
Back when she was a Draenei.
So today’s post (and it still may) should be labeled Day 4 – Your Best Wow Memory (How ironic that it’s actually one of my least favorite things to recall). But after reading the newest post on the Big Bear Butt, I thought that I should weigh in on what my thoughts on the situation are. The post I’m talking about is his “Who Should Be Held Accountable” post. It was promulgated from the fallout of his “I Have Met the Asshat, and it is Dalra”. If you haven’t read it, here is a basic rundown. BBB ran a LFR on his newly minted 85 Holy Priest and was flabbergasted by the behavior of one of the DPS in his group on the Spine of Deathwing encounter. While everyone was beating on the Hideous Amalgamation, this DPS decided it would be best to beat up all the tentacles and spawn endless mobs basically wiping the raid for no reason whatsoever. BBB then posted his name and guild on his blog in an effort to bring attention to the problem with DPS in LFR doing whatever they want, when they want, with no regard to the other 24 people in the raid. I don’t believe his intent was malicious, but the guild associated with this asshat apparently did. Well BBB’s second post got me thinking about a situation that I myself had been in. I’ve never posted this publicly, and I’m sure I’ll lose some “street cred” for my acti
ons in it, but I think it is a good example to be used in the question brought up by BBB.
Back during the beginning of WoTLK, I was raiding in a pick up group for Vault of Archavon. I had been partaking in my favorite alcoholic beverage for several hours before I joined up, and although I wouldn’t blame my blood alcohol level for what happened, I know it did have a place in what happened. After the group formed up, and we all zoned in the rules were clearly stated, “Main spec roles only”. So we went on our merry way to the first raid boss. I was playing Holy Paladin in this particular Vault of Archavon, and there were no others that had been identified in the group. So we downed the boss, and the tier 8 holy paladin gloves dropped. Being the only Holy Paladin in the group, I was pretty stoked that the gloves dropped since I wasn’t part of a regular raid team and I hadn’t had a chance to pick the gloves up. I needed them to pick up my 4 piece bonus. So I put out my /roll just so the raid leader would know I wanted them and that they weren’t shard fodder. Well much to my surprise, another paladin rolled on the gloves… and beat me. I quickly looked over my skada logs and saw that this particular paladin was a retribution spec. As I was writing in raid chat that I thought it was main spec only, the raid leader passed the gloves to the other paladin.
This is where my normal sane state of mind went out the window. I started complaining in raid chat and was told that the retribution paladin was supposed to be in Holy spec for the fight but the pull happened “too fast” for him to switch over so he had to do what he could to help the group succeed. The problem with that was that he would have been the 7th healer in the group of 25. Basically, he wasn’t a healer for the raid, he just wanted the loot and a lie was formed. I quickly checked guild names and lo-and-behold they were both in the same guild. In fact, the group was comprised of 3 guilds, me in mine, and the rest in a combination of the other two. I continued to complain in the raid chat about how it was not right what had happened but the group moved on to the last boss without worrying about what I was saying.
Well after realizing they didn’t care about the injustice, I decided to take things into my own hands. This is where my judgment got away from me, and looking back at it now I’m pretty ashamed. I ran over to the boss they were currently fighting and decided it was time to “Hand of Reckoning” the boss as much and as often as possible till the raid decided to deal with the problem and not just brush me aside. Well, after pulling threat repeatedly, the raid group wiped. Then the raid group disbanded. Then the trade chat call outs began. Then I started realizing I had stooped to their level. It
was not my shining moment.
I was threatened in whispers. I was told I would never raid on the server again. I didn’t discover myself, but was told by guildies, that I was being bashed in trade chat. It was a nasty situation, and for once I thought about quitting the game realizing I was taking things too seriously. I decided before things got too out of control that I would talk to our guild master and let him know what went down. I apologized to him and told him it would never happen again, and he took it. I then apologized to the raid leader and several of his guild mates that had whispered me. I knew what I did was one of the very things I hated, and I knew it was my fault. Sure, I was slighted, but the reaction to it was mine.
So in reaction to BBB’s post, I think it is fully within the rights of the person with the problem to call out the guild of the person who acted inappropriate.
In my case, I would totally have understood if someone decided to write a blog about me and posted my name and guild in it. And I believe it would totally be within their rights to do it. What is a guild? The American Heritage dictionary defines it as “An association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards.” By the very definition, if someone that doesn’t hold the same standards of behavior or bear the same interest in the pursuits of his guild, the point of the guild is missed. So if you go by definition, if they are in your guild, your guild is subject to scrutiny. Now, in the moment that I did what I did, I was not keeping the standards of my guild in mind. Did I misrepresent them? Yes. But I believe it couldn’t be held against the people looking outwardly at my guild if they wanted to call out our whole group. For the most part, all the heat fell on me thankfully, and I’m glad it did. I deserved what was said to me and about me in that moment, but my guild didn’t because that’s not who they are.
The proper action for me in that situation would have been to do the very thing that I allowed them to do to me. A simple forum post stating that the members of guild X and Y had not stuck to their own rules would have sufficed. And in that case, calling out the guilds would have been fine also, because the two guilds leaders were in the raid. It’s a fair assumption that when a guild’s leader is part of the incident, that it is indicative of what their guild is about.
In conclusion, I do believe that calling out a whole guild is wholly appropriate. If the person is in your guild, they’ve already been allowed to represent you in any forum where your name is shown with theirs. The Navy let’s people in all the time that are eventually kicked out because of things like drug use, excessive DUIs, and behavioral issues. I’m sure the Navy would love to have those people not be associated with them at all because of their disgrace to the service, BUT they were part of the Navy when it happened and regardless if they didn’t hold the same values as the Navy as a whole they were a part of it. So the Navy’s name get’s pulled through the dirt. If you don’t like it, screen your members better. And I know that sentiment is not one that most people would agree with, but sometimes if things are going to be taken that seriously, they need to be serious from the start.
If you don’t like the way someone outside of your guild has represented you, be polite in trying to resolve the situation. It all comes back to the idea of respect. If we all play with respect for the other players around us, then things would be a lot less hostile. But since there will always be people out there that don’t care about others, then they and their counterparts need to be ready to deal with the consequences and own up to it. I did, and I think I’m better off for it.
Filed under: Cross Blog Posts | Tagged: Accountability, Big Bear Butt, Guilds, Holy Paladin, Nash, Nashette, Oust, Reply, Respect, Vault of Archavon, WoW | 2 Comments »