You failed to pick up on the objectivity in this entry, because you didn’t read it objectively. And then you responded with “This post is a hilarious pile of sour grapes and nerd tears.” It’s funny that you say condescension doesn’t not equal veracity. Do you realize that’s how you opened this conversation to begin with? And so I pick apart your logic.

There’s clearly some preconceptions underlying your response to this entry. That’s fine. Not everyone is going to like me or the content of my blog, and that’s largely based on their perceptions. But, hey, I have perceptions about comments. You clearly have a bone to pick by commenting here. And that seems to be your purpose here. I don’t know you either, but I’ll go based off my perceptions.

You’re right. I am worried about public perception. That’s how guilds recruit good players: by upholding a decent reputation. I’m sure you know this. So I’ll elaborate and say I care in-so-far as it affects my guild’s ability to recruit. Which is why I used my own guild as an example in the Wowjutsu entry (which is completely separate from this entry, mind you).

What you should know is that this is a personal blog. It’s only natural I’m going to make personal entries from time to time. And in those entries, I will draw from personal experiences. And if those experiences relate to more general situations, then I will also discuss those. Especially because I have an audience (albeit less of one now because I’ve been so busy).

To you, maybe the fact that I draw from my own experiences is what makes it seem like “whining.” Well, the point would remain the same if I picked another similar situation outside of my own experience. The problem is I’m not as familiar with the subtleties of other servers as my own, as I don’t follow them day-in-and-day-out. And, again, this is my own blog. So why shouldn’t I draw examples from them?

Especially if I also want to talk about them objectively. And evaluate them. And draw conclusions about them. This was one of the points in this blog in the first place. To be candid. To objectively evaluate personal experience playing an MMO. And to proffer opinions about various situations in the MMO. And both personal and outside examples are going to affect how I view and evaluate them.

What I find baffling is how people like you are quick to label any objective evaluations of personal experiences as “whining.” When someone sits down and admits their faults and talks about their losses, they’re just spewing sour grapes. That’s your perception. And I’m saying you’re wrong.

When I talk about my mistakes and losses, I’m doing so leading up to developing a more reasonable perspective on such losses so that I might avoid them in the future. There are other guild leaders out there who read this blog looking to draw from others’ experiences, so talking about them candidly can help them do that. And it helps me. There’s no whining about it. Even if you think so and “call it as [you] see it.”

This is the same thing professional sports players do. Even when they’re on top, they take a step back and put their losses into perspective in post-game interviews. But are they whining if they say “We lost. Clearly, we were tired and didn’t play well.” No.

I was in the same position for this particular entry. Not that I’m trying to put myself on the level of a professional sports player. It’s just a metaphor. But the same sentiment is there. We’d just come off of putting our hearts and souls into SWP for TBC. We were “tired.” We didn’t level as quickly as we should have. And we had other goals in sight that got in the way. On top of this, it’s never been in our philosophy as a guild to overextend ourselves. And that hurt us. So we lost. Simply. Risen was hungry for a server first. They hadn’t picked any major ones for a long time, afterall. So they pushed hard out of the gate and got one. And their guild was set up well for it. Good for them. They’re a great guild. They deserved it. I’m not “whining” about it. I’m taking a step back and saying that we should have won it, but that it also wasn’t key in our goals. Ulduar is where I’d like to place our focus.

That’s objective. And, for what it’s worth, we picked ourselves back up after that loss and have placed well on everything since then. Which is exactly why I wanted to put the leveling and time aspect into perspective given, also, the ease of the content. In retrospect, however, I will say Ulduar isn’t where it begins. Sarth10+3, 5-min Malygos and (especially) The Immortal are good measuring sticks. However, the competitive atmosphere for Ulduar will certainly be different.

In saying that, and noting that I discussed it in the entry, I’m baffled why you bring up the ease of the content. Any semi-intelligent person who has been involved in or following raiding should be able to recognize this. It certainly doesn’t come anywhere near SWP in terms of difficulty. And likely nothing ever will again, given what Blizzard has said. So why you bring that up is beyond me. I guess you were trying to continue with the theme of condescension.

Also for perspective: We are not Might. We are not Premonition. We are not EJ. We are a 4-day raiding guild (5 for the first week or two of new content) who expects a higher level of skill from their raiders than most guilds. But we’re not top in the world. I’ve said this before. I don’t care where we stand. I only care that we stand well.

But I do like to compete with guilds that are on a similar level. And I like to evaluate competition. So I’ll do so. And that includes personal competition. That means I’ll draw from personal experiences and talk about mistakes. That means I’ll try to put things into perspective attempt to evaluate things objectively. Again, it’s a personal blog. You think that’s whining? Then in my mind you’re an idiot.

However, I do care about the guild being represented accurately. Because I care about our ability to recruit. Which was the source of the Wowjutsu entry. A completely and entirely separate one from this post. But I guess not in your mind.

First, why did you put my name in quotation marks? That’s my character’s name. I assume it’s because you want to be condescending towards me. Condescension does not equal veracity, no matter the usual rules of forum trolling.

Second, re-read what you wrote. It’s a post all about “losing” the Naxx clear and making excuses for why it happened. You’re clearly very defensive and upset about it, and you’re scapegoating for what you perceive as some sort of failure. You talk about “rectifying the mistake.” If you really, truly didn’t care about server first Naxx clear you wouldn’t use that sort of terminology. Congratulations on doing exceedingly well in the rest of the piss easy content. Even three drake sartharion was largely a joke by the time that your guild managed to kill him.

So what do you have to “whine” about? Again, re-read your post. I may be a “100% pure-grade retard,” but even a retard can call it how he sees it. You’re clearly someone who is deeply concerned with the public perception of himself and his guild – this is evidenced again by your nerdrage about Wowjutsu. That’s fine. It’s just amusing in the same way it’s amusing to watch a spoiled 6-yearold ball when he doesn’t get what he wants.

Your blog was much more constructive when there wasn’t any question about who was the #1 guild on your server. It’s changed for the worse since WotLK. You may want to consider focusing less on asserting Lunacy’s supposed dominance over everyone else and instead on forthright discussion of the design and layout of new content in the expansion.

So what do I have to “whine” about? Nothing. Which makes you 100% pure-grade retard. If you can’t sense when someone is making an objective analysis of guild progress, maybe you should find something that caters to your level of intelligence.

I’m not in your guild but definitely enjoy reading your posts and finding good reference.

Funny thing, I read your article entitled, “A GM’s Perspective: Sexism” (actually in order to decide whether to say “him” or “her” in my first sentence – above). Aside from enjoying another informative/well-written article… I’m completely astounded that sexism is still an issue today.

I shouldn’t be… I was online in WoW when they announced Barrack Obama’s official selection as our next President. While I respect anyone’s opinion not to like Mr. Obama for his platform on politics, religion, etc… I couldn’t believe the few folks using the “N” word and saying they were moving to Canada.

Not really going on a tangent… just cannot believe the number of ignorant folks out there.

Keep up the good work on your guild & Website!!!

Ken