My guild’s story is much like Venjin’s story (to a point) The main difference is we haven’t ever taken off (much) time. Certainly not for several expansions.
However, that difference aside, we are certainly very similar.
We as guild leaders whether we are the leaders of small guilds, medium guilds, or extremely large raiding guilds are all in the same boat in many ways.
We’ve all created communities of our own. (In my case and I think Venjin’s we started back in Vanilla before communities were a sadistic gleam in Blizzard’s eye)
We’ve all been adversely effected by the deliberate slash and burn of OUR guild’s guild permissions.
I would also bet my last dollar that we all have some sort of story to tell about our guilds.
Please bear with me.
Another brief guild story from myself.
Years ago during Wrath we were having our own guild’s “golden age”
Even in our small guild, there was not a time day or night that you could log on to Wow and not find someone online. We had guildies from all over the world. New Zealand, Germany, the US, several solders stationed in Iraq, and at least one person who claimed to be playing in Japan.
Over the years we’ve had entire families play so we keep guild chat respectful and PG rated.
We’ve had doctors, writers, soldiers, factory workers, food service workers, nurses, engineers, computer programmers, parents, grandparents, their kids, and even grand-kids etc…etc…etc…I could continue.
One story of many:
Back in Wrath we had a young married couple join us. Carr and Xe
I found them questing together in Lakeshire.
They were the definition of noobs.
No proper gear, they had out-leveled the area but didn’t realize it, and had not even heard of dungeons if I remember correctly.
I invited them to our guild.
Our family.
Our community.
They joined us and “grew up” quickly.
As a Wow player Xe started learning fast. She got good.
She started doing dungeons and getting better and better gear and learned how to run content. She always claimed to randomly smash buttons, but I had my doubts. Once as we were about to wipe in (Ulduar?) I watched her last for a good 10-15 min alone against one of the tougher bosses (I forget which one after all these years) while the rest of us all lay dead. She almost beat it too, except she finally ran out of mana on her now exhausted pally.
Carr was different.
He liked to quest and explore the virtual world of Warcraft.
He would message me most days and just tell me what newness he’d discovered that day.
Oddly enough I discovered what he had to say very interesting.
One day he’s got a rare whelpling drop from the Wetlands. This was long before pets were account wide.
He asked me if i wanted it, as he wasn’t into pets. I told him he could make a fortune on the AH if he sold it there.
He didn’t care about gold much and said he did not know much about the AH.
He mailed me the pet.
I was sorta “struck” by this gift. I don’t know how else to describe what i felt.
Looking back, i think I had the vague idea that if I held onto the pet long enough he’d come to his senses sooner or later, wish he’d used or sold it and regret giving it away for free.
I stuck the welpling in my bank.
Several weeks passed.
Carr died suddenly.
Xe whispered me. “Carr died at work this morning”
I thought she was joking…
No joke. Carr had gotten up, went to work at the factory. He’d said he felt a little off to Xe that morning, but nothing specific.
Apparently at the young age of barely 30-something he’d had a massive heart attack and died in the arms of his coworkers.
This was shortly after Xe herself had recently been hospitalized after a miscarriage.
A boy.
They (Carr and Xe) grieved.
So did the guild family.
Carr was dead and Xe was a mess.
She continued to log in day after day clearly distraught and not thinking clearly.
This was Wrath so to distract herself she created a Deathknight.
Back then the DK starter zone was actually hard and she was having a particularly hard time with one quest.
She asked me to take her account and complete it for her. I refused, but “talked” her through it until she got it done on her own.
We talked. And talked. And talked.
At some point I happened to think of the unused whelpling in my bank Carr had given me.
I told he about his gift and asked her if she’d like to have it.
She said “YES!”
I hope she still has it in her collection, and I hope it brings her fond memories of her lost husband.
The rest of us were in shock at Carr’s sudden death. We wanted to do something, but we didn’t know what we could do.
We thought of sending someone to Xe’s location as a guild emissary, but no one lived anywhere near her. We were spread out all over the country and the world.
So.
We had an in-game memorial service at the same time Carr’s funeral was taking place.
It was touching. We gathered at our usual guild meeting place and everyone took a few minutes to speak a memory or two about Carr in the circle of our toons we’d created.
I had no way to record the event back then, but I took screenshots and wrote down some of the “better” tributes to Carr on good old fashioned paper so i could show Xe later.
She was astonished at the outpouring of love and grief from her guildies.
I wasn’t so much. We’re a guild family.
Xe went on to become and officer in BloodOath.
She still plays Wow to this day, although not as avidly.
That Blizzard is a REAL Warcraft community
After all these years, it still is a real community.
It’s our guild, it’s out family, it’s our home on Warcraft.
You are KILLING it
Thank you for bearing with me.
Here’s to you Carr.
Rest in peace guild brother.
You are not forgotten.
![:upside_down_face:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/upside_down_face.png?v=6" ":upside_down_face:")