Most of you have probably already figured this out, but MMOs – especially MMORPGs – are not what the regular, non-gaming public thinks of when you mention video games. I remember my own opinions of WoW before I started playing, when it was just my son and (ex)husband who were the addicts; despite the fact that I very much enjoyed console games, WoW seemed like it had too much attraction –... 

My guild turned 5 in December, but I’m conflicted over whether this is technically a birthday or an anniversary. Whichever it is, it’s gonna be a PARTAY! I’ve watched as other guilds on my server celebrate their anniversaries in grand style – one threw a drunken raid of ICC, and another throws a grand Gala every year. One night of partying isn’t nearly enough for my guild,... 

When Dragon Soul was released I vented about the ease of the current raid tier content and predicted that it would drive hardcore raiders away. And though I haven’t studied world logs and kept up with the actual statistics, anecdotal evidence indicates that I was pretty much on the money: a lot of higher-skilled players have left and progression on our server (and others) slowed to a near-stop. Blizzard... 

I cleaned up my guild roster this past week – “housekeeping”, I call it. We have a guild policy regarding inactivity which states that all toons (including alts) may be kicked if they’re inactive for more than 30 days. This is as much to ensure that we keep an active roster as it is to ease the headache of knowing who is who.  With more than 100 alts running around the guild, many of whom... 

I haven’t left WoW. A number of my friends have, sadly, but I am still here and still looking for ways to keep it fresh and interesting. Although that includes some creative use of time outside of WoW (which has, in turn, made my in-game time far more precious, since I have a ton to do in a lot less time), I have also ventured to other realms to see what the communities are like there. A fun (or... 

It’s been a few weeks since I last posted here, primarily because I’ve been angsting over the current content and how to express what I really feel about it. Though at last report I was exceedingly delighted with patch 4.3, “Hour of Twilight”, let me assure you that the bloom is most depressingly off the bush. Now I am instead both wary of and worried about what the next few months... 

  My only confession this week is that I’m not writing! I’m transmogrifying, void-storaging, “new heroic, woot!”- running, and raiding. Yes, patch 4.3, “Hour of Twilight”, is here, and I’m neck-deep in it. My initial impressions are that void storage is more expensive than I expected, but still freaking awesome. Transmogrification is so exciting –... 

Ever wonder what life is like for a guild leader? I kept track of it last week. Since I have nothing else particularly motivating or, ahem, motivational (except for Bill Murray’s awesomeness), to write about this week, I thought I’d share. This is more or less an average week for me, barring the SW:TOR test which kept most of the guild occupied elsewhere for all of Friday and Saturday. Monday 5:40am:... 

I read the WoW officer forums frequently, and one issue that comes up periodically is how to deal with someone who isn’t carrying their weight in your raids, particularly when it’s not an enormously glaring problem but instead a bunch of little things that add up to a bigger pain in the rear. If the person is otherwise liked and the issues don’t seem so dramatic taken individually, it can be... 

A healthy guild bank is a wonderful guild resource, and reading about how other guilds manage their banks is always fascinating to me. From rank permissions to repair allowances to contents, there are as many different ways to maintain a guild’s resources as there are Wildhammers in the Highlands. (One has nothing to do with the other, of course, I was just having a Wildhammer moment.) Raiding...