Self Sufficient

Has this ever happened to you? Maybe not specifically, but to someone in your raid? 25 people all put aside 3-4 hors of their lives to work together to accomplish a difficult task in a video game for the purpose of enjoying good execution and feeling like they're making progress on their abilities as a group to accomplish difficult tasks... and one person wastes the time of the other 24 because he's poor. Of course, someone will give him gold, he knows that in advance. His logic has to be 'I want to raid, but don't have the gold to repair myself. If I go anyways, and I run out of gold, surely someone will pay (carry) me.'

This is always unacceptable. Everyone who joins the group silently agrees that he or she is ready to perform to the expectations of everyone else. If not, why join a group that you know will not achieve anything, only waste gold, since everyone will be fail? What I'm getting at is highlighting the loser personality type and using it as a contrast to the importance of being Self Sufficient.

World First, Top guilds, they are not all basement dwelling no-lifers that spend 80 hours a week playing WoW. Most of them are very successful in their business lives and family lives as well, and that's the key. They practice good time management and have discipline to keep their goals on track. When they bring these tools to WoW, you see them spending minimal time between wipes, understanding and comprehending mechanics and flaws on past attempts, improving ever so slightly try after try on the same content, and will ultimately overcome any obstacle in their path that is possible. This is not because 'they are non-lifers' or because 'they are better than me'. It's because they use their real life skills to great success, and so should you.

Lets say that on average, 25 guild members on the raiding team 'we pwn nefarion' have 8 hours a week to themselves outside of raids. Other than that they have to be in a raid, or are offline. They have to make enough gold during those 8 hours to cover all repair costs during their raiding schedule, produce food and flasks for their characters, glyphs, gems, and enchants for upgrades, and finally read up on and practice their class abilities so they can perform to the output expected of them. How do they do it? They plan out their time to be as profitable as possible and are making gold as their priority online, not hunting for +10 achievement points for fishing some vanity pet while making 50 copper/per mouse click.

When one person doesn't come prepared, because he/she is not self sufficient, it is as detrimental as having 3 less people in the group.

Imagine doing content designed for 25 players with only 13 people, because 3 of your group dead from first aoe damage, some are not flasked, your group used bloodlust while waiting around before fight listening to description of mechanics, and your main tank has broken armor. Sadly, these are not fake scenarios, they all occur daily in groups.

It all ties back into how engaged people are with their activity. What are their motivators? Why are they playing the game? What do they want out of it? And how hard are they willing to (or not willing to) work to get it?