The Dambusters

Over the years, guild members come and go and while a MMORPG will always have a big turnover in players which inevitably affect guild rosters constantly, we must remember that old friends of the guild are still our friends even tho they might have moved onto a different way of playing the game or even to a different game altogether.

Each year this guild holds a big gathering where the first part involves a march in memory of the ex-Dambusters and no matter the circumstances of our former guildies departure, we will remember them. Some could be old friends who we had a fall-out with and left behind but they were and still could be friends of the guild and that annual moment is for us to think of the times we had that we enjoyed with them. That march is poignant for many reasons including the possibility that former Dambusters could be gone only because something serious cut short their stay with us.

Whatever reasons you have for remembering the old days with your old friends here, it must be remembered that it’s not easy to keep such a community buzzing 365 days a year with the same attitudes and mentality but what we can do is try!

We can keep the same policies about who we invite, who we promote and encourage and also whom we must discourage and potentially remove so that we maintain the best environment we can keep. People who are no longer with us could be so for reasons outwith their control and we need to let them know we still think of them and consider them friends of the guild no matter what happened.

If someone totally burns their bridges then of course they won’t be returning but that doesn’t mean they’re a bad person and we must try to stay classy if we meet former guildies around the server etc.

Remember, they could have been a valued friend and left for tertiary reasons like being removed for a one-off period of inactivity then simply met another friend and joined their guild. They could be immensely proud at meeting one of you guys around town and bring fond old memories flooding back, the dude could be hankering for a return! It’s happened, it will happen again so in the meantime what I’m asking is that just because you meet an old member, treat them with the welcoming respect that you would any new Dambuster because if they don’t notice or even care, someone else nearby just might. That’s the type of ambassadors I want running with this guild. Keep up the good work and let your community know who we are and what we stand for 🙂

/Salute

There has been an outpouring of drama on Monday morning on the guild’s Whatsapp Crew Room chat. At first I intended to leave that off my blog because it involves emotions I would rather not revisit but since I feel it could be an important lesson for others and a chance for the guild to really learn from this, I decided that I will clarify what happened and why I think it happened from my own perspective. It must be remembered that this is only my side of events and my analysis thereof.  Simply because I have this blog to document my thoughts in no way validates my side of events as any more correct than anyone else’s.

That said, although I really hate feeling backed into a corner by people who insist on their opinions being forced on everyone else, I will act to protect what I see as an illegitimate attempt to smear the good atmosphere and harmony we have in the guild.

It began with a comment from Manacle on the public Whatsapp chat room which attempted to add weight to previous opinion made by Debbs and appeared to suggest this guild is no longer casual and that we are now a ‘focused raiding guild’ to which I replied with examples of 1000g  prize for weekly activity chart toppers, a monthly draw competition, no pressure on anyone who chooses not to actually raid, no requirement for game skill from any new applicants to the guild and I also alluded to the fact that we do not kick people who can’t join in with activities for whatever reason.  All are welcome in the guild as long as they uphold it’s good spirit regardless of what activities they prefer to partake in during play. This I felt was proof that we don’t only focus on raiding in the guild although of course I admit there’s plenty people raiding in the guild and it’s a topic often discussed.  I would also like to point out that I have never felt this guild to be ‘casual’ although casual players are warmly welcomed.  I certainly do not play the game casually and I believe that if I did then I would not have the time to manage this guild.  There’s a difference between dedicated and hardcore.  We are dedicated, not hardcore but we certainly are not casual.  Raid teams within the guild must demand certain standards of play and commitment but that does not define the guild overall.

Skankas(aka Widdershins) then jumped on the bandwagon and agreed with Debbs and Manacle then stated “How can a raider be dedicated in a casual guild? Sounds like a contradiction to me”  and “I remember the raid team wiping continuously on current content” to which I then explained that this guild is not casual but a community guild (click the link for an example of the largest community guild in WoW and try telling me they don’t raid) where a raider is expected to commit to their team as in any other team sport anywhere else.  I explained that if you are not a raider then your position in the guild is under zero scrutiny no matter how you play the game.  I then wondered what kind of raid team it would be if nobody needed to bother turning up or perform for reasons such like they just ‘don’t feel it today’ which I know will strike a chord with Skankas since he has felt that way in the past.  I was also astonished that he seems to have decided that a raid team that wipes all day appears to be better off than what he believes we now have?  Weird but hey, that’s his opinion and he’s entitled to it right?

This tit-for-tat debate went on and on and became more and more heated until such times where Skankas told me ‘Get a life’ and quit the chat group, Debbs informed me that “You’re lucky you even have a guild” with a sarcastic GZ as I finally decided to put the crunching foot down on these stir-crazy goons.  Warsworn and Manacle were involved enough to get roped in and as I then said, “you fly with the crows, you get shot with the crows” and I just hope that they learn to better judge their moments to take a determined and ruthless guild leader on in future.

*Grabs breath*    Well I signed up for this guys, I’m the guy who got my 10 charter signatures and named the guild so I have only myself to blame.  My decision has cost me much and gained me much more and I will never shirk my responsibilities to ensure that the guild is secured at all costs.  Guys who don’t like to hear the truth should not open their opinionated mouths when dealing with a guild leader who has the very lifeblood of this guild coursing through his veins.  It’s happened in the past with the drama mamas and it’s happened here yet again and guess what, the guild is as solid as it ever was.  Nothing much has changed around here except for a few people as is normal for a video game community.  People come and go and it’s my job to try and make it a fun place for as many of them as possible while carrying on as much consistency in how we operate as possible with such a turnover of people.

Yet again some people decided to play the big man card and force their shit to stick on the guild and once again they get chewed up and spat out to where they belong.  Something simple like that amazing thing called ‘private conversation’ could have worked wonders but I guess they all wanted the spotlight and I guess their GM had no choice but to defend the guild from the blatant sabotage.  Trying to tell me what type of guild I run is like trying to tell Michael Schumacher how best to drive his car.  It’s mine guys and you’re all welcome aboard, but remember it ain’t a democracy and don’t ever delude yourself into believing it is because if you drop your guts in my guild chat, I will cut them off swiftly.

The Mothership blog post is a perfect example of how I view the guild in relation to the active groups operating within it and these guys have all read and some even commented in agreement of what I said there.

The Evolution of this guild has clearly been well documented so revisiting old woes seems pointless, irrelevant and frankly childish to me when I have already gone to such lengths to examine the community we enjoy the game in. Nobody has studied guild operations, leadership and playstyles more than I have in the last 5 years and nobody has their finger on the pulse anymore than I do at the helm of The Dambusters so it’s incredibly frustrating when bit-part players think it’s fine to offer throw-away opinions about the state of the guild and expect no criticism or scrutiny for their comments. That this incident was initiated by 2 real and good friends of mine in the public domain (rather than in private, face to face) only made it feel even more of a betrayal to me.

What I have learned from this:

It seems that since this opinion keeps rearing it’s ugly head from time to time, even although it’s from people who clearly can’t understand my points in previous blog publications, I feel it is time to try and ensure that a non-raider is elevated up the guild.  The person must be a dedicated Dambuster but definitely NOT a raider and who has absolutely zero interest in raiding with the guild but has their finger on the pulse of the non-raiding parts of the community.  The player in question must be playing most days and for good hours per week overall and will be a point of contact for anyone who feels that the guild is too raid heavy.  I know this seems like a contradiction because I know full well how the guild operates regarding my expectation that the raiders respect the community and the non-raiders respect the raid teams within the guild but I do think that having so many raiders on the officer team can cause people to feel insecure.  I do not want any more examples of this ‘us v them’ bullshit and if I see it happening again then you best be ready to find a new guild.  I consider myself to be very approachable and will always answer anything anyone in the guild or outside the guild has to ask but I am aware that sometimes people might not want to ask directly so an officer who’s sole concern will be to cater to the needs of the non-raiders should be your point of contact should you wish to avoid talking to the big bully GM.

To the people who say “it’s only a game” as if we’ve somehow forgotten that fact lol……

You play the same game I do.  Life is just a game, but I suppose you just sit back and not care about that either?  Are you the type who advocates for every child getting a trophy because they participated, reguardless if they won?  We are a species of competition and winning.  You have a right to sit back and do nothing if you wish, but the rest of  us have a right to try and do the best that we can and expect others who participate with us to do the same.  What’s the point playing if you don’t care if you do well?

/Salute to the Dambusters

Welcome back to Bigticket’s Blog, where I attempt to communicate a guild leader’s view on the current affairs within The Dambusters guild.

Recently there have been a raft of changes to our officer team as we attempt to cover maintenance tasks around the guild. Unfortunately for the guild, Debbs has stepped out of the spotlight and relinquished his Warrant Officer status due to commitments outwith the guild. He recently got married and must fulfil his husbandly duties while also spending a little more time at the helm of his horde guild ‘Coks and Nobbers’ and so he has vacated a very important roster management role at The Dambusters.

There is nobody like Debbs around so I have not really been making any real attempt to replace the guy since the unique approach he takes to the game and it’s community can’t really be matched. That said, his personality wasn’t the only requirement for such a position and who’s to say that another contender for Chief Recruiter will not step forward but for the moment, I will be heading up the leading roster management role while deliberately leaning heavily on my recruitment staff in an attempt to flush out a possible leader from within that group.

Currently we still have Sidney, Meatblocker and the newly appointed Cryomaniac in Recruitment Officer positions and all 3 are currently ranked Flight Sergeant. I will attempt to instill a sense of responsibility in the guys while ensuring the direction I want the guild to move forward in to always be in their minds when considering new applicants. I have every faith in the team as they have already proven to be devoted members of this guild and are keen in their respect for the way I lead the operations around here.

In addition to Cryomaniac as Recruitment Officer, I have also installed the amazingly loyal and hard working Shethehunter as a Guild Bank Manager and she will partner Diputs in maintenance of all things regarding the bank. I must remind everyone that this is a thankless task although it does come with a slight perk or two. Largely tho, it’s unseen engine room stuff which is of crucial importance to the day-to-day running of the guild. Please feel free to keep ploughing your unwanted items and even a lil gold if you’re feeling particularly kind and the guild will always put them to good use for your friends in the community.

A warm welcome to the powerhouse world ranking damage dealing Cryomaniac and also Shethehunter to the Dambusters’ officer team. I am looking forward to working with you both for a long time to come.

/Salute

Welcome back to Bigticket’s Blog.

There’s been some pretty major changes since my last blog before Christmas and I do have to apologise for not blogging in a full month but it’s been a hectic month and I haven’t set myself time aside to sit and type up a blog but I’m back and it’s gonna be back to normal for me here. Thanks for your patience and I hope you will enjoy reading upcoming posts.

The Dambusters have moved again, to Grim Batol this time and I have to admit that I’m really impressed so far. It’s probably not far off the population of Ragnaros was when we first moved there but slightly favours the Alliance regarding faction balance. Being on the side with the higher ratio is new to me and although there’s still plenty of hordes around, it’s not an utter sea of red wherever you go in the current zone Timeless Isle.

Ragnaros had tipped to an incredible amount of horde v alliance since patch 5.4 hit and became largely unplayable for some in our guild. Complaints ringing in my ears made me feel regretful that we moved there in the first place even tho originally we felt the guild had made an excellent realm choice then. People had to wait up to 2 hours in login queues just to play the game and that is totally shameful and required careful consideration from myself.

On the other side, people had paid not insignificant sums of irl gold to transfer with us from Xavius just 10 months ago and plenty were adamant they were staying on Ragnaros regardless of how crazy it now is. I understood both sides of the debate and decided to wait it out and hope things improved with horde side having Free Character Migration (FCM) to other servers from Ragnaros. We waited and it just got worse. I mentioned during a guild meeting on January 4th that the guild would have a decision to make ONLY if Blizzard opened up FCM to alliance but at that time I thought that notion was never going to happen because surely the mega faction imbalance is something Blizzard would ensure was addressed. Man, I was wrong! Blizzard even opened FCM up TO Ragnaros for horde on certain other servers! I mean wtf was the logic behind that? Filling up horde while trying to drop server numbers? Seemed to me and the other officers that Blizzard actually just wanted to make another massively horde friendly server by giving Alliance the FCM and that ‘last chance’ to get out while you still can or become utterly overwhelmed. Think of the poor horde over on Ravencrest which is over 90% alliance. You would only be on that kind of deficit if you had a small guild of brutally dedicated Arena or RBG masters who always run together in a big pack, now that actually sounds like fun but it’s not a playstyle most average players pursue.

As soon as we found out about the Alliance FCM last Thursday morning, I arranged an emergency Mumble meeting for the guild to attend at 8pm server time to which we had well over 30 attendes and I was forced to upgrade the Mumble server from 25 to 50 man which was just as well since we now regularly fill up our Mumble server allowance.

At our meeting we discussed at great length with all the officers who were there having their opinions heard while others had plenty to add also. We decided to have a vote and one of the guys set up an online strawpoll where the guild overwhelmingly chose to take the free move. I gave around one full day and decided to take that vote and redouble our scouting to either The Maelstrom or Grim Batol. Ravencrest was off limits because of its long history of being a full server with queues as bad as Ragnaros and also the fact that it’s over 90% Alliance which I personally could never understand the appeal of. I don’t know about all you guys but I want to at least feel that slight hint of tension that keeps me on my toes and ready for ad hoc conflict at any given time. I like killing horde and I don’t like having to compete with a sea of Alliance for that 1 v 1 out in the world so for me, Ravencrest is a no-go.

Tarren Mill was the other option but that’s just a horde version of Ravencrest and the decisive factor in our eventual decision to select Grim Batol was (including a number of good reports from our scouts) taken simply because The Maelstrom has the mega-famous ScrubBusters who I even heard mentioned in last week’s Convert To Raid podcast. The Dambusters, although we are an excellent community and very proud of it, would appear to people on The Maelstrom like a ‘rip-off’ to ScrubBusters and we deserve better than that potential judgement so we opted from Grim Batol and here we are.

Thus far, I am really happy with the server and the fantastic support we have received from our members who almost entirely followed the guild with our transfer. Only a tiny few failed to follow us and in addition to the good roster numbers, we have also managed to make a good impression on the server and recruited some nice new Dambusters into the guild. That first night was hilarious as Jibbas arranged a guild parade outside Shrine of the Seven Stars where many non-guildies also joined us on a legion of their finest Travellers Tundra Mammoth mounts and one lucky random collected a cool 1000g prize for being the biggest mount on display haha.

After our fine parade we all headed over to the Shrine if the Two Moons and proceeded to blitz in the front door and commence total annihilation of every horde in sight including their ludicrously weak ‘keeper of the peace’ respawns. Dambusters flags were planted, screenshots posed for and the website gallery earned five new entries (go look) so in all it was a fantastic introduction to Grim Batol and we were very warmly welcomed by the people around the server.

So far, until Blizzard manage to destroy Grim Batol, The Dambusters are happy and at home here. Hope you all enjoy not having to queue to log in!

/Salute

Something that is often mentioned around workers of real life businesses is micro-management. It’s something the ‘front-line’ or ‘shop floor’ employees will level against the middle management of proceedings around the business and it’s likely that the middle management will also accuse the big boss of also.

As I am aware of such management style and have reason to believe that it can have a detrimental effect on production at floor level, it’s something I try to ensure I steer clear of in the running of our guild.

Stuff like discussing certain real time situations should only be done by a GM on an advisory basis where the ‘officer’ (in the case of a guild) is in discussion with GM about what to do before acting, or where GM feels it necessary to bring attention to a possibly overlooked viewpoint on an advisory basis to assist the officer in their decision making development.

Development here is key because ideally a GM will want a self sustaining officer team upon which GM can rely. If the GM is constantly contradicting his officers in front of others, ‘bad-mouthing’ the decisions they have been making etc. while displaying the notion that GM could do it better then it’s a recipe for disaster.

There’s nothing worse as a supervisor than to be undermined in front of the lads by your immediate boss. That there, is micro-managing at its worst, where the manager and not the supervisor (officers in our case) orchestrated all the decisions and leaves out any opportunity for the officer to make decisions for him/herself based on his/her experience as the way to move forward.

It is far more beneficial for a GM to lead the way of management by setting examples, being available to offer advice when needed and being able to spot a situation which could be near to going wrong and offering some choice opinion on a way to ensure it reverts back to the right path.

The moment the GM gets too deep into the intricate affairs of each officer’s routine tasks is the time to start worrying. If you know a GM who takes over control of the raid team and starts dishing out commands for the way the team should approach a fight is the time when the raid leader should be very concerned about why they are even in the position in the first place.

The way I work, I will happily stick my oar in from time to time but the truth is, I want my officers to stand up and be counted when the situation needs it. One example could be that during a raid night, something has gone wrong or someone has said or done something that a raid leader disagrees with, the raid leader then has a choice to make….
Get angry and start roasting people alive?
Go all silent and provide no top cover for a potentially failing team that badly needs the leaders’ influence and single-minded direction?
Talk through what the trouble is and come to a realisation that the team have to progress or a poor atmosphere can be made worse.

It’s all well and good to have a GM who wants to have good lines of communication while at least expressing the notion that micro-managing is unproductive, but all this is about to be put into practice as we head into the holiday period when I will be afk and relying heavily on the officers to manage the guild without me.

I will be expecting my 3 Warrant Officers to be perfectly attuned to the operations of the guild and making some key decisions without me breathing down their necks for the next few weeks. If ever there was a time to prove credentials as a possible future guild leader then that time is now. There will be no Bigticket so Spyrot, Wenya and Debbs have to communicate and orchestrate much of the guild’s affairs and I have no doubt that things will be just fine in my temporary absence.

I will be in contact via email, whatsapp and the website and I will surely log in from time to time so I’m in no way gone, just kinda afk for the next 3 weeks. I’m actually really interested to see how the Warrant Officers get on during this period and whether they relish or dislike it. It’s all about taking responsibility and I have no doubt our full officer team and others yet to be in officer ranks too have the desire and ability to watch out for their wonderful guild while the ginger bearded hunter steps out for a bit.

/Salute

As guild leader, a major part of my job is to set the right people in the right officer positions that ensure the things the guild needs to be doing are getting done so that we at least maintain the status quo in the community. Ideally we will always be improving our efficiency in achieving this while venturing the possibilities that we can expand where possible within our means at any given time.

Of course we can adjust any barriers which could prevent any expansion if we feel it would be of benefit to the community at large but I must always remain vigilant that we are at the very least maintaining current balance. This is so that our guild members can come to expect at least the same level of immersion in the game because of the experiences we all have from being a part of the guild and which would be vastly different if we were guildless or in another guild entirely.

The constant ebb and flow of our officers’ changing involvement around the guild, since it’s only a game after all, means that there are obviously times when multiple officers are online and times when there are no officers online. That might sound entirely normal and it is, but the fact that there may or may not be leadership present 24/7 is actually a delicate balancing act created and managed by myself and of which I am acutely aware. It’s something I’ve got to consider when I decide to ask a trusted Dambuster to step into an officer role because we do need top cover while being aware that even a core team of 20 officers would’nt necessarily give that coveted 24/7 leadership cover.

People have lives to live and other games they may be playing. People play WoW in so many different ways and can’t always schedule the same times to be online. Officers like all other players gain and lose motivation for the game on even a daily basis at times. Part of the consideration when someone is promoted to officer duty is their actual online time and obviously someone who can be online a lot has a distinct advantage to someone who can only spare short periods online. That is where the efficiency part comes in, if I was online 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, didn’t have to sleep or work or anything else then there would be no need for officers except to carry out jobs I want to delegate out. If only it was that simple..

What I must do, is cover as many bases as possible with like-minded, responsible and reliable guild members who I can trust to accept my leadership and get the job done with minimum fuss. It is difficult for me to expect the community to look to an officer as an example if they are never online, they don’t do the job it says they are doing on the ‘Officers’ page of the website, or even that they don’t appear to be displaying the attributes expected of their rank which are detailed on the ‘Rank System’ page.

It’s always a risk to pin my hopes and expectations on a new officer because invariably, at some point stuff will get in the way of their game time and subsequently their officer duties. A degree of consideration is given to this possibility when I decide who and when to promote. One definite fact and very difficult realisation has been that I have learned how easy it is to promote someone but how excruciatingly difficult it is to demote if it doesn’t work out.

Having someone so close to the guild and to myself who makes a change in the game that precipitates their drifting away is very difficult and frustrating but it’s something I must deal with as the GM. Only I can manage this aspect and although it’s tough, it’s a dirty job that I signed up for and am not about to complain about it. When an officer drifts away from the guild then there must come a point of discussion, communication to clarify why and what (if anything) can be done to remedy the situation. Failing that, then for the good of the guild, I must start to look at the steps I might need to put in place to safeguard the guild’s operations.

This is by far the most difficult part of guild leadership in my opinion, far more difficult than even finding a raid leader because when you find a raid leader, you usually know it. It usually hits you in the face when it becomes apparent that someone is a raid leader.

Managing ranks, the bank, team schedules all pale into insignificance when the moment lands upon you and you need to think about replacing an honourable friend who has done no wrong other than to simply lose interest in aspects of the game that would otherwise easily facilitate their officer job being done wonderfully. The easy bit is finding the next officer and offering the role along with the correct briefing of what is expected of them in their new position. The hard part for me will be the day I am forced to uphold the guild’s standards of leadership. You need a good degree of ruthlessness at times to just stick to the rules and policies you put in place.

Thankfully, most officers already know their day is done by the time I open up initial communication regarding any recent downturn in operations. The guys who cross this path are usually well aware that I have a job to do and are very respectful of my approach on these occasions.

These aspects of guild management are most probably completely new to most wow gamers and might be surprising. There’s nothing wrong with opening a few eyes and where I can impart some insight about the tenuous pact I have when I manage our officer team, hopefully some people will learn something they didn’t expect. Maybe one day you will be your own GM and this may help, I hope so 🙂

/Salute

I know it’s unlike me but although I have plenty ideas to blog about, finding the right way to begin has been difficult in the last few days. Seems I have ‘writers block’ if you could call it that.

I’m sure I can come up with something…

I am really happy to have such a supportive reader base who are always full of praise for my ramblings about the goings-on around the guild from my perspective. It’s been over a year and a half since I typed my first blog and 150+ posts later, the guild has grown so much in stature although not in membership numbers which points to a quality of personnel I am very proud to have here.

Overall, as I keep saying, nothing much has changed regards our general outlook on the game. This is largely because my own outlook remains unchanged since the beginning although there have been countless improvements done to the way we facilitate achieving what we always set out to create here.

In my opinion, The Dambusters is a minor masterpiece which proves to be a champion for the little guy in this game. A place where people from relatively inexperienced gaming backgrounds can feel safe and comfortable to ask questions they might feel would be subject to ridicule in another guild. A place where group activities are encouraged with no superiority complex between groups.

This is the type of vision I set in motion in 2009 for the way I wanted to play the game. Back then, I imagined it possible to make my own gaming environment encapsulated in this guild that would one day highlight the disgusting behaviours that people witness around the game but with the express advantage being that our home guild is nothing like that, where those people would not be welcome and that we would feel ‘at home’ with our Dambusters friends. In fact, I notice a clear distinction between playing with my guild mates and joining a pug group. There’s always ‘that guy’ in a group who has to be a douche for whatever reason and we all meet them.

As Dambusters, we try to set an example when we do join pug runs. We are usually friendly, talkative and socially mature around other members of the WoW community and with the guild’s name above our heads, that can only be a good thing for our reputation as a guild. Sometimes we even make a friend who is receptive to our way of play, they might be impressed by our experience while being approachable. All too often you find a skillful, well-geared player acting like a jerk in a pug and they have the ability to spread problems for the entire group. We are different, instead often being that skillful player with plenty experience but with a different attitude.

How many times have you joined a dungeon group where the tank was a total douchebag, calling DPS out because their 470 ilvl gear doesn’t compete with his 560 ilvl gear. Shouting at the healer because she cannot keep up with his rush n gush style tanking at break-neck pace! How many times have you met a ninja-pulling hunter or mage who cannot help themselves but deliberately blow all they have on targets they know the tank doesn’t yet have full control over, then proceed to tear the poor tank apart for not being able to keep aggro? The healer who knows your class better than you? The list goes on and on….

Consider how many times you’ve seen this and then think of the time that awesome fury warrior in 570 gear blasted you to your valor cap by tanking instances at good pace while being friendly and approachable. That’s you guys Dambusters. Those guys are memorable because they are rare in this game and those people make this game worth playing and worth fighting for! You don’t often see a pro player taking time out of his schedule to just be nice to the folks just trying to gear up an alt. That dude is a god-send after an hour of ridiculous clown-shoe wearing idiots who just want to waste other people’s time and each one of you has the option to be like that. Be remembered for all the right reasons.

I want a guild full of people who show newcomers a good example!

Imagine being totally brand new, just installed the game for the first time and at level 15 you join an instance or battleground to find nothing but trolls and flame wars? After a while, you might start to think that’s normal behaviour for this game and become that way yourself. That happens, and it happens all the time. The only thing stopping it are people like us who shine and stand out as examples of how to behave. People who don’t take mindless bullying or insulting troll behaviour and prove we are from a community worth being part of. We react kindly to clear warmth with encouragement but reject the trolls because we know they are just insecure souls looking for some confidence but going the wrong way about it.

Making new friends in WoW is easy when you know what to look for in a player and there’s plenty potential Dambusters out there hoping to stumble across a welcoming guild like ours. Be out there and connect with them 🙂

/Salute to a guild policy which makes recruitment easy

“Sergeant

You have been noticed for your continued commitment to the Dambusters and have been recognised as a valued member of the guild, your rank enjoys some additional permissions.”

The rank of Sergeant has recently been asked about and that is no real surprise to me since my description of it is rather compact. Someone recently thought they had been demoted when they moved from Corporal to Sergeant so I decided I would begin a series of blog posts for the guild that delve a bit deeper into the rank structure as a whole while focusing on one particular rank at a time. I am not going to do it in any real order of the ranks rather I want to begin with the least discussed rank first and then just pick others thereafter until I have covered all. I will also publish other unrelated blogs in-between.

To begin, as mentioned on multiple pages on the website and throughout my regular blog ramblings, this guild is named after a Royal Air Force operational bomber aircraft squadron and certain terms we use here are derived from the environment of RAF squadron life. Naming a guild after a military unit lends itself nicely to naming ranks in a guild and I have taken full advantage. My creative ability is not my strong point so I found replicating this rank structure to be very helpful.

In the RAF there are 2 career paths with different rank systems. The first being the non-commissioned ranks and the second being the commissioned ranks. Over time in the guild, I felt that using the non-commissioned ranks works best and I have modified a few things to suit. The official RAF ranks are:-

Aircraftman
Leading Aircraftman
Senior Aircraftman
Corporal
Sergeant
Chief Technician (Technical careers only)
Flight Sergeant
Warrant Officer

Warrant Officer is the highest rank in the RAF without switching to the commissioned officer ranks.

Due to restrictions in guild rank numbers in-game, I decided to amalgamate the three most junior ranks into one and call it Airman and you will also notice the absence of ‘On Jankers’ which is only a made-up rank as a punitive measure in the guild and is detailed more clearly at the bottom of the ranks page of this website.

Sergeant in particular is an interesting rank in the guild. It shows me and the other officers that the guild member has not only joined the guild and been recognised as worthy of a continued membership to the rank of Corporal, but has then gone on to impress to the degree that a further solidification of their membership is warranted. A Sergeant in this guild could be anyone from the guy who just loves being here and wants to bring all his friends here, to someone quiet who always thinks of his guild before jumping into PUG content, shouts in /gchat without getting arsey if nobody replies and still will always give people the chance of an invite the next time again. It could be a young lady who never speaks but has been a Dambuster for 3 years without a hint of drama. It could be the guy who doesn’t even hit max level but is such a laugh in guild chat that he is deemed indispensable to the overall community spirit.

A Sergeant is the rank of someone between transitional ranks of Corporal which is really initiation vindication and Chief Tech which is as high as you can reach before taking the big leap to full officer status at Flight Sergeant. Sergeant is therefore indicative of someone in the beginning phase of true recognition and a person the guild is trying to place some trust in.

If you find yourself as the rank of Sergeant and would like to be an officer then your next step is to keep doing what you have been doing and continue to integrate with your guild mates. Eventually you will reach Chief Tech then you will hit a backstop at the limit of the standard ranks until the guild requires another officer to perform a leadership role. You must then be able to stake a claim to be the right person for the job. However, plenty Dambusters remain happily as a trusted Chief Techs and have no intention of jumping into a much more demanding Flight Sergeant officer position. There is no shame in that and arguably it’s an excellent rank as it offers a lot of trust and some nice benefits but doesn’t command too much of your own time devoted to others like an officer rank would.

In the RAF, a Sergeant is a very experienced engineer usually with at least 12-15 years of military experience and often with many more. This guild rank offers a decent guild bank withdrawal amounts and average repair limits per day. I am always reviewing the rank permissions so the precise allowances are liable to change as with any other rank of course 🙂

I hope this clarifies a few unanswered questions about the Sergeant rank. If anyone has any further comments to make then please post them below.

/Salute

This past week has witnessed the return of 3 former officers to their home guild. Fridai, Xeriz (Formerly Kuja) and Nevra all arrived back.

Last week I happened to catch sight of Fridai on my Real ID so I asked him if he would like to return to the famous Dambusters that he was forced to leave behind as Cataclysm was drawing to a close. He had moved server on his priest and due to numerous factors, found it difficult to carry on raiding and drifted around for an extended period. I am delighted to have him back around the guild since he is a trusted friend, former officer and primarily for the guild because he set this guild on it’s way to organised raiding. Actually, the reason we are currently where we are is down to Spyrot, Wenya and the team they have built but they might never have had the opportunity if Fridai hadn’t already fused together a raid team out of this social/levelling guild. With my help, Fridai laid the foundations of what Spyrot carried on so admirably.

Kuja and Nevra had been mainstays in our raiding scene since I met them at the very dying end of the Cataclysm, I still remember my first conversation with Kuja at the steps to the Dwarven District Auction House and when I invited them to join the guild, we were all happy to welcome another WoW playing couple to the family. I’m sure they were so happy to have found such a welcoming home and their previous raiding experience was an important factor in their relatively quick arrival in Spyrot’s raid team.

When it became apparent that Kuja and Nevra had a good grasp of breaking fight mechanics down and helping Spyrot with good input then I asked Spyrot if he would like to employ them in a more official capacity as Raid Leading assistants. I was particularly interested in the fact they could easily bounce ideas off one another at home at anytime and Spyrot would then be benefitting from the conclusions of such discussions. I liked that situation and it worked really well, Spyrot and the lovely couple became very close friends. Those early MoP raiding days were tough on our group but we ran through walls for each other at the time and it really served to strengthen the rapport we still feel for each other today. We have added new members since then but that old cameraderie between that original 5.0 team has been infectios and has really been the basis for our success if you consider that without this atmosphere, we simply would not have attracted the calibre of people that have relished in it since.

I am delighted to have the awesome twosome back even although there has been slight apprehension surrounding their return due to a few misunderstandings, a bit of over sensitivity and largely because of the time they have been forced away for. Our server move came at a very bad time for Kuja and Nevra and life has changed in some ways for them but this perpetual guild has not changed and has always held a place for each upon their return.

Our growing organisational management has meant a sharpening of focus on our roster management meaning people could return from an unforeseen absence and find themselves guildless but that is a symptom of the positive and decisive action we now take to ensure we are an active community with no long-term offliners. This proves to new and existing members that we are as well maintained as we suggest and also gives our roster management team good indication of if/when we need to look harder for new recruits. Each guild member who finds themselves guildless after an extended period will be warmly welcomed back as long as they were removed on good terms.

This brings me to a recent discussion about a grey area we have found. When a member is removed for purely just inactivity and then returns to the game to find themselves requiring a re-invite, I believe we should ensure we must ask returning players to apply to the guild again. We need to make sure the officers concerned with roster management are aware who all incoming guild members are, even tho they could be former officers simply because recruiters may not be aware of the player’a history with the guild.

I am thinking that for future reference, I will add some indication on the guild application so that recruitment officers are aware it’s a returning member.

In the meantime, we have just received an application from everybody’s friend and Dambusters legend Illia (Wakeowl) who is also bringing along some of his friends too. No doubt Illia will be linking his famous ‘Realm First Level 90 Monk’ achievement with monotonous regularity and I can’t say I blame him!

These guys returning serve as vindication that this guild still has something special and that thought only focuses me to redouble my efforts in continuing to drive the guild in our current direction. People return to where they know they have a stable and welcoming home and I hope everyone will continue to be as friendly to the newcomers and returning Dambusters as you have always been.

/Salute

When the guild was formed back in 2009, I knew nothing about the game so you can probably imagine the unorganised start we had at the time. My highest character previously had been a lvl 31 warrior so my playing skill (although I’m still no pro) was extremely limited at the time. However, I never lacked social awareness nor determination to drive through my vision of having a guild of good people who could play the game in a fun, safe environment while practicing to become skillful and learning the game in general. My ‘motto’ was always “Never be afraid to ask questions in /Gchat, no matter how silly the question seems” while also staying forthright in my recruitment/roster management policies.

As I have said before, good roster management is the lifeblood of a guild. If you recruit the right people and ensure only the proven mature and helpful players prosper then you’re onto a winner. It’s a simple concept because it doesn’t take much effort to carry out but at times, it can demand a ruthless attitude towards certain members. In theory it’s just a case of booting selfish people while encouraging kind-hearted players.

Booting selfish ones sounds simple enough but sometimes there are circumstances behind perceived selfish behaviours. I could list some examples but there are so many so I will use one example only: Imagine a great and loyal guild member lets his little brother play on his account to try to get him into the game. Although very ill-advised, this simple error could turn into an unforeseen problem where the little guy decides to start being a douche and ends up getting the character removed from the guild. This could be one example and I’m sure it could easily be resolved in the days thereafter but it does illustrate the fine balance a guild leader must find to ensure fairness is kept as a priority while mediating between members of the community.

On the other side of the coin, there’s the really friendly, helpful player who always helps out and provides a lot of support whenever they are asked, only to take instant advantage of the promotion they clearly previously deserved….clean the guild bank out and realm change without a word.

Both these examples are straight off the top of my head and both have happened to us in this very guild. Actually worse has happened and lesser incidents have happened and quite probably every other eventuality in-between. I won’t divulge too much more on the worst occurrences because frankly, they are embarrassing but needless to say, I’ve learned a lot from them.

Learning since the early days, the set-up of the guild from the ranking system to the bank tab system we have to the way we communicate what’s been going on and the way we expect things to turn out over the coming weeks and months has been a fantastic experience for myself in particular. The constant learning and adjusting to hone the guild into the relatively well maintained community we currently have has been a magnificent evolution in transformation.

The evolution has been borne of of my personal experiences while leading the guild. I’m about to border on a slight rant here but what’s a Bigticket’s Blog about if there’s no rant? Exactly…boring drivel haha. So, as the guild has only adjusted the way we operate the same original principles due to my own learning experiences, hearing people tell me that the guild is ‘now a raiding guild’ or whatever shite else is simply frustrating to me.

Because people in the guild like to raid, doesn’t mean the Dambusters are a raiding guild. If you don’t believe me, just look at Sanctuary of Elune last week for the perfect example. Their 2nd raid team was ridiculed by their 1st team raid leader and guild leader to the extent that the 2nd team no longer felt comfortable being in the guild. Their guild leader made abundantly clear that the 2nd team was there only as a feeder to the 1st team which took total and complete priority over anything else going on in the guild. That boys and girls, is a raiding guild.

Our raiders serve this guild by carrying out plenty of work around the place like recruiting, pulling groups together to make guild runs for bank cashflow, leading flex runs which encourage fringe members to get involved etc. We are a PvE community. The raiders will never treat the non-raiders with disrespect and I will not accept the vice-versa either. At the core is the same desire to encourage the good people and discourage the need need need brigade. The hard workers will always get my vote no matter what they enjoy doing in the game.

I have always felt blighted with this conundrum because people have always misunderstood the guild ever since we were formed. We used to have RBG teams, we used to be flooded with arena guys and a few were Gladiators! Guys come and go and the content changes but the ethos of the guild which comes directly from myself, never changes. I can proudly stand with my hand on my heart and state that not once have I ever altered the direction of this guild so this is why it’s difficult for me to accept when people suggest things have changed. People come and go but I don’t!

What I’m trying to say is, ever since the days of Crimsonious, Era, Annelie, Icebabe, Zeitgeist, Bas, Twingol and hundreds more, people have offered their interpretations of the evolving the guild has done but as is proven…people play the game for the content but stay for the friends they make. Only when friends move on do you feel things are different but these things happen in a continuously changing MMO like WoW. People can be doing stuff while you are not in attendance but that doesn’t mean you were never welcome.

It’s my job to make sure that although the guild has and always will evolve to stay with the times, the overall attitude will never change no matter what content people enjoy doing at a particular time. I can personally guarantee that because quite simply, I don’t want to be in just another pishy, e-peen filled ‘raiding guild’ anyway and I will actively shit on people if they ever try to make me change my mind about that.

I remember Annelie getting pissed off because she wanted me to be the same level 25 Bigticket she initially made friends with all that time ago. She was a founder member of the guild and we had a good time noobing around Lich King Azeroth back then. It was never my intention to have the guild remain as naive as we were in those days, I had ambitions for the community and I have already surpassed those.

She said I changed, that I was now ‘the boss’ while she was the ‘beating heart’ of the guild. I bent over backwards to accommodate her even after she quit, I restored her officer status but she began a whisper campaign because she though the guild was different. Tell you what, her old cronies missed her when she quit and when she came back, most of them were gone and she didn’t like it. Where was she when they needed her? ‘Beating Heart’?

The guild has not and will not change its path. The content people do is up to you guys and the roster changes are entirely up to whether an individual player wants to play wow with The Dambusters or quit to join another guild..or even unsub. The Dambusters can’t stop any of those eventualities but it really can try hard to please the memberbase by providing group activities we enjoy doing.

We lost players in the past who felt we were not casual enough, we lost players who felt we were too casual. These things will happen and we march annually to remember these past Dambusters but we will never change our ethos because a few people found they wanted out. My job is to keep the happy ones happy and hope new members enjoy the journey. Not everyone loves a guild forever (except me and maybe Spyrot) but that’s not a bad thing.

We have evolved to be better maintained, stronger and ultimately we have survived and prospered due to that evolution in maintenance management but will NEVER stop being that same original ‘social/levelling’ guild we always were.

What other guild do you know that gives 1000g per week in encouragement gold to players who choose to level characters and earn big activity? Of course other activity like arenas also contribute big activity points but raiding and dungeons? No chance. What other guild do you know that gives recently promoted members access to every bank tab except the margined ‘Gibson’ tab or the deposit only ‘Grand Slam’? And that access to the other tabs is not restricted to character level, neither is rank.

Where else could you log in to find 8 other lvl 1 Pandaren screaming for you to make a new Panda and join in just for the sheer fun of it?

The content the guild embarks on is all up to you guys. It’s no surprise there’s plenty raiding going on since Blizzard introduced Flexible Raiding which is fantastic. Next time some dim wit (don’t be sensitive because you are far from alone) tells Bigticket (3rd person reference again) that ‘this is now a raiding guild’ then read this again and then give me some hard evidence to suggest I’m lying.

Wow this was nearly as long as Spyrot’s recent forum post but way more ranty haha.

/Salute my modern day Dambusters!