Blizzard, your cutscene ideas are infinitely better with this expansion than they were in DS. As other players get to the point in the tier where we are, you'll find out what I mean, and you will love it.
I want to go a little stream of conciousness for a bit on being a raider. I almost posted a huge post dealing with all types of topics about raiding, blah blah blah, bullshit bullshit bullshit. Not gonna do that. Nobody wants to read a thesis paper about video games. Well, some people do, but those people suck. Gonna take things in short bites.
*rolls up sleeves*
Time. For most people, raiding takes a good bit of time. I don't mean just the 1-4 hours, 1-4 days a week people actually spend raiding in a raid zone. Well, I am, but there is more than just time spent that way for raiding. For a successful team, there is a lot of time spent outside of raiding on raiding. That previous sentence may sound kind of retarded, but I'm going to explain.
My WoW raiding experience goes back to BC, but my real WoW raiding really started back in Firelands, tier 12. Around that time, my personal life had settled down in such a way that allowed my wife and I to get serious into raiding. We joined a guild, got into a team, got into leading the team (although the guild leader hamstringed us), and then eventually left the guild and started our own and reformed the team. The amount of spare time spent thinking about raid comp, people, personalities, how we want to lead, loot rules, attendance issues, all that crap, it was a lot. A LOT! This was my free time, something that I should just log in and quest and do pvp and whatever, then log out. Not anymore.
There is a lot that goes into a successful team. Raid comp is a huge thing. Making sure you aren't stacking 4 mages, having different classes to cover buffs/debuffs, all that stuff. That takes a huge amount of time when forming a raid team. It also leads to teams recruiting very specific players. You'll see guilds spamming for a resto druid, but you play a resto shammy, but they won't even give you the time of day, because comp wise, they want/need that druid tool kit, and raid itemization works better with that druid and not you on a shaman.
Gearing up before raid. That can be anything from running LFR, gems, enchants, Valor/Justice gearing. That can take a lot of time for some people. There's also farming up mats for potions, flasks, food. Food alone can be a real bitch this expansion. Meat, fish, vegetables, tokens for rice flour/black pepper.
Then there is tons of time doing homework. Reading up about your class theory crafting. For some players, actually breaking out simulation craft and trying all sorts of sims to see how well certain things work. Reading forums on boss fights. Play time on the PTR for stuff coming up next. All that is time spent not actually raiding, but getting ready for raiding.
Not a lot of players are willing to put in that effort. Some are. Those people find each other over time, and they get progression teams going. I expect my raiders to put that kind of time into being a part of my team. I want to be the best possible player that I can be, and anyone that doesn't have that same kind of attitude won't get on my team.
And then time spent in raid. If you ever get on a progression team, get ready to spend time wiping on bosses. Now, the better you are, the longer you can go into a tier before hitting a brick wall. But eventually, everyone hits one. Even world first guilds hit a brick wall somewhere.
But if it's something you enjoy, you won't even notice the time passing. That's what makes this game so great. You can spend all this time on it, and it isn't wasted time. It's doing something you enjoy, something that is fun. The equivalent of being in a book club, or a rec-team, or whatever thing anyone does that is just for fun. If you like it, you don't care how much time is spent on it.
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