What Time Is The Watershow?
One of the difficulties in online gaming is effectively communicating to other players. When you are a
guild as large and as organized as The Syndicate, effective communications are key and we
expect/require our members to be informed. We do that via private posting forums, emails and
in game communications. When someone isnt informed, it stands out. This is most often seen
in the EQ world where a guild MOTD (Message Of The Day) exists. We use that before raids
to include the target, location to meet up, raid rooms to be in and other critical raid information.
A simple "/GET" at any time will show that to a member and all the key information they need
is visible. Yet there is always that 1 person who doesnt do that and prefers to blurt out
a question that is already answered there. That led us to adopt another guild phrase which is: "
What Time Is The Water Show?" which is used in response to those types of questions
This stems from a Snickers candybar commercial that aired in the summer of 2003. It featured
a ficticious themepark. Standing there is a man in a dog costume (Barky The Dog) meant to be
one of the parks signature characters. He is standing right next to a sign that reads "Next
Watershow Is At XX:XX". A family walks up to Barky and the father asks "What time is the water
show at?". Barky, being the blunt, not so friendly park mascot that he is immediately shouts
out at the top of his lungs "Does Anyone Know What Time The Water Show Is? Someone should really
put up a sign saying when the water show is."
The same basic concept applies to The Syndicate. We expect/require members to be Informed
and Involved. Those people that are unable to put in even the basic effort to be informed
or be invovled wont last as members for very long. They will get weeded out by their guildmates
or by Dragons as being too slack to be a member and will quit or be removed. So a lesson for anyone
who is thinking about joining: Be informed. Use the guild tools provided and stay informed
of what is going on.
