Over the past couple of years I have had the great pleasure of being the GM of some awesome guilds, filled with some awesome people. One thing that has become very clear however in the past year.
*holds a candle and stands slowly to his feet* “I am a casual raider”
That’s right, you heard me. For a long time it was enough to level and hang out with friends. I came from an RP server and enjoyed RP and events as well, as much as they can burn you out at times. But it was not enough. When Bricklethumb, my first 60 and then first ever to make it to 70 got there, well, I ran out of things to do alone with a small group of friends.
So I did what most non-raider, or non-pvp addicts did. I rolled an alt! To cut to the chase . . at this point I have 4 70’s, 1 64, 2 40 somethings. . .well. . you get the drift. I would run into people that would say “wow you have 4 70? That must be tons of fun?” Well, yes and no. What it does mean is I now have 4 toons to spread across my limited time and get stuff done.
I was bored. Puging was for the birds, allthough Im not against it as much as some others are. I find you can meet some really good people and players in a random pug. I left wow for a while to try some new content in LotRO. You can read about that here on PastoPlayz. It was great, it was fun. . But . . ran out of things to do at the time and sucked back into wow.
Then it happen. I got my paladin into Kara and I was like. . This is cool! So I got bit by the raiding bug. Working with new content, seeing new bosses, learning new tactics, and enjoying the game. . . oh and . . loot! Only problem was that most of the guilds that wanted to run Kara all the time a) wanted to run it all the time, especially at times I could not go due to family, church, or what not, and b) did not want anyone from another guild in a run with them.
This went on for several months. Untill I moved to Earthen Ring US. There I discovered a raiding alliance that worked. It is called SASU, and it is like most large groups of people. Some are cool, and some are jerks. Thankfully due to the structure and history more cool than jerks *smile*
SASU is multi guild, and freelance raiding alliance. The genius behind it was an in game chat channel and a forum where several raiding groups could post runs and ask for sign ups. To sign up you had to join SASU which meant you had to agree to some rules and regulations, much like a guild. But the nice thing is it gave smaller guilds a chance to see content that they could not before, without loosing the identity that they worked hard to get in the guild they belong to now.
It was wonderful. The system, by and large, worked great. They had at least 5 or 6 dedicated raid groups running with ample opportunity to sign up for a run during the week on YOUR schedual.
This brings me to a project I have begun to work on and need your help. I begun putting together a web site with functionality in place to accommodate this type of alliance. Not just a forum to post such info but a sort of WoW Raiding Alliance Social network.
So far you can create an account. Then sign up to create a raiding group. Once your group is set up you can accept people to view you group and content. Post an run. . wait for people to sign up, and more.
I am now on a newer west coast server, Misha. Its a normal server with some issues when it comes to raiding and grouping. Its going to be a challenge but I hope to provide a valuable tool for such an organization, and with Wrath coming out, and new content, now is the time.
So. . if you are bored where you are. If you are unable to see the content you want to see, without having to spend every night at the computer, then consider coming and helping us get this network off the ground.
First thing we need help on is a name :)
Second. . .roll an alt and check out the server. Who knows . . .might be worth your time.
Or if you have been reading my blog for sometime now, but dont play wow and have been thinking about it, then just ask me for a trial key to get you hooked. . .err started. [email protected]