The Dambusters

Since the hard working Mordarion had to leave his Rated Battleground leadership behind, the guild have been missing an important catalyst in the PvP side of the game.

I still see people doing arenas and battlegrounds but while Omega has been offline lately and without anyone to pester the guys about what is required, there’s a void which needs to be filled.

At their peak we went 5 wins for 7 in an evening and I’m sure everyone who fancies being part of the RBG team would like to see those times return. The team needs a leader to be the glue that sticks everyone together. In this guild, I rely heavily on guys who are willing to step up to the plate and take responsibility. Someone from within the team needs to start gathering the group together, even if it requires a schedule change otherwise it’s dead in the water and we could see guild members leave to find a guild which offers regular RBGs.

I will start looking for a potential RBG team leader from outwith the guild to come in and lead a team but that might not sit well with the regulars since they might end up being led by an unknown person who has new ideas and a different attitude to what we are used to. Ideally I always try to find a team leader from within since they know the guild and how things work here but as time goes on, things change and we could be looking at a longer period without the team coming together again.

Without that team leader, it’s doomed so I am hoping to see some action from within. The requirements for PvP Leader are:-

1 Strong communication skills
2 Dedication to the guild, with time to devote to the background management of the team
3 Reporting to the GM for support/advice
4 Knowledge of battleground tactics and all class main PvP abilities
5 Ability to delegate tasks to individuals to get the job done
6 Leading by example

These strengths are only a brief overview of what is required. If anyone within the guild feels ready to take up the challenge of assembling a Rated Battleground team and can put the time in behind the scenes to manage their team then please come forward with your plans.

I will keep an eye out around the server for a potential team leader and general roster additions. I feel it is important that we find a way to carry on the excellent work Mordarion started because there are people in the guild who deserve to have that RBG thirst quenched and I always appreciate the Dambusters getting together on Mumble for organised events like this, even if I cannot always attend every event personally.

Let’s see if we can get this back on track.

/Salute

The Dambusters have had a revamp in recruiting staff which sees Debbz remain while Devilslotus and Bonesi have joined the team to replace the offline Sonicay.

Debbz’ main areas of play in Warcraft involve trawling the Blizzard forums and not actually playing the game that much, certainly not during peak times. He’s a social animal (animal being the right word) who prefers comedic 1 to 1 interaction with players outwith the guild to build up his own network of friends. I hope he can get more actual game time soon because it’s important to keep up with events in game which is a very different, faster-paced world where people come and go in contrast to the forums where the things we say remain available for all to read at any time.

Bonesi follows similar lines with his own enjoyment of using the forums to stay abreast of who’s looking for what. Answering forum posts in which people are looking for guilds is an important task and that’s the kind of thing our own Bonesi does best. He also plays the game plenty and is a mainstay in Stonewrought raid team so he has an angle on what type of skills the team needs in order to maintain at least the current quality.

A crucial part of the guild is our recruitment and like any other guild in the game, recruitment is the lifeblood since inevitably we will see wastage as people grow out of the game, find other games to play, find other guilds or even have real life issues which force a total halt to their WoW careers. In an ever-changing environment, it is really important that we move with the times especially with so much competition among the bigger guilds for the players to bolster our rosters.

We decided that it is no longer possible to keep going along the road of trying to mainly recruit through the forums. The forums are the ideal place to find dedicated new members because they have time to browse and think about what they want, read recruitment posts and find the right fit for them. Ideally anyone looking for a guild would go down this route but in today’s game people want it now! They look for a guild in tradechat and if you are not there to take a chance on a player in tradechat then they will be lost to another guild as quick as you can say /ginvite.

For this reason, I decided we should try to cover tradechat and with Devilslotus and myself primarily keeping an eye out there and with our different online times we try to cover as much of the day as we can. I think there is a chance we could open up our tradechat message pairing to include the forum focused guys but that discussion is yet to happen.

What Devils and I are doing is synchronising our standardised guild recruitment message that goes out once every 10 minutes but never overlaps each other, using a very helpful addon which pays attention to any other officers in the guild using the same addon to send messages to tradechat.

We have had some nice recruits through this medium and although this part of the recruitment system is rudimentary, it has netted us some gems over the years even while we have tried to steer away from tradechat recruitment.

Like any other forward thinking organisation in a competitive market, we must move with the times and current times dictate we cannot turn our noses up at the tradechat these days, as long as we use it correctly and continue to filter out people who are too lazy to visit our website and apply.

It’s a 24/7 task to keep the guild’s lifeblood turning and it’s something I am committed to continuing. We do have struggles finding the right people but I think we are feathering close to that sweet spot of balance between being accessible to all yet maintaining the asshat filter. Last thing we want to do is open the floodgates to any old dross and there’s plenty of that going about.

/Salute

Having decided to implement a 3rd raid night much to the delight of the majority of Stonewrought, I was rounded upon by one of our raiders who is a very nice friend and valued member of our team. She is not an officer but her points are clearly made from the heart so she has every right to expect clarification regarding her points. I have dissected 2 large statements she decided to place in our raid team Whatsapp chat and I want to use it to answer her legitimate concerns here. I am sure that since she stands by her concerns enough to post them to our full raid team, she will welcome this most public of platforms.

I think other people would benefit from reading and understanding why decisions were made, which is the primary reason for this blog entry.

“I think it’s a concern that a third raid night is just being decided on.”

Did you miss the 2 polls of the entire raid team or do you just not care about what the majority want?

“Has anybody been asked or consulted about which day should be implemented, if any at all?”

Of course people have been asked, almost constantly from it was agreed by the raid leaders that a 3rd night was acceptable rather than resurrecting Ironwall.

“I had no idea the raid team was so unhappy about raiding 2 days a week?”

Again with the polls as tangible evidence, but plenty more I know in the background from personal discussions with raiders.

“I thought it was a fine balance, with the rbg’s and the alt raids as well! What’s the rush all of a sudden?” (Alt raids for some, others must boost on their mains)

There’s nothing sudden about this, it’s actually been agonising waiting for raid leadership to even recognise the team’s clearly evident desire for a 3rd night (even tho it was previously agreed). Sometimes ppl need a nudge and frankly I’m happy to do the nudging when needed.

“For me personally I think it’s a too much. I can’t promise I’ll be there on Fridays and also – I wouldn’t like it if I come back on Monday and bosses have been killed in a day I didn’t commit to?”

Would be great if we could satisfy everyone’s personal needs but it’s all part of being in a wider community. We all have to work together and make sacrifices, my estimate goes on most ppl only being able to make 2 of the 3 nights.

“Sorry if that’s asking too much but I feel this had just been decided behind every bodies back.”

Nothing was done behind anyone’s back. Unless you work towards becoming a Raid Leading officer in the guild then you cannot expect to be privvy to every discussion that happens. Just because I didn’t ask your personal opinion doesn’t mean I haven’t done enough ground work for decision making.

“What bothers me, after asking Gierrod, Scott asked him if he would mind moving the alt raid night.” (I note it may usually be an alt night for this raider but not for everyone)

I would have thought it obvious that as part of my ground work, I would have to seek discussion with Gierrod over Friday nights. That will now become ‘Saturday Night TakeAway’ named by Gierrod who will then decide upon the content, nobody else.

“All of a sudden he (meaning me) can’t make Mondays anymore so the whole raid team has to change to suit Scotts change of situation.”

This is again far from sudden and is something we have discussed on numerous occasions with the raid tea and the leadership in the hope of some movement towards that elusive 3rd night. As stated previously, sometimes the big bad guy must make apparently unpopular decisions to cater to the actual team, and not just a few casuals within the team 🙂

“I get it, I just don’t approve the way how.”

Try leading a guild which hosts a raid team and you’ll understand how.

“This wouldn’t have happened if any other member of this guild had a change of circumstances.”

I have consistently mentioned myself and Devilslotus’ inability to make Monday nights. The reason for the actual timing was due to my own frustration at missing Monday night but that catalyst was only something which was always coming. Frankly imo the team needs to keep hold of committed players like Roar and Devilslotus.

“I’m sure this will be turned again as one big master plan for the benefit of the guild.”

A strong raid team benefits the guild. If you believe things are just going along fine then I’m sorry to point out that you are wrong. Things are ok but I’m not settling for ok and you should be glad about that. Think of me as a quality control engineer ensuring the product maintains high standards and at times carries out an audit (well constantly doing that tbh) taking appropriate action where required.

“It just bothers me that it was decided behind the raid leaders back. Why even have that if your just going to do what suits you anyway?”

The Raid Leaders (we have 2 remember, and a backroom assistant) were fully aware of these plans but since there was no evident motivation to bring them to life, I decided to act. I love action, it speaks louder than words and although I speak loudly, and although my actions seem strange to a few, most understand why I act when I do. If a Raid Leader fails to heed my notifications then I will carry on and make these types of decisions.

Raid Leader picks the team, arranges the strategies, decides on which encounters we will face etc. etc. but I’m sure you will understand that some things are perfectly within the GMs remit especially if they have been discussed and agreed yet not implemented.

Again a blog involving raiding drama lol, yes I do find it funny.

/Salute

There’s been a lot going on in recent times with The Dambusters’ raiding and although mostly it gets pretty much kept within the team because there are guild members who are totally uninterested in raiding, there are also those who would benefit from a bit more information about what’s been going on.  I enjoy my raiding and I spend a lot of time trying to help our various officers manage the raiding in the guild with my main focus being to ensure long-term stability of the team and relaying my advice to the guys who do the actual team leadership on given raid days.

Primarily, I feel that this is the right time to relay my own thoughts since we have had a recent breakthrough which gives me more confidence that things are on the way up.  The start of Warlords of Draenor was poor for us all, I only had 1 week before I headed for a 6-week vacation so that first week was crucial and it screwed up.  I did make it to max level fairly quickly however and I did manage to gear up plenty on time for our raiding to begin.  I managed to buy a new PC at home in Scotland so I was able to set up and raid as normal but I also changed class for this expansion to a class which witnessed it’s own changes and of course I was far from familiar with raiding on the resto druid when we first started in Highmaul.

After all that, I performed poorly in the first week and didn’t get invited to the next week’s raiding which was a body blow to me and a few others who didn’t make the cut.  At this stage, I felt I was beginning to get things done on the druid and working up some muscle memory while I still had much to learn (and still do ofc) but I felt my exclusion from the team was unfair especially given that my replacement resto druid was no better and only showed up for that week before disappearing, and eventually /gquitting without a word to anyone.  I felt my commitment was a better option and that I was too quickly binned by the raid leader. That pushed me to forget raiding and just enjoy my holiday so that’s what I did, along with plenty of fishing, first aid and other stuff I had to catch up with on the druid.

Enough about me, when I returned from vacation, I was then able to spend time thinking about what had been going on. Stonewrought raid team had faltered to a modest 3/7 heroic boss kills which the raid team leadership appeared (and still do) proud of at the time.  I had hoped for another step forward in pressing a more determined, dedicated and organised team mentality for the start of this expansion and when it didn’t materialise, people became frustrated and lashed out then left the guild. Former Raid Leader Spyrot quit his post and Holidai took the hot seat but that change wasn’t enough on it’s own to stop the rot.

When I returned, I was absolutely unimpressed and we held a meeting in which I clarified my displeasure at the way the team had been managed. The Raid Leading team vociferously disagreed with my sentiments but from the outside looking in as the guild leader, results were poor and people weren’t showing up for raid nights, people were quitting the guild and the team spirit was poor.  I know because I have eyes in every corner of the guild and I can feel even the slightest changes around the guild. I had to enforce a change and diplomacy was not my priority.

Stonewrought had developed a mentality that it should be the elite team and seemed to be taking 10 raiders only, leaving other raiders on the outside looking in.  If the team had actually been a hardcore team gunning 4+ nights per week and rocking progression then I would at that stage have simply wished them well and pushed to make a new raid team that myself and others could get involved with. Instead I decided to enforce a change of process in which the raid leader would start looking at others within the guild and include them, otherwise Stonewrought team and the guild would further disconnect and there would be no point in the team remaining in the guild. I requested that new Raid Leader Holidai bring some more guys in and thankfully on the first evening of raiding, we managed to kill 5 bosses and then spent a lot of time on Ko’ragh and later Imperator Mar’gok in the following weeks.

The shape of the team has changed a lot week to week and that is primarily due to people being unable to attend. We started progressing normal Blackrock Foundry with the hope that with our morale high from killing heroic Imperator, we should find practicing the mechanics in normal mode to be acceptable while the power of heroic mode was reduced. We started fairly well but as we progressed on normal, we had issues with raiders failing to attend while the team had no replacements readied. Holidai has had his hands tied behind his back when important raiders have been unable to raid and me shouting at him to do more DO MORE! to prepare for these eventualities.  Let me make it clear, I am fully aware of how difficult a position being the raid leader is, especially in this guild. You have the casual nature of the overall guild with a relaxed approach to calendar sign-ups and you have a guild leader who’s a very average raider (while committed) but demands the team is polished and prepared meticulously for every raid night.

When I see the team is not 100% prepared then I get frustrated. I have held heated discussions and outright arguments in our officer chat group about my displeasure at the way things have been going.  We have discussed raiders, the difficulty mode and the reasons behind going heroic or normal.  We have seen Spyrot letting rip at me because he feels I am too involved in pushing my opinions onto the raid leader and getting /gkicked after a long-running feud where he is of the belief that the guild leader should have little place discussing raid team affairs.  Happily Spyrot has returned and now appears to be enjoying just playing his own game for now.

Last week, a culmination of events led to me personally /ragequitting before normal Flamebender.  I had made the point that I felt more should have been done to ensure Stonewrought was prepared to start heroic mode encounters (after weeks of normals) but I had been counter-argued with to the point of exhaustion.  Some important raiders failed to attend and Holidai felt he had no choice but to go normals again.  This frustrated me more and later on I asked Bonesi about his user interface, got bitched at and told to drop it by the raid leader and the overall calamity of the night got the better of me and I /ragequit for the first time ever I recall doing so in a Dambusters raid.  I was subsequently dropped from the team by Holidai, which I pretty much told him to do and I felt relieved to be out at that moment.

The next evening was Friday Fun Night with Heroic Highmaul on the menu and numerous Dambusters members got a chance to sample raiding with us.  We killed Heroic Kargath and wiped a few times on Heroic Butcher due to people needing a bit of time to get to grips with the stacking debuff mechanic, then we killed it. We then went to Twin Orgron and after a 10% wipe, Spyrot and I made silly errors and caused another wipe so it was decided that the team would drop to normals. I was incensed! I immediately left…

I do not understand why people are so afraid to wipe and let people learn. I understand that people are wary of hurting team morale if a whole night is spent wiping, that would tell me the team is incapable but after 2-3 wipes, changing the difficulty from heroic to normal will make little difference if the problem is mechanics, not gear. I also get it that it’s supposed to be Friday Fun Night, but some people actually enjoy wiping a couple of times and learning, the end result being better gear from the kill. I see no reason to take the wind from a team’s sails if nobody is terribly upset about a couple of wipes. Let them man up and learn, they aren’t babies 🙂

This stagnation of Stonewrought has led me to look for fundamental change and I decided initially to resurrect Ironwall raid team with Idioms leading.  The plan was to try to contain Stonewrought’s current team and create the new team from fringe raiders within the guild and by recruiting enough to get started, and work from there.  Monday night, Stonewrought managed to kill 3 Heroic Blackrock Foundry bosses with Holidai having had a hard day, Idioms took control of the speaking part of leading the team. There was an immediate injection of fresh approach, organisation, constant communication and authority. Idioms and Holidai both feel they work well together and after Monday night’s display I started to consider whether going ahead with Ironwall’s resurrection was the right decision.

I think there is a possibility that my previous announcement about Ironwall may have made a difference in certain people’s minds but importantly for me, I witnessed a reaction. Most of my work in this guild involves my provoking reactions. I always push people to make a positive reaction and although reactions are not always positive, I usually get reactions and can at least learn about people. We seen a reaction from that raid team when tasked with stepping up to the higher difficulty, even tho it’s where we should be, it was still a commendable reaction and one which forced me into an embarrassing u-turn.

I have absolutely no problem in making changes for the benefit of the guild even if it makes me look bad personally. I spoke with Jolts, Idioms and Holidai yesterday and after explaining my options for taking the guild’s raiding scene forward with Holidai, we made the decision to push Idioms up beside Holidai as Raid Leading partner, halted the assembly of Ironwall and agreed to look for a 3rd raid night for Stonewrought.  I felt that the u-turn was necessary since both guys work well together which was proven on Monday night, and that by separating the guys, Ironwall would take time to assemble and stabilise while Stonewrought would also feel maybe too strongly the loss of Idioms.  I also believe that Stonewrought have been crying our for a 3rd raid night and the Raid Leaders will now have a decision to make to determine which night Blackrock Foundry will be filled with another Dambusters battalion.

Clearly this post has been a long time coming and I feel that only now, with a truly positive outlook, is it the correct time to inform the guild about what has been going on and put people in the picture as to how much work the guys have been doing to affect positive change regards raiding.

The recent RBG love-affair will be saved for another blog 🙂

/Salute

Bigticket

It’s been too long, I’ve been getting out of the habit of blogging lately and although I want to, I have found it difficult to grasp that the original reason I write my blogs is to inform our guild about the goings-on around the community. It’s easy to forget that although there is a decent number of Dambusters who talk to me and discuss current affairs on a regular basis, there are a large number of Dambusters who don’t always log into Mumble, don’t contact me in game to ask why this or that happened etc. I think it’s about time I got back to basics, the blog will include subjects that I just think up as I go but I feel like it’s time I went back to discussing dramas which happen behind the scenes where I get to offer the guild my thoughts and reasons for the situations that happen in the guild.

Of course there is an argument for locking away any dramas and not milling over things that happen between people which the guild could do without. However, these things do happen and I just think that rather than hiding from the phenomenon of human drama, I should encourage myself to talk about what happened from my own perspective and give our members an insight as to my thought processes for decisions I make as the head of the guild. You should know that although I want a quiet life, this guild is no different to any other community of people so I must be realistic. We suffer our fair share of drama and almost all disagreements in the community end up in my lap in one way or another so you need to know why I decide what to do in these situations so that you are better equipped with the truth and are able to understand my thought processes.

I have never been one to hide from my duties and I always decide whether action is even required and if so, what that action should be. I relish the end result of my dealings with drama even tho I dislike the fact it happens in the first place. I try to be consistent in my decisions with one overall theme of guild protection as my primary goal, even at the expense of personal friendships if I believe the guild would suffer otherwise. I am not about to start slagging people off and although I won’t select every incident, I will use some events as a way to address an overall lesson that I feel could be of value to members of the guild who may be wondering what went on during a given event.

Everybody is different, plenty of people would probably make different decisions to mine under certain circumstances, however I feel that my own experience in life and in game ideally suit my role as mediator and decision maker at the head of The Famous Dambusters Guild. I have my critics which is no different to any other leadership situation but you should be clear that I am well equipped to deal with that pressure and not allow it to cloud my judgment when it comes to securing the long term stability of the guild.

Expect some more blogs to hit your handheld devices very soon 🙂

/Salute

Bigticket

It’s been 2 months since I published a blog. You can gauge my amount of involvement in the game by this recent blog inactivity but after being away on holiday back home in Scotland for 6 weeks, you better believe I am back with a bang.

I am unlikely to ever be away from the game for so long again but it did give me a chance to watch from the outside at what was happening for a bit. Of course I was never far away and still managed to hold a guild meeting in early December and a guild MeetUp later the same month, but my ability to progress my own character was badly hampered and there was no chance I could manage the day-to-day running of the guild.

Operations in the guild were left in the very capable hands of my officer team and actually in the circumstances they did a great job. Guilds often fall apart without a guild leader so the importance of at least being in decent contact was crucial. I was never more than a whatsapp message away and I was able to log for important things. The officers did their jobs to the best of their abilities and really held things together. There was the inevitable wayward movement but that was only to be expected.

Without my stewardship, things do go slightly astray but that’s not something I expect individual officers to spot. I’ve mentioned the phenomenon before but it’s difficult to describe how I see the guild. Basically everything that happens within the guild, I can feel like ripples. It’s like another sense I’ve developed and it’s only for the guild. It’s probably a similar sense to which the boss of a company develops, you get a feeling of the way things are moving.

Times like these, not a terrible much needs doing but to ensure the guild does steady itself on the right track you do need to choose your words and actions carefully. I have talked about big changes in the past week and watched the reactions of the guild. The reactions are what helped me to decide what actions I must take. I knew something had to be done but I didn’t always know what. I used the past week as a barometer to gauge feeling, study the issues and pinpoint areas that needed straight talking, encouragement and I took the recent officer meeting and guild meeting of last night to reiterate what I need to see from our members.

It’s been a very interesting past few days as I’ve really been able to clock up some hours in the game and redirect the guild to the right path. Our officers have done well to keep it ticking over, raid leading hasn’t been easy with the holidays, especially since the legendary Spyrot stepped away from raid leadership (still noticed his influence on the team last night btw) but Holidai has had time to analyse his Stonewrought team and with a little help from myself and his close friends he should be able to kick on and get the team progressing nicely. We managed 5/7 HC last night and that’s just for starters.

Shethehunter is ever present in the guild bank, that lady is relentless in there and we are very lucky to have her. She is always encouraging and supportive of my own efforts and is a shining example of conduct in our guild. Jolts managed another good guild draw after an unexpected setback and more importantly imo, put in place an even better draw for January. Everyone must get involved in January’s draw because it’s gonna be awesome!

Recruitment has been slow but with Debbz back in charge of recruiting flanked by Sonicay and now Spyrot, we are ready for a push to recruit more new members. Events have been sporadic but there have been a few normal runs etc and I envisage a resurrection for Ironwall soon. I’m expecting one of our Dambusters to grab that by the horns and drag it back into existence so let’s see who steps up.

All these facets of the guild need proper care to ensure they continue working. My job is to make sure those tasks are being done the right way. I’m never going to micro-manage each area but I will be looking over officers’ shoulders and I’m always here if they need guidance with anything. I’m quite sure all our officers can do their own version of each officer role but doing it The Dambusters way is what I’m after. Collectively pulling together as a guild is what makes us great.

Recent officer changes have been Idioms stepping down, Spyrot stepping into Flight Sergeant as Recruitment Officer, Illia stepping down and Debbz moving into Flight Sergeant as Chief Recruiter.

These changes have primarily been necessary to the people involved and although there are currently no Warrant Officers, the guild has been reinvigorated and set back on the right direction. Officers do their own jobs and it’s my sole responsibility to steer the guild my own way. I cannot expect the officer team to set the overall direction of the guild but my return to prominence should be used as a confidence boost to everyone.

May I take this opportunity to mention that the recent Dambusters MeetUp was amazing!

Poca, myself, Kelso, Grim, Jamie, Gnoamie, Niko, Gaby, Skankas, Shethehunter and Liam were all there and we look forward to another excellent MeetUp in the future!

/Salute for 2015 Dambsters

Warlords of Draenor is almost upon us so I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of our members for the great expansion we have enjoyed together in Mists of Pandaria.

We may have the same foundations that were built over 5 years ago but they are stronger than ever nowadays and that bedrock has provided us with the ability to be a flexible community over the years. We have rolled with the punches, changes have been made to the way we operate and the way we manage the guild but everyone in the Dambusters will know that we are a force for good on our own server and hopefully beyond as we do attract players from other servers to come and join us.

It is my deliberate aim not to fill the guild with mass numbers of new recruits but to ensure we retain our members and bolster our ranks with like-minded dedicated people who appreciate what it means to be part of a good guild.

We may have a growing contingent who enjoy end game progression and min-maxing their characters but above all else, this guild appreciates people who are just nice to talk to. I could list off endless names of the Dambusters but there are too many. People here have the best intentions and it is my job to direct those good intentions to ensure we operate as a unit.

As with any other community with something in common, not every member has common personalities, we are all different and that makes things interesting at times. As your guild leader, almost every disagreement reaches me in some way or another and often I am called to action. Sometimes I must tell people things they don’t want to hear but that’s the duty I took on when I made the decision to form the guild.

What I am sure of, is most of our community wants what’s best for the guild overall. I don’t believe there is anyone in this guild who believes they can do a better job than the job we are currently doing and for that, I am really glad. However, we can never stand back and admire our work. Each new day is another chance to get online with our friends and make it count! In the early days of the new expansion there will be a lot of guild activity, plenty of questions and undoubtedly some more new members joining us.

Remember that we are all ambassadors of the Dambusters while we wear that guild name above our heads. We have a point to prove in showing the community that we are different, we care about the spirit in which the game is played and we foster a good team mentality within our own walls. People are often surprised by the welcome they receive here when they arrive, by the activity of the guild and by the professional manner by which the organisation operates. Let’s keep our work ethic high, push ourselves to the next level in Warlords of Draenor and have as much fun as possible while we do it!

/Salute to the end of MoP and the start of a new chapter in WoD

*Forewarning, this gets heavy!*

I have been looking into the guild’s ranking structure for a couple of months now but I had been at a stalemate since the ranks I originally felt needed alteration seemed more important than I had given them credit for.

As with any big decisions while managing a community of this size, if you are not sure of the change you intend on making then it’s best to give it more time and consideration rather than being hasty with a change that ended up being wrongly implemented or badly planned. I usually prefer to wait and mull it over before being rash, certainly on overall guild management. Seemingly ‘rash’ decisions I do make from time to time to chastise a player for example are rarely unconsidered and are almost always intended to prove a point, I digress…

A chance chat with our favourite Illia brought to a head a real and tangible reason I could use to instigate a change in the rank system that I probably was going to take longer to decide upon. My initial issues surrounded the fact we have only 10 ranks, I don’t like ‘Air Raider’ rank and that I’m not sure ‘On Jankers’ applies these days in our guild.

Having taken time to think about these 2 ranks in particular, the more I thought about them the more I realised the guild needs the actual ranks. Jankers is important because it’s basically a timeout spot where an officer can send a player (or usually more than 1 player) who is disrupting the guild chat with unruly behaviour. It’s most often used as a threat and it usually works. I actually think there is an element of shame the rank brings and people who have been plopped there all too often are so incensed by the terrible injustice of it all, that they actually quit the guild in protest. I think there must be a rank there for that purpose so I’m happy I have managed to retain it.

Air Raider was fine except that the rank name totally sucks so what I have decided to do is basically move all the previous ranks up 1 to meet Air Raider and then filtered them back down, starting with Air Raider being renamed Chief Tech. That filtering alteration affects Sergeant predominantly and the promotion prospects of players in the rank of Corporal to Sergeant.

Generally speaking, the average Dambuster who joins the guild and plays the game sparingly, while proving their trustworthiness to the guild, will rank up quickly to Corporal and then to Sergeant after some time. Thereafter the only further adjustments possible are to become Chief Tech by appointment from the raid leadership, or by sealing promotion to an officer position.

Previously, I liked the steady progression of Corporal to Sergeant and then Chief Tech being the pinnacle of a standard, reliable Dambuster. It was actually a more convoluted process of promotions before I introduced Air Raider to the guild and nowadays, with guild bank repairs in danger of at least being reduced due to the removal of the guild’s ability to generate gold from our members’ solo activities in-game, I think it’s now the right time to further compact that standard rank progression.

Gone are the days of a steady, linear Dambusters career path up our ranks with time and good deeds. Our ranks have more purpose these days and in many ways that’s for the best.

The single biggest change I have just made however, will be the biggest change we have seen in this guild since the introduction of a raid team, or the 2-tier officer system. It’s a huge change from only a small physical alteration and it’s the demand that Illia made on me that forced it. He made the point that he is always having to log one of his pair of officer ranked characters to do something as simple as to invite a well-known Dambuster’s alt to the guild. I confirmed how frustrating that situation is with Gen who fully agreed with Illia’s concerns. To be fair, this gripe has been a mainstay for Dambusters’ officers for a very long time.

I logged offline and sat down with a piece of paper and wrote down the ranks:-

Guild Leader
Warrant Officer
Flight Sergeant
Air Raider
Chief Tech
Sergeant
Corporal
Dambuster Alt
On Jankers
Airman

After a bit of shuffling, I pulled out Air Raider and moved Chief Tech up into the old Air Raider spot. I then moved Sergeant up to take the old Chief Tech’s allowance and permissions.

I then added Officer Alt and dragged it up after realising Illia (as Officer Alt) couldn’t demote anyone above himself on the list. At the time of creation, Officer Alt was above Dambuster Alt and below Corporal.

I moved it up to just behind a Flight Sergeant and gave it basically the same permissions. This means that officers have their main character (only 1 now) in the primary rank of Warrant Officer or Flight Sergeant while every alt assumes Officer Alt rank:-

Guild Leader
Warrant Officer
Flight Sergeant
Officer Alt
Chief Tech (Raider)
Sergeant
Corporal
Dambuster Alt
On Jankers
Airman

This is a very simple shift but it makes for a profound change in how smoothly the guild will be able to operate. For a start, officer alts are able to invite players to join the guild. This means that a recruitment officer may now process an application from whichever character they happen to be playing at that moment. It also means that any officer may invite an alt character who is already in the guild. Massive quality of life change right there. They cannot promote but an officer who invites an alt must immediately update the character’s public note to inform the guild who’s alt they are. From there a Warrant Officer or myself will then be able to see who it is and promote them to Dambuster Alt.

*Told ya this gets heavy didn’t I*

The other additional quality of life change means that Shethehunter and her newly reinstated guild bank management partner Poca, will be able to manage the guild bank from any character. In addition, any officer on any character can help! They will also always be able to read and participate in officer chat which has been anything but the case until now.

One more benefit of this system is that guild members will immediately be able to see which officers are online by simply opening the in-game guild pane and checking ranks. All too often we see the question ‘any officers online?’ …and tbh that may very likely still happen lol, but I can guarantee it will be massively reduced and almost all but the dimmest of Dambusters will immediately be able to direct their need for guidance onto an officer of their choice who they can clearly see is online.

Only now having implemented these changes am I able to see the profound quality if life breakthrough it will have in my officer team. It’s never been on my mind because I have always been able to do all these little tasks since I insist on my alts being Warrant Officer so I may be able to promote/demote and carry out as many tasks as possible while I altoholic my way through the game. I’ve been blinkered and have forgotten that the officers don’t have those priveleges. Until now!

/Salute

For the 4 week period of the pre-expansion patch, to help encourage Dambusters to play their intended Warlords of Draenor main character I will be introducing an incentive:-

1) Level 90 only weekly guild activity prize boost to 3000g for 1st prize, 2000g to each of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th per week.

2) each week I will tally weekly activity from the TOP 10 and at the 4th week point, in addition to the weekly prize, I will distribute prizes to that top 10 characters!

I want as many people gunning for these prizes so 50,000g additional from the guild bank will be awarded to the top 10 for those 4 weeks. Everyone has a chance to get in there so even if you are not in the top 5 for one week, you can still win big if you put the effort in before the expansion launches.

50,000g big prize to overall top 10 to be provided by the guild bank.

10,000g per week will be provided by Bigticket and a generous guild benefactor in addition to the usual 1000g from the guild bank meaning 11,000g per week.

Top 10 for the 4-week period bonus prize distribution as follows:-

1st – 7500
2nd – 7000
3rd – 6500
4th – 6000
5th – 5000
6th – 4500
7th – 4000
8th – 3500
9th – 3000
10th – 3000

This may increase as time passes if we are able to add to the current 50,000g pot.

This venture is not intended for every single guild member and I do realise that some members would prefer a different approach but to make it as simple as possible, as open to all as can be and as trackable as I can make it at short notice, this is an additional bonus and should be a good tool for our guild leadership to see who is playing what class and help us to prepare the upcoming raiding roster.

There are people around the guild who look to the GM for direction and this is a statement from me about what I hope to see in the lead up to Warlords of Draenor. This activity reward is only short term but it is intended as an incentive for people who are considering what they would like to play, to make their decision and get started with playing and practicing their chosen lead character.

I am well aware of the opportunity to ‘fudge’ activity points but quite honestly, if someone is online and active on their character then they are likely to be visible to the raid leaders and they are also likely to be getting in good practice on their changed class, and changed game systems.

/Salute Dambusters and good luck!

With Warlords of Draenor coming, we can be sure that the guild activity will take a hefty spike with so many people returning to the game in the coming weeks. I predict a lot of people will already be starting to return since the pre-expansion patch is imminent.

With the certain explosion of Warcraft activity almost upon us, it is imperative that we are prepared as a guild. We need to be paying a little more special attention to the guild chat because we will be recruiting quite a few new members to the guild as the re-opening of the dark portal motors on ahead of launch day. With Blizzcon and then expansion day coming soon after the patch, we will be certain to see more players back in the game so when we invite a new or returning member, I want to see rapturous welcomes as we are famous for. That big welcome with some light hearted chat really breaks the ice for a new guild member and makes them feel right at home. It’s something I am proud we have as a guild, that warm atmosphere.

I am clearly deep in thought to prepare the guild for some adjustments I need to make to ensure we stay at the top of our particular curve.  As a guild, we are one of the best for our size at being a community and coupling that social side with end game play. It’s hard to achieve and we do a good job but there is no way I will be resting in the hope things will just stay good, we still have plenty faults and we will get better.

We all need to keep doing the things that make it worthwhile being here because there are plenty other guilds out there competing for good people to join them.

It’s easy to discuss what is current and what’s been happening but it’s more demanding and involving to discuss what we want to happen. As with any organisation, the Dambusters must be ready to roll with the times and ensure we are a respected community on our own server. We already know that people in very high places in the Warcraft community at least know of us. In the coming months, it is my aim to continue raising awareness of our guild by making more contact with influential people. In the meantime I am rallying our officer team into action in the coming weeks to make sure we hit the ground running come launch day.  Each of us has our job to do and I am counting on our leadership to take things to a new level by working as hard as ever on their own individual jobs.  Everyone needs to play their own part and if I have covered all operations then we will rock the land of Draenor with our infectious character as a guild.

/Salute