologizing for "things I've said and done" when I can't for the life of me see where I've been less that honest with people.  Or less than tactful even.  I would like some specifics pointed out actually.  Because I really just dont get it -- there are a lot of vague references to being what -- nicer?Tim chimes in with a couple random phrases straight out of thin air -- as if I ever said to someone "their gear is crap".  All I've ever said is - lets all put the work in.  I do know and appreciate the effort that you have put in, I kinda thought we were friends and had some sort of mutual respect -- but maybe it was just me?  Anyways .. .One of the reasons I dont want to be a guild leader is I'm happy and free to speak my mind, even if it (as it has I guess?) pegs me an asshole.  Point out some specific posts, I'm not sure I'm what you're imagining me to be.I just missed a ready check -- I'm going to post and get on with things.

I guess I'm thinking of when we hopped on vent that night to decide on the groups for the Kara split.  A few of us were doing the Sethek halls heroic for Nightbane afterwards and a few of us got tells from Mason on joining group 1, including Fargol and Dude.  So I was just thinking of the factors that led to those decisions and thought that he was coordinating what was a solid group.  But then also felt bad for not being able to put more time in on the other group.  So that's what i was referring to, but I hate to keep on focusing on the Kara split.  I think I realized tonight I'm putting way too much time in thinking about this (when I should be playing!)  Anyways, I think I'm going to take a break from the guild thing for a bit.  I hope the posts were somewhat constructive.  No hard feelings, I promise.  Talk to you all in game.  

Oops sorry mason. Did not mean to imply you ever said any of those things. Just a general point that being positive will produce greater results than negativity. (not that i've ever heard you being negative Lets keep the guild family a family and despense with the drama. (no judgement implied) Anyway, we're cool.   Tim