So I was thinking today about something I was told during my employee review earlier this year.  I was told that I was good at communicating my thoughts clearly, and that I was good at talking to people of varying skill levels about technical details and such.  I was also told that I had a "calming" voice and was easy to approach, and that I had a tone that made me sound "more experienced than I may be" - which come to think of it, may not always be a positive.

The whole reason I bring that all up is because I learned it from interacting with members of <Downfall> and from my experience as a raid leader, raid member, recruiter, and pseudo-sit-in-guild-leader-for-a-time.

I know I'm not the most beloved of <Downfall> members.  Loads of you have an opinion of me as being an asshole, an uncaring unwavering jerk that took the game too seriously, and in some cases an intolerable person to be around.  Others formed a different opinion.  To each their own, and I can't really go out of my way to prove myself one way or another.  But I can say that communicating with people whose opinions of me ran the gamut of possibilities really expanded on my ability to actually communicate effectively.

Although my experience in WoW didn't end on a good note - and my last couple of years may have actually helped lead to me losing my previous job - the whole of the experience was positive.  My lead raidership actually helped land me a job out of college (in an indirect manner), and the communication skills I picked up from trying to organize so many people helped me to gain recognition in my current job.  In 6 months I've moved from an entry-level-ish intern position, to a full-benefits employee in a little bit of a supervisory position.  I've helped more than a handful of new engineers get on their feet.

So long story short, whether you remember me fondly or remember me as an overbearing asshole, I wanted to say thank you for helping me to learn how to talk to people in a professional setting.