Loot Wars

I have to admit, I don't understand the obsession with loot. In my world view, there's more than enough to go around. I dare to suggest that loot is unlimited and the only discrepancy is how often you get to try for it.

Guilds get into trouble when they approach touchy situations like "this player died and did nothing for the whole run, this other player rocked the house out and deserves this drop more." If a great piece of loot drops, do you give it to the failure or the success?

I have my own philosophy on that situation -- if the failure was good enough to get into your raid, they're good enough to roll on the loot per your loot rules. You don't get to switch things up just because you don't like how your rules work when you want to be biased. You hate it, then put a few exception clauses into the rules for next time but play fair now.

I really don't understand why guilds don't seem to have special rules for super-rare items. If a legendary drops and Proven Guild Hopper is rolling against Guy Who Formed The Guild, nobody's going to like it, but you don't suddenly say "Well, you helped, but we're not gonna let you roll." Not if the rules clearly state he can roll.

For goodness' sake, just change the rules before this stuff happens. Agree to handle legendary loot with a Loot Council and have done with it. Because that's essentially what people end up debating -- unplanned switch to a loot council for the most-desired items or no? The real issue isn't who deserves it but whether or not you're willing to undergo the stigma of being unethical by breaking your own rules.

And, yes, it's unethical. I'm sorry, but sometimes you have to hurt to learn, even if he really really really didn't deserve that drop.

Back in Burning Crusade, we farmed Gruul regularly and the Dragonspine Trophy (husband told me that this was the best melee dps trinket available) dropped about three times altogether for IVV. The third time, a few months before Wrath, our lowest dps performer (a druid) won the roll.

I felt the groans in officer chat.

"Rogue guy over there could have really used it, he's one of our best dps," my friend moaned and, since he was playing in the same room as husband and me, turned around in his chair and pretended to weep.

But they gave it to the druid because they knew it was important to be fair and treat everyone equally.

It is every guild's responsibility to choose which is more important: the people or the game? When you come to tough loot decisions, that is the call you inevitably make.

IVV believes that by treating the people right, the game will follow. We believe that a guild is only as good as how fair it's willing to be to its members. Fair is not always easy, and sometimes it feels a lot like unfair, and yes, you might be able to get by in spite of your choices, but you'll lose some really great people along the way.

Some guilds are willing to put up with those consequences.

Family guilds don't.

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Beth Blevins is a former officer in In Vino Veritas.

She's a writer, artist and avid blogger.

Beth's been married since her junior year of college.