/Gquit

Since I've started WoW almost a full year ago now, my main has been in a grand total of three guilds.

I'm a sucker for friendly people I guess.

The first guild I was in was the Blackmoon Tribe, an RPPVP guild comprised of some really great, friendly, and helpful people. The vast majority of my playtime was in this guild and for the most part, I had a lot of fun with them. Many players came and went but the core group remained. Up until a raiding dispute.

BMT was running a single Karazhan group and teaming up with a couple other guilds to begin 25 mans. Technically, according to WoWJutsu.com, we were into the Black Temple kicking some demon ass, but the cold truth of this was only about 2 members of were able to make those runs. We were teamed up with Shattered Oath, one of the servers higher achieving guilds. Unfortunately, they weren't willing to take more of us along. I didn't care though, personally. I'm a casual. Shitty Fraps vids are about as close as I'm getting to Illidan, purples oozing from my mouth from a recent koolaid excursion. Damn, you've gotta love the purp.

So, some of my best friends split. I stayed out of loyalty but soon, I found out that I was all alone. So, I wrote a painful goodbye on the forums and got a single positive response. I hated it. As Bart Simpson once said, "I didn't think it was possible for something to suck and blow at the same time." But it did.

Immediately after, I talked with some of the people who'd left before me and, sure enough, they'd started their own guild and wanted me in it. It was supposed to be everything we wanted it to be. Within a couple of weeks, we were into Karazhan again. It was going great. Even as a casual, I was able to make it in for a run. It was not to last. Some of our members got poached. Correction, ALL of our raiding members got poached.

So, I was asked to step up and help out recruiting which I was glad to do. The GM and remaining officer were great, and so were the other remaining members. It was not to be.

Within a week, my offer to help made me the main recruiter. It made me the website administrator (co-admin technically, but I was the only one doing it). It made me the forum mod. And, not surprisingly, the GM's activity dropped. The other officer, as nice as she was, was recruiting level 18 members, new to the game. I was fine with that but our goal was to get into Kara again as soon as possible to rebound and it wasn't happening.

I stayed, pained, for the sake of the friends I had there. I recruited, I admin'd, I moderated. I wasn't even considered for an officer role but I didn't care nor ever think to as for one. It was something I was doing to help friends.

Within a month, I was burned out. The guild had turned into a job and I wasn't even the one in charge. I was suffering in LFG, still Fury at this time, and spending my little free time in-game in the battlegrounds. I was ready to leave WoW, that was it. I bought a lifetime subscription to Lord of the Rings Online and started visiting there more.

Around that time, it hit me. It wasn't WoW that I was burning out on. It was the "job" aspect of it. As much as I wanted to keep the loyalties I felt, I knew that it was change I needed or else I was done for. The next day, I pulled the officer and a good friend into a party to talk.

I was optimistic that they would understand. Surprisingly enough, my fellow guildie did. The officer, someone who once said "friendships don't end with a guild tag" did not. She was hurt and showed it. Never rude, but wholly un-understanding. *sigh* Bad times.

So, I booked and respecc'd tank. Since then, I've joined one of the better raiding guilds on the server. I don't raid due to conflicting timeframes but it's nice to have a lot of other people on to quest, BG, grind, and, most of all, chat with.

Things were not fixed because I left but the changes I made did help.

I guess the moral of this post is that if you're quick to form friendships and loyalties, you should be very careful in your guild choice. I don't regret joining BMT or the following guild, or the one I am currently part of. I have a lot of great memories and I think it was worth it. Some time though, you very well may have to leave them or have them do the same to you. It should be met with understanding and well wishes but, more often then not, you're sent off with a wave of drama the size of Maui. Take WoW for what it is and keep your options open. People are great and are the reason we play MMO's but always remember, it's your $15 and it's your time. Make the most of it and tread softly, for the waters can be deep.