Sunday, January 24, 2010

Raid Dream, or "Raiding is Like High School?"

I had this weird dream where I was back in high school choir, but it was a choir RAID where we had to get the notes right to down the boss. We were practicing our "strat" by singing.

We then went to a choir competition and didn't know the songs they gave us.

I woke up debating theology with the guy who hosted it, but what I got out of the dream was that complicated raid fights are a lot like choir competitions.

People need to know the song. They need to know when to come in and when to let the soloist have their turn.

In choir, you don't ever put someone in the show who doesn't know the songs. If you do, that person doesn't just trip himself up, he trips everyone else up too.

In IVV, we've always had a bit of push-and-pull between the people who raid to get new, exciting places (the competitive show choir kids) and the people who want to see stuff and get gear (the kids who just want to sing and get an easy grade).

I was in the show choir in high school, and no sane teacher would put the kids who just wanted to sing in there. Not because they didn't deserve to sing but because that choir wasn't the right fit for them.

And, honestly, there were some kids who wanted in show choir but didn't have any natural talent.

It's the same with raiding. If you put the raiders who don't care about progression into progression raids, they hold those raids back and severely frustrate the people who do care about progression. If you include the people who want in progression but can't hack it, it's like including a singer in a show when they don't know the words to a song. That singer might not care, but trust me when I say everyone else does.

Satisfying everyone who wants to raid is almost impossible, because everyone wants different things and there aren't always enough raid slots (or enough types of raid slots) to make everyone happy.

What are some ways your guild has approached this problem?

2 comments:

  1. There is nothing ironic about Show Choir!

    Sorry, had to do it.

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  2. I tell you how we've handled it. The main 25 man raid is for everyone who wants to sing - there are auditions but there's also lots of coaching and we don't take things too fast.

    But the ten man teams are where the show choir kids can really strut their stuff. I think being able to tackle the harder content and achievement in 10 man makes it easier for ambitious raiders to settle down to a quieter pace in 25 man.

    It doesn't work perfectly. Not everyone who wants hard progression has a spot in a hardcore 10 man team. There is bit of cliquishness. But I think it basically works.

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