Breakfast Topic: What role do you play in your guild?
by Olivia Grace 
Feb 7th 2012 at 8:00AM
I recently wrote a Breakfast Topic about roleplaying and was considering what I said that we all play a role in WoW. The replies to that topic were really fascinating, by the way -- thanks very much!
Now, what crossed my mind is that those of us who are in guilds often play a role. I am really lucky with my guild. Possibly because it includes people I've known for over 10 years, there's a real family feeling to it. The core members are talkative, helpful, and friendly and generally look out for each other, and I like to think that new members coming in to the guild feel welcome.
There are people who fulfill certain roles -- not just the leadership, but the two guys who have loads of gold, the guy who provides all the fish feasts, the girl who provides all the cauldrons and flasks for raids. There are the people who will be happy to boost your alt, the person who has every blacksmithing recipe under the Azerothian sun, the one who knows every instance in the game like the back of his hand, the people who will always have a gem and an enchant ready for you, and the ones who'll talk to you about nothing at all when you're feeling a bit down and lonely. The currently absent German guy who always did the steering of Ryolith and added a cheery voice to frustrating raids. And, of course, the quieter folk who just go about their business with an occasional bit of chat.
We've mostly found our niches and occupy them happily -- or at least I think we do!
So what's your role in your guild? Are you the gatherer of fish? The shoulder to cry on? The one who jokes around and bubbles death knights in raids to troll them? Or are you a lone wolf, a solo adventurer, guildless and answering to no one?
Now, what crossed my mind is that those of us who are in guilds often play a role. I am really lucky with my guild. Possibly because it includes people I've known for over 10 years, there's a real family feeling to it. The core members are talkative, helpful, and friendly and generally look out for each other, and I like to think that new members coming in to the guild feel welcome.
There are people who fulfill certain roles -- not just the leadership, but the two guys who have loads of gold, the guy who provides all the fish feasts, the girl who provides all the cauldrons and flasks for raids. There are the people who will be happy to boost your alt, the person who has every blacksmithing recipe under the Azerothian sun, the one who knows every instance in the game like the back of his hand, the people who will always have a gem and an enchant ready for you, and the ones who'll talk to you about nothing at all when you're feeling a bit down and lonely. The currently absent German guy who always did the steering of Ryolith and added a cheery voice to frustrating raids. And, of course, the quieter folk who just go about their business with an occasional bit of chat.
We've mostly found our niches and occupy them happily -- or at least I think we do!
So what's your role in your guild? Are you the gatherer of fish? The shoulder to cry on? The one who jokes around and bubbles death knights in raids to troll them? Or are you a lone wolf, a solo adventurer, guildless and answering to no one?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
lazymangaka Feb 7th 2012 8:06AM
I'm an officer, but I'm also the auction house guy. I might not be the richest, but I tend to be pretty knowledgeable about my servers market.
Revnah Feb 7th 2012 8:07AM
I'm usually happy-go-lucky, say "hi" with a :-) and I try to say hi and bye to guildies logging, and gratz on achievements. It's a small thing but that's what I do.
I'm also the guild's own Mad Jewelcrafter. I absolutely love my profession, have most recipes, and so it's usually me getting the requests to cut a new epic gem etc. I also do "Jewelcrafter's special offer"s every now and then, usually when I get several of the same kind of gem from prospecting, and then I say in raid chat: "Free Ember Topaz of any cut to the first three people to /w me!" or similar :-)
Nagaina Feb 7th 2012 8:16AM
Team Mom. ^_^
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TeamMom
....Even my (male) death knight is Team Mom.
Alexander Hegelund Feb 8th 2012 6:10PM
Seeing a link to tvtropes, my favorite internet passtime, on wow insider, my second favorite internet passtime, absolutely made my day. Thank you!
etherlithium Feb 7th 2012 8:21AM
My role: token Englishman in a guild of Swedes and Norwegians. My responsibilities include being cynical in guild chat, never dropping out of a southern accent while on Vent, and occasionally expressing disbelief at whole cured sheep's heads for Christmas and suchlike. Occasionally I dial the eccentricity to 'Lord John Marbury' levels of unrealistic Englishness if I am bored and/or wish to troll the guildchat.
threesixteen Feb 7th 2012 2:15PM
top notch WW reference!
Arrowsmith Feb 7th 2012 8:29AM
I'm the Token Dwarf Hunter. Even my Vent Phonetic is "Token Dwarf Hunter". Aside from that, I fill in whatever buff/debuff is missing in our raid team and try to constructively offer strategies to our Raid leader/GM. As far as I know, nobody hates me.
Valkyros Feb 7th 2012 8:38AM
I'm the Team mom and the theorycrafting/lore guy in my current guild. In a previous guild I was the PR guy since the GL scared off and/or insulted members and new people
bjorn9486 Feb 7th 2012 8:38AM
I'm the one everyone goes to to complain about other people / other officers. I'm the mother of the guild.
I'm also the one that keeps the guild bank in check, nice and neat. (but that's due to my OCD more than anything)
Gen Man Feb 7th 2012 8:44AM
I'm an Officer/Guild Advisor. Basically I'm a walking, talking WoWpedia/ElitistJerks/WoW Head.
Sinthar Feb 7th 2012 9:15AM
Hi,
I (before I left the game for an extended while) performed the same sort of duties. I was our guilds official info officer. What I didnt know - I researched and got the answers to whoever needed the info. I also was responsible for keeping our web site going in reguards to the conversations and articles on it (ie I was NOT the webmaster, more a content maker). I posted daily topics (with a silly poll - my trademark!) to keep people informed amused and talking. I checked back after 3 months to find no-one had posted anything for over 2 months :(.
I was also one of the guilds enchanters, and was a alchemist and BS on my alts also. (As I am a completionist, I tended to have every recipe/pattern available, bar some of those really rare drops). As a raiding officer I was part of our loot council, and tended to try to help out others (like if a dps was missing from a raid, I would 'keep their seat warm' by taking their place until they logged on. I was also one of the guilds 'achievers' as I loved the achievements.
Lastly I was the 'fish' guy. In my off time (which was limited as you can guess - esp since I work full time as well) I fished up buff foods, and cooked them (yep max fishing and cooking, and every recipe in the cooking). I tended to have fish feasts, and at least one stack of various tanking, dps and healing foods. In fact it became quite funny when another raider who joined was his old guilds 'fish' guy. We ended up spamming FF's (we had over 100 for the night between us!). It looked like the raid was really a glutenous feast area, with (at one time) 5 feasts PER member out.
Oh and I nearly forgot, as the mage, I tended to be the portal guy too, but I was told off regularly for making the 'multi' portal (every portal on the same place) so it became random where you ended up. I was too soft hearted tho, and ended up porting to various locations to get the victims of my crime back.
Calicia Feb 7th 2012 8:44AM
I'm the fishmonger , lockbox opener, JCer and I give piggy back rides through all dungeons up to Frozen Halls normal. I don't talk much (if ever) on Vent because of a strange conflict with Dragon Naturally Speaking, but I'm kinda sorta chatty on GC.
My most important role is the leader of the achieve OCD support group.
razion Feb 7th 2012 8:51AM
In my first real guild, I was always "Odd Jobs Waft". I would do the weird jobs in raids that others normally wouldn't. Jobs like off-tanking constructs for Ignis in Ulduar (dragging them through fire that he would set on the floor long enough for them to turn cherry-pink and then proceeding to put them in the water so they could be shattered) were regular and frequent.
Later when I became Moonkin sometime around ToC's inception, and odd jobs changed to "Orb Janitor". Whether it be the light or dark orbs in the Twins encounter, or the frozen orbs in the Anub encounter, or later still in ICC the collapsing star-orbs in the Blood Prince encounter in ICC, I was always handling some sort of orb (the females were of course, ruthless with the sexual innuendos that were of course natural for such a title, much to the amusement of my fellow guildies and myself).
In my second guild, I became the Lore Junkie. It was a PvP guild, so most of the members didn't really care to know much about the lore, if anything. Our resident guild leader loved hearing stories such as Arthas' rise to power while doing RBGs, yet he absolutely forbade himself from reading quest text. "I don't want to read, I want to kill!"
As for my current guild, I'm more or less the middle-man. I haven't yet been around long enough to be considered part of any internal social-group (under a month). I'll be approached by guildies regarding internal guild conflict (explaining to me 'their part of the story and why so-and-so is evil'), and the more I hear from both sides, the more I feel they're both using me as a medium to judge who is right and who is wrong (and to add another warm body to their group to give them more numbers, as if the issue would ever come up to a vote). It's not exactly a place I'm really happy with, but I get a small bit of comfort from being able to reassure both parties by lending a neutral ear where they otherwise wouldn't really have one. It's a weird place to be in. I prefer myself to the ball-handler position, honestly.
bilbomoody Feb 7th 2012 8:52AM
I'm the research hound and website admin (and pretty much the only person to post anything on the guild forums).
Need a strat for a boss fight? Trouble with your rotation or gemming choices? Want to know how the heck I got that cool pet? Just ask!
Doanld Feb 7th 2012 10:26AM
Me i'm the guild tank, got a alt, I'll instance run you till ur fully geared
and I heal in a pinch
Mazaltov Feb 7th 2012 9:18AM
Token gay guy.
Saikoujin Feb 7th 2012 9:34AM
Same here! I'm part of an LGBT friendly guild (the guild has never made itself known as such, but that's what it is), with the GM herself being gay, along with quite a few others. I quite like my token position, and always make sure to play it up in chat or in vent :-p
Aside from that, I was made an AGM in December, so I steward the flock and offer invites and gbank access in the GM's absence when she's away.
Spelio Feb 7th 2012 10:16AM
I have an alt in a similar guild but I am the opposite of you Mazaltov. I am the token straight guy. I actually feel sort of lucky considering I am the only non-LGBT member if the guild. The others sometimes give me flak for it but it is always in good fun. Some of the friendliest players I know.
Luotian Feb 7th 2012 9:19AM
I think...well, I'm the girl that wishes we were a progression guild when we aren't ^^; . I have my group of boys that we whisper back and forth expressing our desire that people wouldn't afk randomly and need a bio break between every attempt, and that just once could we maybe have someone actually have watched the videos besides us?
We aren't progression, though, and never will be. All four of us know that our schedules won't lets us commit to a real raiding guild, and we like the people we run with even when they drive us crazy.
I'm also the one (and only one, ha ha) who follows WoW Insider religiously, so I'm the only one that knows about upcoming changes, how they work, when to expect the next new patch, and so on.
Silly guildies.
Spelio Feb 7th 2012 10:49AM
I must say that if you guys want to be a raiding guild you can. My guild (shameless guild plug :) ) Casual Hardcore - Maelstrom, only raids once a week. 1 day... for 3-4 hours...and we are 1/8 Heroic in DS. I know of another guild as well that runs a similar schedule except that they only raid one day for no more than 3 hours. They are 8/8 Normal and were 2% from their first heroic kill last night.
My point is this: If you guys really want to raid, you can. Every raid takes a little work and scheduling is always an issue but if you can find a few more people who are committed, you can field a raid team that can progress into the end-game raiding tier.....even on 1 raid day a week. No back-breaking 4 day schedule. No 6 hours of raiding every night. No high pressure "Hardcore" mentality. Keep the faith. Keep trying to get the others involved. Post in the forums. Look in /trade. Recruiting sucks but give it a try. You will most likely find a few others willing to join.
Do not get me wrong. We will not see a heroic Madness kill anytime soon. We will be lucky to get to 6/8 before the end of the expansion. The one drawback with raiding only happening one day a week is it leaves little time for practice. We still get together to have fun and that's what counts in the end...that we have fun.
Good Luck and Happy Hunting!!