Playing Favorites

Almost any time you get a group of people together, you're going to have your favorites. Even grade school teachers that are supposed to treat all of their pupils the same, most certainly have some children that they like more than others. (Unless, of course, it's one of those grouchy teachers that hate all the children.)

Now, I'm going to take this post in two different directions. Basically, I'm making two stories become 1. Why, you ask? Because I can.

Last Friday, I made it happen that I hung out with my favorite people that play Wow. My wife wanted to play, and I suggested that we run an instance. Then so we wouldn't have to PUG it, I got my best friend (of 25 about years (Wow... has it really been that long?)), his brother, and his brother's wife. We've been friends for so long, that they're all my extended family. My best friend (who actually introduced us all to the game) got to tank for us, which was something he doesn't do much. (While he seems to have about 15 alts, I'd consider his "mains" a priest and a hunter.) My wife and I both dinged 67 while in Sethekk Halls. It was a lot of fun to just hang out and do an instance.

I've found that I'm a voice communication elitist though. They suggested using the in-game chat system, and I claimed that I couldn't take an hour (or however long the instance took) using tin cans. So, I made them all download the latest version of Vent, and we used our guild's Vent server.

Why was this so different than any other night? Well, my wife hasn't hit 70 yet, and so she hasn't raided at all. My other friends aren't really raiders either. They like instances, but aren't the 4-night a week dungeon crawlers that the rest of my guild is. So, we chat almost nightly through our own in-game channel, and then get together on fun nights like last Friday.

I wouldn't trade my guild, but it's a heck of a lot of fun to hang out with RL friends as well.

Next favorite: This one was a case of me wanting to play favorites. One of my guild members was asking if we could basically alter the DKP system we have so that he (it could also be a she, but I'll use "he" for simplification) could get a T-5 item before others of the same token group. This guildie's argument was that they'd been running with us for a long time, and because we have a zero-sum DKP system, some of the newer guild members might get some loot before him. I really wanted to make it happen because I like the "guy", but there was really nothing I could do. We'd set the policy, to maintain the integrity of it, we must adhere to it. Any deviation would most certainly be cause to scream "murder" from other guildies. So, as much as I wanted him to get what he wanted, there was nothing I could do. I took a day to think about it. Then explained why we couldn't do anything about it. I told him that he's one of my favorites (which is true.. the "guy" is always very nice and considerate and asks me what he can do to improve), and after the explanation, he understood why we couldn't change it.

So, the point being here... you can play favorites, but just don't screw up established rules. :)