End Game Alliances (Horde) High Quality LFG - OOC POST

[Vuudu]

End Game Alliances (Horde Side) OOC

Disclaimer: The Grim tries hard to balance RP, PvE, and PvP. This post is going to be all about PvE. Please don't assume that means we are "going light" on RP or PvP. One thing at a time. :)

As many of us know, reaching level 60 begins a whole phase of World of Warcraft. There are a dozen or so instances that need to be run over and over again in order to complete plotlines and collect the gear needed to compete in PvP and high end raids. However, small to midsize guilds (and even some large guilds) can have trouble getting people together for a spur-of-the-moment raid on a dungeon. Even planned raids can be tough at times. I've read the posts here, discussed this with fellow Grim, and it seems this is a common problem with a lot of guilds.

Does this sound familiar? You've got 10 people from your guild online, and a bunch of people want to hit Scholomance. However, none of your guild's Priests are awake. Or there isn't a Warrior online. Currently, most of us then hit the LFG channels and try to find someone who we hope is decent to fill the missing role. Frustration often runs high.

I propose that we form some OOC alliances to help overcome this problem. Think of it as a High Quality LFG. A group of guilds who share a common LFG channel, so that we have a continual pool of good people to draw from for end-game raids. Why an OOC alliance? Because we've tried doing this IC, and the drama is too intense for it to last. And, if we are gonna suck it up and grab random people to fill out raids, better that we grab people we know and trust.

A few suggested rules for participation in the High Quality LFG (HQLFG) channel:

(1) Your guild leader must approve. This isn't a onesy-twosy thing. Either your guild is down with it, or it isn't.

(2) Your guild is accountable for your actions. If a mage from <Insert Guild Name> starts ninja looting on a raid, and generally acts like an ass, the guild leader WILL be contacted, and your guild's participation in HQLFG will be in jeopardy. We all have to be confident of the quality of people in HQLFG.

(3) The raid leader sets the rules. This applies to looting as well as RP. If a Grim is running a group to Stratholm, the raid may be RP-only and standard need/greed. If someone from <Insert Guild Name> is running a group through LBRS, it may be No-RP, Teamspeak req., Master Looter. Your participation in the raid is your consent to abide by the rules.

Well, that's the idea. The Grim are willing to participate, and I am willing to coordinate the HQLFG. If you are interested, please reply with a post and let me know. Comments, suggestions, and constructive criticism are welcome, and please note that this thread is 100% OOC.

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UPDATE: The following guilds have expressed interested in starting the HQLFG, Hordeside:

Founding Guilds - Guild Leader:

The Crimson Watch - Morghoul
The Grim - Grainger
The Immortalis - Clys
Infection - Dartsnap
Voodoo Hooligans - Leyujin

Interested Parties:

Zusteakai (guild?), Soraxis (individual), Malebrignon (Decimators)

[clys]

Sounds like a good idea. Immortalis has members that would like to participate in such a channel, I'm sure. I like the rules you've set up, too, makes perfect sense.

[Morghoul]

The Crimson Watch would also be game for something like this. Feel free to contact Morghoul, Telemachos or Gornin about this in the game if you'd like TCW in the mix.

[Malebrignon]

Sounds like a good idea to me. I'll present this idea to the Decimators.

[Nadea]

Hmm...this plan could work if there are enough guilds willing to participate. I can bring it up with Infection and see what they think.

[Vuudu]

Thank you all for your replies so far. I will contact the interested parties and we can discuss the idea further. And please, if you haven't responded yet and you are interested, feel free!

Zusteakai, as to your question, the LFG channel will be completely OOC. The goal is to make this an efficient way of finding people to flesh out raids without having to go through a lot of IC drama. I don't mean to minimize the importance of RP, but so many of us are just grabbing random folks to fill out a group, we may as well make sure those "random" folks are quality people we can OOC trust.

Personally, Vuudu plans to justify it like this: "Well, I may not like <random person>, but I'd rather kill the Baron with her than not do it at all." :)

[Leyujin]

Definitely interested, and it would help spare making IC alliances (which could backfire) to simply get PvE groups going.

[Fhenrir]

I personally would love to have Confusion involved with such a channel. I'll bring it up with my guildmates and see what they think.

However, a fair warning...

I have experience with OOC LFG channels, and they tend to end up being like an OOC chat room as well as an LFG channel. I'm not saying there's a problem with that, but you can't expect it to be all business. Especially if a bunch of us TNGers are gonna be there? Hell, it'll be all kinda of chatty.

[Vuudu]

Ahhh I understand now!

Rule #3 covers that - the leader of the raid will set the rules. So if you put a group together and want /p chat to be IC, then that is how it will be.

[Fhenrir]

(3) The raid leader sets the rules. This applies to looting as well as RP. If a Grim is running a group to Stratholm, the raid may be RP-only and standard need/greed. If someone from <Insert Guild Name> is running a group through LBRS, it may be No-RP, Teamspeak req., Master Looter. Your participation in the raid is your consent to abide by the rules.

[Keraph]

Sounds like a fine idea, Infection is in! My only problem is that I already have too many damn channels open XD

[Soraxis]

Sounds like a good idea to me, whats the channel? I like pulling aggro errrr I mean helping people out.

[Vuudu]

I'm heading out from work now, I'll do some more thinking on this and post an update tonight to all interested parties. :)

[EnheilRas]

/logon Silver Hand
/Character EnheilRas
/join Raid60

[Vuudu]

So far, here is the list of interested guilds, with their guild leader. If I have a name wrong, please correct me. I'll update the first post with this information from now on.

Founding Members:

The Crimson Watch - Morghoul
The Grim - Grainger
The Immortalis - Clys
Infection - Keraph
Voodoo Hooligans - Leyujin

Interested Parties:

Zusteakai (guild?), Soraxis (individual), Malebrignon (Decimators)

[Vuudu]

Mortica has been good enough to offer us space on the TNG boards to discuss the HQLFG in more detail.

I'm going to get this set up tonight, and I'll invite in representatives from each of the guilds that have expressed interest once it is set up. Let's keep talking here until we're set to move to the sub-board.

Vuudu

[Grisch]

I take it each guild will be responsible for the conduct of their members while on a raid. Should someone purposefull break ettiquette, fail to listen to the team leader or in some way be accused of wanton asshattedness, it's up to the relevent guild to deal with the person, or the guild's members will no longer be welcome in the Channel and on further raids?

As long as this is enforced, it sounds like a great idea. It seems one of the biggest reasons people join 'raiding guilds' is because they know that everyone in the raid will behave themselves or the rest of the guild will have issues with them. That needs to be the same here imo.

Ok, Sanctuary is in if you'll have us, we have some 60s that want to do end-game, and will have several more in a few weeks.

[Leyujin]

One thing I'd like discussed would be a way to extend this to lower levels, whether by a different channel, or simply having them in the same channel. Since we're a small guild, I'd like some of my guys to have the same chance to party with people as I do, nearly at 60. By no means is this necessary, but I know that all of our guilds have some lower level people, who have the same issues at times.

[Keraph]

Just to note, I'm not actually the leader of Infection, Dartsnap is. However, her online activity can be a bit sketchy, so I take care of most of our involvement in this sort of thing.

[Fhenrir]

So far, here is the list of interested guilds, with their guild leader. If I have a name wrong, please correct me. I'll update the first post with this information from now on.

Founding Members:

The Crimson Watch - Morghoul
The Grim - Grainger
The Immortalis - Clys
Infection - Keraph
Voodoo Hooligans - Leyujin

Interested Parties:

Zusteakai (guild?), Soraxis (individual), Malebrignon (Decimators)

Confusion, with it's guild master Fhenrir doesn't get any mention at all? ;_;



/logon Silver Hand
/Character EnheilRas
/join Raid60

I believe Vuudu is looking for a "high quality" LFG channel.

[Vuudu]

THEGA!

Thanks to everone for your input so far. With the help of Mortica, we've set up a message board for the HQLFG, now renamed THEGA - The Horde End Game Association. In addition to being much catchier to say, it's much cooler than the potential Alliance counterpart. TAEGA? Huh? :)

I will presently be giving access to this forum to the people who have stated that their guilds would like to participate in THEGA. Please continue to discuss interest here, and if you guild wants to take part, you'll be given access to the THEGA board.

[Thermal]

Confusion, with it's guild master Fhenrir doesn't get any mention at all? ;_;

aHAH!
(Just dawned on me where I remember the <Confusion> guildtag from...) A certain bar in Booty Bay...

Looking good Vuu!

edit: Is the THEGA forum open to the whole guilds or simply the leaders of said guilds?

[Vuudu]

Each guild will be responsible for the conduct of its members. That's the nice thing about having guilds join rather than individuals. If someone acts like an asshat during a raid, their guild will hear about. If it is severe or repeated, the THEGA leaders can discuss removing the entire guild from the association, which gives everyone an incentive to police their own people.

However, some folks have asked to join THEGA independant of thier guilds. We're discussing that in the forum.

The THEGA board will be opened up to everyone who is an an associated guild within a day or so. I just want to make sure we have everything squared away to get started before we open it to everyone. Right now, it is just the point-person for each guild that has access.

[Malebrignon]

My internet shot craps before I joined the channel last night, but Decimate is definitely in for this.

[Vuudu]

Adding Decimate to the list and giving board access to Malebrignon.

[EnheilRas]

/logon Silver Hand
/Character EnheilRas
/join Raid60

I believe Vuudu is looking for a "high quality" LFG channel.

It was.. 'til about last February... when the "Alts" came..

[Torg]

This sounds like a fine idea. I've discussed it with my officers and Citadel would gladly participate. We currently have 50+ level 60's and another 20+ level 55-59. We usually have a couple of pre-raid instance groups running in the evenings, but there are always a few folks who come on a bit late and can't get a full group going. We are also interested in just meeting more quality folks from other guilds to raid, RP and PvP with.

Torg, guildleader of Citadel
((alts are Skrag, Noon and Grond))

[Tark]

Kudos for arranging this, Vuudu. Well done. As Torg said, Citadel would be proud to participate.


Some history on a similar, successful project on Scarlet Crusade (CrossGuildAlliance):

It took four incarnations over a period of several months, but then it became quite useful, and frequently used.

I understand that this is Vuudu's project, and he can shape it however seems best. I just thought it might help to look at what worked on another realm.

The elements of success seemed to be:

Inclusion by invitation.
It wasn't super-secret or moderated, but somehow, including only specific Guilds (and invited solo players) was much more effective. Perhaps people felt it raised the bar above most PuGs.

Use by level 55+ only.
An LFG resource for any level is helpful, but the needs for End-Game Instances are so much more specific that having a focused channel made it much more useful than LookingforAGroup-City.

Use for Instances only.
The early channels degenerated into Chat. This one was for LFG only. Less chatter, more value.

[Vuudu]

I've given Tark, Torg, and Lupa access to THEGA's forums. I can't see any reason not to include Citadel in the organization. :)