Requiem to a Guild

Well, I haven't been playing a lot of WoW so no updates here in a long time either. Real Life in all its wonder has been getting me down. I am one of the many folks struggling with the current economy and after a frustrating day of job hunting and repeating myself to collections agents, I am often too tired or just not in the mood to game when evening rolls around.

I am going to indulge in a little virtual drama now, as something recently happened that ironically has rekindled my interest in WoW somewhat. The guild I had been in for over 2 years on the Alliance side pretty much self destructed over a weekend. Now I have seen more than a couple of guilds fall apart but this was a guild that was started by friends I had known in gaming through two and in one case, three different MMO's. It was a well respected and established guild. Yet in the end, none of that mattered. Greed and selfishness took over and a handful of senior players, including my so called friends (those that hadn't left earlier due to disillusionment), split off without warning leaving the rest of the guild too fend for itself. It was a back stab, pure and simple. It came down to their own needs being more important then the guild they had shaped and built and the people that had trusted them. I had long since been been excluded from the "inner circle" because I saw the changes in attitudes and voiced my opinions so the shattering impacted me very little. Now that the guild is dead, several of the people that participated in the breakaway are suddenly deciding to "retire" from WoW, at least til the next expansion comes out. I guess the grass on the other side wasn't as green as they hoped and now everyone loses. I wonder if any of the many people that left that guild will ever see the goal they thought they were getting, that being to "finish" the game and its high end raiding content. I find it ironic that they had all the people and skills and desire together they needed, but lacked the patience and faith in each other. What a shame.

World of Warcraft is only a game. We each pay our fee and do a wide variety of activities to relax, unwind, channel aggression, whatever. But it is still a community, even though it is a virtual one. A gaming Guild is like a family, even if it is just a virtual, online one. In gaming, as in life, if you don't have family, you have nothing. What good is having the best gear around, or defeating every last boss if you have no one you care about to share that triumph with, especially those that battled up through the ranks with you? Seems a rather empty victory to me but for some, it seems the phrase "victory at all costs" means just that, even to the point of disrespecting those you play the game with.

I am fortunate. When I decided to explore the horde side of my server, I met a group of gamers with the same ideals as I have, as I thought my alliance guild had when it was founded. Though I have to say goodbye to one group of people I once called friends, I am blessed to have made new online friends that I respect and enjoy being with (even when they are pointing out out the boneheaded things I do, or maybe especially then). So I will enjoy thier company and raise a farewell toast to my old mates, who for a shining moment, were the best there was at what we did once upon a time.

I guess the point of all of this is to ask you, oh bored and confused reader, to remember that there is more to playing this game than *just* getting gear and beating bosses. Any console game will let you do that. The thing that makes MMO's special is how it allows us to create teams and forge a community. Please don't let yourself sacrifice that for some perceived short term goal. It may not be all you think it is. All that glitters is not gold... or always an epic