05-29-2005, 08:00 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-29-2005, 12:49 PM by MongoJerry.)
With a heavy heart, I have an announcement to make. The character of Neriad on Tichondrius is no longer a member of the Lurking Loungers. But fear not, MongoJerry is not leaving. I have created a new hunter character, named Pandarus, who will most assuredly be a Lurking Lounger for life, and guild leadership (which is very informal on Tichondrius) has been transferred to him.
I've come to this decision after months of deliberation and resistance. It's difficult for me to explain what I've been going through and to get across just how much I've agonized over this decision, especially since for most of you, this may seem out of the blue. Rest assured that it is not. As most people know, Tichondrius has only a small Lurker population on it (I still blame Bolty and all his anti-PvP ravings for that). For a couple of months, Neriad was the only level 60 Lurker on the server and even now, there's only one other level 60 member of the Lurking Loungers (Boutros). For many months, Neriad has been having to make her way on her own, teaming up with random strangers she met on her travels. Having a strong explorer type personality (note: I tend towards depth rather than breadth in my explorations, so I tend to stick to a small set of things and explore every nuance of whatever it is) mixed in with some social and achiever personality, I knew that I would want to explore every area and every quest and event in the game. I knew from the beginning that I would face one major stumbling block in my goals -- finding a good group with whom I could explore end game raiding content.
Obviously, the Lurking Loungers was not going to provide 40+ high-powered characters who would consistently raid together. At first, I had a fleeting hope that the Amazon Basin would fill the void and organize end-game raiding groups that I could get involved with. However, like the Lurker Lounge, the Amazon Basin has a tendency to attract more social/explorer type players. It's certainly fun to hang out with them, but the fact is that if you want to get far in end game content, one needs a group with a healthy dose of achiever type personalities who can cut through the BS and focus on the goal at hand, even if it takes days or weeks to achieve a particular goal. (I'm happy to see that the Basin has recently gotten into a rhythm of raiding Molten Core, and I wish there weren't raid lockout periods, so I could raid with you guys as well).
Not having a pre-set group of players I could raid with, I started asking people I instanced with whose gameplay and sense of fairness I respected about whether their guilds were raiding Molten Core or Onyxia and whether they could use another level 60 priestess to go on their raids (the answer to the last question is always: yes). After being invited to a couple of mostly disastrous Molten Core raids, I ended up being invited to a raid organized by a little known guild called the Offenders in mid-February. This particular raid was about 1/3rd Offenders and 2/3rds pickup raid, and I was immediately impressed with the raid leadership's ability to organize the raid and keep things going. Even when we wiped several times, there wasn't any bickering. The discussion was always about what went wrong and how we could do things better. By the end of the evening, we had achieved the first kill of Magmadar for the Horde on Tichondrius, and we all felt really good about the accomplishment. I immediately made arrangements to make sure that I could go on future runs with them, and a number of other people went so far as to join the guild specifically because of the good experiences they had on Molten Core runs around that time period.
Fast forward to today, and despite some rocky moments, I've found that I've spent nearly every weekend raiding Molten Core with the Offenders. I have long resisted attempts to recruit me into the guild by repeatedly explaining about how weird it would be for me specifically to leave the Lurking Loungers, and I've often made the suggestion that it would help the Offenders more if I stayed out of the guild, so I could take on the role of the "elder statesman" or "reasoned 3rd party" when problems arise (stuff happens). Still, as the Offenders guild grew, things became more difficult. When the guild had under 30 members who would consistently come to the raids, it wasn't any big deal to be an outsider invited to the raid. However, when 45+ people were showing up on time to raids, meaning that several people would be left in out in the cold, some people started asking questions about why non-guildmates were being invited. A turning point occurred about a month ago when the Darkstalkers, a small 5-player guild that had been raiding with the Offenders long before I had, decided that it was silly to remain separate and disbanded their guild to join the Offenders. From that point on, all raids were 39 Offenders + Neriad. You can imagine what the pressure was like on the leaders of the Offenders at that moment -- as well as on myself.
From that moment on, every raid I would receive questions from different people, asking "When are you going to join the guild?" There were also lots of more subtle comments like, "There are 44 Offenders in Kargath, let's figure out the invites." "Don't forget Neriad." "Oh, yeah, 44 plus Neriad." Stuff like that. Neriad was always this sore thumb sticking out, especially when it came time for raid invites and making arrangements for raids. The guild leadership was good about it, and I knew they appreciated my presence and how much I had done for them as well. Still, I didn't like being this constant nagging issue that they had to deal with every time a raid was put together. I decided to look at the issue as objectively as possible, and I listed why I didn't want Neriad to leave the Lurking Loungers:
1. As the site administrator for the WoW section of the Lurker Lounge, it would be weird to have me leave the on-line guild, despite my oft repeated assertions that the Lurker Lounge is not a guild.
2. I keep hoping that more Lurkers would get bored with playing PvE and would come over to explore a part of the game they haven't really tried out -- the intensity that the PvP aspect of the game brings. I was one of those who spit venom and bile about how awful PK's and PK'ing was in Diablo II, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed and continue to enjoy PvPing in WoW. I had this hope that if I just kept playing, my presence would somehow encourage people who did decide to make a character on Tichondrius to keep playing.
3. Having the Lurking Loungers guild banner was a nice advertisement for the site.
4. Let's face it. I like being an individual, so it was fun to be the oddball both in the raids and on the server.
5. The guild tabard rocks.
At the same time, I had to look at the reality of the situation. For the last two months, Neriad has spent her time in Azeroth as follows:
1. Raiding Molten Core and Onyxia with the Offenders.
2. PvPing with members of the Offenders. (The #1 ranked Horde player on the server in terms of contribution points is a hunter who's in the Offenders, and it is fun teaming up with him in 5-man teams). This has included some sessions testing the battlegrounds on the test server.
3. Farming stuff to prepare for raids with the Offenders.
Basically, all instance running has stopped for Neriad, because she has done everything there is to do in all the instances, and she owns almost all the decent blue loot that drops in them. Oh, sure, there are those 1-in-1000 drops in some instances that could improve her equipment, but I have long been too bored with the same old instances to try to get those for her. She has also done every quest in every high level zone, except for the Battle of Darrowshire (which she will do one day, darnit!). Everything that Neriad has been doing has been with the Offenders. It seemed ridiculous to pretend that it's not true.
I then thought about my long planned idea of creating a hunter character. I had created one in the beta, getting him up to level 58, and I wanted to create a new one after seeing some really good hunters in action in both PvE and PvP. When I thought about that, most of my reservations about having Neriad leave the Lurking Loungers melted away:
1. Yes, it's weird to leave the Lurking Loungers, but the Lurker Lounge is not a guild, darnit! Besides, it would not be MongoJerry leaving the Lurking Loungers but one specific character, whose adventures I would still like to write about -- if she has any more adventures worthy of telling -- and I think her association with the Offenders will allow her to have many more such adventures. In the meantime, Pandarus will carry the flame of the Lurking Loungers brightly, and I will still be active on the server.
2. I still hope that some day more Lurkers will make characters on Tichondrius and try out a different sort of game. We have recently had some people join in fact -- Treesh, Gnollack, and Zippyy come to mind -- and I'm happy to have them there. I hate to have Neriad leave when they're just starting. But then again, I also realized something. Having a level 60 character hanging around who can't play with them isn't going to do them or any other potentially new Lurkers any good. Wouldn't it be better to have a character of their levels who could actually adventure with them?
3. The guild title did spark a few conversations, but I seriously doubt I got anyone to actually visit the site because of it.
4. Being an individual has its rewards, but sometimes it's just nice to see some green text during the game. I have a strong social aspect to my playing personality (I can't count how many wipes have been caused by my being too chatty during instance runs), and it's just nice to be able to talk to people for once.
5. I will definitely miss the guild tabard. The Offenders has one of those mundane blue background with intertwined snakes tabards. So boring. Thank God Pandarus will be able to proudly wear the Lurking Loungers guild tabard. Plus, since he's a Tauren, he's big and doesn't stoop, so people will see it in all its glory.
So as of today, Neriad is no longer a member of the Lurking Loungers. This was a big decision and one that was certainly not made lightly. But rest assured that MongoJerry has not left the Lurking Loungers, and I hope to see more of you join the crew on Tichondrius in the future.
I've come to this decision after months of deliberation and resistance. It's difficult for me to explain what I've been going through and to get across just how much I've agonized over this decision, especially since for most of you, this may seem out of the blue. Rest assured that it is not. As most people know, Tichondrius has only a small Lurker population on it (I still blame Bolty and all his anti-PvP ravings for that). For a couple of months, Neriad was the only level 60 Lurker on the server and even now, there's only one other level 60 member of the Lurking Loungers (Boutros). For many months, Neriad has been having to make her way on her own, teaming up with random strangers she met on her travels. Having a strong explorer type personality (note: I tend towards depth rather than breadth in my explorations, so I tend to stick to a small set of things and explore every nuance of whatever it is) mixed in with some social and achiever personality, I knew that I would want to explore every area and every quest and event in the game. I knew from the beginning that I would face one major stumbling block in my goals -- finding a good group with whom I could explore end game raiding content.
Obviously, the Lurking Loungers was not going to provide 40+ high-powered characters who would consistently raid together. At first, I had a fleeting hope that the Amazon Basin would fill the void and organize end-game raiding groups that I could get involved with. However, like the Lurker Lounge, the Amazon Basin has a tendency to attract more social/explorer type players. It's certainly fun to hang out with them, but the fact is that if you want to get far in end game content, one needs a group with a healthy dose of achiever type personalities who can cut through the BS and focus on the goal at hand, even if it takes days or weeks to achieve a particular goal. (I'm happy to see that the Basin has recently gotten into a rhythm of raiding Molten Core, and I wish there weren't raid lockout periods, so I could raid with you guys as well).
Not having a pre-set group of players I could raid with, I started asking people I instanced with whose gameplay and sense of fairness I respected about whether their guilds were raiding Molten Core or Onyxia and whether they could use another level 60 priestess to go on their raids (the answer to the last question is always: yes). After being invited to a couple of mostly disastrous Molten Core raids, I ended up being invited to a raid organized by a little known guild called the Offenders in mid-February. This particular raid was about 1/3rd Offenders and 2/3rds pickup raid, and I was immediately impressed with the raid leadership's ability to organize the raid and keep things going. Even when we wiped several times, there wasn't any bickering. The discussion was always about what went wrong and how we could do things better. By the end of the evening, we had achieved the first kill of Magmadar for the Horde on Tichondrius, and we all felt really good about the accomplishment. I immediately made arrangements to make sure that I could go on future runs with them, and a number of other people went so far as to join the guild specifically because of the good experiences they had on Molten Core runs around that time period.
Fast forward to today, and despite some rocky moments, I've found that I've spent nearly every weekend raiding Molten Core with the Offenders. I have long resisted attempts to recruit me into the guild by repeatedly explaining about how weird it would be for me specifically to leave the Lurking Loungers, and I've often made the suggestion that it would help the Offenders more if I stayed out of the guild, so I could take on the role of the "elder statesman" or "reasoned 3rd party" when problems arise (stuff happens). Still, as the Offenders guild grew, things became more difficult. When the guild had under 30 members who would consistently come to the raids, it wasn't any big deal to be an outsider invited to the raid. However, when 45+ people were showing up on time to raids, meaning that several people would be left in out in the cold, some people started asking questions about why non-guildmates were being invited. A turning point occurred about a month ago when the Darkstalkers, a small 5-player guild that had been raiding with the Offenders long before I had, decided that it was silly to remain separate and disbanded their guild to join the Offenders. From that point on, all raids were 39 Offenders + Neriad. You can imagine what the pressure was like on the leaders of the Offenders at that moment -- as well as on myself.
From that moment on, every raid I would receive questions from different people, asking "When are you going to join the guild?" There were also lots of more subtle comments like, "There are 44 Offenders in Kargath, let's figure out the invites." "Don't forget Neriad." "Oh, yeah, 44 plus Neriad." Stuff like that. Neriad was always this sore thumb sticking out, especially when it came time for raid invites and making arrangements for raids. The guild leadership was good about it, and I knew they appreciated my presence and how much I had done for them as well. Still, I didn't like being this constant nagging issue that they had to deal with every time a raid was put together. I decided to look at the issue as objectively as possible, and I listed why I didn't want Neriad to leave the Lurking Loungers:
1. As the site administrator for the WoW section of the Lurker Lounge, it would be weird to have me leave the on-line guild, despite my oft repeated assertions that the Lurker Lounge is not a guild.
2. I keep hoping that more Lurkers would get bored with playing PvE and would come over to explore a part of the game they haven't really tried out -- the intensity that the PvP aspect of the game brings. I was one of those who spit venom and bile about how awful PK's and PK'ing was in Diablo II, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed and continue to enjoy PvPing in WoW. I had this hope that if I just kept playing, my presence would somehow encourage people who did decide to make a character on Tichondrius to keep playing.
3. Having the Lurking Loungers guild banner was a nice advertisement for the site.
4. Let's face it. I like being an individual, so it was fun to be the oddball both in the raids and on the server.
5. The guild tabard rocks.
At the same time, I had to look at the reality of the situation. For the last two months, Neriad has spent her time in Azeroth as follows:
1. Raiding Molten Core and Onyxia with the Offenders.
2. PvPing with members of the Offenders. (The #1 ranked Horde player on the server in terms of contribution points is a hunter who's in the Offenders, and it is fun teaming up with him in 5-man teams). This has included some sessions testing the battlegrounds on the test server.
3. Farming stuff to prepare for raids with the Offenders.
Basically, all instance running has stopped for Neriad, because she has done everything there is to do in all the instances, and she owns almost all the decent blue loot that drops in them. Oh, sure, there are those 1-in-1000 drops in some instances that could improve her equipment, but I have long been too bored with the same old instances to try to get those for her. She has also done every quest in every high level zone, except for the Battle of Darrowshire (which she will do one day, darnit!). Everything that Neriad has been doing has been with the Offenders. It seemed ridiculous to pretend that it's not true.
I then thought about my long planned idea of creating a hunter character. I had created one in the beta, getting him up to level 58, and I wanted to create a new one after seeing some really good hunters in action in both PvE and PvP. When I thought about that, most of my reservations about having Neriad leave the Lurking Loungers melted away:
1. Yes, it's weird to leave the Lurking Loungers, but the Lurker Lounge is not a guild, darnit! Besides, it would not be MongoJerry leaving the Lurking Loungers but one specific character, whose adventures I would still like to write about -- if she has any more adventures worthy of telling -- and I think her association with the Offenders will allow her to have many more such adventures. In the meantime, Pandarus will carry the flame of the Lurking Loungers brightly, and I will still be active on the server.
2. I still hope that some day more Lurkers will make characters on Tichondrius and try out a different sort of game. We have recently had some people join in fact -- Treesh, Gnollack, and Zippyy come to mind -- and I'm happy to have them there. I hate to have Neriad leave when they're just starting. But then again, I also realized something. Having a level 60 character hanging around who can't play with them isn't going to do them or any other potentially new Lurkers any good. Wouldn't it be better to have a character of their levels who could actually adventure with them?
3. The guild title did spark a few conversations, but I seriously doubt I got anyone to actually visit the site because of it.
4. Being an individual has its rewards, but sometimes it's just nice to see some green text during the game. I have a strong social aspect to my playing personality (I can't count how many wipes have been caused by my being too chatty during instance runs), and it's just nice to be able to talk to people for once.
5. I will definitely miss the guild tabard. The Offenders has one of those mundane blue background with intertwined snakes tabards. So boring. Thank God Pandarus will be able to proudly wear the Lurking Loungers guild tabard. Plus, since he's a Tauren, he's big and doesn't stoop, so people will see it in all its glory.
So as of today, Neriad is no longer a member of the Lurking Loungers. This was a big decision and one that was certainly not made lightly. But rest assured that MongoJerry has not left the Lurking Loungers, and I hope to see more of you join the crew on Tichondrius in the future.
