World of warcraft's yearly PMS cycle

[Sir Lucius]

Is it just me, or does this game menstruate once a year?


Game is played -> Drama is made -> Thread is posted -> Thread is locked (or Ned Crushed as I like to say) -> All anger is bottled up and saved for next year's cycle.


TMC is in desperate need of a neutral party guidance counselor. Don't laugh, a lot of guilds do it. They even have drama committees. The idea is to have a designated mediator to relay comments back and forth between two drama-infused parties. Everything is done in private, and the issue is resolved without either person having to be confrontational.

I would like to apply for this position. As an example, let me show you how I would handle a dramatic encounter.

Mysterious Visitor 1: Hello Lucius, ship's guidence counselor. I have an issue with a fellow Martian. _____ has been very harsh to me lately, and I've started to take offense. Personally, I find his overuse of "gay" jokes unnesscessary, and everything he says makes me feel akward. Can you please speak to him for me?

Me: Wait, you're not talking about me, are you?

Mysterious Visitor 1: No, it's deffenitly _____ that's the problem. Can you help?

Me: Sure thing, the problem will be resloved shortly.

Mysterious Visitor 1: Thank you.




Me: Hey, _____, you got a minute?

_____: Sure, what's up?

Me: Mysterious Visitor thinks you're a jerk.

_____: What?

Me: Yeah, he was talking total trash about you. What are you going to do about it?

_____: Ignore him I guess...that guy's a blow hard.

Me: Don't be a coward. Let's get him back.

_____: What do you propose?

Me: Create a bunch of wow alts and send him 10,000 pieces of simple wood. In each letter write, "Use this set yourself on fire, asshole."

_____: ...




Mysterious Visitor 1: Hey!

Me: I'm kind of busy..

Mysterious Visitor 1: _____ hasn't let up at all! Now he's outright harrassing me!

Me: What'd he do?

Mysterious Visitor 1: He sent me 10,000 pieces of simple wood! WTF?!?!?

Me: Heh, a cheap tactic easily countered. Just hit return on each of them and he'll spend the afternoon deleting them from his inbox. Then call him out on the forums.




Ned: Mysterious Visitor 1 and _____ have become a major problem. Are you doing anything about this?

Me: Yea, I've tried but it seems they're totally at each other's throats. They also violated privacy rights by making threads about it.

Ned: What do you suggest?

Me: We should fine each of them 50 gold. Have them send it to Redleg as a holding account, and I'll redistribute the wealth later for people who do good deeds.




And that's how my good deeds buy me a flying mount.

[jackrabbit]

I expected something completely different. I approve of this thread, wholeheartedly.

[Tai]

Thank you. Thank you again. And one last time, thank you. That was quite well done :)

[Kermit]

I personally find drama to be highly over-rated.

I'm going to start a WoW SitCom. I'm taking applications for anyone who wants to play the tall crazy-haired racist.

[Paladin]

I'm taking applications for anyone who wants to play the tall crazy-haired racist.

Oh.... Ned would be so perfect in that role!!!!

[Patton]

i'm tall and racist

my hair is kinda tame though

[Andri]

I want to apply for this movie thing, but I don't want to play the tall racist (although I'd have the right accent for it). No, I want to play the bitchy mother-in law or aunt that everybody is afraid of. And as one of my first scenes I want to slap Ned with some stinking fish caught in the swamp of sorrows for locking the drama thread before I could post and create more drama. Cuz I LOOOOVE drama! (You who claim they don't love drama are all just dirty liars.) To flesh out the role, it needs to involve big hair, too much make-up, an oversized fur coat, and lots of scotch. Think you can write such a role, Kermit? :thumbup:

[Kermit]

Are you supplying the scotch?

Also, Ned is the writer in the group. I'm more of the executive producer type.

I want to take all the credit and do none of the work. (See... creating drama as I speak.)

[Andri]

Sure, I'll supply the scotch. As long as you buy me that fur coat. :bg: And don't worry about the big hair... I laready got that part covered.

Since we ARE in annual PMS mode I also want to say something that I felt like saying a few times before but always decided otherwise because of all our tender, drama-averse martians. But maybe it's to the benefit of some of the newer people to get a few things straightened out.

First of all, I came back from the Kingdom merger into TMC together with all the rest of you. The difference was, I was hooked on raiding by that time and wanted to continue that. I thought that we would regroup after the de-merge and look for another opportunity to team up with some group to get to the numbers where we could go to Molten Core. When that did not happen, I left TMC and went back to Kingdom. This was probably the hardest decision I made in the entire game, and a lot of the drama we later had with Archon and such came from my flawed desire to somehow get my "family" (i.e. the martians) and my raid companions together under one roof. Well, we all know that that did not work -- chapter closed.

What irks me occasionally (and really only occasionally, because at the end of the day it does not really matter to me whether you understand/approve or not) is that re-occuring assumption that I went back to raiding with Kingdom because of the phat loots. Loot is nice and of course I like to have my share just as much as the next guy. But that is just one part of why I like raiding. Many of you may find it very hard to believe but I really enjoy working together with 39 other people; and, plain and simple, I want to see all the dungeons in the game. I think that most martians would love the gear and the dungeons just as much as I do (or Jolissa for that matter). Where I (and I dare say also BoX and Jolissa) stand apart from most martians is in the effort I am willing to make to get to these goals. Or if you want to put it differently: In my patience to put up with 39 other players and whatever flaws they may have, and in my readiness to literally organize my life around a fixed raiding schedule.

Clearly, I have much more flexibility to organize my life like that than many of you other martians. I have no kids and no fires to fight. And apparently I also have enough of an obsession with the game, whereas other martians prefer to hang out with RL friends or just do other things than play WoW. Fair enough. We all should play however we like. But if you do want to see all the dungeons in th egame there is unfortunately no other way than to team up with 39 oher players (still that number if you want to see Naxx) who have a similar mindset than my own.

As Heather reminded us very clearly, TMC is primarily a bunch of friends and as such provides a home on Azeroth to all the wow-inclined among us. It centers more around having fun with friends than with accomplishing big in-game goals. There is nothing wrong with that. The problem is that if you do have the ambition to go on large scale raids (other than just as an occasional filler) you have few other options than leaving TMC and joining a raiding guild. And with that comes a lot of commitment; and, whether you like it or not, a need to put that new guild first. If they call, you run just as Budly runs when there's a fire in the neighborhood. And if I accept that TMC will not accommodate my ideal play style, then I think martians should accpet that people go outside TMC to get their max pleasure out of the game. To me, my wow life often feels eerily close to RL... my family does not understand why I live so far away and in an aweful country like the US where people can get fired at a whim and some stupid cowboy is president. Well, that's how I like to live my life. Europe was to small, too stuffy and too old-fashioned for me. I left it, and no, I cannot visit home whenever my family would like it. But that does not mean I love them any less and would not like to hang out with them. Just as I still love all of you martians and love to hang out with you whenever I can.

So let me conclude by saying that I really hope we are over all that "you left us, you are a traitor and a loot whore" BS and just recognize it as a fact that TMC is larger than WoW but for that very reason cannot (and does not want to) fulfill the requirements of a WoW raiding guild. We can still all be friends and hang out in gamne as well as on the forums. I love you all, and if you need help with anythign, just let me know.

Now give Fitty his backbone back, Heather. :spank:

[FoeKilla]

I've never stopped loving you Inka - how could I turn my back on my biggest fan?:bg:

[Budly]

More pickle juice!!!

[Harka]

I Love Inka too! :wavey:

[Sir Lucius]

I'd like to make it clear that I really don't like any of you.

[Creole Ned]

As Heather reminded us very clearly, TMC is primarily a bunch of friends and as such provides a home on Azeroth to all the wow-inclined among us. It centers more around having fun with friends than with accomplishing big in-game goals. There is nothing wrong with that. The problem is that if you do have the ambition to go on large scale raids (other than just as an occasional filler) you have few other options than leaving TMC and joining a raiding guild. And with that comes a lot of commitment; and, whether you like it or not, a need to put that new guild first. If they call, you run just as Budly runs when there's a fire in the neighborhood. And if I accept that TMC will not accommodate my ideal play style, then I think martians should accpet that people go outside TMC to get their max pleasure out of the game.
I tried to quote the most relevant bit. The Martian Cartel and Quirky Bastards before it have always had an open door policy on multiple guild/clan/whatever participation. This extends back eight years (!) when QB dropped out of the Tribes OGL composite league. We didn't have enough people to assemble a full team anymore, so anyone in QB who still wanted to play competitively with another tribe was free to do so. Most hooked up with The Fluffy Tribes. The ironic thing is TFT has long since folded and we're still here, drama and all (Foe and Q can fill you in on the Fluffy history).

Obviously WoW doesn't allow multiple guild memberships, so if you like raiding, stick with the raiding guild and chat in the Martian channel or on Vent when you're not doing the raiding thing.

In the end, this all seems to have stemmed from a lack of proper communication. I'd like to put forward a few things and finally put all of this behind us:

1. Tighten up on guild membership if necessary. We are not going to morph into an uber raiding guild, we don't need to recruit in a bunch of people we may not know very well. Recruit people who are fun to play with.
2. The guild leaders need to do a better job explaining how the guild works to new members.
3. Point people to our website and specifically the "About" section.
4. WoW is only one part of our group. We existed for five years before WoW appeared. Encourage new people to post on more than just the WoW part of our forum. It'll help them (and us) see if it's a good fit all around.
5. Sarcasm is not a newbie-friendly tool. Keep that in mind when chatting or posting to someone not familiar with our group dynamic.
6. Keep lists to five items or less so people won't lose attention.
7. Doh.

[Sir Lucius]

8. It's just a game.

[Fitty]

9. WoW is serious bidness. Now wtf did I leave that backbone?

[Kermit]

Two things just for the record.

#1. I have never heard anyone speaking of anyone that has left as a loot whore. Particularly never Inka or Mellisa.

#2. my family does not understand why I live so far away and in an aweful country like the US where people can get fired at a whim and some stupid cowboy is president. I find that characterization to be completely unfounded. Our president isn't really a cowboy.

[Sir Lucius]

From what my uncle tells me, in Europe you can not be fired from a job for being bad at it. If someone tries to fire you, you can sue them.

[pogozorro]

1. Tighten up on guild membership if necessary. We are not going to morph into an uber raiding guild, we don't need to recruit in a bunch of people we may not know very well. Recruit people who are fun to play with.
2. The guild leaders need to do a better job explaining how the guild works to new members.
3. Point people to our website and specifically the "About" section.
4. WoW is only one part of our group. We existed for five years before WoW appeared. Encourage new people to post on more than just the WoW part of our forum. It'll help them (and us) see if it's a good fit all around.
5. Sarcasm is not a newbie-friendly tool. Keep that in mind when chatting or posting to someone not familiar with our group dynamic.
6. Keep lists to five items or less so people won't lose attention.
7. Doh.
1. No. We have always been a friends and family guild, and will remain a friends and family guild. Yes, some people will not fit in, but considering how many terrific new people we have versus how many problem people we have had, I will not impose artificial standards to state who may, or may not, join. Once we do that, people ask why did Person X get to bring a friend when Person Y did not.
2. Partially, yes. I think the onus of responsibility rests on those bringing the people in.
3. Sure. That might help people understand the group paradigm more readily.
4. That, and just sitting in Ventrilo helps, too.
5. I am insulted. Are you implying that any of us would be so blatantly sarcastic 3/4 of the time that it would confuse others? That's unpossible! :D
6. Yes, no one reads long posts.
7. DAMN.

[Q]

I'm not sure if Ned realizes that the only way to gain admittance into the WoW guild is if you already know someone that's in it. We've never, ever recruited random people.

[Creole Ned]

No, I know that. I wasn't aware if everyone could invite or not. If it's set up that way, you have the potential to get a friend of a friend of a friend into the guild. A non-issue most of the time, assuming we don't hang out with serial killers and fruit molesters.

[Falhawk]

I came aboard because I was told there would be punch and pie











where is the punch and pie

[pogozorro]

I'll punch you in the pie-hole.

Close enough?

[Kermit]

Ohhhh they're here...

We just forgot to tell you it's "get it (http://www.thottbot.com/?i=676)yer damn self" service (http://www.thottbot.com/?i=1001).

[Andri]

I think Ned hit it right on that some more intro as to who we are helps new people. All the issues we ever had were specifically WoW-related and had nothing to do with QB/Martians as a greater community. But most of our late additions came through WoW and have that as their only connection to Mars (like myself). So we easily fall into the trap of thinking that a) everybody is equally obsessed with WoW, and b) that the Martians are a WoW guild per Blizz's definition and as such bound to do whatever Blizz requires for players to get to see all content. It takes a good measure of time, sweat and tears to get this all straight.

So for the record: I am a grumpy old woman, therefore I hate you all. Especially Luci. Jerk! Not Foe though. I love Foe. :yay: (How do you like my new sig?)

[Budly]

there was that one pally that sounded like van damme on vent...

[jackrabbit]

Stykx. I remembered his name a week or so ago when I was thinking of something else.

Me: "These invoices will need to be reprocessed through mainframe before they can... Stykx. That was the guys name. Stykx."

Coworker: "You're batshit nuts, man."

[Patton]

hahahahaha

stykx

i can't believe you remembered it

his hunter's name was sangsuel

[Falhawk]

i remember seeing that name...

what happened to him?

[Patton]

in an ironic turn of events, he got kicked in the head

[Budly]

He transferred servers.