My guild had Tuesday night off (our raid leader sensed the coming of doom on the wind, I think, and had canceled the raid as of Sunday), so Wednesday night I found myself at the Naxxramas summoning stone doing what I do every time I run Naxx: trying to right-click the ever-shrinking portion of the stone to be found under dozens of flapping wings and giant mammoth butts in a forlorn attempt to actually -- I don't know -- summon people.

Now, it's no secret that a select portion of WoW's playerbase is comprised of people whom we might politely term "jerks," and the Naxx summoning stone is an almost unparalleled environment for them to practice their delightful skills. The stone is set on a very small ledge, servicing the summoning needs for a very popular instance, and no matter what the area was bound to be crowded. But the situation's made so much worse by the constant presence of players going /afk on top of the stone while conveniently perched on their largest or otherwise unnecessary mounts.

A number of people are temporarily on flying mounts once summoned because they were already on their way to the instance, and that's perfectly reasonable (the Troll Hunter in the foreground, for example, is one such innocent party). But mammoths? Why are so many people on ground mounts in front of Naxx's summoning stone? Why would you fly up to the stone on a giant dragon and then /afk leaving it endlessly flapping, guaranteeing that summons are 10 times the nuisance they have to be?

I'll tell you why -- to be a giant pain in the ass.

I'll grant that Naxx's entrance was really not designed to handle the level of traffic it typically starts seeing around 7:30 pm server time, and perhaps the stone would be more ideally situated somewhere below -- but there's something in me that rebels at the notion of Blizzard having to design (or re-design) around a lack of common courtesy.

So, "jerks" -- if you were waiting to hear it from someone, if that was indeed your design in parking yourself in an incredibly small area on a very large and/or constantly moving mount -- yes, that is a very pretty dragon and/or mammoth. I admire your skill as a player. I am awed by your ability to grind Sons of Hodir rep, or AoE down Culling of Stratholme, or amass 16,000 gold. We are all humbled by the presence of one so great as yourself, and sincerely grateful that you have chosen to grace us with your imposing and inspiring presence.

Now get the %#$$*# off the stone.

Tags: behavior, breakfast-topic, naxx, naxx-10, naxx-25, naxxramas, raid, raiding, raids, summoning, summoning-stones

Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Instances, Features, Raiding