The Raggy Dolls

A friend of mine suggested I should link to You Tube for this. So click here first The Raggy Dolls intro

Now with that tune safely in your head for the rest of the day read on…! The Raggy Dolls was a children’s TV programme in my youth which I think perfectly sums up what my new guild on EU server Defias Brotherhood is about. The idea came from a comment made by Martin in response to one of my posts here and from other comments from people who have talked about being too scared to heal or tank. I felt (feel) the same as you know and still feel very nervous when I do both roles (not that I do both roles at once of course – although I have been known to sometimes get confused and heal my healer husband when I’m tanking). I still worry that I’ll be criticised by the group for any little mistake I make.

So The Raggy Dolls is now born. It is a guild for people to try things out in a safe and supportive environment. Wannabe tanks can be a tank in comfort, knowing the rest of us will be the most supportive healer and dps they could ever hope to meet. No GoGoGo or cutting comments such as “I’ve never seen a tank as slow as that!” and no husband and wife warfare (we promise to behave). If someone wants to heal then they can go for it with no recriminations for multiple wipes (there will be no L2P FFS on my watch). It will be a friendly environment. Of course I don’t know if it will work. There may not even be much call for it. Might just end up being myself and my husband being super polite to each other in guild chat. But I genuinely want to do something different and offer people a unique WoW guild experience. Perhaps people won’t like thinking of themselves as rejects though- which is what The Raggy Dolls were (one had a head on back to front!!) I embrace it all though. We can’t all be uber players.Sometimes we get it wrong, run the wrong way, hit the wrong button and sit down in the middle of a fight (see I don’t even need to write a long post on yesterday!). But it is just a game and it’s supposed to be fun. We should be able to do all that without facing such a torrent of abuse you end up sobbing on the phone to your mother and questioning her decision to ever give birth to you.

Setting the guild up was fun (if you find shamelessly losing all dignity and standing around offering your services like a hooker fun …someone must- it’s an age old profession). I first put out a plea in Stormwind for signatures – with a brief description of what the guild is about. Something like – if you’re too scared to group or play a tank or healer then we are the guild for you. You can be yourself with nothing out of bounds! Hee. No I didn’t put that last bit in. Would probably have got the signatures quicker though.

As it was I got none. I then scouted the area for players without a guild name above their heads. I came across a mysterious death knight in his 80s. Putting on my best (virtual) voice I typed, “Would you be interested in signing my guild charter please?” I stopped short of adding “Sir” and doing a little curtsey, but he had that effect on me. Amazingly he said yes which proves that my mother was right when she said you attract more bees with honey (as opposed to what- a fly swatter? And are bees really attracted by honey. I thought they made the stuff. Aren’t they sick of it once it’s all packaged up in the jar and ready for despatch? **Quick note: just looked up the saying – it’s “You attract more flies with honey than vinegar” – makes my rambling questions look rather silly now but for the sake of my blog’s integrity I will leave them in. You need to know how stupid I am.**)

Anyway after a bit of a fumble he signed (no that wasn’t another service I was offering – what is it with my innuendos today – it’s like I’m auditioning to write the next Carry on film). No basically he had things set up to automatically refuse all guild invites That’s clever. But also even more mysterious. Why has he chosen to be so emphatically guildless? And how was I able to break through that tough exterior? Anyway he signed and I thanked him profusely and then left him alone- fearful of coming over as a starstruck groupie.

I then decided my best course of action was Northshire to approach people who had just entered the game and were dazed and confused. I’m not proud of myself for deciding to target newbies but I comforted myself with the thought they probably all had a million other alts in their 80s.

This proved not to be true with the first one I approached who did not understand the concept of guild, signature, charter, life itself I think. He repeatedly said “What?” and then ran away from me.

Another newbie was of very different mettle though. He saw me coming and immediately sent me a group invite. He was level 3 and I’m level 47. Admiring his pluck I rode up to him like the lord of the manor and asked him to sign my charter. “Maybe I will, maybe I won’t,” he said, playing hard to get. I like a challenge so I upped the stakes. “What about for a shiny gold piece young man?” I asked. I tried to find an emote for “twirls gold coin enticingly in fingers” but ended up blowing him kiss which was a tad unfortunate and gave out the entirely wrong message. “Make it two and I will,” he replied. Yesssss!!!! I thought. But then doubt set it. What if he takes my gold and runs off?  I’ll be scammed. By a level 3. There was a documentary on this once wasn’t there? So I started typing- “I’ll give you one gold now and the other after the signature.” Thankfully my husband spotted it before I sent it. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, “Just click on the guild charter, he’ll sign,  then give him the gold.” Disappointed my complicated ransom like arrangements weren’t going to be put in effect I did what he said. The guy immediately signed and I responded by opening up the trade window right away to prove I too was no charlatan. Gold exchanged we stood around uncertainly for a couple of seconds, not sure what to say or do next. “Nice weather,” I mumbled politely. “Yes,” he said, then, “I have a horde character too.” Aww bless I thought. He seemed so sweet.”Me too!” I said. “A few actually but my favourite is Flossy (hope none of my others read this). “I think I’ve seen her in a dungeon once,” he said. Oh no, I thought, If Flossy is getting this notorious I really do need to improve my game play. Anyway we exchanged a few more pleasanties then I rode off to get my last signature.

My husband was the saviour where this was concerned. While I was living it up in Northshire he was busy roaming the streets of Stormwind looking for guildless players like the childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He found one unsuspecting soul in the auction house. “Ask him if he’ll join your wife’s guild,” I instructed. “Your guild? I thought it was our’s,” he complained. Deciding not to dignify that with a proper response I simply told him to look up the meaning of guild master on the web. He responded my telling me to look up the meaning of divorce. We both decided to end the discussion at that point.

Oblivious to our marital shenanigans the guy in the auction house innocently agreed to sign the charter. At this point I ran in all breathless and excited and stood before him announcing grandly “I am Mosschops’ wife” (it’s not something I ever thought I’d announce but WoW and marriage do strange things to you). The guy promptly signed and told me to have fun – he did all but give me a lollipop and pat me on the head. I said thanks and I ran back outside to play.

That was it – I had my signatures (my husband had also signed of course – for this he is now an Officer with many responsibilities but NOT a  guild master).

I ran to the guild office, showed the npc what I’d achieved and he rewarded me by officially sanctioning my guild. The Raggy Dolls was born. Immediately The Man with No Guild and Auction House pal left but I tried not to be hurt. This is a specialised guild after all.

So if any of you can play on a EU server, feel lost, lonely and afraid, don’t know where to turn or who else to call (and yes I think am now repeating almost word for word Doyle’s speech in Angel or the introduction to the A Team) then you know where to come. Join The Raggy Dolls. It’s the guild where everything (PG rated) goes!

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