I’ve been there. I’ve lost a few as well. Really … a whole guild.
Back in Classic I met a dude, we became friends back when deadmines was being ran nonstop. We met doing deadmines. We leveled together a bunch after that.
Fast forward a few months, we’re both max level (Still classic) I’m out grinding rep to unlock naxx. My wife is running AQ 40 man with people she met. He sends me a whisper, he has started a Guild, well … at least he has a charter. I signed it.
That Guild was my home until WoTLK and beyond. He took a break, I ended up in a my own Raiding Guild that I helped start. I made a lot of friends during that time.
However, I haven’t really played with that original guy since. I still have characters in that Guild to this day, the original one. The raiding Guild dissolved at the start of MoP.
My wife and I left WoW for 12 years when we got married and had our first child. The Raiding Guild dissolved. We returned a few months ago, all our children are old enough that they do their own thing now. So my wife and I have much more time to ourselves.
All the people I knew are gone, many server jumped before battletag was a thing. Their name vanished from my friendlist. The few that are still on my friendlist haven’t logged in for years.
The original Guild I was part of is still there, I have characters still in it. But there is like 3 or 4 people in that Guild that are active. I remember 1.
All I have left of those days are memories. When we Raided we were one of the top Guilds on our server. I was on top for Holy Paladin healing. When our Guild showed up for Wintergrasp, we’d win. Hands down.
Crossrealm became a thing, I’d login and get bombarded with invites for Heroics (back before Mythics). I’d get hit up for raids I wasn’t locked for. My wife was a top Druid, she played all 4 specs of Druid. It was the glory days for us, that didn’t end until MoP released.
I had an entire Guild of people that I never seen again. Some of those people I got on my Facebook before we quit WoW back in 2013. Some of them I never seen or heard from again. Some of those people were special to me, they also marked the first time I made lasting friends from an online setting. But it also marked the first time I lost online friends.
Now days I just run delves and follower dungeons with my wife. I haven’t gotten up the courage to play with others yet. My wife either. Everything I’ve seen here on the forums marks a departure from the way things used to be. People don’t meet lasting friends on WoW anymore. Or so the forums seem to show.
I had a Guild invite, that came with a whisper (I decline random guild invites without a whisper, I see it as bad manners). The pitch was great, I told them I would talk to my wife and get back to them. Well … then my foggy half asleep brain swapped characters without writing any of it down. That Guild never hit me up again, I never heard from them again. My wife was down too.
Cheers to online friends!
