Protected

The Blizzard Authenticator has really helped to put my mind at ease when it comes to account security. It has always been a big issue for me, since I would feel horrible if anything happened to the guild through some hacker getting their dirty hands on my account. Sure, characters are restorable...but I've heard horror stories of guilds being disbanded. That would kill me. Not to mention the fact that I now feel safer in having only my account have access to the guild funds in our bank.

I was a tiny bit worried that it would be irritating to have to put in an extra number each time I wanted to login, but it's really easy and no trouble at all compared to the peace of mind it offers.

I'm good to go, authenticator is setup and working...now we all just hope the battery has a nice long life expectancy!

Is My /DND Showing?

I've been a guild leader for three years now (ok, not officially until the 6th of next month, but still) and in that time I've talked to many people. I talk to people all the time, sometimes several at once (which can lead to interesting mistells), or while raiding (but that's another story). I like it.

Yes, I like talking to people. I like to listen to their problems, and help to solve them when I can. I also like to talk when there isn't a problem. For some reason though, people seem to assume that I either don't want to hear their problems, or am too busy.

Granted, I am busy. The guild is large, there are a lot of things on my todo list, and I have a couple of adorable 5 and 2-year-old distractions, but I choose to be the guild leader. I volunteered for this job. Nobody pushed it on me, and let me assure you, I'm not in it for the money :P I may not always answer right away, occasionally I miss a tell, but I care, and I do want to listen.

I often feel as if I must have a /DND tag up. I'd say about 90% of my conversations in game begin with some variation of "Sorry to bother you" "I don't mean to intrude" "I know you are busy" and the most boggling? "I know you're on your alt" Hold it just a second...I'm an altaholic, I'm *always* on an alt. But that doesn't mean I don't want to do my job as guild leader...all my alts are guilded and at officer rank in either the main or alt guild. They all have "feather" in their name. If I want to have some quiet time, I'll logout. And even then, my officers have my phone number, and my forums have a PM system.

Perhaps my perspective is just a bit different than most people's. Yes I play the game to have fun, but guild leading and talking to people *is* that fun. Some people play for the pvp, some for the raiding, a lot of my guild members play for the community (I think...) and all of those are great, but I'm not going to resent someone for telling their guild leader when something is up! I certainly wouldn't have started a guild if I didn't want to do the job. I knew what I was getting into. Ok, maybe I didn't know it would last this long, or be this wonderful community that it has grown into, but I've been in, and led groups before, and I knew what to expect as far as work/dealing with stuff is concerned.

Anyway, my point is this: A guild leader is there to help the guild members. As are officers. These are not jobs they are forced to take, they make a choice to be available to help people. Their goal, in these roles should be to help make the guild community run smoothly, and stay content while following the rules. They are there to help with conflicts and drama, not to avoid them. Don't be afraid to talk to your guild leader and officers, they do the job because they care.

Security Measures

The realm of Bloggerdom is a-buzz with Blizzard's announcement of it's new (optional) security feature. The Blizzard Authenticator will add an extra layer to WoW account security by providing a device, sync'd with your wow account, that generates a 6-digit key that must be entered with your username and password on login.

I'm actually excited about this, because as a guild leader, having my account hacked is a constant worry for me. I know it's a nightmare for anyone, but someone with access to my account would have access to all the guild controls. Now, I don't have much by way of exciting items or that much gold, so my account isn't a high risk target, however if hackers are willing to delete characters for no apparent reason, what would stop them from disbanding my guild?

I found it interesting that this device can be linked with several accounts. I can't even begin to figure out how that works, but this means people with multiple accounts in the household could just buy one device, saving a bit of cash, but securing all accounts.

At this point, I'm leaning heavily towards buying this device, even with the added annoyance of yet another thing I have to enter at login. A little peace of mind is worth typing 6 extra digits every day.

Sources: Blizzard, Official Announcement

Stop Thief!

This last week, one of my officers had their account hacked. Twice.

He lost everything, and the guild bank was drained of epic patterns, potions...and fish scales. Not only were most of his characters deleted, the best geared one was transfered off server (note: Not account transfered, as if sold, but server transfered).

My other officers reacted quickly and called both me, to lock down the bank, and the officer, to lock down his account. I removed all access, except deposits, from all ranks. I changed the gmotd to let people know what had happened, and submitted a ticket.

A GM contacted me within about 10 minutes, and I told him what I knew. At the same time, my officer was submitting a ticket of his own. The GM told me that he would start a report, but they wouldn't be able to do anything until they got the ticket from my officer. I asked if I needed to provide them with a list of items or anything, considering my guild would like it's stuff back. He told me no, that the officer hacked could just mention the guild bank in his ticket, and everything would be restored, including the guild bank stuff.

So, I made sure the officer knew what I'd been told, he submitted his ticket, changed his password, and we thought we were shifting into "cleanup" mode.

The deleted characters were restored, and with them a few of the lower level bank items, and all the fish scales. (whew, I wasn't sure how we'd live without those!) No progress with the server transfered character, but at least now he had some of his stuff back, some of his gold, and a character to raid with in the meantime. All the while he's watching his email for word from Blizzard, and scanning his computer for the entry point. An email comes through, where the thief attempted to change the password...to regain access to the account. This is reported.

The next day...the account is hacked again. The second highest character is server transfered. The rest of the characters are once again cleaned out and deleted.

Now, I don't mean to tell Blizzard how to do their job...but if an account has been reported as hacked, and you're in the middle of addressing that issue, wouldn't it be wise to flag the account preventing all server transfers, password changes, and maybe even character deletion? Just my two copper...

So, now we're still waiting. My officer is stuck without two of his characters, feeling pretty low, seeing as how this is something he's invested a lot of time and effort into. He's reformatted to hopefully rid himself of whatever hole the hacker crawled in, but they still got away...and a week later, the characters are still sitting on another server.

Word to the wise: Scan your computer. Still have the same password you picked out on launch day, nearly 4 years ago? Perhaps now is a good time to think of a new, safer one.

Guild leaders, preventing an account hack is not something you can really control, but there are still ways to keep your banks a little safer. Put withdrawal limits on every tab. Don't invite member alts without first making them request the invite from their main character (this prevents the pretenders from breaking in) and setup a trail membership period, with very limited (if any) access to the bank, for a reasonable period, so new members can't make off with your stuff.

A Better Community

Bell's post today over at 4 Haelz got me thinking about who I'm playing with. Over the past three years in Annarchy, I've met and become friends with some really great people, both men and women in a pretty wide age range. It's pretty cool when I think about it, these aren't necessarily people that I would have even come into contact with in a real life setting, simply because of that age/gender gap (never mind the actual physical space, since we're scattered all over the world).

It still doesn't just happen naturally though. Given the anonymous nature of the internet and WoW itself, it's still widely accepted that if you reveal to anyone that you are a woman, you can expect to be targeted with immature, and often rude behavior. This can range from the only mildly irritating, "girlz don't play video games!" (yes genius, we've heard it before, you didn't think it up) to the outright offensive "show me your..." The best way to fight this, I think, is if we (I mean everyone, men and women alike) simply stop allowing it. Just don't put up with it.

I chose not to, I created Annarchy with the purpose of being a safe place to play, where that sort of behavior just isn't acceptable. Our rules state that derogatory comments aimed at age/gender/race and religion are just not going to be tolerated. Everyone who joins knows it, and they are expected to conduct themselves in a mature fashion.

As far as age is concerned, it's an issue I deal with as a guild leader, but mostly in terms of trying to make sure that our younger members aren't exposed to language or discussions that they shouldn't be. We're a family friendly guild, and we're serious about keeping it that way. I think a lot of the reason that age (in the way Bell discusses it) isn't an issue with us, is because of the maturity expectation. It truly doesn't matter to me what the age difference is between me and another member, we can connect and play together without it being weird, because we all expect to be treated respectfully, and try to be respectful in return.

I've heard the "It's only a game, I don't let it bother me" argument, rest assured. But I don't buy it. It may not bother you to have someone be rude to you, or someone else, but if you don't speak up...aren't you condoning it? How about the person who wants to play and be accepted as a person, not treated like she's just a great target for jokes and immature comments? Wouldn't it be better if you didn't have to "let it go" and just not be exposed to the behavior at all? It sure makes my gaming experience better.

Public Guild Notes

What's that saying about anonymity and the internet? *sigh*

Another Blizzard "feature" that's currently driving me crazy is the public guild notes. There's a guild control setting that allows you to turn it on and off for each rank, however that means anyone can edit anyone else's note with no log of who is doing the changing. This can be a fun game, or a source of hurt feelings and misunderstanding. Usually for us it's the former, every once in a while, someone tries to be clever and it winds up being the later.

Ideally? The settings would include an option for members to edit only their personal note. Or even their personal note and those of people of lower rank (similar to promote/demote/kick settings).

I can't complain too loudly, given the size of our guild we do remarkably well with avoiding the drama, and overall the membership is pretty mature...it's just that 1% of the time that sends me down that "What was Blizzard thinking?" road.

The solution? Well for now I'll see if a little reminder that "this sort of thing isn't cool with me" does the trick, and if it doesn't I'll turn off the option for a while.

The How and Why of Annarchy

What follows is a post I wrote nearly a year ago on why I started my guild and the special connection it has to the greater community on my server. I'm reposting it here to give a little background to my readers who may not know the story yet.

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It has been a little over two years since I started the guild "Annarchy" on the Dark Iron server in World of Warcraft. Back then, I had no idea it would last this long, or grow as much as it has. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be this much fun, or work. My reasons for starting the guild are probably similar to most people's, I wanted a place that was a little different than what was currently being offered, and rather than wait, I decided to create it myself. I could only hope that others would want the same thing, and would join me.

The difference in the starting of Annarchy, vs most new guilds is in the events leading up to it's creation, and in the connection to the larger community on the server that it still maintains.

It all began with a news post from Gabe of Penny Arcade announcing that he was going to start a guild on the Dark Iron server in World of Warcraft. Now, I had already been playing the game since beta, about a year. I'd tried different servers, and was in a guild at the time. The class I was playing wasn't very popular in groups (Old school hunter) so I wasn't having a lot of luck getting into the post 60 scene. I figured this was a chance for a fresh start, I'd roll on the new server, pick a class that was actually needed in end-game, and level up with the rest of the guild and community (since the server itself was also new) and have a chance to see content I hadn't been able to get into before. I also was a fan of the comic, so getting a chance to play with the guys themselves was an opportunity I didn't want to pass up.

Fast forward through the 300 person queue that was my first login to Dark Iron...

I got an invite into Knights of Arcadia, with Feathermyst, my druid. Guild chat was a zoo. The invites were still coming in, the hastily appointed officers were trying to maintain some sort of order, and the requests for membership were showing no signs of letting up.

I quickly realized I was probably going to get lost in a sea of new names. I was pretty shy, and there were literally hundreds of people, some already knew each other from forums and other servers, so how was a level 1 druid going to make friends and get to know people? I also knew I had a lot of time on my hands. We had just moved to a new state, and I was at home with a small child all day. They were looking for more officers, maybe that would be something I could do.

Within a few hours of my joining KoA, Fancy Lads was formed. Now, we weren't just one guild, there were two. How was that going to work? The second guild was quickly filling, and we were pushing the limits with over a thousand people...and still the invite requests came. Gabe and Tycho announced that the two guilds would be considered one, it would be an alliance, we would function as one big community.

Ok, this was interesting. There were still many people looking for invites, this whole alliance thing had been introduced, and I was still looking for a way to be useful, and get to know people. Add all that to the fact that the cursing, crude jokes and general behavior that one should expect in a community that is based around fans of a comic like penny arcade...were starting to wear on me. I mean, the comic is funny, and in a small enough dose not to be overpowering...but the dozens of people in guild chat were not nearly as "funny" as they imagined themselves to be. I didn't dare tell anyone that I was a girl...we'd already seen what happened in guild chat when someone revealed that information.

So, an idea was born. If we had enough people for two guilds, with more joining daily, why not three? Why not one for those like me who liked the comic, but didn't necessarily want to be bombarded with crude humor all day long? What if there was a place where it was not acceptable to torment the female players? How about a guild with rules.

In reference to the comic, I picked the name Annarchy, after a female character that I felt was a pretty awesome example of a girl gamer. She was tough, and she wanted to play! I also hoped that it would deter the most obnoxious and perhaps also serve as a "come here, it's safe" sign to other girls.

Still in KoA, I worked up the nerve, and went and talked to Gabe. I told him that I wanted to start a guild named after his comic character, that I wanted it to have rules and be girl friendly, and that I wanted it to be a part of his alliance. I told him we would adhere to his rules, and that I wasn't asking him to do any more work, simply for permission so I could do the work myself. I tried to make my case, so he'd see I appreciated what he was doing and offering, while at the same time showing that I was trying to bring something unique and - I felt - needed to the mix. He said yes.

Perhaps as a symbol of the courage and strength I felt I needed to embark on this project, I rolled as warrior, Featherwisp, and created the guild. I advertised in the public alliance channel, begged Winter to sign the charter (he wasn't sure he wanted to be in a girl guild) and soon had enough signatures - Annarchy was born.

Hitting the Limit

500 is the magic number it seems. 500 members that is. It's not a hard limit, but Blizzard's UI code has a soft cap for guild membership at 500, after that the UI starts breaking and for me as a guild leader, problems start popping up.

1. I start losing people from the roster. They are still in the guild, and may even be online, but you won't find them on the guild tab (doesn't matter if you have "show offline" selected or not, or how many people are actually online).

2. Those people you can't see? You can't use the guild tab's controls for them now, since they don't show up. You have to type in the command you want to use (such as /gremove).

This might not be a problem for very many guilds, most haven't reached the 500 cap, but our guild, a community focused guild with a LOT of active "altaholics" like myself reaches it easily. And as guild leader, I look at my guild tab all the time. I check to see which of my officers is online, how many people are playing, who's alt that character typing in /g is, etc.

Blizzard is aware of the issue (working as intented) and at one point we thought it was going to be fixed, but so such luck so far. I've tried posting it as a bug, submitting a ticket and talking to a GM about it, but nothing has come of it.

What I'm wondering is, can we make a UI mod that will replace that guild tab with one with a higher member limit? That's asking a lot...since to be useful to a GL it'd have to have all the functionality, but even if I'm the only one that has to have the mod so I can see everyone, I'd be ok with that. Maybe there is an easier way. We've tried having an alt guild, but then the problem we have is people playing alts can't see /g and a new chat channel just doesn't seem to cut it. Maybe what we really need is an Alliance option, so we can share /g across more than one guild.

I need some sort of solution, I'm tired of turning alts away, it really impacts the community atmosphere my guild works so hard to promote.

Why /gkick?

As my guild approaches it's three year anniversary, and my time as a wow altaholic nears it's fourth...I decided it's time to write about what I know.

What's behind the title? Well, it's funny. /gkick is something that's rarely used, but often joked about in my guild. On the other hand, as any GL will tell you, /gkick is the first "power" you have to learn how to handle as the leader of a guild. Sometimes it's a threat, sometimes it's a solution, and sometimes it's not an option.

My goal here is not to have the mother of all blogs, but rather a place to bring all of my wow related thoughts, adventures and random notes. You've been warned. :)