I left a Karazhan raid last night before it had officially been disbanded – something that I have never done before. It was just too much.
First, due to raiding apathy, the Tempest Keep Al’ar scheduled run was disbanded, after waiting for ages for one of the tanks who had signed up to actually show up. We were separated into two Karazhan groups. Mine was the “special kids” group. :/
From the start, we waited for ages to get started due to dinner breaks and people pissing around. Those dinner breaks weren’t the last ones…before and during the raid, there were three long dinner breaks for various people, and I left before the fourth. There was also a shower break in there, but I am not counting it since it coincided with one of the dinner breaks. I read. I did sit-ups. I paced. It was my Sunday afternoon, and it was stressy, boring and infuriating.
There were also several discussions that made me angry and uncomfortable, one involving an enchanting recipe that dropped, and the other involving a hunter pet (if I put him away, he’ll get unhappy and abandon me, or attack the raid. WTF? ATTACK THE RAID? HAHAHAHAHAHA). Three people had rolled for the enchanting recipe, and the person who won it was two points under 375. This was protested by the raid leader (who was one of the people who wanted it), but upon discussion it was agreed that the acceptable range was always 370-375. Then the rl said that he could do the enchant for the other guy, if he passed on it. Someone else pointed out that he was putting pressure on the guy so that he would pass. The raid leader’s wife made the comment that he was raid leader and he could do anything he wanted. (I forget how she worded it, but that was the general meaning.) The poor guy who won it finally got his recipe, but it took ages to argue about it, more time lost. Not fun.
Raiding, to me, is like a job. You may get paid in lewtz rather than by paycheque, but you are there to show up before the start, to stay to the end, to come with all the things that you’ll need, and to follow orders. Those that aren’t mature enough to handle it, get fired. If you’re in a very casual guild, fine – there is a place for people who want to show up when they want to, play however they want to, and take half-hour breaks for dinner. Those guilds, however, won’t be doing a lot of endgame content – they simply can’t, those instances can’t be approached casually. You might raid Kara, but you won’t be doing any 25-mans like that. If you suddenly say “AFK for food, back in half an hour”, you’re saying that your time is more important than the nine (or 24) other people who are waiting for you.
I don’t really cut kids or parents any slack, either. If you know you can’t be there for the full raid, then don’t sign up. Or, at the very least, tell the raid leader so he can say to everyone “ok, we’ll have a twenty minute break at 7:00, everyone eat then”, which would be fine. What you can’t have is four separate people during the raid doing that at different times. Part of what I love about MMOs, and raiding in particular, is how it socialises and matures people, teaches responsibility and gives kids the tools to work well in groups…IF you set rules and responsibilities, and make people live up to those.
*sigh* Not sure what to do about this group in particular, aside from avoid them like the plague. It’s a shame, as this guild is potentially one of the rare guilds that could be one of the top raiding guilds on the server without turning into a bunch of asshats. (Would I want to be a member of Nihilum? Not a chance…) They try to stress roleplay as well as raiding, which I very much like, and stress that everyone should have a good time. As in any group, though, there are individual elements that let everyone else down.
I’m almost thankful that this will be a tough week at work, and I won’t be able to do much raiding…and that’s not how I want to feel.