The Dambusters

The second Sunday of every month has become the day for guild monthly meetings. These meetings have been extremely productive, giving an injection of direction and energy to events and activities going on around the guild. I think that conducting regular, scheduled guild townhall meetings like this are crucial to the continued flow, togetherness and determination of a guild. It maintains a good community spirit by creating a good communication outlet for the leadership to discuss and convey the direction of the guild in the short term while allowing ideas to flow in for the medium and long term.

Due to a few irl adjustments I am having to make, I am changing the meeting day from a Sunday to a Saturday. The same time will remain at 6pm server time and I hope this change doesn’t cause too much disturbance to you guys but if I leave them on a Sunday then there’s a good chance I won’t always be able to make it 🙁

So this leaves us with the next meeting which will now be on Saturday the 13th of July at 6pm server time.

At the meeting, we will discuss a host of things but primarily the guild’s 4th birthday event since any last ideas need to come in at that time. I hope to be able to announce the prizes for the event at the meeting and hope I can finalise the exact events soon thereafter.

Also up for discussion will be the upcoming guild real life meet-up in Göteborg, Sweden which will either be very late August or the first week in September. I expect there will be some fantastic characters there including the awesome Diputs and his former sidekick Trikié. Bluesamurai, Maryhinge, Pocadøts and I will ofcourse be there with a few drinks to hand so I need to come up with an exact date and venue (probably a pub to start!) and I promise to buy anyone who arrives their first drink, from funds collected in advance from our guild bank 😀

Other topics on discussion will undoubtedly be the usual raid team situation, RBG team and the old raid nights as always. Any incoming or outgoing officers will be announced and any other business shall be discussed.

If there is a particular aspect of the guild you would like to discuss then please feel free to bring it up on the day or if you feel I should discuss my thoughts on something and ask others’ opinions at the meeting then let me know in advance so I may plan for it.

Hope to see you all there! My aim is to start getting pissed off people coz they can’t log into mumble since its only 25 man, meaning I will need to consider upgrading it!!

/Salute

As the guild welcomes new people and new ideas there have been numerous voices clamouring for the guild to fulfil their wow gaming needs which until now, the guild have been unable to commit enough resources to actually do.

Due to recently finding people willing to step up to the plate and take some responsibility in generating events for people to attend, the guild has begun to blossom. We have our regular raid nights, the reintroduction of running old raid content on Saturday evenings and now the budding beginnings of our own Rated Batgleground team led by the determined Sonicay who seems to have found his spiritual home here and appears to be instrumental in our recent and continued flourish on Ragnaros.

Much has to be said about our monthly guild meetings on our Mumble server where the guild leader gets to communicate thoughts to anyone willing to listen while also asking for help with the running of events. The input from various members of the guild get heard and discussed while we try to push for the right direction to take the guild according to the feelings of myself and the officers.

We are beginning to evolve from being a straight up social/levelling guild to an all-round warcraft community experience. If you wanna socialise with like minded guildies and talk about the game, your struggles to learn your class or simply what you got up to over the weekend, we got that covered!

If you wanna raid then as long as you put in the time and effort required to do normal mode at least then Spyrot will welcome you to his roster, we got that!

If you wanna PvP then there’s an uprising within the guild augmented by the fine work of Sonicay and others (I hear other names) which should be able to help you scratch your red=dead itch, we got that covered!

With the directions we are going and the inevitable spread of work into each area, we do need to ensure all our officers are firing on all cylinders to keep things running smoothly. Keep grabbing the groups together and make sure they always go, even if you need to pug 1 or 2, that is an important point!

Meanwhile, there has been excellent progress on the guild runs to scenarios, 5-man heroics and other events around the world which is forging community friendships while maintaining the guild bank balance at a reasonable amount, thanks to all who push this stuff in guild groups,

Keep up the hard work Dambusters, we are fast becoming recognised in Ragnaros for the high personal standards we maintain while among each other and pugs from outside the guild. People around the server, especially other guild leaders know about us!

/Salute

What I have here is a conversation pulled out of a raid group to Terrace of Endless Spring where I was DPSing (poorly I might add) on my rogue Snøøzz. It seems some people feel they can just treat people any way they feel like on the internet and I’m not going to stand for it whenever there is something I can actually do about it.   People don’t always know I’m the guild leader when I play on my alt characters and I often find their true colours shine loud and bright in such times.  Clever people find out who they are talking to before running their mouths off.

This was to his tanking partner on the Lei Shi fight, which prompted the poor fella to immediately drop group…

This was my reply to that abusive insult..

This seems to be his excuse for such an outburst..not good enough

Here are my thoughts on the behaviour and then his bloody stupid reply…

This is his rude, disrespectful reply after my clearing up what he meant by “I’ll leave if you want” followed by my flame explosion!  “Yor[sic] choice is made” and that was that, /gkick!

  BOOT!

Here’s the contempt afterwards….

After that, he set me on /ignore so I chatted with Wenya a little and then logged Bunnyboiler, a character he actually knew from our raids and no doubt respected a lot more than poor lil Snøøzz.  Knowing he had no idea he’d been speaking to me, I /whispered….

Then the denial.  Note that he then says he wanted to kick me (on Snøøzz) anyway ‘incase the trinket dropped’.  Meanwhile, you can see Lolpandaz‘ wow armoury profile here showing there’s no way he needs to ninja a trinket from an ilvl 482 rogue.  Note my /sigh at the end there, shocked he still doesn’t know Snøøzz was me lol, gimp.

I drop the penny!

…and then offer comfort.  His lack of give a shit is clear and he is now an ex-Dambuster.  He can be glad now he no longer needs to live up to the standards we set for our members.

Moral of the story, I am everywhere.  So if you’re gonna try and be a smart ass then at least be clever about it.  This guild earns respect not for it’s raiding progress but for it’s community spirit which is, in my opinion, a much greater factor in playing in a MMORPG like World of Warcraft.  Internet bullies are everywhere but they will hit a brick wall if they join our guild and try to push people around. They think they are tough, clever behind their shitty little keyboards but surely they will meet their match when they butt heads with Bigticket ‘Bully of the bullies’ and so the Dambusters remain a haven for the good people of the game.  We keep on truckin’ for the cause!

/Salute to the Bullybusters!

The Rules have taken us time to generate and although they are an excellent guide to what we should expect from our members within the guild, they are by no means exhaustive. The rules are changeable and if anyone feels an adjustment is necessary then they should try to bring it to my attention with reasons for the prospected change.

That being said, we do need to ensure that all members do abide by these rules for many reasons. Number 1 being guild harmony while upholding the ethos we have come to expect in the Dambusters. Equally, number 2 for me is the positive advert that having these rules in place provides for potential guild applicants who want to make sure we do have a structure in place that maintains a community where normal people can be allowed to go about their business without the worry of abuse, disruption, instability or other negative aspects of online play that may be prevalent in other guilds.

Ultimately, the aim is to have good, solid rules and a healthy leadership team who moderate the guild adequately to ensure those rules are followed, with as much online officer coverage as possible. We have an officers meeting called for tomorrow (Wednesday 19th) evening where I will be pushing to ensure maximum communication between the leadership while clarifying a few issues regarding exactly what each officers’s role is and what is (and in certain cases what is not) expected as part of their positions.

To this end, I feel that the guild has a very strong officer team which will be augmented with the imminent appointment of our very own Mass Rezzing Lockbox Ninja™ as an ‘Rules Enforcement Officer’ whom I will be forcefully encouraging to be forward in his approach to people who he feels are flaunting the good name of the guild. Skankas will partner Maryhinge/Dreadzone in this role and command immediate respect from all Dambusters since he is in effect acting on Bigticket’s behalf.

Long live The Police!

Times have changed for me in real life. You might have noticed I haven’t been online during the evenings this last few days and that’s because my working shift pattern has changed slightly meaning I will be working in the evenings a lot more.

I will still be going mental on Wednesday/Thursday/Fridays racking up the hours of game time however and I will be keeping close tabs on things around the guild as always. I am delighted to say that due to the strong officer team we have here in the Dambusters, I have no qualms about leaving day-to-day matters to my trusted leadership stalwarts. People like Spyrot, Debbs and if he finds time from being a new daddy Maryhinge too are pivotal to the ability of the guild to run without too many dramas. To a lesser degree Devilslotus, Sonicay, Diputs and the evergreen Poca all have important parts to play as I rely more and more on the team to maintain a steady course for the big ship.

I am in constant contact with Debbs and Spyrot in particular meaning anything ongoing which requires my input is easily transmitted between us. I have surprised people in the past as to my ability to find out stuff and know stuff that goes on when I am seemingly not around. My eyes are everywhere, believe that hehe.

So while I might have irl adjustments to juggle with, do not worry about the guild since it is firmly in the safe hands of people who care and who are in constant communication with each other and myself. If you’re a person in the guild who normally comes directly to me with any concerns and you find I am not online as usual then get to know the officers and try to rely on them a bit more if you can. I am certainly putting them to the test this last few days and have no problems allowing them to take the reins.

A big part of the reason for the fluid leadership is our communication. We have opened up links to each other via social media and this is really helping us to discuss matters together while not necessarily being online. I am pretty delighted that we care enough as a group to go that extra mile to keep things running smoothly and the lines of communication will only become stronger as time passes.

/Salute to the Dambusters leadership who take things seriously just enough to allow a happy gaming experience for the rest of the guild!

Sometimes a guildie arrives who finds it impossible to contain their opinions about certain things going on around the guild. Ideas, thoughts and opinions are what make a community great. We are a good collective team/family with a lot going for us.

When an opinion is expressed to the guild leader about a specific event within the guild and he expresses a disagreement about that opinion, why fight it? Why do some (very rare) people feel the need to challenge the balls of the guild leader? I mean it’s not like I don’t like a good old argument and its also not like having a disagreement with me is gonna result in a /gkick either. Surely tho, when you’ve made your point clear and you are not happy with the outcome, is picking at the issue gonna solve anything?

Imagine a football referee dishing out a red card. The offending player often gets upset, angry etc and fights his corner but how many times do you see the referee actually change his mind? “Oh I see, so you don’t feel it was such a bad tackle for the ball? Ok then I’m sorry, you can stay on the field and I will just pretend I didn’t brandish this silly red card, lol”

Carlsberg refereeing of the highest order that would be.

The decision was made mate, by the guy who makes the decisions. Learn to follow that, accept it like an adult and move on. Don’t play mind games because there will only be one outcome.

Do you think people haven’t tested my mettle in the past? I’ve dealt with hundreds of drama queens in this game, thankfully mostly out with the guild and that is precisely why I created the guild, to keep the gimps out 😀

I have said in the past and I reiterate it now, I’m not a guy who wants to chuck anyone under the bus just for a slight mistake but if you feel you are right in a disagreement with me and decide to push it then you become a talking point between myself and your officers who might just already have had a suspicion about you and decide that your attempts on their GL is a step too far.

That is what just happened to Dunddra, a now ex-Dambuster guys. He even had the audacity to tell me “is that your e-peen growing, eh?”

What planet is someone on to tell their guild leader something like that lol? I can only imagine his mind works in mysterious ways and to be honest, he gave me something funny to write about. Pity your officers didn’t see the funny side, so for the last time Dunddra…

/Salute to you my strange friend 🙂

Another very productive guild meeting was held on Sunday where I took the opportunity to generally talk at the Dambusters lol.

We spent over an hour discussing different subjects focusing on the officer positions filled and also positions that remain vacant.

Spyrot had plenty to talk about regarding his raid team, the requirements to raid normal mode Throne of Thunder with the team and the newly implemented EPGP loot system. I went over numerous points including the definition of ‘commitment’ regarding the team which includes showing up prepared highlighting the word prepared specifically. Being prepared includes having worked hard to gain knowledge and experience of your class that should not be taken for granted.

I reiterated the guild’s sentiment that although we have a core raid team, the guild remains loyal to the social/levelling concept in that however the raiders perform of fail, your standing in the guild itself remains untouched. Raid team drama will not affect overall guild stability in the Dambusters.

We discussed the appointments of Devilslotus asassistant raid leader and recruiting assist, while Feralbust has taken on the role of assistant recruiter also, both guys answering to Debbs and Devilslotus generally getting a kicked butt from Spyrot too 🙂

We talked about the upcoming 4th Birthday event which is scheduled for 26th July and looks to be an exciting day where prizes will be won!

In addition, we reaffirmed the desperate need to ensure old raid night goes off every week to ensure a get together for more guild members at least on 1 day per week.

The rated battleground team is now coming together with acting leadership headed by Sonicay while assisted by Aedh and Dunddra. Any interested members must contact these guys immediately.

A fine discussion providing much needed top level communication which I hope will filter information down to most guild members. I hope to see you all again on mumble for our next guild meeting on14th July!

/Salute

The mentality of the Dambusters is different to that of a hardcore raiding guild. We have always been a social/levelling guild at heart and it keeps us in a state of casual harmony. A largely peaceful community with a number of clever and funny characters who roam the guild on a daily basis. The guys I see almost every day in the guild are a great bunch, always coming up with new ways to start conversations on /gchat, joking around on our Mumble chat etc.

The guild also has a pretty dedicated raid team where the casual attitude meets determination and a slightly different attitude requirement where people need to commit to their team a lot more than they need to around the guild in general.

The requirements for progression raiding are vastly more demanding than most people who play the game are aware of. In actual fact, over 90% of World of Warcraft’s total population have never set foot inside a current tier normal mode raid instance. That is a striking statistic to accept for most raiders who generally spend most of their time playing the game with other raiders and thus assume that most people raid.

This guild has a delicate balancing act to perform which isn’t as easy as you might think. As guild leader, I aim to encourage people to level up and learn their class, learn how to interact with other people around the guild and the server. I also encourage those who would like to try normal mode raiding to really push on and try to get into our team. The trouble is, the difference in attitude required when going from casual guild member to progression raider is massive.

The raid team is very much more demanding, meaning that you need to log in more often, prepare your character by capping your Valor points every week to ensure that while loot is not dropping off bosses for you, at least you are enhancing your gear each week. Above all that tho, you really REALLY need to know your class inside and out. Every ability in your spellbook you should be able to quote the tooltip on, and it would be beneficial if you could quote most of the main abilities on all the other classes too!

This is demanding stuff and its no surprise that it shocks people in our casual, friendly guild when they try to make the step up and the raid leader/guild leader starts to get all demanding.

There is one redeeming factor, and this is my point for this post. However you perform in the raid does NOT affect your standing within the guild. Your raid leader may have issues with your raiding at times but take this from me now, your guild leader does NOT judge your membership in the Dambusters based upon your skill in playing your character, at all!

This is the unique balance I must craft on each day I log in. I raid in the team, I am close to the raid leader and the other officers but the guild with or without a core raiding team is indifferent to effects caused by the raiding scene here.

This will remain the case in The Dambusters for all it’s time!

/Salute

I will quote directly from our guild rules, one unchanged entry that is as prevalent today as when the rules were first published…

“TALK TO THE GUILD LEADER ABOUT GRIEVANCES IN THE GUILD – I am very approachable and if I have overlooked something then simply bringing it to my attention could work wonders for your future in the guild. Simply leaving the guild in the huff leaves me with a bitter feeling of ‘good riddance if he/she is so impolite as to just /gquit like that’. A brief chat could have cleared up any misgivings”

Drama in the guild is always gonna happen. When we get so many different people from different age groups, cultures and backgrounds in one big social melting pot, something’s gotta give at some point. My job is to minimise the destruction that can be caused in these situations.

Someone left the guild on all his characters last night and having heard nothing about the reasons, I am assuming that its not good news.

As I don’t yet know any details of the latest grievance, I will just use this opportunity to remind our guild that leaving on such terms does neither you nor me any good. When people have worked so hard to create a lasting community to operate within and someone gets super sensitive and quits in a huff like the guild never meant a thing to them, it’s a kick in my face which I personally do not deserve nor does the guild as an overall community need.

Whatever petty squabbles happen between 2 or 3 people, they do not represent the guild ethos. I do not expect to log in to find someone or some people have royally shat on our community by performing such blatant disregard for guild in leaving with not even a goodbye to your guild leader.

Make no mistake, /gquitting in that manner burns all your bridges in a guild and it is my job to ensure the rest of the guild remain protected from this type of drama regardless of who said what to push you out the door.

If you want attention, that’s what you got but it will be short lived, believe me.

A mature person will feel the need/desire to change guild, faction, server, playstyle etc and discuss with their guild leader. I will never stand in the way if a Dambuster really feels the need to change scenery even tho I would prefer we all stay together. I understand people need different things than one guild can provide. Do it the right way, as many others have. Let the guild know you’re offski for whatever reason. Say your goodbye even if it’s brief and make your move with a good feeling. Your Dambusters friends will remember and respect you for that!

/Salute

A chance introduction in the post Cataclysm Dwarven District trade area between two beastmaster hunters was far from the perfect beginning to a future guild leading partnership.

The ever boisterous Bigticket got his unexpected offer of BM advice to a stranger rammed rather forcefully back down his neck!

Spyrot had a friend who knew it all, a mentor whom he did not care to see past. His compatriot was a survival hunter extraordinaire and he was pro!

Not a care was given and we both went our separate ways until one day Pocahunter got talking to that big old spacegoat Spyrot and offered an insight to what we have in the Dambusters guild. A little later, Spyrot began hooking up with us in Dragon Soul after our old raid team led by Fridai which also included Devilslotus at the time, had passed away. Since we had the place on farm mode, he enjoyed his time picking up gear and decided to join the guild.

The friendship between Bigticket and Spyrot had begun. We discussed how great it is to be a beastmaster and shared opinions about how we felt the game should be played etc, finding common ground we failed to imagine was possible at that first meeting in Stormwind.

Due to the loss of our previous raid leader and our lengthy transition period, Spyrot took a chance to lead the Dambusters during a typical normal mode Dragon Soul clear and really enjoyed running the team. His effort was unrivalled and I had no choice but to allow him to continue on his journey into proper raid leading. His enthusiasm and heart made up for his lack of leading experience at the time and these are attributed which have only become more apparent in the days up until now. His leading experience has improved markedly since then.

Our discussions involving guild matters have been long and involved, getting right to the core of the operations within the guild. Since early on, he proved determined to gain understanding and to work hard to learn about the guild and the game alike. It was an easy decision to pull him up to the rank of Warrant Officer because I could see that he had grown into a worthy leader of the guild in Bigticket’s stead. He commands respect but has an air of nerdy friendliness that is infectios around the raid team. Plenty times Gen and I can be caught laughing about things Spyrot says on our Mumble voice chat and I mean that in the nicest way possible.

The current trinity of Bigticket, Spyrot and Debbs at the top makes the guild feel secure with people who really care and have the brains to keep us moving forward.

Our raid team lacks in certain areas but the constant is certainly that goofy hunter Spyrot who takes himself on an emotional roller-coaster each time he takes the raiding hot seat. Leading a raid team is possibly the most difficult job in the game and he does it well. Spyrot ain’t perfect and he knows his faults. He needs a little help from his team and hopefully we will all continue to be there to help him out with tactical ideas, knowledge of our class and dedication to show up to raid nights as often as we can!

/Salute to the beating heart of the Dambusters, Spyrot (Raid Leading Warrant Officer)