OMG Awkward

You would think in a game where things are anonymous and nobody knows who you are, you can avoid awkward moments right?

Wrong.

This last week, I feel like my life is full of situations that make me squirm.  Of things I said which maybe I should have thought a little bit more before I said them.  Things which people say which make ME feel awkward.  Sorting out difficulty social and guild situations which make me feel awkward.

Maybe I can try the "I heard this story about a friend who..." intro but I think I'll just go with the anonymous route.  Maybe that will avoid more awkward, but those who are involved will obviously know who they are.

WHEN A HARDCORE RAIDER TELLS A CASUAL RAIDER HOW TO SORT A TEAM

I was in our server's resto druid channel, which contains a mixture of raiding druids whom, from what I can tell, are from raiding horde guilds on the server.  Obviously quite selective because not every raiding druid was in the channel.  And no druids from the top 4 guilds are in that channel because... well, because they're probably too cool to be in the channel.

One of the druids is in a casual guild, and was lamenting the fact that he couldn't get his guild to get organised to raid.  A druid from a more progressive guild started to tell him that you need to kick out the underperformers and recruit new raiders.  I opened my mouth went to type in the channel that you don't really do that in a casual guild, and they said "Why not?  You can't have people dragging down your raid."  The hardcore druid said essentilly, do you want to progress?  Then you need to get rid of the trash.  It wasn't quite in those words, but it was the sentiment that I felt was being conveyed.  The casual druid sighed, wishing that they could get their team to perform better, and I wondered if the casual guild was the right guild for them.

"But it's a family friendly guild, you can't hurt people's feelings," I said.

"Who cares?  Don't play like a retard."

"But it's a casual guild..."

"Just because you're casual doesn't mean you have to play like a noob."

"But maybe it's because they're a social guild rather than a casual one..."

I had to stop because I'm making an idiot out of myself.  I'll never be able to explain to a hard core what a friendly social guild is like! A social guild, I think of the motto "Leave no man behind".  To me that is the core, the essence of a casual, family oriented guild that wants to raid.  A bunch of friends that want to play together and help each other get that kill.  This ideal is very opposed to the raiding guild motto "Go big or go home".  Which is basically, bring your best, and if your best isn't good enough you can go home and play with your action figurines.  Maybe I shouldn't have said those things to the hardcore druid.  Now he thinks you're a real nitwit Navi.  Nice one.  Awkward.

WHEN YOUR FRIENDS WANT TO RAID BUT CAN'T

I feel bad for a guildie because they wanted to raid but didn't really make a huge effort to try to get back into a raid team.  Getting into a raid group is a bit like trying to get a job!

1. Dress for success - working on your dailies to get the good gear, running dungeons to get heroic gear, having the crafted stuff made.  Now you look like you're serious about raiding.  Much more than that guy in greens who hasn't made the effort to enchant his gloves...
2. Look interested in raiding - Reading up strats and fights always makes you look like a keen bean.
3. Make sure people know you're interested - the person who speaks to the guild leader about being interested in a raid spot and saying which time suits them better is more likely to get one than the guy who just sits back and expects a raid spot but doesn't bother to reply by the raid deadline.
4. Showing up as a reserve - the guy who keeps turning up as a reserve for a raid spot is more likely to get subbed in when we're short.

So with the tank/heals shortage this week, I thought maybe this person could play, but probably, there isn't a spot for them anyhow.  Someone had offered once in a while to sit out for them to play so I pulled that card out and asked him if they could come on Wednesday.  One of the other tanks can't go to the other group because they made other plans, so I am guessing that two other reserve guildies will be healing or tanking.  Either way it seems like it will be ok.  But the sitting out guildie doesn't want to take a spot from other raiding guildies, and would rather sit out and pout about it.  It's so awkward when I'm raiding and my friends aren't.  Sigh.  I can't sit out to keep my friends company because I'll let the team down!  AWKWARD!!!

WHEN SOMEONE SAYS BAD THINGS ABOUT PEOPLE YOU KNOW

I waved a stranger the other day who was pet battling next to me, and they sent me a tell later wondering if I was the alt of someone they knew.  I said they didn't know me I was just being friendly - but they did know people from my guild.  We had a nice chat about pet battles and then the conversation progressed to say they knew others in my guild from being together in another guild, and started to say very uncomplimentary things about the other guild.  I had to refrain from replying and tried to turn the subject, but they continued for a bit until I said that those people were friends of mine.  Uncomfortable silence.  AWKWARD!

WHEN SOMEONE DOESN'T KNOW HOW BAD THEY ARE

Ever tried telling someone they weren't good at something?  But they still don't get it?  And everyone is talking about it?  What if they're trying their best and it's still not good enough? How do you tell them nicely "You suck?" Nobody wants to hurt other people's feelings!  How about if they know they suck but are embarrassed about it... what do you do then?  So when someone asks you "How did I do?" you say.... ummm... yeah.  Awkward! 

THE MISTELL

Umm... I have too many to list here that pop into this category.  Like telling one of my single, male, childless guildies about the toilet habits of my toddler, when I was supposed to be talking to another mother.  Or when I was commenting about how attractive another female was, and sent the tell to her instead of one of the guys.  Or when I was trying to send healing meters in a tell to a guildie and sent that instead to one of my blog buddies.  Bleh!

WHEN YOUR 4YO DAUGHTER SHOWS YOU HOW DIRTY YOU REALLY ARE

And this had to top off my awkward week.  I was googling for pictures to stick on this post, and I saw this one and so did my daughter.  She asked me to click on it and I said no, we're not clicking on that, but she did it anyway.  And she said it's just like the old grandma dinosaur in that movie we watched last night...

And holy crap.  It really was a dinosaur, caption and all.  I couldn't stop laughing and my daughter asked why.  It would have been too difficult to explain.  OMG I AM FILTHY.

Come on.  Share with me your most awkward moment.