I start my new job today, so my blogging time might be severely diminished. I know, what are you folks going to do without my giant wall of text? Due to some alliance drama over the past week, on which I have been uncharacteristically silent (by request, mind you), I've held back most of my thoughts on the situation. But now that I've organized them, I want to put it all out there. I started writing a post this morning, and an hour later, it was about ten pages long, so I'm going to break it up into several posts over the next few days.

Are you ready... FOR THE DRAMA LLAMA?

That Guy

You know that guy who runs to trade channel and screams in all caps about someone being a ninja? It's usually related to a raid that was just run, or a dungeon, or quite possibly a crafter's trade. I spend a lot of time reading trade chat; I assure you, it happens about once every two hours. What is amazing is that as much as folks secretly love drama in all their little dirty places, that guy is usually shot down pretty quick with a bucket load of reason and rationality.

The thing is, once you come scream to trade channel about your woes, you immediately become that guy and no one likes that guy and your entire argument about how someone ninjaed your loot or cheated you on a trade or anything of the kind just becomes annoying, and a really great thing for which anonymous internet people can ridicule you.

In fact, it doesn't even matter how completely reasonable your complaint was. More than likely, it's the way you declare someone's ninjaness; how you announced it. If you're calm, rational, and handle it with maturity it will go over much better. After all, it's not a bad argument to say that the reason you are announcing someone's dishonesty publicly is to protect other would-be raiders or crafters.

The word Ninja is like the word Racist. Anyone can use it and cause a controversy, can stir up emotions, can get people rankled - but just because someone says it does not, in fact, make it true. It is actually a very serious accusation, and it should not be thrown around lightly. In addition, it should be TREATED as a serious accusation by officers. Don't blow the accusation off, or it will come back and bite you in the ass. Which is exactly what happened to us.

So therefore, why should you expect to be treated differently when you make such a big ruckus about a supposed "ninja" within the ranks of your guild? If you cannot be reasonable, rational, and mature about it, then let's face it: You are just a drama queen. Nothing anyone does will satisfy you except complete and utter vengeance and kicking the so-called "ninja" out. Even if you're wrong. Even if you misunderstood events.

That Guy in trade chat is usually shot down quickly by people offering rational suggestions for how he or she might have misunderstood the situation. Perhaps it was an accident. Perhaps the rules should have been clarified. If you want to see how reasonable the average anonymous person can be, watch the questions that result from That Guy whining in trade chat.

I have announced bad behavior over trade channel once, when one of the mages in our pug took all the dream shards and abyss crystals from our run, and at the end put down a port to Darnassus instead of Dalaran. I tried to whisper him and figure out if it was all a mistake. I followed him around Dalaran and told him to please trade the DE mats to me, because they should have been rolled for. He completely ignored me. When I finally resorting to announcing his behavior in trade (very hesitantly and maturely I might add), two of the officers from his guild whispered me, gave me abyss crystals, and apologized for his behavior. I later received an in-game mail from him apologizing for it too - he said he was having a very bad night, and acted very rudely.

Yesterday in trade someone told a story about how he brought his mats to a crafter who was advertising over trade. The crafter took his items, made the piece, and held the item hostage until the player forked over 100g. This crafter was still advertising in trade, and now everyone knew that if they wanted their crafted items, expect to pay a required 100g "Tip" - it's not a fee when the crafter doesn't tell you up front. The person who complained to trade channel was ridiculed non-stop - not because he wasn't justified, but because it took forever to get the facts from him, instead of just listening to him QQ.

The moral of these stories is that announcing improper group or trade behavior in trade channel is not necessarily a bad thing. It can be beneficial to the community as a whole - if you handle it properly, and release the information with dignity and maturity.

So if you want to start complete drama within your guild by screeching NINJA in your largest caps, be prepared for the backlash.

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Soooo comments look screwy on yesterday’s post because my pet troll trolled me under a different account name on accident and I thought it was someone else and I was all like ZOMG /COWER SMITE and then he contacted me in game and now everything’s cool.

Love you Franklin. Even though you give me panic attacks.

It’s Friday! That means I’m gaming tonight with a piece of paper and a pencil and a few beers. And so I bring you…

THE LOOT DRAMA DRINKING GAME

1. “What? Priests don’t need crit, you shouldn’t be rolling on that item!” = 1x shot
2. Hunter rolling for leather = 1x shot
3. Healing shammy piece, with no shammy healer in the raid = 1x shot
4. Ret pally rolling on both healing AND tanking plate because “But… I was thinking about respeccing!” = 2x shots
5. DPS Plate wearers all rolling on Plate tank boots because the boots have hit rating = 2x shots
6. Kitty druid rolling on druid tanking gear because “What?! I’m specced feral!” =2x shots
7. Warrior rolling on awesome gun or bow against hunter =3x shots
8. Someone who jumped in to replace another raider on very last boss winning best item boss drops =3x shots
9. Tank who wins item trades it to someone who has a tanking off spec because it's a better upgrade for him - completely ignoring the three other tanks who rolled on the item and should have won =3x shots
10. The rogue who rolls need on the Reins of the Bronze Drake after everyone else has passed and then says  "ZOMG relax people, it's just loot, I don't know why you're getting so upset LOL!!1!9!" =THE WHOLE DAMN BOTTLE

I wish you all a super happy weekend as I continue to battle the same Headache That Would Not Disappear I've been battling for three days.

LYL Peeps - please see ETA below!

If you’ve raided at all within the past few weeks, you have no doubt noticed a very significant change Blizzard made in how BoP items are handled. Within two hours of a person looting that item, it can be traded to anyone else who was eligible for it. This is due quite a bit to how when Loot Masters made a mistake in the past, several people would actually have to make a GM ticket in order to get the problem fixed, when an item was accidentally given to the wrong person. Loot Mastering for a 25 man raid is a nightmare. Mistakes happen, and this change to BoP items was instended to help with that. I mean, isn’t it great? So much more flexibility! No more worries about accidental Loot Master errors! Loot Masters can now sit back and relax!

WRONG.

What a nightmare. This has caused so many new loot problems that have absolutely no enforceable or controllable solution, that our raiding team is practially in uproar. I suppose for people who raid with DKP, this isn’t a problem at all.

What is really sad, is that most of the problems are caused by people trying to be generous and help one another out.

We run on a tier system. An item drops, people roll on it, and whoever wins it moves down a tier. There are exceptions and open rolls for various things, like Runed Orbs, etc. People are given a certain amount of time to roll for loot, and then rolls are taken and closed down. There is no perfect amount of time to give people for rolling. Some people feel rushed, some feel like it’s taking too long.

What is happening is that people are rolling for an item and winning, and then experiencing what I call “roller’s remorse” afterwards. They now have the item, and they realize that it would have been a better upgrade to someone else who rolled, so they are kind and give the item to the person who would better benefit from it.

It sounds great. It sounds like exactly the sort of attitude we like to foster and encourage amongst our raiders. It is a complete nightmarish headache however.

At first we were giving people back their tiers and adjusting tiers when this happened. That adds even more time, confusion, and complication to looting. The second problem is that if this is the equivalent of withdrawing one’s roll, shouldn’t the item go to the person who would have won the item had the winner not rolled? Sometimes people were not giving it to the person next in line. Sometimes it can be hard to tell, because due to it being a tier system, one person might technically roll higher than another, but lose due to being on a different tier.

And the worst of all is that this system allows a conspiratorial maliciousness I never would have expected amongst our raiders – and is very difficult to prove has even happened.

Multiple people can get together and decide that tonight they are going to essentially “donate” all their tiers to one player. So they all roll together on items, and then whoever wins the item gives it to the designated player. It’s shady, and it’s unfair to those who don’t have multiple people rolling on items for them.

It brings up all kinds of loot debates. On one side, you can argue, you won the item – you can do whatever you want with it, including give it to whomever you choose. If you want to use your tier for a friend, is that your right? And then… how can we even prevent this? We have no way to control how items are handed about after it has been given to a player. There are different ways we can police it, but all these methods require a measure of time and effort on behalf of our officers that is not really reasonable for a casual raiding alliance.

Ideally you should be able to trust the people with whom you raid. Ideally everyone is working for the benefit of the whole raid. Ideally everyone likes one another, and wouldn’t go out of their way to simply screw another player over.

Ideally I could pull hundred dollar bills and flowers out of my butt.

I spent all day yesterday dealing with these loot issues and trying to find resolutions, and I suspect I will spend most of today trying to figure out if others have had these problems, and if there is any hope, EVER, that Blizzard will change this system, though I’m not feeling too hopeful.

What about you? Have you had any problems with this? Share with me your loot drama stories via comment so I don’t feel so bad about my own!

ETA (9/30/09) - There is a LOT of traffic coming to this page from the Lose Your Life forums - hai guyz welcome - I can't read the forum post that directs to this page. Are ya'll having a similar problem or did everyone just like the Loot Whore picture I found? ;) I'd love to know what ya'll's forum post said, if anyone would be kind enough to put it in the comments section here.

ETA - I have been scouring the forums, and have found very little on this subject - maybe it's just still too new of a change? I'm not sure, however BobTurkey made a really interesting post about it and the Black Market - you should check it out.