I played on my friend’s computer since launch until I got my own computer right after TBC went live and had an active account right up until the start of BoA. I was instantly addicted to WoW and although was never very good at it, loved it all the same. The challenge of learning this particular world with it’s specific and vast knowledge to master. I didn’t touch macros for the loooongest time.
I quit more because my computer couldn’t handle the ever growing demands, than because BoA was obviously mismanaged recycled Legion content.
Reactivating again with classic servers and a gaming laptop; I got some 100 parses as resto druid in Wrath and Cata classic, “Solhawk.” It was a great time; the first time I really “joined” a guild, [Steel Gauntlet].
It was the first group of friends that I met online through gaming that I could say we knew each others’ real names, even kids’ names, pictures, we made guild t-shirts and hoodies with an amazing Logo and our character names and guild ranks. We were never a big guild, or even a known guild per se. It was a guild unlike any I had seen before. A small town, dad-core guild. I really felt at that time that I would never quit. I would be playing wow until I died.
I’m not super proud of parses or anything like that, it’s just that during Wrath and Cata classic I really learned how to play WoW, I think. In both a gaming sense, and a social sense.
Even though The guild sort of fell apart after Cata classic, a few of the leaders decided to organize a 5-man group for leveling through Hardcore.
I would be the healer.
Unfortunately we only made it about as far as Deadmines as a group before full time jobs and small children at home made game time hard to schedule for us. Only I remained, childless… and alone. lol
So, hardcore… without the guild…
Twice died at 54 to Eranikus. First to everyone running away from the boss while I have heal aggro after Eranikus banishes the tank, rather than helping with a pet taunt or something. Second, to all the whelps and dragonkin we forgot to kill and ambushed us mid-fight. Was loving it. Again I felt that I would be playing WoW until I died. These deaths kept me invested in WoW. It’s not why I’m quitting now.
No. Why I’m quitting is far, far worse.
I was on my third priest, my first dwarf this time and with a different name than my first two now-dead humans (thanks Sunken Temple). I have at this point at least felt like I’ve mastered leveling a priest 1-50. I just got my mount at 40 not long ago and looking forward to leveling with dungeons some more while fishing, tailoring, and enchanting kept the gold flowing. Same as I had been doing since Deadmines on all 3 priests.
I queued for all the dungeons level appropriate for me and waited…
Got my first bite, “rfd?”
“ye” I replied.
[“So and So” invites you to group.]
I accept and start heading to Menethil to take the boat over. The one who invited me is alone, but is a warrior. Awesome.
Everything thus far, absolutely perfectly normal and typical.
A hunter then joins the group, a name I vaguely recognize. Someone that almost certainly has grouped with me before, but I’m a rather private person and don’t keep tabs on people that much. I add tanks to my friends list who whisper me “great heals” afterwards, and later ask them to join my groups looking for a tank. Beyond that, I don’t remember random hunters. I’m a Pug’er now.
Understand, I am not someone who lightly joins guilds or big groups. I play an MMORPG for the world, not for the community. [Steel Gauntlet] was a one-of-a-kind that could never be replaced for me. It was my real home and they were gone now.
Anyway this hunter joins the group and then instantly leaves it.
Then the warrior who invited me disbands the group.
Weird but ok.
I say nothing and requeue for all dungeons and am still flying to Menethil. I figure when I land I’ll just sit in the inn until I get another group.
Or if it’s not looking promising at the moment for groups, I’ll head back to STV to fish, or maybe fish in Alterac. Who knows!
But as it happens I almost instantly get an invite. It is prime time after all.
I accept and its another RFD group. Alright cool, same direction. I land in Menethil and don’t have to wait long for the boat. As the boat arrives, the group fills out and we’re just looking for a tank. All the tanks in my friends list are logged off except a warrior that just logged on right as I was landing. A warrior who I knew was running RFD basically every day. I whisper him if he was locked already and he replied that this was his first time logging in for the day, but wasn’t available to tank for another hour.
No problem though, our group just found a tank. Then the group abruptly falls apart. No one says anything to me.
Super. Weird. But ok. Whatever…?
I hearth back to Stormwind and requeue a third time. Much the same as the second time, the group seems to be quickly forming. This time we have a warlock and they’re talking summons.
Alright, cool. I’m already headed that way again.
The party converts to a raid, and the hunter from the first group, joins the raid.
Abruptly the group falls apart.
This time I whisper the one who invited me and they reply back,
“Stop leaving groups mid run and leave people to die.”
… what??
That’s, never happened.
What do I do with this??
I whisper the hunter “are you spreading lies about me?”
They don’t reply.
I try to tell the last group that they’re lying and that that’s NEVER happened.
But they don’t believe me, and already have another healer.
Is it because I’m unguilded?
What am I supposed to do here?
All things start swirling in my brain…
I whisper a 60 guild mate of the hunter.
They “lol” back.
I call it out in LFG channel, saying that someone is getting people kicked from groups based on lies. That I’ve literally never had a group death, all full runs, never roached. Someone says I sound like Trump.
I’m met with complete disbelief and basically trolling.
I whisper the hunter again, “??”
[ignored]
Brother, this is why I am quitting WoW after 20 years.
I am not someone is super proud of my ability to play WoW.
I just like WoW.
So when I say tanks whisper me “great heals” often, it’s a fact not a boast.
I have 100 parses, it’s a fact, not a boast.
“I’ve never had a group death in a dungeon,” is not a boast, it’s a fact.
Why would I leave a group mid run? That’s literally never happened.
All things swirling in my brain…
I think back to a time when a blue BoE dropped on a mob right outside of Scarlet Monastery as our group at the time was just arriving and heading in. [Papal Fez] a blue +healing hat that would be a very good upgrade for me at the time. The group “needs” on the BoE as some people apparently think that BoE blues mean “all roll need” without thinking that it might actually be an upgrade for someone.
This I personally don’t understand and so I left the group on the spot after losing the roll. The dungeon hadn’t even started yet. I left the group when we were all the portal; the safest place that there is. No one died, and no one was ever in any danger.
They would have to find another healer, an approximate inconvenience I wager to losing a blue BoE upgrade; except one of them gets a blue to sell for ~20g. Woohoo. lol
A day later I was in another group for SM and I asked a warlock with another group at the meeting stone if they could help summon my party for a gold. The warlock declined, saying his party didn’t want to wait, but he was very nice about it and said “stay safe.” But instantly 2 of the others in his group started harassing me by spitting at me and saying “R U A ROACH?”
Could that have been what caused all of this?
Again, I’m a private person and when people are rude I usually just ignore it without saying much and just move on. Same with SM. So I didn’t really connect the dots here at first… if indeed these dots are even connected. I still can’t remember if that hunter was in any of those other groups, but maybe… there are 2 guilds I do remember that some of these people are in that seemed to line up.
What are you supposed to do (in an MMO where death is permanent and the stakes are high) when people lie about you and sabotage your ability to play the MMO?
Now I have a character that people believe will kill them if they group with. People who are in massive guilds. Guilds where lies are seemingly spread instantly and sabotage others wantonly.
Good bye WoW
-Solhawk, Soliman, Illiam
