I transferred to Khaz'goroth (along with Banakin) about six months ago with a plan. We were going to do our bit to fight against the elitist culture that's ever-present in World of Warcraft's endgame. Well, that was the plan at any rate.
While I waited for my transfer to come through I began leveling a death knight alt. During this time I received a random whisper asking if I'd like to join a "friendly, social guild". Ordinarily I'd ignore these sorts of messages, but that moment I thought to myself "Eh, what could it hurt?"
Turns out it could hurt plenty. Over the last six months I've become good friends with the people in that guild. No tolerance for elitists, great sense of humour, raiding aspirations - they were basically everything I was looking for when I switched realms. The time I spent with them was easily some of the most enjoyable since I started playing.
Over the last few weeks, things had begun taking a downward turn. Members began leaving; either taking a break until Cataclysm or just outright quitting for greener pastures, our raids became non-existent and all of the people I enjoyed spending time with began logging on less and less. Even the guild master would be missing for days at a time.
Personally, I was determined to stick it out to the bitter end. These people had become my friends. Banakin, however... Banakin had been thinking about our original plan - He knew the end was nigh for our guild and had been wanting us to put the plan into motion. That would mean leaving our guild, which would've been yet another nail in the coffin for them and I didn't want to be the one who pulled them apart, but I could see the wisdom behind his thinking.
Banakin and I discussed the situation at length. It took the better part of a day to finally reach a solution. Banakin would leave the guild and begin with our original plan - I would stay behind for as long as I could because I wanted to give them the proper farewell that they deserved.
Of course, this was made a little more difficult due to the fact that many of the members I wanted to give my thanks to were online infrequently at this point.
Banakin left yesterday and I stayed back to pick up the pieces he left behind. Banakin was well liked in that guild and there were quite a few members saddened by his departure. They all asked me why he left and where he was going to... I simply told them he was leaving for another guild, but he'd always be available when we needed him. I didn't have the heart to tell them that he had essentially left to join my guild and that I'd be leaving soon too.
That was yesterday.
The plan, since the beginning, was Harms Way; a guild in which new players could find their feet in the endgame. Essentially, we wanted to bridge the gap between "fresh 80" and "LFM ICC pst cheev". Any mature player would be welcome and elitism or a**holes of any kind wouldn't be tolerated. A guild that made raiding fun again.
Sounds cheesy, right? Well it is, but if all goes according to plan then it should be a lot of fun and maybe - maybe - we can rescue some of the "noobs" (I hate that term so very much) who keep getting shouted down by veteran players because they don't know absolutely everything that they know themselves.
That was the plan we came up with six months ago. The plan we began putting into action yesterday.
It is likely that I'll leave the guild sometime today - definitely by the weekend.
This is easily the second saddest moment of my gaming life, and it's only going to get worse when I have to actually leave. I'll have to tell them that I'm leaving them to form my own guild (which essentially implies that they're not good enough, which was never the case). I'm not sure how they'll react, but I know I'm not going to feel good about this.
"Eh, what could it hurt?" I thought...
-Ahz
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