Trying to Understand the Function of Guilds

Credit goes to Dr. Jenny Fremlin

If you've stuck around with me long enough, you know that I have questions surrounding guilds. If you don't raid, what purpose do they serve? I was in a guild for a pretty long time that was a 100% social guild. We occasionally ran raids as level 85s but it was strictly old content because hardly any of us were experienced raiders and hardly any of us were geared to run Cataclysm (at the time, this was the most current expansion) raids. There were times where we couldn't even manage to get through Cata heroic dungeons as a guild without wiping repeatedly. It was sad. From what I could tell, the most active members were primarily interested in PvP and were geared and experienced as such. The husband and I were looking for more than that. While we occasionally enjoy PvP, our primary focus was social and leveling but we were very interested in learning how to raid. This was something that our guild and more importantly, our guild manager, was totally uninterested in. Rather than try and bend the guild to fit us, we left. It was so far from being personal. I really miss those people. But being in a guild that didn't fit us, that we had outgrown, led to dissatisfaction with WoW in general.

After Pandaria came out, we left the guild and paid for a realm transfer. We decided to found our own guild. Our entire purpose was to have a place for our alts and a bank that we could do with what we wanted. After leveling the guild to 25 and more than just two members to level 90, we plan on recruiting. What we're looking for in members is as follows:

• Fun people that enjoy playing a game and not analyzing it to death.
• Respectful people that understand that when you're running a level 85 dungeon on normal with bad gear, it's because you're trying to get better gear for cripes sake. 
• Respectful people that understand when you're in a level 85 dungeon with bad gear, that you probably don't know all the fights because IT'S A LOW LEVEL DUNGEON THAT YOU'RE TRYING TO LEARN AND GET BETTER GEAR.
• Fun people that are interested in being respectful, social, adults who are interested in playing a game.
• Fun people that are looking to learn together.

I know. I'm idealist and probably unrealistic but my husband and I can't possibly be the only gamers out there that are like us. I remain hopeful.

The other day, @Matticus posted this on Twitter:

Everytime I leave my guild alone for more than a few days, I dread to see what trouble they get into upon my return.
— Matticus(@matticus) May 15, 2013

 It led me to wonder, what are other guilds like? Guilds that have actual leadership and direction? I really think this is an aspect of MMOs, and not just WoW, that I have yet to experience.

I found this paper that was written in 1996 about MUDs which was entirely too interesting especially when comparing it to the current gaming experience of MMOs. Essentially, nothing much has changed in what the gamer is looking for in the 17 years since this was written. You should read it.

I would love to hear about other people's guild experiences.

Top Ten Favorite Battle Pets: Part Two

Maruka's back to introduce you to the rest of my favorite battle pets. Two posts in one week. I'm on a roll. ;)

I have all of these spiders in their different colored skins, but the purple is my favorite. The Amethyst Shale Hatchling wasn't hard to find, at all. These spiders are all over Deepholm. Lots and lots.

The Pandaren Monk. This is one of the few pets I've spent actual money on. I think I've only bought this one and one other. I really love his animations though. He is so funny.

The Emerald Whelpling. This is one of the few pets I've gotten as a drop. As I rarely run dungeons anymore and I never run raids, I don't have the opportunity to get battle pets as drops very often. I fight with this pet in almost every battle nowadays. He's a level 25 so I use him to battle pets in Pandaria. His heals and Moonfire are very helpful to my main group.

This is one of my first rare level Pandaren pets, the Bandicoon Kit. I like this one for no other reason than that it's cute.

This is the pet that I mentioned in part one that isn't a rare level. I could only find the Harpy Youngling as poor, common, or uncommon qualities. She doesn't spawn that often and is pretty hard to find. It took me several hours just to find an uncommon quality pet so I took her and I might use a stone to upgrade her to rare. I really like this skin and I worked hard to find her. I think she looks fantastic.








There you have it, my ten favorite battle pets. Well, as of today anyway. I collect new pets every day that I play so I'll need to update this post sometime in the future. I wanted to include a link to my profile on Warcraftpets.com for anyone interested in viewing my (mostly) complete collection. I need to update there as well, lol. Anyway, Maruka's Menagerie on Warcraft Pets.

I hope you enjoyed viewing my favorites. I hope you'll share your battle pet posts in the comments and/or a link to your menagerie on Warcraft Pets.

Top Ten Favorite Battle Pets: Part One

I get easily distracted by doing pet battles. It takes me way longer than it should to complete one quest just because I can't resist stopping to battle a pet that I don't already have or one that I have but isn't rare. This is one of my most favorite new features of the Mists of Pandaria expansion. I think Blizzard was brilliant when they introduced this into the game.

I thought I'd compile a list of my top ten favorite battle pets that I already have. I limited myself to only rares (with one exception) because I had such a hard time picking favorites. They are not listed in any order because I just couldn't do that. I might hurt feelings. ;)

Modeling with my battle pets is Maruka, my level 90 Orc Hunter.

Say hello to the Giraffe Calf. Ok. I know I said that I couldn't pick favorites, but the Giraffe Calf is probably my favorite and for two reasons. One being that I have collected giraffes since I was ten years old. I think they are one of the most majestic and unique animals in nature. Secondly, it took me freaking forever to find one and catch it. Days. I trekked around the Barrens for days.

 Next up is the Sporeling Sprout. He wasn't all that hard to find, but I love this skin. He's fun and one of the three pets I fight with the most.

This is the Darkshore Cub. I like him simply because he's cute.

The Tiny Harvester. I love this skin. I think this is a very fun pet. He was super easy to get. There are Tiny Harvesters all over the farms in Westfall.

So, how fun is it to fight with a book, lol?? I love this pet. It is pretty unique. Also, I'm an avid reader, so I had to have a Lofty Libram. This was kind of hard to get as a rare. I had to camp around Dalaran Crater and compete with several other players just to get a battle. Then I had to repeat the process until I could get a rare. It wasn't as hard as the Giraffe Calf, but a challenge nonetheless.








And this concludes part one. I didn't want to overload with too many screenshots. As always, you can click on the pictures to view a larger version with more detail. If you've written a post with your favorite pets, please leave a comment so that I can go and read it. I really enjoy seeing other player's favorites.