Death and Taxes and Loot disagreements

I was going to post this yesterday, but felt I hadn't reached a conclusion, so I just left it to die a slow death in draft form. Instead after seeing Elnia's post over at Larisa's Pink Pigtail Inn, Defining 'Fair' in Loot Distribution I decided to put it out there in the ether of the internet, unfinished but topical.

I think I'm more curious why Rohan started this topic over at Blessing of Kings than the topic itself. Did Rohan miss out on some loot recently?

Rohan posits when Player A passes to friend Player B, loot distribution is still fair to Player C because Player C's chance at the loot has neither lowered or increased Player A's decision.

But I'm lead to ask why Player A is rolling to begin with if they are just going to pass. If player A just dropped out before the roll, Player C's chance is now greater.

And as some have commented there is the issue of perception. I remember playing in a guild with a husband and wife. The husband would roll along with the wife and if he won would pass it on to his wife. His win, his decision right? Rightly so, some disagreed. Two chances at loot are better than one.

And that is what Rohan discusses. As long as you still get your one chance, should it matter that others get two?

Ultimately we all want to feel like we are getting rewarded for what we put in almost to a equal degree. Many of us probably want to get rewarded for more than we we actually do.

If you try to make it black and white, fair and unfair, someone being friends shouldn't enter into the equation. You shouldn't be allowed to pass to someone.

That's why no dkp system, loot rules, work perfectly. Because no matter what is set before us, we all come into it with our own varied experiences.

I made a post on WoW forums that everyone should have equal access to the Tankard of Terror. My reasoning was it's boe and able to be sold at auction and make the same amount of gold for everyone. Of course when I finally did some Direbrew runs, it dropped (twice so far) and I didn't even roll. Logically I felt I could roll on it like everyone else. But deep down in side, it felt greedy on my part. Greedy Goblin would have a field day with me, but I digress.

I've never had a problem with main tanks getting geared up earlier than the rest. But what about the secondary tank, what about the off-tanks. What about the tanks that sub in when all of the above aren't available? And what about the classes that share tokens with tanks?

I've been in several different raid groups, and every main tank I've ever raided with no matter what personality they have, at some point says "I really, really could use that" and which point inevitably whoever else is rolling against them says "I'll pass to you then". Do loot rules take guilt into account?

And forget about tanks, healers they are important too, should they get geared up second? And melee dps are at more risk than ranged, should they get geared up sooner?

My issue with alts getting gear against mains is a subject I could make its own post. A main still has the same chance at loot, but watching alt after alt come in and win and be on their way can be disheartening.

Any time I read about loot council (all loot decisions made by a small number in the raid), those in charge of the loot council always say it works well. You usually don't hear the same from those not on the council.

Even though I mentioned not giving in to greedy feeling above, overall I have become a more greedy player. In fact our guild's system promotes it in a way. If you pass on things to other players they get it at no cost. I got burned by that once, and have learned to be "greedier".