Pre-Outland Paladin On Horse

Pre-Outland Pally

It’s amazing to me the wide variety of playing experience that World of Warcraft players have.

I mean, when I get an opportunity to get into a group with complete strangers at a play level that I normally don’t have time to go back to as a three-plus-night-a-week Raider, it’s amazing the difference in playing experience from one person to the next, and from one group to the next.

What Is An Ivory Tower?

An “Ivory Tower” is a metaphor, like many others in our language. It’s a “simpler” way to contain a set of ideas and beliefs in order to explain to others.

Generally when you look it up, Ivory Towers are associated with educational facilities, but I trust one can take a step one further back and see its application in many other areas of life.

For example, while the set of ideas and beliefs that make up the definition of “Ivory Tower” are explained on many other websites I’ve linked here, here are some of its points relevant to this post, and to the World of Warcraft:

  • Originally ironically, used to designate a world or atmosphere where intellectuals engage in pursuits that are disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life.

  • Usually has a negative connotation, denoting a willful disconnect from the everyday world
  • Over-specialized
  • Academic elitism, if not outright condescension by those inhabiting the ivory tower

Death Knight in Outlands, Fel Reaver Behind

Death Knight in Outlands, With The Fel Reaver In Behind

Without extending more, let me remind you that I’m trying to keep this context COMPLETELY within World of Warcraft, so there is ZERO reference to “The Real World” in the points above.

The Ivory Tower of WoW

Without a doubt, Raiders make up a large percentage of the people “living” in the Ivory Tower of World of Warcraft. (I’m sure there’s some PvP folk in there as well, and some Achievement buffs, too, but this isn’t about them ;) )

And in context of the above statements, you can see what Raiders rarely venture outside of their Ivory Tower homes by their lives and actions on World of Warcraft:

  • When compared to the “average player”, a Raider regularly engages in pursuits that are disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life.

    • On the Average, I’d bet that players are still leveling up, and are more worried about getting enough gold to pay for their next set of skills or next armor upgrade when they level.

    • On the Average, I’d bet that even if the Average player is at level cap, they’re more worried about finding a dungeon group for the right dungeon within a time frame that is reasonable within their personal lives where they have work to do and errands to run and friends to keep up with.
  • When compared to the “average player”, a Raider is knowledgable but highly Over-specialized.
    • On the Average, I’d bet that since players probably aren’t at level cap, they’ve also never stepped into a Heroic, even. Before Heroics, the game is so incredibly forgiving that an average player doesn’t NEED to know every intimate detail of their class. That’s why alt-o-holics can play 8 toons to 80, but why so few of them ever step into raids with more than one or two of their characters.
  • This difference between Average Player skill and Raider skill may turn into elitism, if not outright condescension by those inhabiting the ivory tower
    • And this, of course, is where the Average Player and the Ivory Tower Raider have their biggest quarrels. ‘Nuff said.

Ivory Tower: Benefits, Detriments

While the above may conjure negative images and remind you of negative interactions with annoying players who thought being more skilled on a video game designed to burn spare time actually MEANS something…

There are actually a lot of Benefits of being one of the “elite” members (note, not elitIST) that get the opportunity to roam about the Ivory Raider’s Tower.

Benefits that don’t just help the one who’s been given the opportunity to roam around freely amongst this Raider population, either. Ones that benefit many players who normally couldn’t pass the entry requirements on their own, but are friendly players who are interested in learning and getting better - and just need a bit more experience.

Arcane Mage In Naxxramas

Arcane Mage in Naxxramas

Benefits I’ve noticed include:

  • The leveling process from 70-80 included a lot of guildie dungeon runs and paired questing
  • The day I hit 80, I had people who were already running Heroics, waiting for me to join them
  • Heroic runs with even one guildmate tended to connect me with other High Quality Raiders on the realm, which made future runs even easier as my social network expanded
  • The guild you’re in can help a lot, especially when it comes into awesome runs. It’s a label you don’t have to point out, people see it.
  • Once we got into raiding regularly, and out of the Heroics scene, the free-flowing group invitations outside of Official Raid Nights flowed just freely as the Heroics ones had.

And of course, in any of those situations where spots needed to be filled, it was easy to be able to bring a non-raider friend or two into the mix to get a chance to benefit from the fast runs associated with skilled players, and with the right group mix, bashing upon the non-raider for mistakes made can pretty much completely be avoided, as well.

After all, the difference between 9-manning a raid and 10-manning it (or 24 vs 25) is negligable once you’re comfortable with the fights, and since we’re on alts doing it for fun, seeing someone’s friend get a handful of upgrades is actually FUN and not taking away from our own experience of the game.

That is not to say, of course, that said friend would qualify for a guild invite and a spot on the main raid team ;)

Ivory Tower Detriments All Too Clear

I could write a bunch about it, but this entry is already plenty long, and I think many players are already quite aware of the negatives that can come about from the Ivory Tower syndrome I speak of above.

Plus, it goes against my “talk about what you want, not what you don’t want” philosophy of life these days, so I guess that means this entry is pretty much done!

Have you thought about the Raider’s Ivory Tower syndrome? Are there any other Benefits that I neglected to add that I should mention in future discussions about the topic?

If there were a team of Raiders who existed part of their time in the Ivory Tower yet kept themselves with their feet on the ground with regards to the plight of the every day Leveler, what things do you think they’d do to keep that connection with the “average player”?

And ultimately, do you think this connection would be GOOD for your Raid Group or bad?

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   Posted in Adventures Gearing Up, Adventures Getting Mounts, Adventures In Azeroth, Adventures In Outland, Adventures Leveling Up, Adventures While Raiding, Adventures in Northrend, Adventures in PUGs, Adventuring Solo, Etiquette, Guild Initiates, Guildmaster Guides, Warcraft Tips and Tricks, wotlk raids

Mimiron in Ulduar

Mimiron in Ulduar

In answer to my own entry entitled Why Do You Raid? (Or Not), I’ve decided to post more details about why I, personally, raid.

You’ll find that the thought processes I apply here will strongly effect my viewpoint on many things to do with guild relations, and I’m sure you’ll find that you disagree with me on many points.

That’s cool! I’m glad for it, and I’m happy to hear your thoughts and views on the same situation. I’m sure other readers will appreciate it as well, seeing many perspectives intead of just the one I present.

Why I Raid

If I had to choose the top three reasons why I raid these days, I’d choose the following:

  • To experience more of the World of Warcraft
  • To challenge myself and my playing skills
  • To participate in time-scheduled, high-quality play

Truthfully, when I was building that list, I realized that those weren’t the original reasons I got into raiding, but that’s a topic for a future entry (Why I Got Into Raiding, not yet written :) ).

I will, however, take time to go more deeply into the explanation of the above points:

Reason #1: To Experience More Of World of Warcraft

There is a limit that a player can do within World of Warcraft once one hits level 80, without setting foot into a raid:

If you plan to stay on one main character, you can do dungeons and heroic dungeons, you can skill up professions that had lagged behind your leveling process, you can grind reputation in a large number of factions (including ones that take you back to Outland and Azeroth) and you can farm for gold a lot more easily, or run friends through instances.

Three Pygmified Raiders In A PUGBut after a while, that becomes boring. So then what do you do?

Depending on your ability to commit time to dungeon runs of questionable quality and length, and funds towards crafted gear with expensive components, you might choose to start up an alternate character instead, and begin leveling it up (in fact I do recommend it in a way, but that’s another entry on its own).

But at some point, even someone like me with 3 Level 80s and 3 non-DK’s at levels above 60… gets bored of advancing more toons through the same levels and zones that are “the grind” of leveling up.

At that point, even if we didn’t want to commit to raiding, or get into a raiding guild in the past, now our mind starts to shift a little bit, and we start thinking about all the new content there is out there that we’ve never, ever seen.

And of course, when the new content comes out - it’s rarely in Azeroth, isn’t it??! Most of the new content that goes into the game goes into the “top end”, extending it out further for every player of the game.

Obviously as a way to combat alts boredom, raiding provides a never-ending train of new fights and new dynamics to the new raider.

Reason #2: Challenging Myself, My Playing Skills

This is a point that has always been important to me, but what I consider “challenging” is a relative thing that changes with my own skill level.

Back at the start of my play time, there was enough challenge in simply questing and exploring and leveling within the game, but over time my play needed to expand in order to keep the feeling of being challenged to improve.

So, I got into dungeon runs with guildmates when someone was looking to run something, and tried to “softly” bring myself into the world of Grouped Play on World of Warcraft.

Truthfully, it didn’t work very well. Guildmates were rarely wanting to run something when it fit my personal schedule, and as is pretty standard in a leveling guild, there were very few members who were in my level (and thus dungeon) range as well.

So, I made the emotionally scary journey into using Pick Up Groups for my dungeoning needs. I put on my nicest asbestos suit (you know, to protect me from the flames of so-called “better” players) and head into the world of PUGs where an extremely wide variety of folk can be met.

But eventually, even the novelty challenge of a PUG’s natural skill and speed varieties wore thin, and I craved a new challenge once again.

Thankfully, in Burning Crusade when I hit this phase of “boredom”, there were still plenty of challenges left, and the first one was named “Heroics”.

And wow, Heroics were an eye-opener, at least to me. I grew excited at what I saw, because I recognized it as “the next phase” I was aching for in my challenge-hungry heart.

I learned quickly that Heroics, at least early in Burning Crusade, were a self-correcting system. By that, I mean that early BC Heroics were rarely time-wasters like Regulars were… if you were undergeared or underskilled for Heroics, it was crystal clear after the first pull. Groups tended to break up immediately, or progress through the dungeon at a respectable pace, and there was very little in-between.

Once I got into Heroics, I was in a whole new world. The friends I began to make were Raiders, more and more. They weren’t available during the evening for Heroics runs during the week, because they were raiding.

And while I had no real intention to get deeply into raiding, when I received a random whisper from a raid guild recruiter one morning just before putting myself into LFG for the daily Heroic, I was pleased when the conversation ended not with a random guild invite, but with an invite to join a 25 man raid that evening, in Serpentshrine Cavern.

Moving from the challenge of a 5 person team to that of a 25 person team was insane, especially because I pretty much skipped over the 10 person raid of Karazhan until I was already raiding 25s 3x a week for over a month, and decided to actually make my first move onto the roster of a Raiding Guild.

From there, I was hooked on the level of challenge of play that’s available in the Raiding World. Even with an awesome team, the personal challenges rarely cease.

It’s great!

Reason #3: Time-Scheduled, High Quality Play

I left my first raiding guild after nearly six months of membership, once the guild environment changed enough that I no longer felt I really “fit in” outside of the raids themselves.

From there, I floated for a while, remaining unguilded and enjoying the pre-WoTLK TBC summer that brought with it so many raid PUGs at all Tier levels of play.

While I enjoying my freedom and lack of responsibility to any one raid team, I pondered my raiding future.

I made new friends in Heroics as I went through the gearing-up hoops with my second Heroically-geared character, and asked many of my current raiding friends more detail about the raid guild they were a part of.

As WoTLK drew nearer, with its 10 additional levels and complete reset of the gearing and raiding team environments, I made my move and began to pursue membership with a solid raiding team. I was especially looking for a team that was STILL RAIDING even after the official release date of WoTLK was announced.

That turned out to be a tough thing to do after WoTLK’s release date came out, because a high percentage of our realm’s raiders were raiding for gear progression, not for the experience of attempting or defeating the content, and as soon as it became apparent that any gear progression would be useless, many teams stopped Guild Raids out of lack of attendance.

That’s what happened with the first raid guild I accepted membership into - my #1 choice (the guild I’m in now, BTW) rejected my app and gave me no indication about how I could reverse the rejection, so I went to my #2 choice and my website app (that included asking me how many of their raid days I could attend) got approved right away.

When I was able to get a guild invite, however, the Guild Message Of The Day read something like: “Gear up and get ready for the xpac. No raiding until WoTLK”. My first response was “what? we’re not raiding? uhmm….”

I left that guild within three days, because while the players seemed to be friendly and helpful and there were a regular stream of Heroics going every day, I wanted to see as much of the TBC content as I could before WoTLK came out, and I didn’t want to have to PUG it.

I sent thank-you and sorry messages to the few people I connected with in that time, and sent one to the Guildmaster as well. All I heard back from anyone was that “you won’t be able to find a guild that is raiding right now, nobody’s raiding“.

Aside from the ironicism that I DID find a guild that raided TBC content right until the night of WoTLK’s release, there’s this: After WoTLK came out and our server had high queues for a while, half of that “nobody’s raiding” 25-man guild transferred to another server, leaving the guild on our server COMPLETELY unable to raid 25s until a month or two into 2009.

These days, I’m in a guild that has not only a solid raid schedule, but a solid raid team. We start raids on time (although getting set up in vehicles in Ulduar sometimes slows us down 5-10 min), end raids on time, and are consistently making progression on a weekly basis with our team.

This is my first guild that has “Official Raid Days” as well, and the first raiding team I’ve been a part of that records attendance and has an Officer-based Loot Council who make the ultimate decision on who wins a piece of loot when it drops for the team.

What’s weird is that before I got into a “committed raid team” like I am now, I thought the commitment would be worse instead of better in terms of play time. After all, who really wants to schedule their life around a video game, right?

The thing I realized was this: Without the schedule, I was wasting a lot more time in-game in order to feel like I’d “accomplished” something. I’d sit in LFG for however long before getting an invite, then go into random PUG dungeon groups that could be excellent or incredibly painful. I’d spent a lot of time waiting for less-scheduled raid groups to get together and Git’r Done, and was stuck with my finger in my ear while people in these PUGs went AFK for 5-15 min at a time, usually holding up the whole group. I’d feel like I was stuck in a group out of loyalty, without ever knowing when the raid night would be over.

With the schedule, and with the combination effort of a solid Officer’s team and Raiders who are interested in being part of a good team that does well, I was surprised how many problems vanished:

  • Raid overflow is a great motivator:

    • If you ain’t online 15 min before raid start time, the spots are filled, and you’re on Overflow unless you’re Really Special[TM]
    • AFKing too much? Not coming prepared with consumables? Hey, there’s someone here who can replace you who ISN’T exhibiting these traits.
  • People who commit to time schedules like to know not only when they start, but when they end, too.
  • Setting official raid days and non-official raid days gives your raiders a break, and clarifies who makes the personal choice to raid more often.
  • Once you know when your raids start and end, and what days are Official Raid Days, you can actually start to PLAY LESS because you’re not wasting time in LFG or with questionable groups.
  • Within a solid team of high-percentage attenders, Raid Applicants that join but are ultimately unreliable for raiding seem to guilt themselves into even poorer attendance, which makes the decision of recruiting someone new (and hopefully more reliable) a lot easier, sooner.

Why I Raid, Summarized

Yah, I know I just wrote a half a book up there about only three of the reasons Why I Raid, but really, I guess when it comes down to it…

I Raid Because It Brings Me Joy.

And ain’t the best parts of life about the joys things bring?

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   Posted in Adventures In Azeroth, Adventures In Outland, Adventures While Healing, Adventures While Raiding, Adventures in Northrend, Adventures in PUGs, wotlk raids

Here’s a video I made with some raider guildmates who were awake with me in the middle of the night when the Midsummer Fire Festival first started, and we got our first crack at Ahune after a year of not having seen him around.

He’s pretty easy to take down at 80, and his loots are level 70 epics, but still a lot of fun!

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   Posted in Achievements, Adventures In Outland, Adventures in PUGs, Adventures in Season, Warcraft Tips and Tricks, wow video

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