So I want to finish up with discussing "raiding"

Last time I glossed over what raiding exactly is, so for this post I will discuss in further detail what raiding is REALLY like

There are different levels to raid dungeons--they vary from tier 4 (4 because WoW has expansion out...used to be from tier 1-3 pre-expansion) to tier 6. Basically Tier 4 dungeons are novice-friendly dungeons that any guild can participate in. Tier 6, as you probably would've guessed, are only for HARDCORE (hardcore as in its for guilds who has members that raid ~5-6 hours at least 4 days a week) guilds which have already gotten all the necessary loot from tier 4-5 dungeons.

This leads to an interesting competition amongst guilds to see who can kill the top bosses fastest...this site is often used to keep track of guilds' progression. Players that raid (often called RAIDERS) often know top guilds' names. They can often keep track of top guilds' progression because popular wow sites, such as THIS and THIS are filled with news relating to other guilds accomplishments and updates to WoW

SIDENOTE: Recently, there was a huge patch to the game (huge as it was ~300MB) that included a brand-new tier 6 dungeon, so right now there's a competition amongst world's best guilds to see who can claim the title of "First to kill the hardest boss in game." Wow news sites, consequently, are keeping track of the race.


Of course, because WoW is such a social game, there are GUILD DRAMAS...the most notorious one is from another top guild, DEATH AND TAXES (their website found HERE)
What happened is...A girl raider from DnT (who shall now be referred to as Jill) and another member from DnT (who shall be referred to as Jack) were real life couples, but they had some rough fights and ended up breaking up. Jill wanted to exact revenge on Jack, so she found another DnT member (who will now be referred to as Daniel) and invited him over to live with her. Daniel ended up moving in with Jill and started having a very very sexual affair.

Sidenote: Daniel and Jack have been friends for years

Eventually the news got out and entire DnT crew felt like something had to be done. They somehow procured very graphic photos of Daniel and Jill (and we're talking about rated X stuff) and posted them all over their site and disseminated it all over official WoW forums, calling Jill names like S***, W****, etc etc etc. The scandal got so big that even I, who never really dig into guild drama stuff, ended up hearing about it on MY guild forums.

Without going into details, my guild also had some dramas in the past--guild member who seriously cried due to raiding...members quitting the game...angry guild members over stupid fights that could've been prevented...the list goes on

Despite all this, I still find raiding enjoyable...sense of killing tier 6 bosses (that many WoW players only dream of) and just having fun with your guildies is fun :)





I think I covered raiding pretty thoroughly, so I'll close with some more social aspect of WoW




One of the funnier things that WoW players do in WoW is trying to come up with character names or guild names
Some of funnier guild names
Warning: Some names are very explicit or racist, so gloss over this section if you can't handle it


POSSIBLY OFFENSIVE GUILD NAMES
Naga stole my bike (Sidenote: There's a race called the NAGAS in Warcraft lore, link found here)
Rosa Parks stole my seat
Halaa at a Naga (Sidenote: There's an area called Halaa in WoW)
Sapped girls can't say no
Rogues do it from behind
Ghouls gone wild
Your mom is my mount
Two Dollar Hordes (Sidenote: There are two nations, the Alliance and the Horde, in the game)




NON-OFFENSIVE
Gnomeland security (Sidenote: There is a race called Gnomes, link found HERE)
Hello kitty assassins
OMG lazer gun PEW PEW PEW
Gnome Punting Champions
Hanging with my Gnomies
Beep beep i'm a jeep
CtrlAltElite
I m Godzilla U R Japan



I think you get the gist :)



There are some silly threads on WoW forums...like
Example 1
Example 2



Basically, WoW has its share of SERIOUS, HARDCORE gamers and casuals who just want to mess around and act silly....and not all WoW players are social losers! heh :)


I hope I helped to overcome some of stereotypes of gamers with my blogs...I personally find games to be appealing because I can just relax and home and play whenever I want while being able to socialize with my real-life friends and game friends. If I get tired of being stuck home, I can opt to call my friends to go out to hang out.

I don't really know what I want to discuss in my next blog post, but look forward to it!