About

About myself and The Followers of Bob:

I play Fen, a feral druid on the Lothar server.  My main spec is Cat DPS, and my off spec is Bear (edit: Resto for PVP now).  My main alt is ANOTHER druid (I’m SICK IN THE HEAD) that I mainly run battlegrounds with in a Resto spec.   With the addition of Refer-a-friend (I call it Refer-A-Fen)  and bind-on-account gear I’ve gotten one of every class to at least 60+ or so.   I’m also the current guild leader of The Followers of Bob.

I’ve played a lot of single player “dungeon crawlers” and RPGs, the classic Baldur’s Gate series on up.  I’ve played a decent amount of console games but these days it’s mostly PC stuff.  I played quite a bit of Everquest and experienced my first real raiding there.  I played quite a bit of Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast back in the day, I also played Guild Wars for a brief time, played quite a bit of user created Neverwinter Nights content, and dabbled in a few other MMORPGs.

I refused (for a long time) to really get into WoW because I’ve never been a fan of the art style.  I prefer a more realistic look, and I always thought WoW looked to “cartoony” for my tastes.  I finally was convinced to start playing when a few of my other friends decided to give it a try.  One of our other friends was already playing Alliance characters with some guild called “The Followers of Bob” on the Lothar server, so we rolled Alliance characters there.  A cousin of mine transferred over to play with us as well, and soon we were hooked.

We had toyed with the idea of starting our own guild, but in the end we decided to give the “Bobs” a try, and soon we found we were having a lot of fun playing with everyone.  The guild was small but friendly, very helpful, and fun.

After a period of time I found myself playing a lot, and helping with guild activities.  Shortly thereafter I was offered and promoted to officer.

Not TOO much longer after that we started to lose some of our oldest members.  Not because of anything the guild DID, but something the guild DIDN’T do:  Raid.

Members that had been there a lot longer than I, were itching to see the raiding side of things.  With no ill-will toward the guild, they left for other guilds so they could experience that content.  The guild had been a casual one and there hadn’t been plans to push for raiding.

Eventually the guild got to a point where we were struggling to even run 5-man content once a week, and there was almost no one playing on any given night.  Dita, the founder and guild leader, asked if anyone wanted to kind of step up and start to “revitalize” the guild and get things moving again.  I offered, and we talked a lot about what we needed to do to get moving again, and I was promoted to Co-Leader.  One of the things I knew we needed to do was raid, and we set up a plan to start recruiting, and gearing for raiding.  We set up loot rules, rules of raiding etiquette,  and general conduct rules.  I learned a lot as we went along, and we modified rules and our expectations as we needed to do so.

I made (and continue to make) PLENTY of mistakes.

We started with one Kara group, and started learning that content and how to raid together.  Soon all of the people that had left to see raiding content elsewhere came back to FoB, and we started having a lot of success in our Kara group.  We then recruited for and started a second Kara group, and eventually got to the point where we were ready to dive into 25 man content.

One of our then members (and now Raid Leader) Estarniqx, knew of a group of folks on our server that also wanted to raid and we started to group up and run some content with them as well.  When their guild dissolved we eventually picked up a small number of their members, and slowly but surely we’ve met other great people and we’ve grown, and we’ve been raiding and having fun ever since.  Dita eventually decided to leave WoW to pursue other interests, and she passed the guild leader position completely over to me.  With the help of her and many other people the guild was built back up, and we have been running 25 man raids fairly consistently for the last two expansions.

I consider myself EXTREMELY lucky to be in a guild with some of the nicest, most fun, and entertaining people I’ve ever gamed with.  The members of FoB are by and large the only reason I play, and they continually make the game fun for me.  The officers that run FoB are responsible, smart, funny people and I couldn’t imagine trying to run a guild without them.  Anything that my guild has ever accomplished has very very little to do with me, and everything to do with the officers and members and their efforts.

At this point I’d call us a “medium-core” guild.  We take raiding seriously, we like to raid and see new content, but all of us don’t completely min-max or try to turn raiding into work.  In 25 man content we’re a little more casual but still VERY capable of accomplishing great things.  Many of our raiders are people that love to raid and can put in effort to do it well, but also don’t raid like it’s their job, and are there to enjoy themselves.  We usually raid current content in 25 man on normal.

In 10 man content we have groups that also raid on normal, and others that enjoy taking a more hard-core approach, dedicating a lot of time to work on hard modes and achievements.

Everyone in FoB is 21+, and a good number of us are 30+, and many of us have been in this guild 1,2,3+ years, if not our entire WoW  career.  Like any guild we go through our bumps and bruises, but for the most part we are a very low drama, stable guild.

(Note:  We are not currently recruiting for any position.  If and when that changes I’ll try and remember to update this page or otherwise make it known.)

About the podcast/website:

Many many times I would listen to conversations my guildmates and I were having on vent and say to myself  “This would make a great podcast”.  Sometimes those conversations are funny, sometimes they are informative, sometimes both; but they are always interesting and entertaining.  The podcast is my attempt to bottle some of those conversations.  I’ve enjoyed listening to podcasts like Pugcast, Slash2, The Instance, RAWRcast, Twisted Nether, Bind On Equip, (and many others).  Though the Ventchat podcast may hold some similarities to those I hope that the personalities of myself and my guildmates, along with our opinions, will bring something different to the table.

I also am aware that there are many podcasts out there that are very very informative, but don’t do a lot of current raiding.  While I DO love those podcasts, I hope this one can bring another point of view about the game and gameplay changes, from the perspective of someone raiding current or semi-current content.

Though I am obviously interested in current WoW news and events, I do not wish this podcast to be simply a reading of the current patch notes and changes.  I’d rather highlight the few items that I find particularly interesting or thought provoking, and discuss those items in-depth, offering opinions and insights from myself, members of my guild, and perhaps other guests.

The website/blog is also an extension of the podcast idea.  I’ve thought a lot about what I’ve learned trying to manage a guild.  I’ve thought about a lot of the times I’ve “blown it”, and some of the things I’ve done that have worked, and I thought if anyone else could learn from any of that, maybe it would be worth typing out some of what I’ve figured out over the time I’ve been playing.

I hope you enjoy the podcast and/or the website.  I love feedback, and I’m always open to constructive criticism or suggestions.