When is a game not a game?
Recently I left my guild (in world of warcraft) that I help start because I was having some difficultly providing the time to raid. I joined another guild who had better raid times and they started on time and ended on time. I thought this would be the right choice. I’ll leave the name of the guild private. Basically they are known for downing pretty much everything with ease. My first raid with them we downed Sarth3D and I received my “Twilight Vanquisher” title. Then we proceeded to do Malygos 25 man and downed him. I thought to myself, WOW, this might be nice.
The next day I logged on and was confronted by one of the guild’s officer’s and rival Paladin tank. I was asked if I knew what “WWS” was and I was confused and responded, no. WWS is apparently and app or mod that the raid leader has running during the raid of an instance that makes a report detailing every players every move. I mean EVERYTHING. It keeps a report on how many times you clicked a certain action or how often you “DIDN’T” hit a certain action. I was then told I wasn’t playing my class the way I should. That I had to learn things and change things. They said they’d be monitoring my play style and would be judging me later.
This left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t pay 15 dollars a month to play a “GAME” for a guild’s big brother to watch over me every second of a raid. I can understand a guild wanting to progress and move forward and down content. I’ve been in a few and I know others in a few guilds that having been moving forward in progression and have downed Sarth3D without any type of WWS or Big Brother antics.
If that wasn’t enough, I left a guild of people that cared and acknowledged me. When you log into Warcraft there’s something about getting a hello or hey from another player whether they mean it or if it’s just a formality. It’s acknowledgment one way or the other. I spent spent a week in this guild and didn’t have one person say hi or bye when I’d log on and say “Hey everyone” or “Later all”. Zero. Zip. Zilch.
I sat in front of my computer and thought to myself what did I do…
I realized that I left people that care, people that talk to you, people that raid together and progress and are willing to work around someone’s mistakes and help them fix it, without addons showing their mistakes… I left friends.
Thankfully I left on good terms, I spoke to Zalikarra and Kiana, two people who’ve made playing this game that much more enjoyable. Because they are real people who have emotions and care for one another. I don’t know if they’ll read this but I want to publicly thank them. I gave up my GL spot and left them in a hard spot and they took me back and with open arms. That is a guild. That is what true friendship is all about.
