The whole “talk to their officers” thing is overrated anyway. Let me explain what that looks like from the other side.
You are a guild leader or officer, and someone whispers you about some convoluted loot drama. You don’t know the person, you don’t know the circumstances, and of course there is no hard evidence of anything. What would you do?
it’s not really a guild officer’s job to manage their member’s behavior outside the guild, unless perhaps it’s something they can directly observe.
The guild’s reputation? Well, I’d rather have a reputation of standing behind my members, and anyone who can’t understand that, I probably don’t care about their opinion anyway.
I know the CS forum is not really the place for this, but some Guild Officers do indeed manage player behavior outside how they treat guild mates. Nobody wants the Trade Troll in guild nor do they want the rep as a guild of ninja looters. Same does with being known to allow a really nasty and insulting environment.
A Guild who has a bad reputation has issues with recruiting and maintaining a decent raid team. Further, most decent guilds like to have amicable relationships with other guilds. This means working with their officers if contacted/vice versa. I had to do that a lot when it came to checking background on applicants. It was also really helpful for Guild Alliance raiding where we needed to team up to fill ranks.
Now, if it is low level random drama from non raiding guilds/non guilded folks. Meh, I don’t see an officer getting too involved.
Yes, the Trade Troll would be an example of something the officers can personally observe. I’ve played MMOs for longer than WoW has been around and I’ve been in all these places and done all these things. I’ve removed people from guilds for being a bad apple, but that’s never just based on an accusation of some unknown outsider. You hear them in public channels, you come across their posts on message boards, you see their behavior in guild, and it adds up.
But I’ve never gone and tried to arbitrate loot drama in some random group because there was a guild member involved. You don’t have the tools for that, and that’s not what they’re looking for anyway, they want you to kick the person from your guild because they’re mad, and that just isn’t going to happen.
But therein lies the entire larger issue with “server reputation” that everyone thinks is so awesome:
Who do you believe?
A guild officer doesn’t have access to the logs. Random player whispers you about loot drama, you ask your guild member and they say it didn’t happen, what are you going to do? It’s all he-said, she-said baloney.
When I was a guild officer (back in Wrath), that’s how we handled it. “I’m sorry, but we are not getting involved in personal drama. Place our member on ignore.”
I was an officer in Vanilla and BC so the modern loot tools were not available yet. Behaving was kind of important. The kind of person who causes dungeon drama with strangers tended to cause drama in guild runs eventually as well.
As I said, random low level nonsense we tended to ignore. If it was a report from a guild we trusted and worked with then we certainly took it more seriously and kept an eye out for repeat behavior. Enough of it, and they got at least evicted from the raid team. It was hard to get other guilds to raid with us if we kept a jerk on the team. Of course, one single complaint from one guild was not enough, as you said, we don’t have logs.
These days in Retail I would just shrug and say to use the tools in place. If they can roll they can have it. Vanilla though, so much that was not exactly perfect for you was a huge upgrade and helped your dungeon and raid performance. It was odd. Like Druids in cloth.
That is true, the officer isn’t there and it is difficult to take a stranger’s word over a guild mates. You can’t verify an individual’s claim about it, but if you get a few reports over time, that might be a bit more telling.
If this is not behavior that your guild approves of, there are steps you can take. While I don’t have a horse in this race I have been an officer and/or guild leader in a number of guilds over the various games I’ve played. I have always found communication on what is expected to be a good start. In this case I may talk to the guild member. Maybe say “I received a complaint that you rolled need on an item that you couldn’t use. I just wanted to make sure that you were aware that, as a guild, we don’t want our members behaving in such a manner and hopefully this will be the last we hear about it”.
The point of everything was it was a clear agreement with everyone, not just one person. On top of that we were being asked if we Ninja loot on things we said no,
it was a fine line marked at the start of the run even when I said I needed that everyone else was ok with that. Only one person decided to Need on it the same person who was worried about my group taking any healing gear.
The Rogue greeded/ while everyone else saw he needed even asked why
But as I stated it’s not about the loot at that point just a matter of why do it
at all if you were worried about loot being taken, but then do it and talk smack?
It is… I just wanted to address this because I feel I took the proper steps, in no shape or form was it about BOE after that point, It was more like you know it
was wrong to do that. I appreciate the feed back I have been reading and will continue to play the game as is, I will not let this situation make me become paranoid to enjoy the game. I myself have never been put in this situation ever so this is a first and maybe a lesson.
Over time hopefully things like this will not happen too often. People will come to find out there is a rather limited pool of other players they can group with on there own server. So if word spreads they find themselves unable to find groups.
You also have to realize that some people have different opinions on what gear is “needed” or not. It’s good that you tried to get some clarification beforehand, but there’s no one correct way to look at loot. It is entirely a social issue.
Some people feel that BoE gear is free game (as Yindar stated above). Some people who have the Enchanting profession feel they need the gear to disenchant. There are various shades and opinions in every situation.
That’s why the best recommendation is to put the player on Ignore so you won’t be grouped with them again. Being Classic, there is still a chance, if someone else invites both of you to a group. So remember their name, too. Don’t play with someone who doesn’t share your opinion.
These should not be in the same category. Private servers are illegal.
Now then, the rules are the same in retail and classic. If the Need button is active, a player is allowed to use it. Yes, retail has improved the Need Before Greed system, but that doesn’t mean the rules are any different in Classic.
Good by whose standards? Yours? Sorry, but no. Players do not have to play by your rules. They play by Blizzard’s rules.
What is “normal” looting rules varies group-by-group. Some groups feel it’s “normal” to roll “need” on greens for any reason. Others feel it’s “normal” to only roll “need” if it’s an upgrade for you personally. Still others feel it’s “normal” to only roll “greed” on greens. None of them are wrong, but they are all “normal”.
That would include not acting upset because someone else doesn’t follow the same loot rules as you do. Yes it’s upsetting if someone rolls “need” on something to DE it when it was an actual upgrade for you, but don’t call them names because of it. If you find someone who doesn’t agree with your looting rules, put them on ignore and don’t group with them again.
Edit:
Someone with the option to press “need” is allowed to press “need”. There is no rule in the game that says otherwise. You can’t report a player because they pressed “need”.
Blizzard is hands-off with loot disputes in Classic. They will investigate scams, but they won’t redistribute loot.
I meant when they improved the system a few times before going to personal loot.
The overall point I was trying to make is that the rules don’t vary between retail and Classic, even though Blizzard later improved the NBG system. I probably could’ve been clearer.
