While I sit here in great pain waiting on UPS to deliever my copy of Sentinel’s Fate I have time to work on some guild leadership stuff. I’ve got a pretty big project I’m working on and occasionally it helps me get on track when I hear others opinions. I posed a series of questions to my guild mates today but then realized that their answers will partly be tainted. They know me as a guild leader and would probably assume a certain level of trust. That is where you guys come in!
You can answer these questions whether you raid or not. I just want your honest feed back. Tell me what you feel, both good and bad, after really thinking the question over. I’m talking about all of this in regards to MMORPG loot systems. You can move that into other venues but lets at least assume fictional currency at most. I don’t want to color your opinion if this was based on real money or resources. Assume you find yourself under a loot system based on data tracking for all of these questions.
How do you feel if you don’t know what data elements loot decisions are being based on and cannot see the data?
How do you feel if you know what data elements are being tracked, but cannot see those elements and do not know how it is weighted?
How do you feel if you know what data being tracked, how it is weighted, but cannot see that data?
How do you feel if you know what data, the weight of it, can see it, but don’t know the intersection between data elements and human intervention?
All of these things sound conspiratorial but there are some positives to all of these systems. Try to think of at least a few instead of just the negative! Thank you folks!
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I want total transparency from loot systems. Nothing else is acceptable. I also think that total transparency helps protect the officers from accusations of unfair bias, and it means that raiders can help with corrections when loot officers make mistakes (which happens, due to them being human.)
I’m thinking, thinking… I want to help but I have no idea what data elements are or what it is tracking. I like WoWs system. I’m not sure where that falls in the data charts. Wish I could help more.
Data elements are just basics like raids attended, loot received, class, level, etc.
I think the questions were awkwardly phrased, as pointed out above.
For me, it comes down to trust. The more trust I have or am willing to place with the leadership, the more obfuscation I will tolerate. If I don’t trust anyone, like in a PUG, then I’ll want a completely transparent system. If I trust people or if I’m a newbie who hasn’t developed trust yet with a group, I’m happy being kept in the dark. One of the first guilds I was part of in WoW used a loot council. I was happy to let them pass out loot however they saw fit. My friends and I won what I felt was a fair share, so I was willing to let the system continue.
The obvious snag here is what is a “fair share” of loot. Some people are going to be greedier than I am, or are going to worry more about ranking on the DPS meters than I am. Some people are going to want something that is easier to handle than making decisions on every item dropped.
I agree, it definitely comes down to trust.