I’ll admit this entry was done in reaction to http://www.guildmum.com/2012/02/what-do-you-expect-of-a-raid-and-other-raiders.html post here. It’s something I’ve been pondering a while now though.
Way back in 2005/2006, before my first marriage went bad, I was quite the raider in Warcraft. Now I’ve never been THAT hardcore, I wasn’t in guilds that tried to get even server first kills, but at one point I thought nothing of raiding 5 days a week, possibly more. This was before the days of fish feasts and cauldrons, so I bought all my own food, pots, bandages etc. Eventually though it all caught up with me and I cut back to 3 days a week max, something I have always stuck to.
After my marriage broke up and I met my partner, G, I didn’t have net access for a while and didn’t play WoW at all for about 6 months. G doesn’t play, he like antiques not computers, and he always used to find my tales of Warcraft amusing but also kind of worrying when I told him of the time I used to spend on it. So when I did start playing again we sat down and talked, and came to an understanding. I would only raid 3 nights a week maximum, I wouldn’t spend all day on the game and ignore G, and weekends were ‘our time’. We are both happy with this still.
But herein lies the issue. I love my guild. I love the people in the guild. I don’t care we are not the most progressed guild on our server. But I DO want to progress. And herein lies the problem. As well as the issues brought up by Seph, I feel there is another issue. Raid attendance.
We are scheduled to raid on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. But we are a mature guild, with most members having families and careers. Which brings its own problems. Currently we have members who cannot raid for various reasons, such as moving house, new jobs or being busy in their existing jobs. Non of which can be helped; I myself can no longer raid on Tuesdays thanks to my improved job. But sometimes raid once a week at most and even then it may be FL over DS if we have to pug members in we don’t know. How do we progress like that? And when I have limited raiding time I try and make the most of the time I do have.
So what to do? Can a guild be social AND casual? Can things pick up in my guild? Do I stick with the people I know and love or look at new guilds? I think for now it’s wait and see.
Arsenic and Old Mooncloth 