What does "Casual" Raiding mean?

I recently read a blog about creating a new guild and it got me to thinking that, although in several places we describe ourselves as "casual", I've never really specifically stated what I mean by that.  As mentioned in that particular post, different people see it different ways.

So I thought I would set down here how I view what "casual" means for our "casual raiding".

For a start off, it means that no-one in the guild is required to attend raids - we don't kick people if they don't sign up for X number of raids per week/month.

It also means that we don't perhaps raid as often, or for as long, as other raiding guilds - twice a week usually, sometimes three times, for between 2 to 3 hours at a time.

It means that, if someone needs to suddenly go /afk for 5 minutes to rescue the puppy from the flip-top bin, or the child from getting stuck head first down the toilet - we understand.

But, just because we have a casual approach to signing up for raids and how often we raid doesn't mean we view raiding itself casually. 

I expect those who sign up, to turn up.  How rude is it to sign up, say you're going to be there, and then just not bother?  It may be understandable if your... More

by Poisonenvy on 2011-08-31 09:52:57

The History of Dark Wolves

Kadava and I started playing back in December 2006 - we started off playing Alliance, no doubt like a lot of other "first timers", but pretty soon ended up with the ugliest undead we could find - him a warrior, myself a priest.  We were still fairly low levels on these characters when we bumped into a character called Jaysham - we chatted, and ended up joining our very first guild - All for One.  There we encountered new people, had fun and learned a lot. 

Unfortunately that guild broke up within a month or so of us joining, therefore Jaysham persuaded us and several others to start another guild - Dark Wolves.

The guild was set up back in April 2007 - it started off with a core membership, some of whom are still in the guild today.  Some months later, Jaysham stopped playing and somehow the Guild Leadership passed to me.  We still continued on with the ideal that we had started though - that we were there to have fun, not get stressed or encounter drama, and to learn how to play various aspects of the game as well as we could.

As our characters gained levels, the guild gained more members until, about a year later, we were starting to consider the possibility of raiding. ... More

by Poisonenvy on 2011-08-15 06:57:21

Once upon a time, there was a guild website ....

... and then another, and then another.  I spent many days over time trying to find an acceptable home for the online presence of our little guild - somewhere that gave us enough features to not feel restrictive, even in the "free" version; somewhere that was easy to keep updated with all the various information we might need; somewhere that was easily accessible by guild members who, perhaps, only had 5 or so minutes a day to check into the website.

Over time we tried, tested and moved on from several homes (many never even got past the "just testing" stage).  We eventually came to a halt at Wowstead .... a flexible "family run" type of host who made us feel like we were part of a community and encouraged everyone to help each other.  I thought we had found a home for a considerable time and, when they announced they were being taken over by Curse, with a sleeker interface, better looking site with more WoW integration, I was looking forward to the changes with anticipation.

Unfortunately the changes that came about were, in nearly all cases, for the worse.  Unless we accepted every single aspect of the new website, which was set in a rigid format, and... More

by Poisonenvy on 2011-07-07 03:10:36