TankSpot - Blogs - ttocs http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/ttocs/ en Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:59:24 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.tankspot.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg TankSpot - Blogs - ttocs http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/ttocs/ Managing Boredom http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/ttocs/444-managing-boredom.html Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:50:42 GMT So, my new guild is in an interesting position.

Some members are getting bored of the content.

I'm sure if I was here when they were progressing through Hyjal/BT, I might be in a similar boat. What drives my desire to progress is the fact that I simply get bored of the older instances. I was getting bored of SSC and TK when I left my prior guild, after doing it for several months. It showed in my play.

So, now we're at a point where we can clear Hyjal/BT in 2 nights. This guild has been doing this since before I joined at the start of the new year. We still need more T6, and we're experimenting with a few off-specs to see how they affect our DPS and group synergy. We've had a survival hunter in the raid (with great success), and we've had a retadin, who has done pretty well so far.

There were some ideas being tossed around, like trying to set certain goals (like X DPS on Gorefiend, actually clear hyjal/BT in 2 nights, etc), and giving bonus DKP for achieving them. Some ideas I thought were pretty bad, like randomly inviting an alt to the raid. Checking gear, and seeing if said person can play their alt well in a raid setting sounds like more trouble than it's worth.

As I've never been in this position before, I'm interested in seeing what they'll do.

For those that are in this position, what are you doing to keep your raid interested in going to Hyjal/BT and performing their best week in and week out? ]]> ttocs http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/ttocs/444-managing-boredom.html Knock, Knock! http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/ttocs/391-knock-knock.html Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:43:32 GMT I haven't really had a blog since my not-so-frequently-updated livejournal, but I've made a few wall-of-text posts here that have had me consider just starting one.

I guess, to break the ice, a little bit about myself the person and myself the tank. If its TLDR, theres actually something worth a little discussion at the end of the post.

The person:

I'm Scott, a 24 year old programmer (zzzz). I've had this job since 2 weeks out of high school, and through all of college. I graduated from Rider University with a 3.65 GPA in 2006, as a Management Information Systems major. I want to do something in IT, but I'm pretty sure programming isn't it. I've been surrounded with computers all my life, and I enjoy working with them (and playing on them!). I just don't know of one field yet that I would want to spend 40+ hours a week working on. That search is in progress, and who knows what will come of it.

Hobbies? You mean theres other things to do besides WoW? Well, I like to read a fair amount. Most of it is on the internet now, but growing up I liked reading suspense novels (Lois Duncan is one of the authors I read a fair amount of). I also like tinkering with computers and networks, and our cars. When it's not 20 degrees outside.

The tank:

I'm Ttocs (see what I did there? oh man, so original...), a Level 70 Undead Warrior on Norgannon (US). I'm one of 3 Prot Warriors for Blood of Vengeance.

Before WoW, I played several games - I started in '95, playing the original Command and Conquer online via MPlayer (on our K5-133!). Went through a 10 hour trial in 2 days. That was put on hold until Spring of 1998, when I played X-Wing vs TIE fighter. Then I went into various games (in squads, clans and teams), including: Quake 2 and 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Call of Duty 1 and 2, Counter-Strike 1.6 (and prior versions) and Source.

At one point, I wanted to play games professionally: Get on a sponsored team/organization, get flown to places, win money, make a living from playing a video game. Unfortunately, that didn't pan out, and I got tired of the same thing. While I miss the competition, I enjoy the PvE aspect of WoW. I haven't quite warmed up to PvP as much as I'd like yet - while I'd say I'm "decent" at it, there are some things that bug me about WoW PvP. One thing I like about FPS's is that one person can pick up the slack of others. If, in a round of counterstrike, my 4 teammates are dead, and I'm the only one alive vs 5 of them, I have a shot to win the round. That is nigh-impossible in WoW PvP, because of sheer class imbalances.

I saw the WSVG China video, where the deciding round was between a Paladin and a Frost Mage. What a joke. He could be the best holy paladin in the game, but he's not going to kill that frost mage. Well, this was pre-2.3. But still.

Anyway, I started leveling with friends that I played other games with. After dealing with a whole bunch of stuff, from inheriting the MT role in the guild, to inheriting the RL/GL role in the guild, to server transfers, to Horrible Tanks that Can't take Criticism, to "Guild Leader's Wife from Hell"... I'm in Blood of Vengeance.

I joined without having either vial - and we ran through SSC and TK one week, got me (and some of the other guys that came with me) keyed. Because of schedule issues with their other two Prot Warriors, I was asked to MT all of Mount Hyjal on my first day in it, and most of BT. I met some expectations, and exceeded others. Doing this made me feel a little bit better about getting loot, because I wasn't totally along for the ride, though I wasn't there when they were trying to progress on it.

Overall, I'm pretty proud of being able to make that transition fairly smoothly, because I was worried about getting the negative feeling from people whenever a new tank is doing content - "Oh man, we're going to wipe a bunch of times while this guy learns the fight". To have one shot most of the bosses (Including RoS Phase 3 and Flame tanking), I think I surprised a lot of people...and myself. I'm probably my worst critic when it comes to this.

After having been in the guild for a month, I'm still a rookie/trial (and will be for another 2 months). We'll see what's in store at the end of my trial period.

Anyway, enough about me, I suppose, and I'll post something to discuss.

This is a quote made by a former guildmate of mine in response to my guildmates complaining about the free attunement in 2.4:

Quote:
This is a video game.

For Example: Football camp is hard work. World of Warcraft is not.

If you think WoW is hard work, you have never done anything hard in your life.....ever. I mean...let's get real here for a minute.
I strongly disagree with this - organizing a guild and a raid is comparable to a manager in a store: Determining schedules (who gets in what raid), dealing with drama, and in some cases I'd say it's worse. Some tasks are easier than others, but in WoW, it seems like the tolerances for 25 people to perform in a project (or raid) are tighter than they are in the workplace.

But maybe I'm wrong, and I just haven't experienced enough in the workplace yet.

What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Don't feed the Troll? ]]> ttocs http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blogs/ttocs/391-knock-knock.html