2Oct

You Want Me to do What?

Here’s a word of advice from mama Cynra: while WebMD may be an invaluable resource for many people, using the Sympton Checker is an exercise in futility and paranoia. You see, I recently injured my back doing who-knows-what¹ and have been dealing with intense lower back pain, an inability to stand straight without extreme effort, some stiffness and decreased mobility, and a slightly elevated temperature on that spot. While I eventually came to the conclusion that I was suffering from lumbar strain, seeing the other twenty possible combinations and their symptoms left me with more than just a little bit of paranoia that I could be suffering from something a bit more severe.

Hey, back problems do run in the family on my father’s side! It was a natural progression to wonder that it was something else!

That said, once I came to my senses and decided on the most logical choice², the recommended treatment has been on the money. Already this morning I’m feeling a hell of a lot better than I have within the last week. As it is, I can stand up straight and sitting at a desk for more than twenty minutes doesn’t give me that extreme sense of discomfort that I was feeling earlier in the week. It also helps that everyone has been yelling at me to take it easy and has been catering to my every whim.

That said, let’s move on to other more important, World of Warcraft-related matters.

The guild has been up in arms for some time now regarding our Zul’Aman bear mounts runs. While the acquisition of Amani War Bears has been rather consistent for the past couple of months³, many members are starting to feel the strain of the patch bearing⁴ down upon us. It appears likely that the patch will be released 14 October 2008, around the estimated time that Season 4 will end. This leaves us with under two weeks to somehow obtain mounts for those dedicated members who have yet to acquire one. At the moment, it appears that there are four of us, myself included.

One of our more dedicated members sat down with a calendar, looked at the reset dates and came up with the following times that we may be able to do a run:

Friday night following our five-hour journey into Hyjal Summit,
Saturday during our regularly scheduled raid time,
either Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday next week, and
the following Saturday when we would normally make our attempt.

This leaves us with four possible time periods during which we could acquire four mounts for the people who have been joining us on our bear mount attempts for quite some time now. Of course, there is a further rule that would be applied in order to ensure that these people would get a mount if we managed to get the timers: only these four — no pickup, no alts, no one else — would be allowed to roll.

This is a decision that is contrary to a long-held philosophy of the Drunken Badgers. It’s always been that we allow people who joined us in any of our endeavors the equal opportunity to roll on loot, particularly in ten-man raids. This has been a core belief of the guild: if an individual puts in the effort to help us conquer content, he should be able to reap the benefits of his efforts. However, over the past couple of months this has resulted in seeing many of the bears being handed to people who showed up to fill a slot one week and never returned again. The number is almost staggering when I consider it, especially since I can think of perhaps six regulars that have the mounts and we’ve been running this consistently since early June.

The attitude of guild-first has been something that has been cropping up a lot in guild discussions, especially at a time where we’re considering loot policies for when we venture into raiding in Wrath of the Lich King. Even though we do maintain a loot list for our twenty-five man raids in the form of Suicide Kings, there have been an uncomfortable number of times when someone who was not a regular or even a regular sub has acquired loot well before many of our stable members. This has left a bad taste in the mouth of many raiders and has invariably resulted in the policy of hording one’s position on the list in order to ensure that when a desired piece of equipment⁵ one will be able to acquire it; as a result, valuable pieces of loot that would otherwise be considered upgrades have been offered to the raid on an open-roll status, meaning that offspecs and even pickups have gotten the gear before the people who would have really benefited from them.

And while I would like to futher discuss how the guild is trying to solve all loot problems⁶, there is really only one thought going through my mind right now: do I want a bear mount enough to get up and be ready for a raid at 5:30 in the morning? This looks like the only time acceptable to the raid during the week due to the fact that many of our regulars live in the Land of Down Under⁷ and the time discrepency either puts normal raiding times in the middle of their work days or during their sleep cycle.

Ouch!

We’re blaming it on the fact that I fell asleep on the couch for a couple of days. ↩
Given the lack of other stimuli that would indicate or cause other diagnoses. ↩
Excluding one failed attempt a week or so ago due to things beyond our control, including having the Protection warrior disconnect during our efforts. ↩
Har, har. Unintentional and I cringe now having reread this. ↩
Long called the Dragonspine Trophy syndrome within our guild due to the item’s abysmally low drop rate. ↩
It’ll be a post one day, promise. I’d love to see some feedback from people! ↩
Australia, just as a heads up! ↩

Responses

Good luck with figuring out a loot system that works for you! I know that this is a major issue to deal with. Not wanting to deal with the hassles of loot fairness is one of the reasons we’ve stuck to 10 player raids. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Joel’s last blog post: Tomlinson

Joel said,

2 October 2008 at 1:59 pm

I hope your back starts feeling better, I know I had a fever and a bad stomach ache and looked it up on Web MD and started freaking out lol.

As much as it sucks to tell people that they can’t roll on the bears, I’ve found that when we had to do it, the extra would be quite understanding. I mean if they’re still willing to run with you knowing that they can’t get the bear, that says something, I think.

Best of luck!

Kiyomi said,

2 October 2008 at 9:07 pm

Joel: It’s one hell of a conundrum, which even the most casual observer would note upon stumbling on our forums. The only ideal loot system of which I can think that fits all of the characteristics that the guild wants in a true impartial and effective loot council. Unfortunately, those rarely remain that way from my experience.

Kiyomi: Thanks! The back’s better, though I still get a twinge of pain every now and again. I’m not looking forward to the five hour raid and then a Zul’Aman run tomorrow night!

It looks like the people going are either people who have won bear mounts before, people who are guaranteed a mount should it drop, or people that just don’t give a damn. Our only concern is the run during the week, which is pretty difficult to achieve. We have one healer who won’t be available and some quirky scheduling issues with our Aussies. I almost wish that the patch was pushed back another week or so!

Cynra’s last blog post: Guess It’s a Lucky Week for Mounts

Cynra said,

3 October 2008 at 12:32 am

Heh I think it’s the Aussie’s who will need to get up extra early on a work morning for that run Cynra, the American’s will conversely be burning the midnight oil. I think it was awesome of the moonkin to make this suggestion and am totally willing to do the early morning if it means the four of us remaining will get our mounts.

Jezrael’s last blog post: Brewfest! Hic!

Jezrael said,

3 October 2008 at 2:19 am

Y Halo Thar!