Things I learned from World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

(Warning: long post ahead)

1)  Having lots of toons is too goddamn time-consuming.  Even with “only three” toons (Shihli, and my two alts – Luchs and Drewpy), I find myself spending too much time and effort trying to maintain the upkeep of my toons.  Besides getting Shihli adequately geared and prepared for the progression-oriented raids, I also spent time getting Drewpy and Luchs’ reputations up, getting adequate gear to do the “easier” raids (e.g. Karazhan, ZA, Gruul’s, Mag’s, T5 instances), leveling their crafting skills, and the like.

Basically, what I learned is that by having so many toons (and being the kind of person I am), I split my focus too damn much and as a result some aspects of the game became less fun.  What would normally be happy-fun-times spent dinking around on the weekend turned into the only opportunities I had to get my alts prepared to be adequate fill-ins for the weekly raids (for example, there was a point in time that I was both a Hamfist main raider and a very-regular fill-in for LF1M on my shaman).  While it offered up a lot of flexibility, it also sucked away much of my time, which makes Shihli a dull boy.

2)  Leading raids can be very rewarding and fun, and also a massive headache.  Pre-BC, I wasn’t really a raid leader – I was –maybe- a raid officer or class leader, but not really a full-blown officer.  When BC came out and the 10man raids started, Garreth basically told me that my opportunity to be a guild officer (and by extension, raid officer) would come in the form of leading a Karazhan raid.  If I could successfully maintain a 10-man raid without a shitstorm starting up as a result, I would be accepted as an officer.  Nearly two years later, I am still running regular 10-man instances on a twice-weekly basis – with some of the same people that started off in the initial “Lava Crab” raids (most notably Nuitarin and Epatrick).

The sheer joy of seeing new content and being able to sort through the strat on the fly was amazing.  Being able to organize, plan, and coordinate successful events was heaps of fun.  However, the dark side of raid organizing comes with the dramatics.  The people who complain when they (or their friend) didn’t get an invite; when an item drops and someone else gets it for whatever reason; the raider who is an intolerable pain in the ass and needs to get shaped-up or removed; that sort of thing.  It is no lie when I say that being a raid officer doesn’t start at raid invites, and end at raid disband.  It starts when I wake up for work, and ends when I go to sleep at night.

Yes, leading raids is a more-than-full-time job, that doesn’t pay, give medical benefits, or even tell you “good job” or “thanks”.  Most often, the rewards are “omg so-and-so took x-item from y-instance at z-time.  can u tlak 2 them?  if u cant i gquit.”

3)  Taking breaks can be a very good thing.  This mostly goes without saying.  I found that from time to time, I had to take a break – sometimes up to a week long.  It isn’t so much to get away from the people, so much as it is to get away from being the go-to person.  Sometimes, you just have to shed that responsibility for a short period of time.

4)  I love mature players and I despise immature ones.  Another one that goes without saying.  Maturity doesn’t have an age limit or stipulation – some of the more mature people I know in-game are teenagers, and some of the most irresponsible and immature people I know have been old enough to be my parents (mind you, this is simply a generalization and if you take offense, none was intended and find drama somewhere else please).  A player that understands the point of an MMORPG – playing games with like-minded people from across the globe – and plays to have fun is miles away more enjoyable to spend time with than the person that gets bent out of shape because one set of purple pixels went to someone else instead of them one day.

5)  A lot of people we regularly play this game with don’t exactly “get” me.  Of the people we raided with and were guilded with pre-BC, only a handful are still around.  Besides the real-life friends I have in guild (Garreth, Kati, Gares, Epatrick, etc), there’s the handful of classic Raid: Awesome raiders that have stuck it out (Nuitarin, Keisjaa, Watchesup, Antiquite, etc).  However, even amongst these people that I’ve played this game with for nearly four years now, there’s some massive misconceptions about who I am, what my motivations are, and what kind of personality I have.

So allow me a moment to describe myself.  I’m a 25-year-old chemical (aka process or petroleum) engineer who lives in Bellingham, Washington.  I used to be a decent athlete – did heaps of martial arts, gymnastics, and acrobatics all throughout high school and college – but have since acquired the “Body by WoW”.  If/when you meet me in person, you’ll find that I’m typically a talkative, easy-going person, and I’m generally a LOT more “bubbly” that my WoW-persona makes itself out to be.

So you ask yourself “Why is he such a dick/asshole/jerk?”  For starters, I make sure that every night when we raid, I’m fully prepared – I bring flasks/elixirs (enough for the night and then some), mana/health pots and such, scrolls, food, and everything I might need.  I take care of this every night after raid.  That way, if I have to be late the following evening, I can log in and be ready to go right away – I don’t have to do quests, or visit the AH or trainer to be prepared.

In short, when I hop on to raid, I hop on –to raid-.  As a result, when the raid is slowed to a standstill because people aren’t ready when they’re online and we have to wait a full half-hour to pull because people forgot x-y-z, it detracts from what I enjoy.  When we have to pause during the raid because someone ran out of x-y-z, it detracts from what I enjoy.  And most of all, when people start whining about x-y-z DURING the raid, it detracts a LOT from what I enjoy.

Likewise, I have a very “matter-of-fact” way of speaking, as Garreth, Kati, and anyone else that knows me well can attest to.  I don’t sugarcoat, I don’t make small-talk, and if I know the correct answer for something, I’ll make that answer known.  It plays into something that one of my favorite musicians said:  “Know which side you’re standing on, don’t let people tell you you’re wrong when you know you’re right.”  If someone asks a question that I know the answer to, I will tell them – if they don’t like the answer, I will tell them why it’s correct.  If I’m proven wrong anywhere along the way, I accept the truth and roll with it.

So basically, if I come across as a jackass because I said something you find disagreeable, take a moment to step back and read (or think about) what I just said.  9 times out of 10 I don’t mean any actual harm when I say something; I just say what I have to say without mincing words.  If I do intend harm with what I say, you’ll know damn well (see also: an old applicant rogue named Isilra).

I’ll add to this more sometime in the future.  For now this’ll do.  And goddamn it’s long.