The Dambusters

…..who would have thought that could happen?

Congratulations to our own Trikié on being welcomed into a leading role within the Dambusters! Your efforts to create a fun atmosphere and recent venture into raid leading are deserving of recognition. Your example should set a shining light on others who feel they don’t display a leadership mentality.

People who like to have fun and encourage a friendly atmosphere on voice chat and in the /chat channels are often undervalued but in my experience, people who play the game in this manner can be instrumental in encouraging others to enjoy the experience of being in the guild.

Trikié is someone who doesn’t take herself too seriously but at the same time, has a steely determination to succeed at the end game and this combination is noticeable from a Guild Leader’s position. People like Trikié are very rare around the wow community and her attitude is exactly what we require in the Dambusters.

We have different types of people as officers in the guild, from the dynamic duo Kuja & Nevra who offer an interesting dimension of wisdom in their own seperate ways, but have each other to confide in usually before opinions/advice is sought from them.

We have the enigmatic Egon who is always willing to help out, sometimes too much!

We have Maryhinge ‘the enforcer’ who has a high moral standing set in mind for the way Dambusters should respect the guild.

Pocahunter(on her exhaustive number of characters) epitomises the very soul of the guild in her own quiet, diligent style where she would rather help out behind the scenes than be a celebrity which she really deserves.

I feel the blossoming of ideas for upcoming posts but for now, this is Trikié‘s day.

I hope this new rank will clarify her position as 2nd team Raid Leader and focus her mind that it’s a job that requires passion, commitment and just to be herself. The 2nd team is less about pressure of progress and more about getting people into raiding, lets give her some good support and sign up for Saturday raids, contact her in game if you are interested, the team changes each week but needs more stability and they already have 3/6 in Mogu’shan Vaults!

/Salute Trikié

Something I remember from an episode of Game of Thrones, the quote “Learn to follow before you try to lead” really stuck with me.

I never followed in my World of Warcraft career, I started life in WoW very much alone, a nomad on the US server Lethon. A warrior called Filatio no less. I had a lot of adventure as I struggled to level 32 coveting the ‘armor’ attribute more than anything else, even if it was cloth. Ahhhh the noob days!

When I moved to EU servers, a brief spell on Aerie Peak with my first hunter named ‘Dambuster‘ (27) was great fun until I realised I was now on a PvE server and didn’t have the same adrenaline rush of having to watch over my shoulder for horde gankers to pop up and make life interesting. I quickly tucked tail and dashed off to Xavius bringing the idea of the Dambusters and our old friend Annelie with me.

The rest is history and since that day, I have been ‘Bigticket’ who built the guild from the ground up with the very same ethos I still use today. Good people before skilful players! This was a social/levelling guild from the outset because I was a social leveller myself and although I love to raid and consider myself a bit of a big shot lol, my roots as a social leveller (evidenced by my endless multiple-conversations which often take my focus off gameplay and also my altoholism) shall never be forgotten!

So in the game I have never been a follower so I can’t very well suggest that I followed before I tried to lead. This context is a little misplaced however because I believe that life experience has helped me to lead the guild with some semblance of approachability and humility I think should be a starting point for anyone who decides to be a leader among any community. My background is of a tough upbringing in a hard neighbourhood full of good, fair but severe people.

I joined the Royal Air Force at the age of 19, learned my trade and was lucky enough to do a fair bit of travel. In terms of the World of Warcraft, I believe I am well placed to lead an online gaming community where the general motto is all about teamwork, togetherness and camaraderie. This attitude towards the game keeps it fun and stress-free for most players around the guild and I believe that the atmosphere at our place is among the best around. People play the game to have fun, players join guilds to enhance their experience and stay because of the friends they make and keep in a guild. Lots of guilds rise quickly and implode just as quickly and this does not happen in a community as strong as ours. We are quite rightly proud of what we have achieved in a cut-throat world where people often change guilds. The foundations the Dambusters have been built upon are as solid as ever and there are absolutely no signs of trouble.

We have survived numerous rogue guild formations by people who left the guild thinking they could do better and poaching from us but we stood strong and stuck to our tried and trusted methods. We have come through a particularly tough time when our old raid team dismantled and threatened to take a core of the guild with it. Happily I can report that because of the way I structure the guild with priority afforded to the community spirit and NOT any raid team (that I may or may not be part of) a few upset raiders leaving the guild over petty squabbles means nothing to the guild at large.

Our raid team is there for the folk who want to enjoy that content together but that group’s success or failure does not impact the way the guild operates. Any other internal group of guildies enjoying content together are encouraged by the guild but similar to the current raid group, any issues arising directly as a result of the group cannot affect the running of the guild. The foundations are build on solid rock and that is how it will remain.

The team of officers and myself are delighted to be leading from the front and I know we all enjoy being here and contributing our little bit to your game environment. You guys with your comedy in the guild chat, your eagerness to help your mates and your determination to uphold the values we all share are a fine example of a great gaming community and a shining light around the Xavius server. Long may this guild continue to prosper.

/Salute

The Dambusters guild bank is a simple yet valuable tool. It has 8 tabs in total, one ‘deposit’ tab called

Grand Slam, six general use tabs categorised for ease of use and one raiders tab called Gibson which is reserved for the guild raid team and our officers.

Throughout its life, our bank has been a valuable source of income for our repair allowance, materials for professions and has helped the guild finance extravagant competitions with big prizes etc.

The guild bank is very often packed full to the extent that it becomes difficult for the management to manoeuvre deposited items into their intended tab for general consumption. I would request that guildies never feel guilty about taking a few items from these tabs. If you feel there is something there that you can use then grab it and help clear a little space in the tab. If you insist on feeling guilty, chuck a few gold in 🙂

This brings me to the fantastic Diputs who has proven over a long period to be a helpful, reliable and friendly guy. He is the typical Dambuster and someone who I have considered decorating with an officer position for quite some time.

He recently raised a point about the state of the guild bank which brings me on to our original banking maintainer Pocahunter and her many alts who has recently been on holiday in Scotland with myself. Her absence has led to a rapid filling of the guild bank and although some helpful officers have tried clearing Grand Slam, missing the relentless Poca’s daily maintenance has caused a blockage.

When I introduced Poca to the game of WoW almost 3 years ago and invited her to join our guild, I gave her the unclaimed role of bank manager to help her gather information about all the different items and materials used in the game, as a helper for her learning the game. It really worked and people have done a great job assisting her over the years but inevitably, the most thankless task in the guild has fallen heavily on her little shoulders.

Diputs has taken on the task of directly communicating with Poca and the two of them will hopefully go on to become a great partnership around the guild bank.

The drop tab/withdraw tab system may not be perfect but with hard working officers maintaining it, the bank will continue to flourish and assist the guild in our ever-solid future.

Remember, your guild bank activity is monitored but your withdrawal of your given (by me) daily permissible allowance is to be expected within reason. If you remove your entire daily allowance every day without ever putting in then you might be asked to explain but taking what you need is your right as a Dambuster and what we want to see.

Keep giving to your guild and it will grow stronger and stronger. It’s your community, you will get out what you put into it.

Onwards we march!

/Salute

There has been a significant upturn in the frequency of Scenario and Dungeon guild runs which has provided the guild bank with a sustainable boost in gold. This shows commitment and dedication to the cause of the guild and will safeguard the current guild repairs system for all members. People who gather groups to run through these instances provide themselves with faster queue times, guarantee they play with like-minded people and therefore a more efficient instance experience not to mention the ever-strengthening bonds being created within this great guild. Do try to spam guild chat before you queue for a Raid Finder or any Dungeon Finder/Scenario because there just might be someone ready to join up with you, maybe even on a different character they may decide to log. In addition, try not to get too frustrated if your offer falls on deaf ears, spam a couple of times and then get on with it alone for the time being. People can be AFK, busy, already in an instance etc etc. A good idea is to look at the guild roster and see where people, that tip has helped me refrain from spamming the wrong people in the past.

Regarding spamming, it is not recommended to spam group invites to your guildies without asking first, tho on a Sunday evening ‘Old Raid’ event you might see me spam invites to the entire guild in an attempt to get people involved in those great nights of fun! GM can get away with these things but I do not recommend that as a general rule 🙂

Additional mention to Egmag and Illia who deposited more significant amounts of gold to the guild bank. I suggest smaller donations with more frequency but we don’t discourage people from being generous, it does take the pressure off the rest of the guild.

/Salute

A new Dambusters.eu website resource page is inbound which will host information that is deemed valuable for the clever people who realise that simply playing the game with blinkers to the outside world wide web is tantamount to not actually being interested in learning the game itself.

This guild is all about assisting people to learn the game and enjoy an environment which is casual yet educational in the skills and ethics required of online gaming.  The new page will contain links to valuable websites and other resources which the experienced end of the Dambusters community have decreed to be worthwhile for the newcomers to the game.  Our motto is all about encouraging hard working people to rise to the top and ensure there is no division between the so-called skillful players and the thoughtful people of the game.  The Dambusters recognises the good people of the game and we will cater for them as best we can.  If you feel you can put some time and effort into helping your community get together for PvP content or Scenarios or whatever else you feel would be of benefit to the guild’s development then please do not hesitate to send me an email [Bigticket@dambusters.eu] or speak to me inside the game about your intentions and ideas.

Lets see if we can get some support for those who want to learn.

/Salute

Every Sunday has become a popular day for us Dambusters as we gather for various assaults on Azeroth’s best loved raids of old.  Kuja and Nevra have done a fantastic job in pulling people together for these events and they have really developed into a hilarious and relaxed occasion for all members to attend.  We do require the use of our Mumble Server so we can all communicate at the times when co-ordination is important to get the more taxing achievements we push for so if you dont have Mumble then it’s free and quick to download and install from this website.

Inside the Mumble program you simply need to:

1.   ‘Add New’ to create a new server location

2.   LABEL – Dambusters

3.   ADDRESS – janus.typefrag.com

4.   PORT – 57810

5.   USERNAME – <add your desired nickname here>

Keep an eye out on the calendar for upcoming events and sign up when you are available.  Be warned that theres a fab atmosphere and a lot of joking so be prepared to giggle while you pick up your transmog gear and achievements.  If you have a request to take the guild to a specific place that you may need to clear then feel free to offer a recommendation on the Old Raids Forum and consideration will be taken.  Otherwise, speak to Kuja or Nevra directly and I am sure they will accomodate your wish.

Please note that this is a Dambusters only event and members of other guilds must consider joining the guild if they wish to become a part of these events, you deserve these events because you are a member of the famous Dambusters.

/Salute

Our online strategy is coming along nicely, we are doing very well with a lot of visitors and members to the website with 308 views from different IPs thus far.  I would estimate that around half that number (due to the way some web servers cache copies of what a person saw on a previous visit to the site) are actual different people which would suggest our delivery of information has been acceptable.  By far the largest percentage of links to the website have come straight from our Facebook Page but it would appear our Facebook LIKES have remained at only 63 for quite some time.  If you are reading this and have still not ‘liked’ the facebook page then please feel free to click the previous link and get right on it 🙂

I am about to embark on a campaign to get more Facebook Likes because Facebook is very important for the guild.  It has a mechanism that could open our visibility up to more players from other parts of the community, which is something I referred to on this post

The fact people like the guild will gain us more recognition from around the wow community and in the long term might actually make this game more appealing to people from outwith the game.  This video explains why….

Keep up the good work in your thriving community and get involved with your guild activities here on the internet and inside the game itself!

Having spent the past 8-10 weeks trying to decipher technical wizardry such as HTML(hypertext markup language) coding aswell as CSS (cascading style sheets) among many other aspects of web domains, hosts and design, I have finally settled on a website I think we can be proud of.

Much of our trouble has been to get Bigticket’s Blog, a forum and many more helpful guild management and information delivery tools into one compact package. This has not been possible until now due to the fact that our web spaces have been hosted on the WordPress.com site itself. This is no longer the case and it ensures we have full control over its content and manageability. Until now, the blog and website had to be seperated at first and then as you may have noticed, the blog was adjusted to incorporate the website. These adaptations may have seemed fine at a glance but if you looked closely at what that meant, you might have noticed the site/blog was largely rigid and lacked customisability.

Still using WordPress as a toolset for the site gives us the look and feel I think the site needs with the ability to alter the layout as we wish just as before, but now we can have a proper forum to discuss guild related matters that help us connect as a community. Soon we will have a calendar, a redesigned home page for aided navigation and more widgets and stuff to check out. There is a lot of information to share around the guild including the class leaders system which will help people to learn their class with tips and advice from dedicated people who command respect within the guild.

The toolset I mentioned above regarding WordPress is loosely considered to be a CMS allowing me to have the toolset provided by WordPress but having it hosted on our own web host. The advantages and disadvantages of both styles of setup are vast even tho the previous site looked similar.

It’s a really exciting time now because this gives us a platform to expand the capabilities of the site to include things such as guild applications as I previously blogged about here aswell as allowing for easier communication points for raiders and other groups who need to make use of logistic tools to maintain team cohesion.

Keep a keen eye on the site for plenty of updates as I tweak the setup to really capture the aspects of the website that the guild needs.

/Salute

Spyrot will be promoted tonight at the Cathedral of Light in Stormwind. The time is to be determined but all are welcome and I will be spamming /gchat to let you know when it’s about to happen.

Promotion from Flight Sergeant to Warrant Officer is a massive step from junior to senior officer as the responsibility level doubles with the authority the higher rank provides. Please read the link I have provided and become familiar with the differences between the ranks because this change could affect you.

Please be aware that Warrant Officer has the same power of control as my own alts so ensure you afford Spyrot the full respect the rank entitles him within the guild.

Spyrot has taken a lot of time and put in a lot of work behind the scenes as leader of our raid team and makes daily contact with myself to discuss and learn guild management techniques from a Dambusters perspective. This dedication deserves reward. He is only a recently recruited guild member but he has proven that the right attitude, willingness to follow his GM and some hard work, you can rise up the ranks. Use this guy as an example if you want to be an officer!

/Salute

Bigticket