Meet the Blogger: Jon Blevins

Hey there! My name is Jon and you may be wondering “who is this guy?” You’ll be seeing more of me in the weeks and months ahead but decided to kick off my presence on The Family Business by introducing myself.

I’m the very definition of a casual-hardcore player. I play relatively little compared to the truly hardcore and while I love shiny new epics as much as the next guy, I would rather find relaxation and enjoyment in playing Warcraft than be “leet.” I'm not a "natural" when it comes to WoW. In fact, I was the very definition of a Warcraft "noob" when I started. My level 2 Human Mage died to a swarm of Kobold Workers minutes after creation -- yes, the yellow mobs that won't attack unless attacked. This happened more than once, I'm ashamed to say. Since then I've steadily developed into a good player and a solid raider – an achievement that I never would have obtained without the support and encouragement of In Vino Veritas.

I tend to focus on the philosophies and ideas that undergird the more pragmatic and directional writings of my fellow bloggers. I’m very much a “big picture” kind of guy who feels that unless you understand not only HOW to do something but WHY you do it there can be no real change for the better.

Experience

I was part of the first wave of new players to reroll on Zuluhed Horde under the leadership of The Elite Five (Teo and his old raiding buddies). My sister (Beth) married a good friend of our current Guild Master (Teo) which earned me an auto-invite to this amazing group of people (I brought along my wife and her little brother -- now one of our Raid Leaders).

I rerolled an Undead Warlock from my Human Mage primarily because my wife wanted to try Mage and I was sick of dying to Kobolds. I found that I greatly enjoyed the mobility and lethality of the class and that little Warlock remained my main character throughout The Burning Crusade.

I can still remember being lost in The Barrens around level twenty trying to finish some quest or another while The Elite Five were clearing Shadow Labyrinth for the first time (they were working on their Karazhan keys). I hit level 70 at a run and started taking a more active role in the guild that I’d come to adore. Work kept me from raiding except on special occasions in TBC, but I participated avidly in Arenas/PvP and got to know the majority of my guildmates pretty well. I’m a more active raider now in WotLK and that increased activity is undoubtedly one of the reasons I’ve been appointed to an officer’s position within the guild. I’m still a freshman officer and have a lot to learn (be gentle, Teo!), but I’ve never had more fun in World of Warcraft than I’m having right now and In Vino Veritas has made all the difference.

Characters

Manasseh, the aforementioned Undead Warlock, was my focal character in The Burning Crusade. I created him with the express purpose of DPSing 5-man instances and found that I very much enjoyed the mobility of the class compared to my previous “main” the Mage (Thesden). At 70 I realized that scheduling conflicts and heavy burdens at work precluded my being a regular raider so I took to the next-best thing: PvP. I managed to clear every fight in Karazhan, Gruul, Magtheridon, all but Vashj in SSC and left only Kael’thas standing in TK. I partnered with Teo’s Priest (Malloc) for Season 3 and Season 4 arenas and advanced significantly in skill and battlefield awareness to the point that I finally helped push the team to the required 1850 rating to acquire my S3 Spellblade. The dominance of melee in S3 and S4 made this no simple feat but we persevered and I’ve had only one prouder moment since I created my first character over two years ago.

Daerion is a level 80 Holy Paladin which I leveled up during the activity lull near the end of The Burning Crusade and is my current “main” for both PvE and PvP purposes. The guild suffered a significant healer shortage around the time we started moving into Mount Hyjal and, being interested in healing and a TOTAL altaholic, I decided on Paladin to fill a much-needed gap (we had a grand total of zero Holy Paladins around the time I rerolled due to the dominance of Shaman and CoH Priests in PvE and Druids in PvP). The gamble has paid off. I don’t have to compete for my raid spot and Blizzard’s redesign of the Paladin class has made them very powerful Main Tank healers.

My “alts” include Razor (70 UD Warrior), Zacceus (60 UD Mage) and Aerendir (66 BE Death Knight that I’m thinking of rerolling as Tauren). I actually have one of EVERY class on the Zuluhed server including a mostly-unplayed 19 UD Twink Priest named Kissie who functions as a bank alt. I don’t particularly enjoy leveling but I am allured by the potential that I see within other classes and specs and am eventually drawn to try them out for myself. My Paladin has caused me to fall in love with hybrids, but my poor Shaman just can’t seem to get off the ground even though he’s sporting some spiffy heirloom shoulders.

Profession

I’ve been the pulpit minister for a small rural Christian Church for over five years now. I studied Bible & Religion (in addition to English and Psychology) at the same university that Teo and Beth attended. I was raised primarily in the deep south: born in West Virginia and have lived in Ohio, Wisconsin, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, very briefly in Tennessee and now in Minnesota – the heartland of all things bland and white.

In addition to my ministerial duties I do odd jobs for various temp agencies and had a three-month stint as a nursing assistant at a reputable nursing facility until the emotional weight of certain aspects of the job forced me to resign. My faith certainly shapes how I view the world and, subsequently, how I view the virtual world in which I interact with my friends, family and neighbors. I do not, however, attempt to combine my preaching with my recreation. When I speak or write I seek to persuade and inform, when I play WoW I just want to relax and socialize. I’m a better speaker than I am a writer and I have a great love for storytelling which I hope to eventually incorporate into my blogging.

Personal

I’ve been married to an amazing woman for five and a half years. She is the light of my life and a totally uber Frostfire Mage. We’ve yet to start a family but are certainly open to whatever God has prepared for us. I have a lot of IRL family and friends in In Vino Veritas including my sister, Beth, my wife, both my brothers-in-law and half-a-dozen college buddies.

I’m a shy, sensitive, laid-back, thinker, prankster sort. I’ve always harbored a great love for comedy and enjoy nothing more than laughing and making others laugh. I’m a fan of stand-up comedy and comedic cinema/television (among my favorite comics are Dana Carvey, Gabriel Iglesias, Demetri Martin, Mitch Hedberg and W. Fox [actually my college roommate, but no one could make me laugh like he could] and shows such as Seinfeld, Family Guy, The Office, Arrested Development and the better seasons of Mad TV & In Living Color). I obviously love to play games, read theological works and fantasy novels, have three adorable kitty cats, drool over Italian food and listen to most every genre of music depending on mood (right now techno/trance is my drug of choice).

I’m a particularly fierce friend and am undyingly loyal to those who have earned my trust. IVV is one such entity, which is why you can expect my posts to reflect the pride I feel for what this guild has accomplished.

------------------------------

Jon Blevins is an officer of In Vino Veritas.

He's a pastor, husband, gamer and cat-lover.

He lives in Minnesota where the snow comes from.

Meet the Blogger: Beth Blevins

I grew up a preacher's daughter, moving every few years from one small congregation to the next. Most churches were pretty cool. Some weren't. When I was 11 and we lived in Texas, the church leadership was so corrupt that my dad had a stress-induced heart attack and hid it so that he wouldn't get fired, neither seeking medical attention nor calling in sick.

In college, I took a class called Church Conflict Management and soaked up every molecule of information I could, because it directly addressed what kind of catalysts could cause the pain my family suffered, and what kind of measures we could have taken to prevent or identify the danger (prevent, almost none; identify, plenty). I learned that managing conflict in churches is the single hardest venue for even the most seasoned conflict specialists, and my professor had a high success rate only because he weeded out the impossible cases on the front end.

I tell you this because it directly influences my approach to guilds and guild management and the subjects I choose to address. I tend to write from a "Things will go wrong" perspective.

Experience

Jan 2008 - Jan 2009: Recruitment Princess (aka Officer). I handled the applications and recruiting. I believed that recruitment could be either a boon or illness on my guild and made it my personal crusade to protect the guild from people who could hurt it.

Jan 2009: Social Events Princess (aka Officer). After IVV removed the need for a recruitment officer (to my intense satisfaction and support), I was made the events officer to schedule old world raids and social events. I felt this job provided scheduling conflicts with my real life and a different kind of pressure than my old job did. I also felt that members could get along well without me, and so retired from being an officer.

Profession

I consider myself a professional writer (I go by my maiden name here because it's also my pen name), even though I don't have any credentials after high school and college. I feel that professionalism is a state of mind and that accomplishments are a result rather than the cause.

I'm working on a series of books about super heroes. It's a bunch of fun young adult fluff because I don't think a work has to be "literary" to be useful to the people reading it. I went to the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts in my junior year of high school but quit halfway through with a bad taste in my mouth and a violent disdain for anything arrogant and elitist, including an unfortunate prejudice against anyone who strives to do impressive things just so they can feel superior (motives make a difference to me).

Socially, I'm friendly but shy and need people to like me. Professionally, I'm confident, tough, and even critical. When I write for The Family Business or Letters from Birdfall, I tend to put on my professional persona. In gchat and guild forums, I use a surprising (to me) blend of confident and friendly.

Personal

I don't like to travel, even though I've been through Europe and lived in London. An ultimate homebody, I'd rather sit on the couch writing than just about anything else. (Reasons to leave the apartment include church, food, movies, jogging, and maybe fire.)

I play with my husband, brother, sister-in-law, and her little brother. We also include my husband's best friend in our family, who was guild leader between Teo's two terms. Growing up, I hero-worshiped my big brother, Jon, and followed him to a private Christian college where I met my husband, a computer guy who loves video games and hung out with a very strange crowd of friends (oddball artist, programmer x3, outgoing thespian, crazy Frenchman, pre-med Iranian Texan, musician x4). I loved that he was the "normal nice guy" in his group because it meant that he was stable but could appreciate weird and I . . . have been told that I'm weird. (Imagining the bus driver Bernie's conversation with his dispatcher Bernice and then repeating it to everyone in the car with accents but without an explanation isn't that weird! If Bernice was stationed beyond the light pole, and Bernie had a clearer view of oncoming traffic . . . they'd totally have that conversation. >.<)

Characters

Dustfire (BE Priest) is my raiding main on Zuluhed. She fulfills whatever the guild needs, though she was shadow until the recent healing crisis. I'm working on a story about her for my Birdfall blog, showcasing her role-play possibilities. Dustfire is sultry but manipulative, sly, and cruel. She puts down other women, sleeps with men for favors, and considers herself more important than the people around her do.

Plum (Tauren Druid) is my PVP main on Zuluhed. She's sweet, illiterate, hates enclosed spaces, and a great storyteller.

Birdfall (NE Rogue) is my holiday main on Moon Guard. I use her to complete holiday achievements for pets and pretty dresses. As a role-play character, she's serious and likes to keep a low profile, so she doesn't talk to strangers, and she doesn't have much to say when she does. Her best friend is my husband's mute female druid.

When It's Time to Step Down

Image from Nataliedee.com

It might be that Sims 3 is coming out next month, or that I've started to think my new position isn't necessary as an officer position, or that I'm feeling especially pressured in my real life. But when the only thing keeping you in the officer core is the camaraderie and the thrill of seeing how guild drama is handled in the officer sections, then, folks, it's time to move on.

My husband managed recruitment for a few months, and he knew it was time to quit when he started to feel drained instead of satisfied. I got recruitment after him and worked at it passionately because I felt a duty to keep the guild happy and healthy. I loved being involved in discussions and brainstorming sessions, and particularly enjoyed being part of the private decision-making when problems broke out. I'm always thrilled to be able to bring my conflict management lessons to the fore and try to dissect delicate social situations. I guess that's just the writer in me. I love trying to understand complicated relationships.

I was moved to Social Events coordination after we stopped recruitment last month in favor of a system where members give their own friends our private application and send it to the officers to discuss as a panel. Though I had planned social events in the past, before my job move, I found that I was more relaxed when I planned things for the fun of it and because I cared about it myself, and not because I had a job to do.

I don't know the exact cause of my . . . I hesitate to call it burnout . . . but I feel myself yearning toward the uncomplicated responsibilities of being just a member for a while, someone who can disappear during the Sims 3 craze in February or when the writing bug hits me and not worry about responsibilities left untended.

In IVV, there's an unspoken policy that anyone who used to be an officer is entirely welcome to petition the core if they get the itch to return. So I know that if they want more hands, and I feel like jumping back into the morass of officership, they'd consider me.

But for now, I think I'd like to be just plain Beth.

---------------------------

Beth Blevins is (no longer) an officer in In Vino Veritas.

She's a writer, artist and avid blogger.

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

Definition of a Family Guild

Raiding guilds take your time, energy, and focus. Social guilds take your conversation and company.

Family guilds take your firstborn.

It might seem a little offbeat, but it's an accurate description. A family guild isn't a place to sit around and hang out -- it's a legacy. Members are expected to tie themselves to the guild and bring in the people they care about, and when a member's child is old enough to start playing, we expect that kid to start playing with us.

Plenty of people confuse family guilds with social guilds. In social guilds, it's often perfectly all right to skip out of the guild without notice, come back, and just hang. Social guilds are very relaxed about member policies (you just have to be nice and not cause a ruckus) and focus more on social events or leveling than endgame.

Family guilds are never casual about who joins. It's like breaking into the mob. And it can be just as hard to break out. This is why family guilds often have very strict application processes and are wary of random recruits. Yes, that guy might be the best tank on the server, but how loyal is he? What does he need as a player, and what does he expect from us?

If a player expects to offer a family guild anything other than long-term commitment, possibly for the rest of his existence in the game, neither he nor the guild will find satisfaction together.

But family guilds, by their loyal and steadfast nature, and if emotionally healthy and possessing of a competent leadership, are the most stable guilds in the game. Their foundation is based not just on how well the guild does in a raid or how entertaining the other players are, but on a basic intense loyalty and trust that no matter what happens, no matter the slow raid progress or personal drama, guild members remain loyal to each other. Individuals may stop playing or fall away, but the guild itself will always remain. It is a rock to which members may cling when times are rough. It is a safe haven.

The best family guilds are forgiving, trusting, and unfailingly fair to members. The member base is made up by people with strong, unbreakable ties: family members, real life friends, and friends made through the game itself. That base slowly broadens as new members bring friends and family in. Sometimes sections break away. Sometimes they don't. But the guild always keeps a steady base that never panics because even if everyone new leaves, they will still have a fun game to play with the people they love.

And that's what it's all about. Playing a game with the people you love.

------------------------------

Beth Blevins is an officer in In Vino Veritas.

She's a writer, artist and avid blogger.

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

Feedback

The Family Business wants you to give us feedback!

We hope that we never pretend that we've got it all figured out. We most certainly don't.

Have a thought about how to efficiently run a family guild? A question about why we do something a certain way? Think this is the most absurd idea you've ever heard?

It doesn't matter who you are or what you want to say; we want to hear from you, so drop us a line!

What is... The Family Business

"Whatya gonna do? Nice college boy, eh? Don't wanna get mixed up in the family business? Now you wanna gun down a police captain because he slapped you in the face a little bit, huh? Whataya think this is, the Army, where you shoot 'em a mile away? You gotta get up close like this... badaBING! you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit. C'mere... you're taking this very personal."

- Sonny Corleone in The Godfather

There are guilds, and then there are guilds. Guilds in the World of Warcraft are typically built around accomplishing certain goals: PvP, PvE, achievements, and so on. They are communities only by convenience and common interest. Then there's the family guild. Family guilds seek to accomplish these same goals, but they won't do so at the expense of members. They are like family (at least, functional ones) and who succeed, and fail, together.

The Family Business is a resource for people who are looking to be in guilds that won't dissipate at the first sign of trouble, that will survive way beyond the lifespan of any game, and that will foster friendships that last a life time.

Join us as we explore the highs and lows of guild leadership, person management, conflict resolution, and help us as we re-shape the WoW community into one that treats all with respect and dignity.

------------------------------

Beth Blevins is an officer in In Vino Veritas.

She's a writer, artist and avid blogger.

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