Transitioning to Summer Intensity!

Summer is here! It's time for that annual transition to summer intensity - every year, during summer, there is a decline in the number of hours that people are online and we see fewer people available to raid consistently week after week. We love summer and all the wonderful things that come with it so we adjust the raiding intensity accordingly - after all, we are a weekend raiding guild and there are summer parties and things to attend to!

After thorough discussion and planning, and after looking at the attendance logs, we have decided to suspend Blue (Tigers) and Purple (Dragons) raid groups for the summer. Green (Bears) raiding group will continue to raid every week on its normal schedule.

Why did we do this? What does this mean to you?

Why did we do this? Bluntly, it is merely announcing what has already happened and that we are not attempting to reverse it during the summer - the raiders have already effected this to each group.

Overall throughout all of wow and on every server, the summer brings about a lower attendance and availability and it is the time when there are the fewest 'guild recruits' available to bring in to fill empty raid seats. Recruiting is not going to be more successful during the summer quieter period than during the rest of the year - not that we will not continue recruiting, however we have to face facts from the past seven years. Green group actively maintains a reserve list of non-guildies ready to raid with us should we lose a member and be unable to recruit from within the guild. However, Blue and Purple group have been below full roster fielded for a 10-man raid for weeks now and they do not have a reserve list of non-guildies from which to draw upon to fill the empty raid seats.

Green group has a roster that pretty much shows up week after week after week for months and months and months (years, really) - it has a roster of people (12) that is sized to ensure that it never is forced to take a week off because of one or two outages. This gives it the consistency and resilience to absorb someone not being available one week and still roll out the raid. Also, within the roster, there are multiple people who have the tanking spec and gear, the healing spec and gear, the dps spec and gear such that it can shift people around to best suit the encounter and address an outage (e.g. a tank is away for 2 weeks on vacation with family) -- it doesn't do so by bringing in an alt that has not been geared and receiving the drops every week, but rather it does so by changing the specs of the toons already in the raid group. In effect, it has forward momentum and the critical mass to successfully raid every week unless it chooses to take a week off.

Blue and Purple groups on the other hand have several committed raiders each, however not twelve. In fact, not even eight each. Within the committed (they show up reliably every week) raiders within each of Blue and Purple, they lack tank and healer resilience should there be an outage - they can pull someone's alt or swap specs however the gear and skill level is a sizable step down from the 'norm'.

However, combined, Blue and Purple *do* have a 'roster' of enough committed people that the raid group could effectively raid every week unless it chooses to take a week off. That same combined roster has tank and healer resilience.

So rather than attempt to force a square peg into a round hole, we are not going to approach the shortage of committed raiders in Blue and Purple by recruiting for each of their groups now during the summer months when it is hardest to recruit raiders. Instead, we are suspending both raid groups and will re-visit how many raid groups we need in the guild in the Fall.

What does this mean to you? If you are in Green group, it means there is highly likely a guild replacement should you want to take a week off, communicate in advance accordingly as usual. On the other hand, if you are in Blue or Purple group, it means you are now highly likely going to be able to raid every single week - together. And you should expect to see some of the Green group raiding with you form time to time also.

Keep in mind that a 'raid group' by our definition is a highly managed entity. There are set rosters, firm attendance reliability expectations, performance expectations, and everyone is expected to have the highest levels of communication with the raid lead and group as to outages or changes. There are raid logs to be snapped, posted, and reviewed (by everyone in the group). There is a 'set in stone' mentality about our raid groups and a very, very high level of commitment that is expected.

Side bar: there is a difference between 'need', 'want', and 'like'. People need to drink water. People want to appear clean when they go to work. People would like to be a movie star. As a result, they always drink water, they do take showers, but they don't actually do anything that in any way is conducive to them actually becoming a movie star. Separate individuals from groups and look only at the actual evidence of the groups as whole entities: Green group has demonstrated that it wants to raid. Blue and Purple groups have demonstrated that both would like to raid - each has individuals that want to raid.

tl;dr: For the summer, Green group will be the only official rostered guild raid group however everyone will be able to raid in guild groups.

How will this work in practical terms? For Green group, no change - carry on. For Blue and Purple group, you will no longer see raid invitations on the calendar (that's alright, half of you were not responding anyways!). The guild raids on Fridays and Saturdays, 8:30PM server. If you want to raid, be online early enough to get a raid seat when raid groups start forming up.

i.e. Green group will assemble up as usual. Everyone not in Green group, will do what we have always done in wow for the past 7 years when in a raiding guild but not in the 'official' raid group: raid with guildies!

Obviously, we can expect that the raiders that want to raid every week will likely coalesce into an informal roster. (Please note that no one will be managing this roster!) It is a logical conclusion that we would not disband such a tight-knit group in the Fall but would simply re-brand it to be the new Blue. If an informal roster does not coalesce, we will re-visit raid rosters in the Fall anyways.

Why aren't you suspending Green group also? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Hey! Are you saying we are broken in Blue and Purple?! Not as individuals, no. You are fabulous as individuals. As groups - hells yes! Let's call a spade a spade here folks: a raid group that cannot reliably form a raid every week and zone into an instance or that cannot do more than get the first boss down after months and months is not a 'healthy and good working' raid group. Let's call it what it is and heal what ails it.

Sounds elitist. Personally, I plan on raiding with 'the summer group' A LOT this summer. Frankly, I don't care as much about which raid group I raid with as much as I do care about us sticking to our guild principles of respect and fun -- and there is nothing fun nor respectful in asking Gray or Doom to put thankless hours into organizing and managing and caring for and stressing over a group only to have people log on and not have the basic courtesy of clicking a button on the calendar invitation to let them know whether that raider will or will not be available that week. It is not respectful nor fun when a large group of people all agree to show up every week as a group and then more than half fail to do so leaving every one of the other people who did show up hanging and the raid lead feeling stressed because it was their job to form a raid that night because people planned their weekly lives and set that time aside as the precious time in the week when they could enjoy the leisure activity of playing the game and specifically, raiding. Green group 'got it' and made it work. Blue and Purple groups did not get it, but individuals in both groups totally 'get it' and it's time to make sure they get the benefits rather than just having another week where they don't get to raid because not enough people showed up.

Have a nice day and enjoy the summer!  = )