Running a Raid

I've run through several different trains of thought while trying to decide how I should discuss the topic of Raid Leading.  I've considered doing one of my more long-winded philosophical discourses on the various social nuances I have come to see as 'Good' or 'Bad' for Raid Leaders.  I've considered just recounting a single experience that seems to best embody what I believe a good raid leader is, but neither does the topic justice.  Instead what I will try to do is objectively present the different Raid Leader archetypes that I have encountered in my time as a raider.  

Screamer Type

These raid leaders are easily characterized by their quick, and often harsh, criticism of raid fails, and even sometimes criticizing their victories.  These people have the will to push their group to the absolute limit of their abilities.  They will push until their Core members either become unstoppable or collapse under the pressure.  Burn out can occur more quickly with someone like this at the helm, so they tend to work best with groups that run a lighter schedule.  This style of leadership will squeeze the absolute maximum out of every minute of those raiding nights.  The best of this type know every fight inside and out and have very methodical strategies prepared for each fight.  

Ideal Raiders for this style

Screamers will want to handpick their raiders carefully.  You need people who are there to push their skills to the limit; people who are aiming to show off, raid casually, or loot whore won't last under your guidance.

Pitfalls

While you can push your people to the limit and beyond, make sure you don't forget that there are actually living people controlling the other characters in raid.  Give them a break sometimes, and make sure that they are having fun.  You're going to face a high turnover rate of Core members and anything you can do to slow this down will greatly help your progression.  Also be certain that you acknowledge your own mistakes, and always be well researched on the fights.  People will put up with the whip-cracking as long as they believe that it will get results.

Cocky Type

These raid leaders are characterized by their tendency to assume everyone already knows what they are doing so lets just do it.  These people provide the most relaxed raiding atmosphere typically, until things begin to fail, and puts the most faith in the competence of their raiders.  Unlike the Screamer, the Cocky Type won't typically try to hand-hold or overly coordinate a boss strategy.  "Everyone knows what to do, so lets just do it." is a very common phrase from someone of this leadership style.

Ideal Raiders for this style

When looking to run through everything as if everyone knows the fights already, you're going to need people who are willing to put in the time to research.  You'll need adaptable raiders who are ready to flow with flexible approaches to an encounter.  Unlike the screamer, you don't need people who are determined to push it to the limit, in fact they are likely to bail with a Raid Leader of this style.  You need people who are okay with some encounters being a bit more chaotic than they could be, and not looking to for direction to the most optimal approach.

Pitfalls

The downfall of any Raid Leader of this category is almost always in willpower.  When fights start going poorly, they are often very quick to call it a night and come back another time.  To be successful as this type of raid leader you need to know when its time to lay down the law and fall back on a different style.

Tactician Type

These raid leaders are characterized by an extremely analytical approach to raiding.  They will take any fight and break down each of its components to understand the precise implications.  They will coordinate healing strategies straight down to the arsenal of spells they expect each healer in their raid to be using.  When a wipe occurs there will often be a long discussion about each problem that lead to that wipe, and adjustments will be made.  They will swap people out, ask people to switch roles, and sometimes completely alter the approach from the 'Standard' methodology.

Ideal Raiders for this style

As a Tactician Type leader you need people who are very motivated to achieving goals as a Guild.  You also need people who are highly critical of their own performance during raid.  You function on this information and it is the only way you'll be able to figure out why you've been struggling on a given boss fight.  Your raiders will need to be thick-skinned and ready to put their pride aside when you have to tell them they aren't fitting in the big picture.

Pitfalls

Similar to the Screamer, you'll often objectify your raiders and forget that they are still human behind that screen.  You'll almost certainly want to have a second officer assisting on Raid nights, particularly to act as a buffer between you and the other raiders.  While the solution may seem very clear to you, not everyone is going to like you telling them that they aren't performing.  Try to remember tact as much as possible, because raiders are likely to head for greener pastures if you continuously dehumanize them.

Anybody able to think of additional Raid Leader Archetypes?  Put them in the comments, flesh them out if you want, otherwise I will try my best to put up a similar analysis for each.

Role play and World of Warcraft

I will first prefaces this with the qualifier that I do RP on WoW.  I have suffered the slings an arrows of being in raiding guilds and being mocked for all the 'ERP' that I do during my off time.  I try my best to take it with a shrug and a laugh, at the end of the day I know its bullshit, I've never participated in ERP and never intend to.  Interestingly, I have often found myself being a bit apart from many of the people I interact with.  

I enjoy taking very basic concepts and fleshing them out.  They aren't always original, but I used the parameters of the world as the limitations on what my character can be or do.  This makes me sort of the oddball in my standard trip through WoW RP.  I would like to briefly list some concepts that I have run into more than once:

1. Half Dragon/Half-Something Else

2. Dragon in disguise

3. Former Death Knight returned to life

4. Former Forsaken returned to life

5. Has bested Arthas in single combat

I would rate those as the 5 most recurring concepts.  There are many others, so many rare and special snowflakes.  It bothers me mostly because I think that those kinds of stories are rather boring.  There's no meaning beyond 'I am awesome', there's really not a story there at all.  My active character histories are as follows:

Blood Elf Death Knight - Former Hunter, something of a scoundrel, died working for the Argent Dawn defending a village being evacuated during a Scourge assault.  Raised as a Death Knight, broken free around the time of Light's Hope.  Believes that this is his chance to actually do all the good he, wrongfully, figured he'd have plenty of time for.

Blood Elf Paladin - Blood Knight, aspiring to be a hero, is slightly below average in the Intelligence department.  Not dumb or ignorant, but most complicated matters he just doesn't really understand.  Was gunned down by Alliance in retaliation for the Wrath Gate incident.  Body was not recovered/resurrected for several months and is now dealing with life after everyone else has moved on.

Undead Warrior - A minor noble of the Arathi Royal Family.  Killed during the Scourge invasion, raised as an Undead. Broke free with Lady Sylvanas and has spent most of his time away from society since then.  Something of a Doc Brown type character with even less understanding of social rules/norms.

None of these concepts is the mark of anything special, but what makes me enjoy playing them is that they are rather mundane characters that have the potential to step up and do something great.  Up against all of these incredibly epic characters that move the world with their whims, any one of these characters stepping up to take action adds drama, excitement.  Superheroes going to fight villains isn't overly interesting, unless the villains are so preposterously powerful that the heroes seem mundane by comparison.  Regular people stepping up to fight such superpowers has drama, the characters are at risk.  

I don't mind a story where my character fails, if it enhances the story.  Good triumphing over evil is tried and true, but there are other messages out there.  Sometimes its not enough, sometimes a relationship just fails, sometimes the scrappy underdog gets his head handed to him.  These aren't bad stories, if told properly.  My Blood Elf's death was one of the more interesting things to run, mostly because his death was fairly meaningless. All his dreams of being a hero, constantly trying to protect his friends and succeed ultimately brought down because the Alliance was pissed at the Horde.  Its a strong message, and not one I think should be forgotten.

To all you God-Complex RP'rs out there, don't be afraid to try playing mundane concept.  It can add a sense of drama and tension to scenes when you aren't an invincible god....dragon....thing.

Rant about being an Adult

That’s it, I’ve had enough.  Honestly I sometimes have to wonder if its just a coincidence that no matter what sector of my personal life I look in I see the same stupid shit happening.  There seems to be this very common idea of what it means to ‘Grow up’ and ‘Be responsible’, yet these same people exhibit some of the most extreme immaturity in the process.  To make it clear I’m going to spike out a few things that are an example of being grown up.  Followed by some kind of bullshit people try to use these for.

Posted this in a few places, going to add some additional portions to make this a little more 'WoW' relevant. In other words, I'm going to spell it out for you.

Be Responsible

Honestly, from my experience this is really the cornerstone of acting like an adult.  You follow through on commitments, when you can’t you let those who are depending on you know you can’t.  This so fundamental but seems to be the biggest hurdle for people. What’s worse is that they use this as an excuse for why they were irresponsible: “Sorry I didn’t reply to that email, I’ve just been too busy with work and school.”

Like hell, 9/10 emails can be answered with 1-2 sentences, you’re going to tell me that you didn’t have time to write 1-2 sentences and send it in? Go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.  The real reason was “I didn't reply to your email because I either forgot or didn't feel like it.”  People forget things, nobody's perfect, but don't go and lie about it too.  This also applies to phone calls, and other forms of communication.

This extends into the world of Online gaming pretty clearly.  When you sign up for a raid, show up.  If you're expected to have food, flasks, and other consumables bring them.  Probably even more important, if you can't make it be certain to notify the right people ahead of time.  When a wipe happens, you need to be able to own up to what you may or may not have done that could have made it run more smoothly.  Its what will make you a better raider in the long run.

Follow through on your Commitments

For the love of everything unholy, if you say you’re going to be somewhere, be there.  If you say you’re going to do something do it.  If you screw up, don't go prattling off 101 reasons why it wasn't your fault.  You apologize and you make damn sure it doesn't happen again.  Maturity doesn't mean never making a mistake, it means you’ll actually realize you screwed up and try to do better.  Honestly I think this is probably one of the weakest areas I see from people around me.

See above discussion about showing up on time for Raids and other events that you've committed to.  Even more important, commit to being there.  Even if a raid night starts going poorly or some person's voice on vent causes your ears to bleed.  Be there, and stick it out.  Nothing quite says 'Fuck you' to a group like saying that you're time is too good for them.

Treat People with Respect

You don't have to like everybody or be everyone's friend.  Maybe you're not the type to get close to others; I know I'm not that type, that's not important.  Unless that person is intentionally destructive to your life in some way common courtesy and respect are considered 'Par' for the course.  These aren't some ideals, this is basic stuff.  When you need to cancel plans or what have you, common courtesy dictates that you tell others this.  Blowing off people, even if it’s to do something you deem more important, is never OK.  See, believe it or not other people make “plans” and will often put other plans on hold when they have a pre-existing arrangement.

When a group regularly gets together to do some activity that's collaborative in nature, even in the name of recreation, its considered disrespectful to them to decide you just don't feel like it. Call ahead! Give some kind of advanced warning!  Most people can roll with that, but don't wait till everyone’s trying to get together and decide 'meh not feeling it today.'

This goes for raids in particular.  Unless some troll (internet kind) is getting in your face, every person there is putting in the time, giving up the lockout, and fighting the bosses.  Treat them accordingly.

Real Life Comes First

This phrase is used over and over again when related to most fun activities.  It’s very relevant, when you have shit to deal with that’s not the time to be logging onto WoW or pulling out the dice for some gaming.  When real life comes up, however, that doesn't give you license to just flake out of these activities.  This should seem obvious, but you should probably let the people who will be waiting for you that some issue has come up.

Oddly enough this phrase is also very commonly abused, in a shaky grasp at what real life is.  When you have a planned get together for gaming with a group of friends, and another group of friends decides to spontaneously get drunk the ‘Real Life Comes First’ statement does not apply.  Despite what you might think, the people in your regularly scheduled gaming group also exist in real life, and you’re blowing them off at the last minute.  Obviously compromises can happen here, but don’t act like the whole thing is self-explanatory.

With Age Comes Maturity

I assure you this is not the case.  Day-in and day-out I watch people quite a bit older than me act like children.  Seriously, age matters a hell of lot less than you’d think.  It doesn’t make you more mature inherently, it can, in fact, just take your immaturity to new levels.  I've known numerous people who are considerably older than me but you would never know by their conduct.  They'll pitch a fit if you don't follow the strat they like best, they'll rage-quit from group when they get out-rolled. Sometimes, even worse.  What frustrates me is how many people I've met in recent times that need to hear this.  I guess I had hoped that people who do not grasp what it means to be an adult would be much less commonplace.

Yeah, I know, growing up is hard.

Raiding Guilds vs. Non-Raiding Guilds

Recent events have brought to clarity a key distinction that often slips by people who are running or joining a Guild.  No matter how casual or hardcore you're intent is, there is a baseline required to call yourself a Raiding Guild.  If you consider yourself a raiding guild, you need to make the hard decisions of asking people to step out when they aren't carrying their weight.  Additionally, as a member of a raiding guild you need to accept that you will be challenged to improve at some point.  If you don't, its also your responsibility to accept the consequences of not rising to the occasion.

If your Raiding Guild's leadership fails to do this, their talented people will eventually get tired of being held back and look elsewhere for their progression.  Conversely if you cannot, as a raider, handle the demands of the Guild  you can expect that you'll be benched or worse for doing so.  None of this should be new to anyone familiar with the raiding scene.  These are the basis for a group that approaches Raiding with the intent of clearing content.  Regardless of whether they rate themselves as Casual, semi-core(?), or Hardcore.  Those terms are more indicative of the level of time, commitment, and tenacity they take when approaching the raiding scene.

The problem becomes when you have a Non-Raiding guild that is trying to run raids.  These people are typically friends and share other interests that bring them together into a social entity of a guild.  In 'ye olden days' these Guilds would barely step foot into any of the raiding content as a guild, mostly due to the high barrier-to-entry of progression.  Now that the content is more accessible its possible to try and assemble a team and make a go at it.  Depending on the size of a particular guild you could even field multiple teams.  Unfortunately, unless you are lucky enough to have a consistent team of solid raiders (unlikely given that most people of this quality join a raiding guild) you often have a slightly unstable team.  This in itself is detrimental to raiding, the more people you have to cycle the slower the learning curve will be.  Then situations can worsen, when you have a weak link or two in your group you have little recourse compared to a 'Raiding Guild'.  Raiding guilds have charters and/or policy that address performance expectations, typically a non-raiding guild has no such provisions and even if they do there are social foundations that interfere.

These people who are holding back progression are not 'Raiders' they are simply 'People who like to Raid'.  They don't constantly analyze the groups performance and adjust their play style to fit it.  What makes things worse is that Raid Leaders have to deal with extreme social stigma and possible drama should they attempt replace them in the raid.  Suffice to say, each and every time this goes down you can expect drama and a weakening of the Guilds ranks. Unless your Non-raiding guild is full of the most well adjusted people, be careful pursuing raiding content as a guild activity.  Feelings will get hurt, drama will happen, and you could end up losing more than just a raid member.

Giving the blogging thing a real try

Here we are on a late Sunday night and I have the urge to actually talk about my interests.  There's an egotistical side of me that hopes this will draw some attention and wind up being more than just me talking at the Internet and hoping someone cares.  That last sentence sounds angstier read back than I expected; but in a nutshell I've had a fair share of experience on the raiding scene and I'd like to talk about my observations and learning experiences.

Currently I have four level 80's:
80 Hunter (Naxx geared, SV)
80 DK (Unholy Dps/Blood Tank) Geared for ICC10/Entry ICC10
80 Warrior (Prot/Arms) Geared for ICC10/Uld10
80 Holy Paladin (Holy/Prot) Geared for ToC10/Heroics

Below the cut is a long ramble about most of my history as a player.  I've glossed over more recent months as I will be dedicating full posts to those topics.  More to come in the upcoming days.  Comments are always welcome.