Saturday, December 12, 2009

A step away from QQ

Looking over my past several posts, I am realizing that I've spent quite a bit of time talking about problems and hardships that come along with the whole leadership thing, whether that's on the guild front or the raid front.

Part of the reason is that I do tend to put my problems out there "on paper" to keep them from taking up too much of my mental processes. A purge, if you will, of emotions and thoughts so that they don't become my main focus. I love this game and my guild mates too much to want a repeat of last August, which is when I took a break from WoW for a month, cold turkey, and in the midst of quite the emo hissy fit - one that had been building for months and me with no outlet for it as the pressure increased.

So, yes, this is a place for me to blow off steam and that's valuable and good.

But it should also be a place for me to catalog all the good and wonderful and fantastic times I have nearly every day with this group of people who has become a second family to me. Sure, there's the occasional bratty cousin that needs to have his nose punched in, but by and large, these are great people and I wouldn't trade most of them for all the shiny gold and titles and achievement points in the game. Here are some reasons they are so great:

They're generous. With their time, with their assistance, with their listening ears and sympathy. I've even seen many of them be generous with their gold.

They're funny. I seriously need to get better at capturing screenshots of some of the hilarious crap they come up with in chat. And perhaps start recording them in Vent?

They're genuine. There's really not a whole lot of tip-toeing around the bush with these people. If they think I am acting like a snob, they'll ask me what I've got stuck up my butt. I've returned the favor a few times. There's no pretense in their concern that our relationship is intact and they've been honest when I've approached them over similar issues.

They're smart. Really smart. Many of them work in IT or IT-related fields. Since I fell into the same area by some stupid fluke (I honestly don't know much about computers and their mysterious inner workings), they have patiently put up with my "Hey, stupid question..." pokes in the middle of our workdays. I have also learned a lot about managing people and being more effective in my communication from folks who do those things for a living.

They care. We've talked about everything from bad dates to family issues to jobs we hate and people who have insulted us. These conversations will often get referenced back to at some point or another, proving that they remember and they care enough to ask how a specific situation is going.

They make sure we all stay humble. Honestly, I sometimes think they have done more to keep my massive ego in check than what is really needful. There is a daily exchange of good-natured jabs and pokes that we can all laugh about. I'll go out of my way to share 'nub moments' with them just because it's so much more fun to laugh at myself with someone else.

They are patient. Duuuude, are they patient. They let me talk, lead raids, boss people around, fail tank, fail heal, and occasionally fail dps (I like to think I don't normally fail at dps, but I'm sure I've had my moments). They wade through the mountains of crap I post to the forums and several of them even wade through this and comment here and in gchat and in game. I fail and flail a lot - more so when I've had a bit to drink, which may or may not happen often - and they put up with it all and even, sometimes, tell me I'm doing a good job.

Those are just a few reasons I love them. I might have to do this again after another string of "But leadering is haaaaaard work! Why doesn't anyone get that?" self-indulgent crap. Because I'm pretty sure that they do get it and will continue to be awesome about it.

4 comments:

  1. "I wouldn't trade most of them for all the...achievement points in the game."

    Did someone hack your account?

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  2. There is that moment of awe...

    Yes we are all family...those that are cousin It, Uncle Fester in the corner, the die hards, the hard cores, and the ones that need a punch in the nose. I think that you do a good job of managing those things. I might not always agree with you on some of the things you do...but I don't vocalize them because I know you're looking out for the guild at large and not your own reasons behind it.

    Yes...you step up, take control, move things forward and manage to make us laugh at some point. And for that...I love Alas! Good job and thanks for taking the time to tell me what you love about us. ~Jinx

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  3. @Yngwe: Ha! Sounds like it, doesn't it?

    @Jinxy: My knee-jerk is "what doesn't she agree with!?" But thank you for the kind words. I like the affirmation.

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  4. Give me all ur ore!!

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