Patch notes are in progress. I love patch notes. They give you great insight into the mind of the developers and the direction that they are wanting to take the game. Having a clear picture of the state of the game and then looking at the big picture of how they are adjusting everything is great. Does it make me a better player? Probably not except that I have more general knowledge about the game. It certainly won't increase my performance in a raid.
It used to be that I got excited about patch notes. When I say excited, I mean that I got fired up. I was frustrated by nerfs and ecstatic over buffs. Often verbally, with great volume, to anyone who would listen. I am not that way anymore. Why not? And why does it matter?
Well, I have been playing WoW for six years. Over the course of six years I have experienced a lot of different changes to the game. I have watched Blizzard ignore problems for months and years. I have watched them fix things the very next day. I have seen the game evolve, killing my class/spec. I have seen patches that make me the most overpowered thing the game has ever seen. Through it all I have gained a few things, one of them being perspective. Another is trust.
I trust the WoW dev team. Over time they have fixed every major issue, balanced every overpowered spec, fixed every glitch, and made solid improvements to every aspect of gameplay. I have also seen a steady increase in speed and accuracy in their ability to solve these problems. They have earned my trust, and I know that they will continue to improve.
So what happens when I am overpowered? I know I will soon be nerfed and just enjoy it while I can. When I am lagging behind it doesn't bother me, I know it will get fixed shortly. The joke 'Soon™' started back when the rare, once-a-quarter blue post hit the forums and nebulously said, "We are aware of the issues and they will be fixed soon." Then months and years went by with no fix and no updates. Everyone quickly became aware of the famous Blizzard use of the word 'soon' and what they really meant by it. Now Blizzard jokes at themselves by using it, and 'Soon™' has turned into a month or two.
This understanding and trust ends up turning into apathy. I read the patch notes diligently, and I care in that I keep myself acutely aware of the state of the game including class/spec specifics for all classes, but I feel entirely apathetic to the feelings of frustration or elation that others may experience when reading the same patch notes. I don't get up in arms about things because I know they will come around, and dealing with an issue in the short term is not a big deal.
This attitude has a great affect on my gameplay. I have to admit that my mood affects my performance. Anyone who claims otherwise is either not self aware or is lying. Morale matters. The apathy that I feel towards the nerf/buff swings in the game allows me to sit back and enjoy playing, untainted by the frustration of a favorite ability getting the nerf bat or my fellow raiders getting buffed to overpowered levels while I sit at the average. I don't suffer form over excitement whereby I make stupid mistakes in a raid because I am inappropriately using a newly overpowered toy. My performance remains more steady, more consistent, and thus allows me to push it ever higher as I perfect my skills and not backslide due to patch note feelings.
For what its worth, I know that this is something that is not available to everyone. Some people are just excitable and they always will be. But if you can become more self aware in this area, and perhaps learn some strategic apathy, it can help your play as well.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
We don't make the same mistake twice
We have acquired a mage, a fury warrior, a resto druid, and a shadow priest. We rejected a prot paladin without professions or enchants and a resto druid that tried to play the "I'm a girl so I should get special treatment" card. We are raiding. Things appear to be going well. So what is the problem? We are stagnating at this stage.
Right now the people that we can find are all super casual or super bad and we only have about six of the ten raid spots filled by regular raiders. The rest of the spots are dragging us down. We have spent hours wiping, kicking the bad players, and finding replacements only to find out that those replacements are also bad. Our regulars are getting frustrated, and rightly so. The server is filled with guilds, all in a similar situation. The sensible thing to do is to get some of those guilds together and fix everyone's problems. That tends to create other problems though.
Usually there are more members than raid spots when bringing two partial raid groups together. Leaders have a hard time deciding to take a back seat and feeling comfortable with someone else driving the boat. Then there is the biggest issue in the minds of your guildies. They like being in your guild. They like who you (as a guild) are. Leaving that behind and going somewhere as a group makes you feel like a group of outsiders in someone else's guild, at least for a while. They may not be able to articulate this concern, but it is there.
So, now we are faced with a few options. We can keep trying to recruit while also trying to hold on to what we have, we can disband and go our separate ways, or we can find somewhere to go. The most attractive option is finding somewhere to go, and there lies the mistake that we don't want to repeat. The guild merger.
Hardcore raiders are expected to make a minimum amount of mistakes, and never the same mistake twice. When you do make a mistake you step back, figure out how and why it happened, and then take direct action to prevent it from happening again. The first time I fought Magmaw I ran away from the Pillar of Flame about one second before the cast, thinking that I could be well out of range and not worry about getting hit by it. Of course it spawned under me... and I was positioned directly in line with where the ranged group was going to run. Now they had to recognize what happened, run around the Pillar of Flame instead of through it, and kite the adds at the same time. It didn't go well, but I was able to step back and look at the situation. The problem got fixed and I have never been out of position for the Pillar of Flame since.
What does that have to do with anything? The same is expected of guild leadership. Make a minimum amount of mistakes and never make the same mistake twice. Well, I made the merger mistake once already. Guild mergers do not work. The newly formed guild always ends up as less than what it was supposed to be, if not outright failing. I have had a lot of time to step back and look at that situation, and I know how to not do it again. Guild acquisition is the way to go.
One guild acquires the raiders, guild bank, FnF members, etc. of the other guild. There is no merger, no blending of the rules and customs, no officership granted to the old GM. One guild makes the decision to disband and transfer control of everything to the other guild. This is smooth, efficient, lacking in drama and lengthy discussion, and best of all it works. Players have it made clear to them that they are not infusing their new guild with the old one, they are leaving the old one behind and joining the new.
Why is that so important? It rallies everyone under the same banner that is already in effect, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel by mashing two guild cultures together and splitting hairs over making policy for future eventualities.
Well, now. What to do with all of that info? A decision still needs to be made. What are we to do? I, for one, am going to work at being the guild that does the acquisition, not the one that gets acquired. The truth of the matter is that I like running things my way. It is smooth, it works well, I don't get complaints, and I get to filter important decisions through my years of experience instead of hoping that the 20 year old college student who has never been outside of his home town and has the life experience of a horse fly gets it right this time. The other side of that coin, though, is that I need to be able to recognize when it is time to let go and move in with the neighboring guild. Will that time come? I hope not, but if it does I will not be drowning in regret. I will be looking forward to the possibilities ahead.
Right now the people that we can find are all super casual or super bad and we only have about six of the ten raid spots filled by regular raiders. The rest of the spots are dragging us down. We have spent hours wiping, kicking the bad players, and finding replacements only to find out that those replacements are also bad. Our regulars are getting frustrated, and rightly so. The server is filled with guilds, all in a similar situation. The sensible thing to do is to get some of those guilds together and fix everyone's problems. That tends to create other problems though.
Usually there are more members than raid spots when bringing two partial raid groups together. Leaders have a hard time deciding to take a back seat and feeling comfortable with someone else driving the boat. Then there is the biggest issue in the minds of your guildies. They like being in your guild. They like who you (as a guild) are. Leaving that behind and going somewhere as a group makes you feel like a group of outsiders in someone else's guild, at least for a while. They may not be able to articulate this concern, but it is there.
So, now we are faced with a few options. We can keep trying to recruit while also trying to hold on to what we have, we can disband and go our separate ways, or we can find somewhere to go. The most attractive option is finding somewhere to go, and there lies the mistake that we don't want to repeat. The guild merger.
Hardcore raiders are expected to make a minimum amount of mistakes, and never the same mistake twice. When you do make a mistake you step back, figure out how and why it happened, and then take direct action to prevent it from happening again. The first time I fought Magmaw I ran away from the Pillar of Flame about one second before the cast, thinking that I could be well out of range and not worry about getting hit by it. Of course it spawned under me... and I was positioned directly in line with where the ranged group was going to run. Now they had to recognize what happened, run around the Pillar of Flame instead of through it, and kite the adds at the same time. It didn't go well, but I was able to step back and look at the situation. The problem got fixed and I have never been out of position for the Pillar of Flame since.
What does that have to do with anything? The same is expected of guild leadership. Make a minimum amount of mistakes and never make the same mistake twice. Well, I made the merger mistake once already. Guild mergers do not work. The newly formed guild always ends up as less than what it was supposed to be, if not outright failing. I have had a lot of time to step back and look at that situation, and I know how to not do it again. Guild acquisition is the way to go.
One guild acquires the raiders, guild bank, FnF members, etc. of the other guild. There is no merger, no blending of the rules and customs, no officership granted to the old GM. One guild makes the decision to disband and transfer control of everything to the other guild. This is smooth, efficient, lacking in drama and lengthy discussion, and best of all it works. Players have it made clear to them that they are not infusing their new guild with the old one, they are leaving the old one behind and joining the new.
Why is that so important? It rallies everyone under the same banner that is already in effect, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel by mashing two guild cultures together and splitting hairs over making policy for future eventualities.
Well, now. What to do with all of that info? A decision still needs to be made. What are we to do? I, for one, am going to work at being the guild that does the acquisition, not the one that gets acquired. The truth of the matter is that I like running things my way. It is smooth, it works well, I don't get complaints, and I get to filter important decisions through my years of experience instead of hoping that the 20 year old college student who has never been outside of his home town and has the life experience of a horse fly gets it right this time. The other side of that coin, though, is that I need to be able to recognize when it is time to let go and move in with the neighboring guild. Will that time come? I hope not, but if it does I will not be drowning in regret. I will be looking forward to the possibilities ahead.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Morons and Slackers
The following is a direct copy/paste from Gevlon's blog over at The Greedy Goblin. His first language is not English, so forgive the spelling and grammar errors. The content of what he has written here is what I wanted to share. I agree with him.
____________________________________________________________________________
About M&S
The morons and slackers are a central theme of this blog. I was surprised that many people still don't understand this concept and believe that I use this term simply on bad players. Some even defend them that they are just casuals, who are not even bad, just play less. This is nonsense.
The morons and slackers are indeed bad players, but not because of lack of gaming skill or effort. They are bad people whose badness is universal, applies to everything they do, including of course gaming. Let me point out the fundamental and non-gaming differences between M&S and other, less progressed players.
Any activity needs effort to be successful. You can't become an athlete, get good SAT, university diploma or keep your job unless you make appropriate effort. This applies of course to gaming. In MMOs effort correlates with time spent playing, despite it's not the same. I'm sure that over the full course of the 4.0 content I'll play more than some Paragon and Method members, without even getting close to Sinestra. "Effort" can mostly be defined as "sacrifice". I refused to sacrifice my schedule, I play when I want to. Therefore I can't be in a high-attendance guild, so no easy farmraids for me, every time I have to go with new people who takes some wipes to learn the strategy, so I spend much more time in farmbosses than the HC players, who oneshot everything with their fixed team. If I made the sacrifice of "I'll make it to raid on Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and Monday 19:00-23:00 every time", I'd kill much more bosses. Of course there is always someone who makes more effort and someone who makes less than you.
Two kind of people don't make the necessary effort to react top content: casuals and slackers. Yet their similarities end here. The casual is aware that he choose to not make the effort, therefore abandoning the goal. I'm fully aware that I won't kill Sinestra before the next content patch and gear upgrade, and I don't think I would deserve to kill her before that. The casual acknowledge the fact that there is no success without effort, he just believes that the reward isn't worth the effort. The casual is happy with his choice and doesn't envy those who have more, as he knows that they worked hard for it, and he didn't. Casuals can range from never-reach-85 funplayers exploring the world to "casual raiders" who "just" raid 3 days a week. Everyone is a casual in someone's eyes and hardcore in someone else's. "Casual" is a relative term, and it's inappropriate to use it on anyone. The proper usage is "X is more casual than Y".
The slacker also don't make the effort, but it doesn't stop him from wanting the rewards. He believes he is entitled for everything, simply on the basis of him being a human (him paying $15). He believes that others should make his rewards happen. "Others" can be Blizzard nerfing everything to his low-effort level, or other players boosting him. The slacker resent those who have more than him and believes that they are just lucky or evil who immorally keep him away from goals. He believes that the raid leader who kicks him for below-tank DPS is merely an elitist jerk who has no life and kicked him only because he has life.
The slacker is not defined by the amount of effort he makes. He is defined by the low effort/goal ratio. If you play "just" 8 hours a day and want world firsts, you are a slacker (despite much more hardcore than me). On the other hand if you play 8 hours a week and want to do one HC a week, completed the Twilight quests for 333 gear, enchanted it, you are a prepared player (more casual than me, though) who deserves his goals reached. Slacker is not a relative term, someone is or is not a slacker based on the question: does he do enough effort to reach the goals he set?
To reach success, effort is not enough. Skill is needed to make the proper choices where to make effort. If I spend 100 hours completing fluff achievements, I am much further from being ready to raid than the guy who spent 10 hours getting 346 blues. The unskilled person wastes his efforts. In WoW there are two kind of unskilled people:
The newbie don't know much about the game yet. He makes bad choices, wastes his effort. However he is aware of his ignorance and wants to learn. Reads the materials he accesses, listens to other, more skilled players and above all, learns from his mistakes. As with "casual", "newbie" is also a relative term and cannot be used on anyone. I am ignorant newbie compared to the guys who write EJ and a pro compared to those who don't know about spell rotations. Everyone is less informed and skilled (newbie) than someone and more informed and skilled (prop) to someone else.
The moron refuses to learn. His motivation can be a complete anti-knowledge culture, this case he devalues skill, believes that it doesn't exists and only effort and luck are needed. He is the "i just dun have gear" moron, who sometimes make huge effort to get gear, but still sucks as his rotation is a joke. The other possible motivation is a false belief in his knowledge. While he is ignorant, he thinks he is smart and refuses to learn from "the newbs". Both kind of morons believe that those above them made more effort (no lifers), just lucky or in worst case "got more help" (which of course means they are entitled for the same help).
"Moron" is an absolute, "you are or you are not" quality that is not based on your absolute knowledge but on "do you know enough to reach the goals you set"?. If you are healing as a shaman in a world first aspirant guild and don't know if 1.2 mastery rating or 1 crit rating is better for a you in avearge 364, and you don't even know that you should, you are a moron. On the other hand if you only know that both stats are good for a resto shaman, while hit is not, you are completely skilled for someone who does only Argoloth and 5-mans.
As you can see, the difference between casual and slacker, newbie and moron has nothing to do with spell rotations, boss tactics or ilvl. These are personality, value, meta-skill differences. While newbieness and casualness is limited to a game, being slacker and moron are universally true to the person.
Last question: why "M&S", why do I address them together, despite moron and slacker are pretty different in motivation, beliefs and values? Because unless I spend lot of time analyzing a specimen, I can't tell which one is him. Is he ungemmed because he doesn't know the importance of gems or because he doesn't want to grind gold for gems? Does he fails the boss mechanics because he don't know about written boss strategies or because he can't be arsed to read them? Does he beg gold because he doesn't know about goldmaking techniques or because he is lazy to do them? Does he stands in the fire because he don't know that the incoming damage is avoidable or because he is watching TV? Does he write "yo m8 cud u link mats 4 vial" because he really think it's English (and doesn't know that Wowhead has the recipe) or because he can't care less to write properly (and use wowhead)?
I'm not his therapist. It's not my job to solve his problems. If he aims for a goal, he must do the necessary effort and have the necessary skill to reach this goal. If he can't do it, he is either a moron or a slacker. A bad person who wastes the time of 4-9-24 other human beings. The title is about his skill/goal, effort/goal ratio. Since the only way to get something without proper skill and effort is boosting, the M&S is necessarily a leech, a parasite on the smart and the hard-working.
One more question remained: how could someone leave his current state and progress higher without turning into an M&S? I mean if you do the effort and have the skill for X goal, and it is inadequate to reach Y, at the moment you set Y as a goal, you become an M&S by the above statements. The answer is humility and openness. You should be aware and make every participants aware that you are not yet there to reach the goal. You must learn and accept criticism from those who are already there, seek knowledge and balance the lack of skill with extra effort.
The morons and slackers are indeed bad players, but not because of lack of gaming skill or effort. They are bad people whose badness is universal, applies to everything they do, including of course gaming. Let me point out the fundamental and non-gaming differences between M&S and other, less progressed players.
Any activity needs effort to be successful. You can't become an athlete, get good SAT, university diploma or keep your job unless you make appropriate effort. This applies of course to gaming. In MMOs effort correlates with time spent playing, despite it's not the same. I'm sure that over the full course of the 4.0 content I'll play more than some Paragon and Method members, without even getting close to Sinestra. "Effort" can mostly be defined as "sacrifice". I refused to sacrifice my schedule, I play when I want to. Therefore I can't be in a high-attendance guild, so no easy farmraids for me, every time I have to go with new people who takes some wipes to learn the strategy, so I spend much more time in farmbosses than the HC players, who oneshot everything with their fixed team. If I made the sacrifice of "I'll make it to raid on Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and Monday 19:00-23:00 every time", I'd kill much more bosses. Of course there is always someone who makes more effort and someone who makes less than you.
Two kind of people don't make the necessary effort to react top content: casuals and slackers. Yet their similarities end here. The casual is aware that he choose to not make the effort, therefore abandoning the goal. I'm fully aware that I won't kill Sinestra before the next content patch and gear upgrade, and I don't think I would deserve to kill her before that. The casual acknowledge the fact that there is no success without effort, he just believes that the reward isn't worth the effort. The casual is happy with his choice and doesn't envy those who have more, as he knows that they worked hard for it, and he didn't. Casuals can range from never-reach-85 funplayers exploring the world to "casual raiders" who "just" raid 3 days a week. Everyone is a casual in someone's eyes and hardcore in someone else's. "Casual" is a relative term, and it's inappropriate to use it on anyone. The proper usage is "X is more casual than Y".
The slacker also don't make the effort, but it doesn't stop him from wanting the rewards. He believes he is entitled for everything, simply on the basis of him being a human (him paying $15). He believes that others should make his rewards happen. "Others" can be Blizzard nerfing everything to his low-effort level, or other players boosting him. The slacker resent those who have more than him and believes that they are just lucky or evil who immorally keep him away from goals. He believes that the raid leader who kicks him for below-tank DPS is merely an elitist jerk who has no life and kicked him only because he has life.
The slacker is not defined by the amount of effort he makes. He is defined by the low effort/goal ratio. If you play "just" 8 hours a day and want world firsts, you are a slacker (despite much more hardcore than me). On the other hand if you play 8 hours a week and want to do one HC a week, completed the Twilight quests for 333 gear, enchanted it, you are a prepared player (more casual than me, though) who deserves his goals reached. Slacker is not a relative term, someone is or is not a slacker based on the question: does he do enough effort to reach the goals he set?
To reach success, effort is not enough. Skill is needed to make the proper choices where to make effort. If I spend 100 hours completing fluff achievements, I am much further from being ready to raid than the guy who spent 10 hours getting 346 blues. The unskilled person wastes his efforts. In WoW there are two kind of unskilled people:
The newbie don't know much about the game yet. He makes bad choices, wastes his effort. However he is aware of his ignorance and wants to learn. Reads the materials he accesses, listens to other, more skilled players and above all, learns from his mistakes. As with "casual", "newbie" is also a relative term and cannot be used on anyone. I am ignorant newbie compared to the guys who write EJ and a pro compared to those who don't know about spell rotations. Everyone is less informed and skilled (newbie) than someone and more informed and skilled (prop) to someone else.
The moron refuses to learn. His motivation can be a complete anti-knowledge culture, this case he devalues skill, believes that it doesn't exists and only effort and luck are needed. He is the "i just dun have gear" moron, who sometimes make huge effort to get gear, but still sucks as his rotation is a joke. The other possible motivation is a false belief in his knowledge. While he is ignorant, he thinks he is smart and refuses to learn from "the newbs". Both kind of morons believe that those above them made more effort (no lifers), just lucky or in worst case "got more help" (which of course means they are entitled for the same help).
"Moron" is an absolute, "you are or you are not" quality that is not based on your absolute knowledge but on "do you know enough to reach the goals you set"?. If you are healing as a shaman in a world first aspirant guild and don't know if 1.2 mastery rating or 1 crit rating is better for a you in avearge 364, and you don't even know that you should, you are a moron. On the other hand if you only know that both stats are good for a resto shaman, while hit is not, you are completely skilled for someone who does only Argoloth and 5-mans.
As you can see, the difference between casual and slacker, newbie and moron has nothing to do with spell rotations, boss tactics or ilvl. These are personality, value, meta-skill differences. While newbieness and casualness is limited to a game, being slacker and moron are universally true to the person.
Last question: why "M&S", why do I address them together, despite moron and slacker are pretty different in motivation, beliefs and values? Because unless I spend lot of time analyzing a specimen, I can't tell which one is him. Is he ungemmed because he doesn't know the importance of gems or because he doesn't want to grind gold for gems? Does he fails the boss mechanics because he don't know about written boss strategies or because he can't be arsed to read them? Does he beg gold because he doesn't know about goldmaking techniques or because he is lazy to do them? Does he stands in the fire because he don't know that the incoming damage is avoidable or because he is watching TV? Does he write "yo m8 cud u link mats 4 vial" because he really think it's English (and doesn't know that Wowhead has the recipe) or because he can't care less to write properly (and use wowhead)?
I'm not his therapist. It's not my job to solve his problems. If he aims for a goal, he must do the necessary effort and have the necessary skill to reach this goal. If he can't do it, he is either a moron or a slacker. A bad person who wastes the time of 4-9-24 other human beings. The title is about his skill/goal, effort/goal ratio. Since the only way to get something without proper skill and effort is boosting, the M&S is necessarily a leech, a parasite on the smart and the hard-working.
One more question remained: how could someone leave his current state and progress higher without turning into an M&S? I mean if you do the effort and have the skill for X goal, and it is inadequate to reach Y, at the moment you set Y as a goal, you become an M&S by the above statements. The answer is humility and openness. You should be aware and make every participants aware that you are not yet there to reach the goal. You must learn and accept criticism from those who are already there, seek knowledge and balance the lack of skill with extra effort.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Creating a Reputaion
We have been working to recruit players. It has been slow going. We are raiding every week, making progress, and using PuGs. Our recruit post and recruit spam is the same as any other guild out there, and getting a response is almost impossible. So what do we do? We raid. We raid and we raid well.
People always want to be a part of something great. They want to be on the winning team or the superior side. So what we have done is exactly what we do best. We play the game, and we invite others to experience how we do it. Over the course of a week we have managed to impress enough people that we have a solid raid group. Some of them have joined our guild and some of them are staying where they are, but they like our raid and want to keep coming. They like our style, the way we operate, the way we succeed, the way we win.
So the goal now is to recruit those that haven't actually joined the guild, or replace them with people who will. Those that haven't yet joined the guild are aware of that. They know that when we recruit, their raid goes away. I have been honest and up-front about it with all of them, and they keep coming back. Are they riding the gravy train while it lasts? Maybe, but my guild is raiding and that brings more raiders. I still get the occasional prot paly that has no professions, is missing five enchants, and is using an AGI weapon that wants to come raid. Those people get politely declined. Mostly, though, I get raiders. Experienced players... 'salty', if you will. With our type of guild and those type of players success happens and that brings in more people. It is now only a matter of time until the raid is secure in it's 10 people and moving fast.
People always want to be a part of something great. They want to be on the winning team or the superior side. So what we have done is exactly what we do best. We play the game, and we invite others to experience how we do it. Over the course of a week we have managed to impress enough people that we have a solid raid group. Some of them have joined our guild and some of them are staying where they are, but they like our raid and want to keep coming. They like our style, the way we operate, the way we succeed, the way we win.
So the goal now is to recruit those that haven't actually joined the guild, or replace them with people who will. Those that haven't yet joined the guild are aware of that. They know that when we recruit, their raid goes away. I have been honest and up-front about it with all of them, and they keep coming back. Are they riding the gravy train while it lasts? Maybe, but my guild is raiding and that brings more raiders. I still get the occasional prot paly that has no professions, is missing five enchants, and is using an AGI weapon that wants to come raid. Those people get politely declined. Mostly, though, I get raiders. Experienced players... 'salty', if you will. With our type of guild and those type of players success happens and that brings in more people. It is now only a matter of time until the raid is secure in it's 10 people and moving fast.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Bigger is Better
We are moving servers. I know... big shocker, right? Honestly, the only thing I didn't see coming is that it took us this long to do it. I came to this server to raid with a friend, cannot raid with him due to R/L commitments, and instead of leaving I stuck around to try and make my own guild here. Bad choice.
The server I am leaving has a medium sized population. The only problem is that 80% of it is Alliance. That leaves a very low population on the Horde side, which has all sorts of awful effects. The economy is in disarray to the point where all crafting materials are a minimum of twice the price that you pay for the crafted item they create. It is bad enough that making 1k gold a day gross income is a good day; the supply of things you need are low across the board, even having gaps at times; and players are almost impossible to find. Notice that I said 'players', not 'good players'.
Let me paint a picture for you. It is Tuesday evening, prime time on reset day. The Horde just won TB for the first time of the day. What is trade chat filled with? Silence... even the crickets have left the server and aren't around to chirp. I form up a BH raid with the tank and healer spots already taken care of, as well as a couple of DPS. I decide to PuG the last four spots and advertise in trade. Please remember, my group has geared and accomplished players in it that already include the tanks and healers. I am asking for DPS... I get nothing. Not even some low level asking, "what BH is and can I come?" After 45 minutes of trying to get some DPS I finally get a retarded Ret Paladin that has half of his gem slots empty, the other half filled with crit gems, and a green AGI polearm asking to join us. Terrible, just terrible.
I did manage to recruit and impress some very skilled players (the only good thing to come out of this server). These players have also equally impressed me. They are sticking with me and following me to Area 52. They came to this server for the same reason that I did and want to leave for the exact same reasons. Why Area 52? It is huge, and bigger is better. Population size isn't the only thing that counts in a server; not by far. It is a great indicator of where to start looking though, and heavily influences almost every other important aspect of a good server. On Area 52 the Horde outnumber the Alliance by extreme amounts. The extremity of the faction imbalance is not necessary, but having your faction in the lead is... even if just by a little. The economy is stable and exactly what you would suspect. Demand for crafted items far outstrips the demand for the materials and creates a way for people to use their crafting skills to make gold. 20 of the guilds on the server are in the world's top 200 ranking, making raid drop BoE's and epic enchanting crystals much more available. Those guilds also draw players. Lots of players. Finding people has never been so easy, and we can afford to PuG our remaining spots while we wait for the awesome players that we actually want to recruit.
I knew all of this stuff. I have known it for a long time. I originally left Gul'dan because the population had dwindled to such low numbers that IF was actually empty on a Saturday afternoon. Why then, didn't I move servers sooner? Because I made a mistake. Yup, happens to everyone. The good thing is that this mistake isn't going to cost me the valuable players I have gained, only a little bit of time.
___________________________________________________________________________________
P.S. I have started leveling my Priest and healing instances on the way up. Healing hasn't been this much of a blast since vanilla! Blizzard did wonders for the healing game and it really works the way it is supposed to. With that in mind, I am heavily considering switching mains. More on that subject later.
The server I am leaving has a medium sized population. The only problem is that 80% of it is Alliance. That leaves a very low population on the Horde side, which has all sorts of awful effects. The economy is in disarray to the point where all crafting materials are a minimum of twice the price that you pay for the crafted item they create. It is bad enough that making 1k gold a day gross income is a good day; the supply of things you need are low across the board, even having gaps at times; and players are almost impossible to find. Notice that I said 'players', not 'good players'.
Let me paint a picture for you. It is Tuesday evening, prime time on reset day. The Horde just won TB for the first time of the day. What is trade chat filled with? Silence... even the crickets have left the server and aren't around to chirp. I form up a BH raid with the tank and healer spots already taken care of, as well as a couple of DPS. I decide to PuG the last four spots and advertise in trade. Please remember, my group has geared and accomplished players in it that already include the tanks and healers. I am asking for DPS... I get nothing. Not even some low level asking, "what BH is and can I come?" After 45 minutes of trying to get some DPS I finally get a retarded Ret Paladin that has half of his gem slots empty, the other half filled with crit gems, and a green AGI polearm asking to join us. Terrible, just terrible.
I did manage to recruit and impress some very skilled players (the only good thing to come out of this server). These players have also equally impressed me. They are sticking with me and following me to Area 52. They came to this server for the same reason that I did and want to leave for the exact same reasons. Why Area 52? It is huge, and bigger is better. Population size isn't the only thing that counts in a server; not by far. It is a great indicator of where to start looking though, and heavily influences almost every other important aspect of a good server. On Area 52 the Horde outnumber the Alliance by extreme amounts. The extremity of the faction imbalance is not necessary, but having your faction in the lead is... even if just by a little. The economy is stable and exactly what you would suspect. Demand for crafted items far outstrips the demand for the materials and creates a way for people to use their crafting skills to make gold. 20 of the guilds on the server are in the world's top 200 ranking, making raid drop BoE's and epic enchanting crystals much more available. Those guilds also draw players. Lots of players. Finding people has never been so easy, and we can afford to PuG our remaining spots while we wait for the awesome players that we actually want to recruit.
I knew all of this stuff. I have known it for a long time. I originally left Gul'dan because the population had dwindled to such low numbers that IF was actually empty on a Saturday afternoon. Why then, didn't I move servers sooner? Because I made a mistake. Yup, happens to everyone. The good thing is that this mistake isn't going to cost me the valuable players I have gained, only a little bit of time.
___________________________________________________________________________________
P.S. I have started leveling my Priest and healing instances on the way up. Healing hasn't been this much of a blast since vanilla! Blizzard did wonders for the healing game and it really works the way it is supposed to. With that in mind, I am heavily considering switching mains. More on that subject later.
Friday, January 21, 2011
What the Varsity Players Have Learned
So yesterday I promised that I would provide some insight into why 'varsity' players seem to be so much more on the ball. A lot of it has to do with their mindset. I can't give you tips for that. It is what it is. If you do not have the drive to succeed through self improvement then you aren't going to make it. I cannot give you that drive, that passion, you need to decide you want it bad enough. As far as practical changes that you can make to your play, I have a few.
The first and most important is your UI. Your UI is how you directly interface with the game. If it is not set up well then you are setting yourself up for failure. Are you a healer that has your raid frames off to the side or down in a corner? How can you expect to keep your eyes on the action and still play whack-a-mole with the health bars with a UI like that? Those are the healers who keep dying to the environment because their eyes were nowhere near the action and they didn't see that giant wall of fire coming towards them. Do you need to dispell or decurse on certain fights? If so is your UI set up for it? I can't tell you how many times I have wiped because the mage was the only decurse we had in the raid and they had never set up their UI for it. Spare yourself the embarrassment, especially if you are a healer, and instead look like a pro! Have CD's to watch (who doesn't)? Then why would you ever have a UI without that info easily displayed. One of the ways I can consistently squeak out more DPS than the competition is that I can easily track my CD's. If I get 10 more seconds with a CD running than you did, and all because I was able to watch it and pop it 10 seconds earlier... you get the idea.
There are many more examples I could give, but the general concept boils down to this. Make a list of the important things that you need to do and keep track of; then take a good, hard look at your UI. Is it set up for success? Notice that I did not ask if it looks smooth and cool; nor did I ask if you are comfortable with it. If it is not set up for success then you are pulling the rug out from under yourself.
The next is key bindings. I wrote a simple how-to guide some time ago and you can find it here. Let me reiterate what I say in the guide. If you are a clicker you are failing. I don't need to look at my bars, find my interrupt button, get my mouse over to it, and click all in the space of a 1 second cast. My fingers just know which button the interrupt is, and press it when I see a spell start casting. On my UI the action bars aren't even displayed front and center, because I don't need to see them.
Another tip would be your general knowledge. I have seen and heard every stupid mistake you can think of due to not knowing your shit. Back in TBC when WF totem put a 10 second weapon buff on you and refreshed it every 3 seconds did a warrior ask for someone to give him another WF buff because his was wearing off? Yes, he did. I have seen countless melee attack from the front and then wonder why their DPS suffers and the tank takes a pounding like he is wearing cloth. I have wiped because people don't understand basic game and class mechanics, like how taunt really works or how being just 1 point below the required level of resist makes you still vulnerable to those spells. The truth of the matter is that G.I. Joe had it right. Knowing is half the battle, and the more you know the more battles you will be prepared to win. If you really want to shine like a superstar then you need to know what you are doing.
Are there other tips and little methods that separate the decent players from the truly great players? Absolutely, but these three are by far the most important. If you are reading this and saying to yourself that you are fine, you don't need to make these improvements, then you are one of the players that will always be stuck just below the bar of excellence. Get over it and make yourself better.
The first and most important is your UI. Your UI is how you directly interface with the game. If it is not set up well then you are setting yourself up for failure. Are you a healer that has your raid frames off to the side or down in a corner? How can you expect to keep your eyes on the action and still play whack-a-mole with the health bars with a UI like that? Those are the healers who keep dying to the environment because their eyes were nowhere near the action and they didn't see that giant wall of fire coming towards them. Do you need to dispell or decurse on certain fights? If so is your UI set up for it? I can't tell you how many times I have wiped because the mage was the only decurse we had in the raid and they had never set up their UI for it. Spare yourself the embarrassment, especially if you are a healer, and instead look like a pro! Have CD's to watch (who doesn't)? Then why would you ever have a UI without that info easily displayed. One of the ways I can consistently squeak out more DPS than the competition is that I can easily track my CD's. If I get 10 more seconds with a CD running than you did, and all because I was able to watch it and pop it 10 seconds earlier... you get the idea.
There are many more examples I could give, but the general concept boils down to this. Make a list of the important things that you need to do and keep track of; then take a good, hard look at your UI. Is it set up for success? Notice that I did not ask if it looks smooth and cool; nor did I ask if you are comfortable with it. If it is not set up for success then you are pulling the rug out from under yourself.
The next is key bindings. I wrote a simple how-to guide some time ago and you can find it here. Let me reiterate what I say in the guide. If you are a clicker you are failing. I don't need to look at my bars, find my interrupt button, get my mouse over to it, and click all in the space of a 1 second cast. My fingers just know which button the interrupt is, and press it when I see a spell start casting. On my UI the action bars aren't even displayed front and center, because I don't need to see them.
Another tip would be your general knowledge. I have seen and heard every stupid mistake you can think of due to not knowing your shit. Back in TBC when WF totem put a 10 second weapon buff on you and refreshed it every 3 seconds did a warrior ask for someone to give him another WF buff because his was wearing off? Yes, he did. I have seen countless melee attack from the front and then wonder why their DPS suffers and the tank takes a pounding like he is wearing cloth. I have wiped because people don't understand basic game and class mechanics, like how taunt really works or how being just 1 point below the required level of resist makes you still vulnerable to those spells. The truth of the matter is that G.I. Joe had it right. Knowing is half the battle, and the more you know the more battles you will be prepared to win. If you really want to shine like a superstar then you need to know what you are doing.
Are there other tips and little methods that separate the decent players from the truly great players? Absolutely, but these three are by far the most important. If you are reading this and saying to yourself that you are fine, you don't need to make these improvements, then you are one of the players that will always be stuck just below the bar of excellence. Get over it and make yourself better.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Elitism vs. Having Standards
I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day. Lets call him Tim. Tim is a very strong player and I have no doubt that he would do well in any US first or world first guild. No exaggeration, he is that level of player; but he has been tossing around in the minor leagues for some time now, enjoying limited success.
Why does Tim settle? Because of the time commitment. Until recently he has been able to enjoy an amount of success and raid progression that is not the best, but is acceptable given the amount of time he has to put in to it. Were there baddies in Tim's raid? Sure. Did his back get sore from carrying them? Regularly. Did he keep pushing because it was the best he could do on two nights a week? Exactly that... until recently.
With the release of Cata all of Tim's baddies got worse. Or, more accurately, their badness was put in the limelight. He is now starting to go through the same frustration that I went through in WotLK. Carrying people is no longer acceptable to him. It is too much work for too little gain, especially when the people he is trying to help and carry along are dragging their feet the whole way.
It is like they don't mean what they say. They say they want to raid and be good at it, but then they don't do what needs to be done in order to make that a reality. Instead they always have an excuse for why the failure wasn't their fault.
"I couldn't see the fire. How can I be expected to move if I can't see it?"
"I guess I just need more gear for this content. I need epics in order to run the content that gives me epics."
"Lag killed me. Every time we do this boss. Every week. On the same void zone. Man lag sucks."
So what did Tim do to combat this growing incompetence? He set standards. Let me say that his guild has always had standards, they were just loosely understood and never expressly stated. Now they have a benchmark. A bar that the raiders must rise above in order to raid... and it is pissing everyone off. All of the lazy, incompetent people who were enjoying being carried through content are having that taken away from them, and they don't like it.
The baddies in Tim's guild have started throwing around the term 'elitist', directed at Tim and others of a like mind in his guild. They are claiming that Tim expects too much, that he sets the bar too high, and that his refusal to allow people to play below the bar is just elitism of the worst kind. They want Tim to structure the guild for the lowest common denominator.
I say Tim is making the right choice. Good job to Tim! There is a very big difference between elitism and having standards. Let me use high school football as an example. In high school you have tryouts for the football team. The experts (coaches) observe the kids that are trying to make the team and gauge their skill level. Then they place the kids on different teams according to their performance. The best players get to be on the varsity team. The next level down is junior varsity, and below that is the "just for funzies", or recreational team. The people on the junior varsity team are less skilled and/or less experienced than those on the varsity team. They just can't compete at the varsity level, and the coaches recognize that. Are the coaches being elitist assholes? Are they being mean spirited and saying, "sorry kid, you can't belong to our club"? Absolutely not. They have set standards and the kids on the junior varsity team did not meet those standards. In the future, as the junior varsity players improve and sharpen their skills they will have more opportunities to move up to the varsity team. When they do move up they are welcomed excitedly as part of the team. No one is shutting them down and saying "you are not elite enough to join us. Just go away." They simply have standards. The varsity team is designed to perform at a certain level and if you cannot keep up then you do not belong on the varsity team. Maybe later, when you have gotten better, but not at this time.
In WoW, a lot of people refuse to see things this way. They think that being told they are not 'varsity' quality is an insult and that makes the people telling them 'elitist assholes'. In reality, people like Tim and myself do not want to see these players fail. We do not want to see them be bad. We don't expressly enjoy kicking them off of the team. We want to see them succeed, learn, grow, become better players, and be a valuable member of the team. Great players are hard to find. If you can become one, we want you! Here is the kicker, we aren't going to do it for you. My raid group is not "How to raid 101". My raid group is for people that are already good. I have standards, and to raid with me you have to meet or exceed them. Tim is finding out that he wants the same thing, and that most of the players in his guild just don't get it.
______________________________________________________________________________________
P.S. Tomorrow I will write about some practical ways to help yourself make the 'varsity team'. If you are struggling with getting better at the game there are most likely some very simple things that you can do to fix yourself that may not have occurred to you, and they don't require as much time as you might think.
Why does Tim settle? Because of the time commitment. Until recently he has been able to enjoy an amount of success and raid progression that is not the best, but is acceptable given the amount of time he has to put in to it. Were there baddies in Tim's raid? Sure. Did his back get sore from carrying them? Regularly. Did he keep pushing because it was the best he could do on two nights a week? Exactly that... until recently.
With the release of Cata all of Tim's baddies got worse. Or, more accurately, their badness was put in the limelight. He is now starting to go through the same frustration that I went through in WotLK. Carrying people is no longer acceptable to him. It is too much work for too little gain, especially when the people he is trying to help and carry along are dragging their feet the whole way.
It is like they don't mean what they say. They say they want to raid and be good at it, but then they don't do what needs to be done in order to make that a reality. Instead they always have an excuse for why the failure wasn't their fault.
"I couldn't see the fire. How can I be expected to move if I can't see it?"
"I guess I just need more gear for this content. I need epics in order to run the content that gives me epics."
"Lag killed me. Every time we do this boss. Every week. On the same void zone. Man lag sucks."
So what did Tim do to combat this growing incompetence? He set standards. Let me say that his guild has always had standards, they were just loosely understood and never expressly stated. Now they have a benchmark. A bar that the raiders must rise above in order to raid... and it is pissing everyone off. All of the lazy, incompetent people who were enjoying being carried through content are having that taken away from them, and they don't like it.
The baddies in Tim's guild have started throwing around the term 'elitist', directed at Tim and others of a like mind in his guild. They are claiming that Tim expects too much, that he sets the bar too high, and that his refusal to allow people to play below the bar is just elitism of the worst kind. They want Tim to structure the guild for the lowest common denominator.
I say Tim is making the right choice. Good job to Tim! There is a very big difference between elitism and having standards. Let me use high school football as an example. In high school you have tryouts for the football team. The experts (coaches) observe the kids that are trying to make the team and gauge their skill level. Then they place the kids on different teams according to their performance. The best players get to be on the varsity team. The next level down is junior varsity, and below that is the "just for funzies", or recreational team. The people on the junior varsity team are less skilled and/or less experienced than those on the varsity team. They just can't compete at the varsity level, and the coaches recognize that. Are the coaches being elitist assholes? Are they being mean spirited and saying, "sorry kid, you can't belong to our club"? Absolutely not. They have set standards and the kids on the junior varsity team did not meet those standards. In the future, as the junior varsity players improve and sharpen their skills they will have more opportunities to move up to the varsity team. When they do move up they are welcomed excitedly as part of the team. No one is shutting them down and saying "you are not elite enough to join us. Just go away." They simply have standards. The varsity team is designed to perform at a certain level and if you cannot keep up then you do not belong on the varsity team. Maybe later, when you have gotten better, but not at this time.
In WoW, a lot of people refuse to see things this way. They think that being told they are not 'varsity' quality is an insult and that makes the people telling them 'elitist assholes'. In reality, people like Tim and myself do not want to see these players fail. We do not want to see them be bad. We don't expressly enjoy kicking them off of the team. We want to see them succeed, learn, grow, become better players, and be a valuable member of the team. Great players are hard to find. If you can become one, we want you! Here is the kicker, we aren't going to do it for you. My raid group is not "How to raid 101". My raid group is for people that are already good. I have standards, and to raid with me you have to meet or exceed them. Tim is finding out that he wants the same thing, and that most of the players in his guild just don't get it.
______________________________________________________________________________________
P.S. Tomorrow I will write about some practical ways to help yourself make the 'varsity team'. If you are struggling with getting better at the game there are most likely some very simple things that you can do to fix yourself that may not have occurred to you, and they don't require as much time as you might think.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Recruiting raiders sucks
For the past week I have been doing my best to recruit raiders. Let me tell you, it sucks. I have a recruitment post that I bump daily on three different forums; I spam trade, LFG, and the guild recruitment channel daily; and I have approached specific individuals that I know are looking for a guild. How many applications have I reviewed? None.
Why the lack of response to my recruitment? A few reasons come to mind. First off, just like it is easier to find a job when you already have one, it is easier to recruit raiders when you already have a functioning raid group. People look at my roster of two players and think, "no way. This guild isn't going anywhere." The guild could be exactly what you are looking for, but if you have to join and then stick your thumb up your butt while the GM recruits more players... you get the idea.
Second is my style of recruiting. I am not going to spam recruit players and then kick the baddies. Instead I set the standard high, very high. Most players will not even bother applying because they think I am being unreasonable. Is it unreasonable to take a stand and say that a casual amount of play time is not an excuse to be bad at the game? I don't think so. So I recruit for exactly what I want and am happy to wait for it. To top it all off I do not write my recruitment posts and application questions in the typical manner. Players that look at my post won't be able to skim for what they think is relevant info and then decide to apply or not. They actually have to read, which requires actual interest, and most of them won't.
So why do I make it so hard on myself? There are plenty of other options for grabbing players. I could at least get a raid group going so it will be easier to recruit good raiders. The answer is, no, it won't be easier. The quality of player I am looking for won't be interested in joining a fail raid to try and make it stronger. What I need are great players that want to be surrounded with other great players and are willing to start that from scratch.
Well, all of my persistence has paid off. Yesterday I recruited the exact kind of player that I want. Exactly what I need to succeed. I am happy to say that four members of the original <Death and Taxes> are now members of <Adept>. This includes a tank that has been taking hits to the head from bosses since DnT got some of their vanilla world first kills and still loves it, one of the best heal-bots I have ever seen, and two superb DPS that keep me pushing to compete with them. What can I say... these guys impress me.
So now I have six out of my ten raiders and the hard part is over. Time to finish the roster off and start kicking ass and taking names.
Why the lack of response to my recruitment? A few reasons come to mind. First off, just like it is easier to find a job when you already have one, it is easier to recruit raiders when you already have a functioning raid group. People look at my roster of two players and think, "no way. This guild isn't going anywhere." The guild could be exactly what you are looking for, but if you have to join and then stick your thumb up your butt while the GM recruits more players... you get the idea.
Second is my style of recruiting. I am not going to spam recruit players and then kick the baddies. Instead I set the standard high, very high. Most players will not even bother applying because they think I am being unreasonable. Is it unreasonable to take a stand and say that a casual amount of play time is not an excuse to be bad at the game? I don't think so. So I recruit for exactly what I want and am happy to wait for it. To top it all off I do not write my recruitment posts and application questions in the typical manner. Players that look at my post won't be able to skim for what they think is relevant info and then decide to apply or not. They actually have to read, which requires actual interest, and most of them won't.
So why do I make it so hard on myself? There are plenty of other options for grabbing players. I could at least get a raid group going so it will be easier to recruit good raiders. The answer is, no, it won't be easier. The quality of player I am looking for won't be interested in joining a fail raid to try and make it stronger. What I need are great players that want to be surrounded with other great players and are willing to start that from scratch.
Well, all of my persistence has paid off. Yesterday I recruited the exact kind of player that I want. Exactly what I need to succeed. I am happy to say that four members of the original <Death and Taxes> are now members of <Adept>. This includes a tank that has been taking hits to the head from bosses since DnT got some of their vanilla world first kills and still loves it, one of the best heal-bots I have ever seen, and two superb DPS that keep me pushing to compete with them. What can I say... these guys impress me.
So now I have six out of my ten raiders and the hard part is over. Time to finish the roster off and start kicking ass and taking names.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
A new guild is formed
So I decided to make my own guild.
I have done this before... a few times, so I am not very gun shy about it. I have a vent server set up already, a functioning guild website, and a recruitment plan all set. The normal details about loot rules and such are already taken care of. Having experienced some of the best (and having personally created some of the worst) I feel I have a good grasp on what will work and what I have the means to implement. The goal is to start 10 man raiding ASAP and recruit as time goes by for enough people to do 25 mans. I know that sounds like a big gap, but having a successful 10 man makes it easier to get people. When you can attract a few more people you can make a second 10 man. From there you are only a few recruits away from 25 man raiding.
The guild is Adept - US Perenold(H). http://adept-guild.wowstead.com (Yep, plugging my own guild. Get over it.)
I have found that new guilds often recruit way beyond their means. Their recruitment posts look something like, "New Guild is now recruiting! We have vent, a website, and a tabard; as well as a couple of guild bank tabs! We do PvP and Heroics, are starting raids soon, and love to level alts. Looking for all levels and classes. Come join us!" Oh how this guild is destined to fail.
First off, if you have people that joined your guild simply because of your tabard, or the ability to use your vent server and guild bank... boy are you scraping the bottom of the barrel. Secondly, what is your purpose? What is your guild aimed at? What can I expect to do when I join you? From your recruit post it looks like almost anyone and everyone will be happy there. Want to run heroics? Join us! Want to raid? We are trying to get enough people for a raid. You could be one of them! Want to PvP? We do that too!
It goes on and on; ad nauseam, ad infinitum. In reality you don't organize any of those things. You simply have a group of people that play together a lot and have realized that you need more people to be successful at some of the activities you enjoy. So you advertise that you do all of these activities. Do you? Sure. Do you organize them and put specific effort towards achieving success at them? No, you don't.
So what happens is a lot of naive players join your guild thinking that they will find the one thing in your recruit post that they are interested in. Maybe what you really want is people to casually run 5 mans and occasionally do other things when you are bored; but what you get is PvP focused players and raiders looking for a new raiding guild. These people will be unhappy in your guild and /gquit within weeks if not days or hours, leaving you with a sinking guild that can't hold onto members.
The solution? Identify what you really want to focus on and recruit for that purpose. My example would be that Adept is a hardcore raiding guild for people that don't have a hardcore amount of time to commit. We only raid nine hours a week, so all nine of them need to count. That means that I need people who are focused on succeeding in raids. They must have raiding specs, professions, experience, and a winner's mindset. My recruit post is also tailored to that end. Very few people have asked me about joining that weren't actually suited for my guild. It works. Tell people what you are and what you are looking for. Don't fill your recruit post with fluff, thinking that you might get the wandering superstar player who happens to like all of the random things that you advertise for but still really meshes with your core group. It won't happen.
It all boils down to this principle: Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
I have done this before... a few times, so I am not very gun shy about it. I have a vent server set up already, a functioning guild website, and a recruitment plan all set. The normal details about loot rules and such are already taken care of. Having experienced some of the best (and having personally created some of the worst) I feel I have a good grasp on what will work and what I have the means to implement. The goal is to start 10 man raiding ASAP and recruit as time goes by for enough people to do 25 mans. I know that sounds like a big gap, but having a successful 10 man makes it easier to get people. When you can attract a few more people you can make a second 10 man. From there you are only a few recruits away from 25 man raiding.
The guild is Adept - US Perenold(H). http://adept-guild.wowstead.com (Yep, plugging my own guild. Get over it.)
I have found that new guilds often recruit way beyond their means. Their recruitment posts look something like, "New Guild is now recruiting! We have vent, a website, and a tabard; as well as a couple of guild bank tabs! We do PvP and Heroics, are starting raids soon, and love to level alts. Looking for all levels and classes. Come join us!" Oh how this guild is destined to fail.
First off, if you have people that joined your guild simply because of your tabard, or the ability to use your vent server and guild bank... boy are you scraping the bottom of the barrel. Secondly, what is your purpose? What is your guild aimed at? What can I expect to do when I join you? From your recruit post it looks like almost anyone and everyone will be happy there. Want to run heroics? Join us! Want to raid? We are trying to get enough people for a raid. You could be one of them! Want to PvP? We do that too!
It goes on and on; ad nauseam, ad infinitum. In reality you don't organize any of those things. You simply have a group of people that play together a lot and have realized that you need more people to be successful at some of the activities you enjoy. So you advertise that you do all of these activities. Do you? Sure. Do you organize them and put specific effort towards achieving success at them? No, you don't.
So what happens is a lot of naive players join your guild thinking that they will find the one thing in your recruit post that they are interested in. Maybe what you really want is people to casually run 5 mans and occasionally do other things when you are bored; but what you get is PvP focused players and raiders looking for a new raiding guild. These people will be unhappy in your guild and /gquit within weeks if not days or hours, leaving you with a sinking guild that can't hold onto members.
The solution? Identify what you really want to focus on and recruit for that purpose. My example would be that Adept is a hardcore raiding guild for people that don't have a hardcore amount of time to commit. We only raid nine hours a week, so all nine of them need to count. That means that I need people who are focused on succeeding in raids. They must have raiding specs, professions, experience, and a winner's mindset. My recruit post is also tailored to that end. Very few people have asked me about joining that weren't actually suited for my guild. It works. Tell people what you are and what you are looking for. Don't fill your recruit post with fluff, thinking that you might get the wandering superstar player who happens to like all of the random things that you advertise for but still really meshes with your core group. It won't happen.
It all boils down to this principle: Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
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