Cash for kills
by Eliah Hecht 
Jun 18th 2007 at 9:45PM
Money has been involved in WoW in a variety of ways since its inception. You pay to get the game, and you pay a subscription fee; some less scrupulous individuals, of course, pay for gold, powerleveling, and the like. But it doesn't stop there. A member of the guild Carpe Draconis (Aggramar-A) has started a cash bounty on Hydross the Unstable, the first boss in Serpentshrine Cavern. This is on a site I hadn't seen before called mob incentive, where site users can contribute money to causes they want to support. The reward is currently $52, and the money will be used to cover guild operation costs (Vent and guildportal hosting). Would you be more likely to work harder on a new boss if there was some money in it for your guild?Latin diversion: the name of that guild doesn't make any sense to me. If they mean "seize the dragon," it ought to be "Carpe Draconem" (accusative case), whereas if they mean take from the dragon, I'd expect it to be "Carpe ab Dracone" or "Carpe ex Dracone" (using a preposition and the ablative case). Edit: Actually, "Carpe Dracone," using just the ablative and no preposition, is better (thanks, Beaverius and Appolon). The way they have it now, with "Draconis" (genitive case), would have to be translated as "Seize the Dragon's," except it's less grammatical in Latin than English, I think. However, I'm not surprised to see it this way; for whatever reason, "Carpe [Noun in the genitive]" is a very common pattern for guild names in WoW. I've seen at least three instances of "Carpe Noctis," whereas anyone with a copy of Wheelock's could tell you "Carpe Noctem" is correct. The latter does, at least, outnumber the former, but the very existence of the former is a mystery to me. In short:
[thanks, Wes]
Filed under: Guilds, Odds and ends, Bosses
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Otmin Jun 18th 2007 10:03PM
This is the last place I expected to see a discussion of Latin declensions. Impressive! I studied Wheelock for four years but I think you remember yours a little better. Or maybe, and I'm hoping, you had to pull your copy off the shelf to deliver that aside :)
Beaverius Jun 18th 2007 10:09PM
Actually the Ab dracone is somewhat redundant. yu can just say Dracone using the ablative of separation!
BRK Delindo Est!!!!!!!
Beaverius Jun 18th 2007 10:10PM
make that delindus sorry too much italian!
Eliah Hecht Jun 18th 2007 10:11PM
I can't actually find my Wheelock right now. I did, however, use my dictionary to double-check that "carpo" doesn't just take some idiosyncratically declined objects or whatever.
Eliah Hecht Jun 18th 2007 10:12PM
Beaverius: that makes sense. I never could quite get the hang of the ablative.
Apollon Jun 18th 2007 10:22PM
Carpe ab Dracone and Carpe ex Dracone, while both can be translated to "taken from the dragon" into English, there are subtle nuances in meaning which especially become clear if they are placed into context (at least in historical Latin documents).
As #2 stated above, the ablative of separation is best used in this instance as it probably comes closer to your intended meaning. Carpe Dracone.
Sincerely,
A person who has an undergrad degree in Classics and is a PhD Candidate for Classical Archaeology :)
thundercougarfalconbird Jun 18th 2007 11:43PM
/ogre
NEEEERRRRRRRRRDDDDDSSSSSSS!!!!!! NERDS! NERDS! NERDS! NERDS! NERDS! NERDS!
/ogre
desfaber Jun 18th 2007 11:57PM
Since we're picking nits...
'Seize', not 'sieze'.
ErsatzPotato Jun 18th 2007 11:59PM
This got a big ol' grin out of me. Thanks for the post!
My first Latin midterm was memorable. The teacher was asked if it was okay if the test was done in pen. He looked up, blinked, said, "Pencil, pen, snot. Sure, just don't change colors halfway through." He paused, blinking furiously. "If you're prone to nosebleeds I guess snot is out."
Heraclea Jun 19th 2007 12:18AM
I want a guild name "Catullus XVI."
Sarah Jun 19th 2007 1:05AM
Know nothing about latin (took French, German, and Attic Greek in college) so I'll have to take your word for it. I am a stickler for grammar (especially in public context, such as guild names) so I feel your pain.
Jenet Jun 19th 2007 9:10AM
Who do I send this voucher to, so that I can get those 5 minutes back?
Mayo Jun 19th 2007 10:17AM
Carpe Draconis is an Aggramar *Alliance* guild, btw.
Mayo Jun 19th 2007 10:28AM
I'm a good friend of a number of people in Carpe Draconis on Aggramar, including two of their tanks (Chivalry & Waz), and while I can appreciate the effort they are putting into this, I think it's tacky.
A lot of guilds use vent and have to pay hosting fees, but trying to tie in a boss kill to a funds drive? Doesn't make much sense to me. Why should random strangers pay a guild to take down a boss four or five other guilds on the server already have? This only pays off for Carpe Draconis.
Maybe if they were going for a world first, or trying to do something that goes above and beyond the normal call of duty for a raiding guild, I could totally get into this. But paying a guild to take down a boss that most servers have on farm? I dunno.
Let me be clear - I like Carpe Draconis and it's members a lot, and I want them to get Hydross down, but I think this idea is skirting the edge of tastefulness - and people from my server will agree that if *I* think something isn't tasteful, it's definitely questionable.
-Mayo of (Aggramar-A)
ben1778 Jun 19th 2007 10:44AM
I'd be way more likely to pay them to kill members of the opposing faction than a raid boss. Just think if they had a nice easy paypal link for transferring funds and an easy "job posting" area where, in a fit of rage from being camped, you can enter the names of those you wish camped and how many kills you are paying for (or camp time).
If they could get that going fast enough to take advantage of impule buys i'm sure the little $1-$5 bounties would add up to some real life $$.
I can probably name 3 night elf rogues who have earned a $5 bounty. The screenshots make it all worth it. Set up a kill squad and go earn $15.
Beaverius Jun 19th 2007 1:05PM
Whoa, I was right! I should've majored in somethign useful like Latin instead of music! Oh wait lol
I will forever cherish the silver medal I got when I was 15 for the national latin exam. Geekus sum.
Quickening Jun 20th 2007 2:09AM
This is pathetic that you would bash our guild in this manner. This was set up as a "project" and in no way should reflect our guild as a whole. I am absolutely appalled at this post.
Chivalry Jun 20th 2007 7:53AM
Being one of the two aformentioned people, I would like to shed a little light on this, if it's okay.
First off, the person organizing it isn't a guild leader, or an officer, or, technically, a member of our guild anymore. In fact, the person who started the site in question (an ex-member named Ardria/Hantrenar in-game) quit the guild so they could start the site. Ardria was a great member while he was around, but left before the inception of BC, and has not been seen in months.
In fact, the site has a couple other incentives on our members, or ex-members. One has to do with a member quitting smoking, one with giving a member the best hamburger recipe. I can assure you this won't be around for all bosses, it was just something we were approached with a couple weeks back, which Ardria wanted to do for us, and we couldn't really see the inherent problem, I guess, with cash for mobs.
I'm sure, if people have a real problem with this, being only a community site, we could get it taken down, but I don't really understand what the big deal is. It's not like we publicized this site, it's really only a friends-and-family thing, thus far.
It seems to me that the major issue wasn't so much the mobincentive deal, it was the fact that our name wasn't gramattically correct in latin, (which is quite the nitpick to make, considering the number of guilds out there with "Knigts of teh Lite" or "Slayerdz of Baddiez" or whatever.)
But if it's really a big deal, on the scale of things, then Mea Culpa, (or however you would say it to represent a guild's worth of people.) We hope that the image macro has given you sufficient reason to laugh at both our lack of progression and incorrect latin name. If not, please also consider that we probably also have some members with misspelled names, (my alt is named Kharity, for example) and I'm sure occasionally, one or two of us have said "OMGLOLWTF" and other abused internet terms. Please, make fun of us for those, and not the tongue-in-cheek guild name meant to lampoon the seriousness of most latin raiding guilds' names.
Thanks for your interest in carpe draconis. Keep on bringing us informative stories like this one, and we'll keep seizing the dragon's (something).
Eliah Hecht Jun 20th 2007 11:55AM
Quickening and Chivalry: I sincerely apologize for any perceived disrespect to your guild. Quite honestly, I thought the mob incentive thing was a pretty cool idea, and didn't mean to bash it in any way.
Even when I was talking about the Latin, I didn't mean anything against you guys personally, I'm just perplexed by the name. My angle is not "you're using bad Latin and therefore you're bad people," but merely "you're using bad Latin. Why?" So again, I really am sorry if I've caused any offense.
Chivalry Jun 20th 2007 1:20PM
Eliah:
Yes, reading both your article, and my reply, I realize I may have come off a little harsh. I just rankled immediately at seeing my guild up there in the passage:
"some less scrupulous individuals, of course, pay for gold, powerleveling, and the like. But it doesn't stop there. A member of the guild Carpe Draconis (Aggramar-A) has started a cash bounty on Hydross the Unstable, the first boss in Serpentshrine Cavern."
which seems to imply that the bounty itself is unscrupulous. I take pride in my scruples, so my immediate reaction was to bite back.
In any case I won't delete my post, or anything of the like, it should be a matter of record what was said, but I do withdraw any malicious intent my words did contain.
To delve even further into the mystery, my (admittedly small) experience with latin in university taught me (likely incorrectly, after having done some online research) that the root "draco" was a reference to a politician, Athens' first Lawgiver, Draco, from which the english word "draconian" sprung. So if it's not indeed latin, and is a reference to Draco, what would be the grammatical implications of such a change?