officers dont do officers like u did

I’ve got a theory. The level of guild drama you have in your guild is directly proportional to the start time of your raids. The earlier your raid time, the more susceptible your guild is to drama. Oh sure, it’s not always the case – but let me explain why I think the time you start a raid is part of your drama problem.

The best raid time for an individual is really dictated by the constraints that you have on your real life. We game when we have time to game. For some, they have a seemingly limitless amount of time to play, so they really don’t have any real life constraints. For others, real life constraints require weird hours, so it’s easier to play “in prime time” if you play on a server that’s not in your time zone.

But most of us don’t have an unlimited amount of time and have chosen a server that pretty closely reflects our current time zone. For example, I live on the west coast and (surprise, surprise) I play on a Pacific Time zone server. I’m a mature adult, I work until 5pm PST and live 45 minutes away from work. Once I get home, I have dinner and take time to visit with my wife and kids. The earliest I can be available to raid is 7:00 and I prefer 8:00. My expectation is that most responsible and mature adults would fall into a similar pattern. Even an adult bachelor that works till 5:00 is going to struggle to meet anything earlier than a 6:00pm raid.

Now consider who can make a 4:30 raid time on a server. People with seemingly limitless amount of time to play, people who play in a different time zone, or kids. Four thirty is about the perfect time for a 12-17 year old kid to make it home from school, hug mom, do their chores/schoolwork, and then log on to raid. An 8:00 raid is going to be pushing it for a lot of kids whose mom is going to unplug that computer at 10:00.

There is a reason we characterize immature, rash and emotional behavior as childish. Kids are, well, kids. Remember High School? Remember when what Terry said about your gym shorts in 4th period was seemingly the most important thing in your world. No? Then go watch Superbad and get acquainted with your new Hunter and Mage. Oh sure, some kids are great. But even the most mature kid has some trouble understanding the importance of a game relative to the importance of the outside world. It’s not the end of the world if you lose out of those epic boots. But it is the end of the world for that kid. Or at least it seems that way to them at the time.

Note: Check out this article on WoW Insider about the “officers dont do officers like u did” title and make sure to read the comments. Credits to BBB for pointing it out.