Thursday, April 29, 2010

Appeasing all means appeasing no one...

This is a classic example, I found it on the Eve Forum Watch, where appeasing all means appeasing no one. I thought it was really funny... I think this is a case where Gelvon would just reply to Patty to tell her that she is a M&S.

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FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: December 1
RE: Christmas Party

I'm happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take place
on December 23, starting at noon in the private function room at the
Grill House. There will be a cash bar and plenty of drinks! We'll have a
small band playing traditional carols...feel free to sing along.

And don't be surprised if our CEO shows up dressed as Santa Claus!

A Christmas tree will be lit at 1:00pm. Exchange of gifts among
employees can be done at that time, however, no gift should be over
$10.00 to make the giving of gifts easy for everyone's pockets. This
gathering is only for employees! A special announcement will be made by
our CEO at that time!

Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Patty

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FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: December 2
RE: Holiday Party

In no way was yesterday's memo intended to exclude our Jewish employees.
We recognize that Chanukah is an important holiday, which often
coincides with Christmas, though unfortunately not this year. However,
from now on we're calling it our "Holiday Party."

The same policy applies to any other employees who are not Christians or
those still celebrating Reconciliation Day. There will be no Christmas
tree present. No Christmas carols will be sung. We will have other
types of music for your enjoyment. Happy now?

Happy Holidays to you and your family.
Patty

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FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
TO: All Employees
DATE: December 3
RE: Holiday Party

Regarding the note I received from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous
requesting a non-drinking table ... you didn't sign your name. I'm
happy to accommodate this request, but if I put a sign on a table that
reads, "AA Only"; you wouldn't be anonymous anymore. How am I supposed
to handle this?

Somebody?

Forget about the gifts exchange, no gifts exchange are allowed since the
union members feel that $10.00 is too much money and executives believe
$10.00 is a little chintzy.

NO GIFTS EXCHANGE WILL BE ALLOWED.

Sincerely
Patty.

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FROM: Patty Lewis, Human Resources Director
To: All Employees
DATE: December 7
RE: Holiday Party

What a diverse group we are! I had no idea that December 20 begins the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which forbids eating and drinking during
daylight hours. There goes the party! Seriously, we can appreciate how
a luncheon at this time of year does not accommodate our Muslim
employees' beliefs.

Perhaps the Grill House can hold off on serving your meal until the end
of the party - or else package everything for you to take it home in a
little foil doggy baggy. Will that work?

Meanwhile, I've arranged for members of Weight Watchers to sit farthest
from the dessert buffet and pregnant women will get the table closest to
the restrooms. Gays are allowed to sit with each other. Lesbians do
not have to sit with Gay men, each will have their own table. Yes,
there will be a flower arrangement for the Gay men's table.

To the person asking permission to cross dress, no cross dressing
allowed though. We will have booster seats for short people.

Low-fat food will be available for those on a diet. We cannot control
the salt used in the food. We suggest for those people with high blood
pressure to taste first. There will be fresh fruits as dessert for
Diabetics, the restaurant cannot supply "No Sugar" desserts. Sorry!

Did I miss anything?!?!?

Patty


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Must there be incentives to raid 25m?

There has been a lot of discussion on the raid changes that will come with Cataclysm and until BBB put it into perspective I didn't really know to quantify why it is that I dislike a lot of the points people made, in favor of 25s or against.

The point from BBB that I think I love most:
"Let’s cut to the chase.

The question isn’t “Do 25’s deserve better rewards than 10’s”, or “Are 25’s harder than 10’s”, or even “What should be used to entice people to play in 25’s”.

The question is, “Can 25 man raids really be as fun as 10’s to play in, if most people have to be bribed to take part in them?”

That’s the question at play here."

Yes, yes, YES!!! Like I have said before, the heavy lifting, in term of guild management and logistic are NEVER seen or felt by the everyday raiders, mostly they see it was an inconvenience when someone miss raid, so why must there even be incentives for individual raider to raid with twenty four other people? If there are any incentives to be dole out it should be to the GUILD. It may be something Blizzard themselves are keeping hidden in their pocket protectors, remember we are suppose to be getting some sort of guild advancement system with Cataclysm and I can't imagine a more perfect way to encourage and support large guild then to have it means something to belong to a large guild. One thing off the top of my head would be extra gold from daily quests, extra honor from daily BGs, extra damage in gears for raids, extra time on flasks/elixirs. The individual raider will benefit indirectly from the incentives given to the guild and in my mind build a stronger relationship to the GUILD.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Death to 25m raiding... long live the RAID!!!

It has always bug me with the advent of WoTLK that the same raid for 25 people would drop better loots then a 10 man raids. Sure the amount of work to put the raid together is greater but honestly that work is squarely on the shoulder(s) of the Guild Master, Raid Leader, and/or the Officers; the majority of the raiding members of the 25 man raid doesn't even notice or feel the pain of such efforts. The raiders complain if there is no raid but they don't do anything to fix the problem they wait on officers to mend it.

I honestly think everything done in a 25m raid is much easier but only made harder because of the same space (as 10m raid) being available. There is more people to share the burden but less room to maneuver. From my experience, healing in 25 man raid is often less stressful, if something happens to you there's someone to cover you. DPS in 25 man raid is often nothing more then a pissing contest. Tanking seems to be pretty much down to asking whether if there is more adds to pickup otherwise the same mechanics are obverse between 25 and 10, often boil down to two tanks trading off on aggro.

I'm also very excited with this news because it will make the people who claim to love the big raiding environment either put-up or shut-up. No longer will they be able to hide behind the excuse that they love big raid environment to get the extra benefit of loot. People often claim that the large raids give you a sense of camaraderie and epicness, however I think they are full of Tauren's manure. I had no love for 40m raiding, just more people doesn't mean more fun. I have had people retell how fun 40m raids were from Vanilla, yet often enough the core of the story is that they are afford more time to goof off and is not noticeable because there are enough people to pick up the slack.

BBB thinks that this will bring the "Golden Age" to WoW and I have to agree with him. People who bitch that content is too easy will get plenty of face-to-ground time doing content with the same set of gears rather then bring 25m gear to 10m content. I also have a problem with people who complains that they had to run alts raid to practice for their main Lich King kills, looking at you Ensidia. Honestly pay the price for being first (efame) or STFU.

Update on the Shadow's Edge front, the 25 Primordial Saronite are sitting in my bags but waiting on the two bloods, which I probably will do a GDKP to get since there's probably no way I can get my warrior into our 25m raid even if there one this week. Or maybe I can if we don't have enough people and have to pug a lot of the spot, we will see.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Shadowmourn


In order for Bakatirak (Haman's current incarnation) to start on her road to Shadowmourn, she'll be needing 25 Primordial Saronites. However she can ill afford to use her own frost badges since her tanking set is yet to be completed, as well as the dps set which she's barely started on.

The total number of badges required for 25 saronites is 575 frost badges, at first that would seem a daunting task when she isn't even done with gear but that's the nice thing about having multiple raiding toons. Kinzlayer is done with any upgrades from frost badges and Bruenhylsda will make do with what fortunes provides her.

Within a week one can earn 14 frosties from doing the heroic random each day, 5 frosties from the weekly raid, and 4 [edit: 2 from 10m and 2 from 25] from Toravon who is still holding on out my warlock's Sanctified gloves as well as potential lottery winner in Bruen and Baka. It never hurts to hope that their ilvl264 drops from him rather then the more expensive option of buying them with badges.

As Kinzlayer is doing ICC10 progression it's hard to count on consistent frosties production but since the guild runs a fresh ICC25 every week there should be 17 badges from that venture each week. Bruenhylsda can contribute to more frosties by regularly running ICC raids (10/25) but I don't have the energy/time every week so that can't be counted on.

As of now, Kinzlayer and Bruenhylsda have a total of 275 frost badges, which leaves a whopping 300 badges to go. At a rate of 63 badges a week (14*2 + 5*2 + 4*2 + 17), it will take just a bit under 5 weeks to get all the badges needed for the saronites. Incidentally there is also the need to get the bloods from Festgut and Rotface, which hopefully the guild can provide help with since all the plate melee's main either have the bloods or don't care enough for it and seeing those drops while no one in raid want them will be painful.

As each journey starts with but a step, this is mine... hopefully Bakatirak will have a Shadowmourn to show for my effort.


Update 04/12/2010 : Total - 188 + 111 = 299
Update 04/17/2010 : Total - 243 + 123 = 366
Update 04/19/2010 : Total - 249 + 136 = 385