BBB has been after me to write this since last weekend (mostly because he was busy playing his priest and didn’t want to take time out to write a post). He says it’s because it’s something that other people can relate to and would love to see a post about (I say not true and refer to the real reason I stated above). But anyways, I finally caved, so here’s the post (well there’s some background I have to share first, so try to bear with me for a few minutes).
Back in September when I had a very weak moment and said, “want to set me up with a trial account so I can try out that “damn game?” (that’s how it was referred to in our house for the two years BBB was playing prior to my playing). But as I said, it was a weak moment, mostly in which I was trying to escape the reality of my family dealing with losing my dad last summer and I thought I’d try the game out for a few weeks and be distracted a bit from thinking.
BBB set me up, roughly explained the character types and then left me to do my thing with the creation screen. I made a priest (because I figured I’d be horrible at fighting and could at least heal myself). A day later at level 8, that character got abandoned because even though I was ok at healing myself, fighting as a low-level priest (who had never played an RPG before), well…sucked. I had made it to Goldshire and had started quests there and decided it just wasn’t fun and if I was going to play the “damned game,” it was at least going to be fun! Secretly I made a rogue and started playing before BBB came upstairs and caught me. That rogue is now 85% toward level 68.
In those first few days, BBB invited me to join the guild that his alts were a part of and the chat channel that he had with a few close friends, mostly so I could “talk” to him when I was playing on my computer upstairs and he was playing on his downstairs. He also thought I’d enjoy chatting with his best friends, and he was right. Ina, Mark, and Andy quickly became good friends (even if to this day, they don’t know my real name - hehe). I left James off that list because I knew him in RL before BBB and actually introduced them to each other, but it’s been fun to be able to talk to him and interact in situations other than RL too. There was a fifth member of that small chatting group (but he now remains nameless after having defected from all of us and hurting a lot of feelings in the process (was discussed in past BBB posts)).
Now a few months before I had even started playing, BBB used to talk about Kemangi, Tikky, Daak (and their eight billion alts - seriously, not much of an exaggeration there - they all have serious altitis). I used to nag him that if he was part of a small group of supposed good friends, he could at least know their real names and not refer to them by their character names when telling me about their group adventures. Happily, by the time, I joined the group, they actually all knew each others names and to this day, usually use them (except mine - hahaha- (oops, I’m going to be in trouble when they read this).
Anyways, moving on from my rambling (I swear there is a point coming up here soon). I’ve continued in this small “alt guild” and enjoyed talking with everyone and occasionally getting the chance for us to get together and do a minor instance or help each other with quests. Since everyone, except me, has a level 70, they’ve given me lots of advice and help over time and I’m now at a level where I can be the powerful one swooping in to protect their helpless alts. But generally when I have a bunch of quests that require more than just me, BBB comes over on Windshadow or Windstar and gives me a hand (mostly because Ina, Mark and Andy live in Singapore and the time difference makes it hard to get together except on weekends).
However, I’m now at the point of needing more instance runs and assistance with quest chains that go beyond what BBB and I can do as a twosome and he’s had to get his main guild (Legatum Ignavis) buddies to come help us. We’ve done some instances in HP, Zangermarsh, and most recently the Ring of Blood in Nagrand. Now everyone that has helped has been more than willing to come along and usually finds it fun to revisit things that they are so far beyond that we just breeze through things as they decimate all the bad guys in their path with the click of a couple of buttons (while I try to pretend that I’m being somewhat helpful, but know that usually it’s easier if I just stay out of their way and try not to get myself killed).
Again, they have fun, I get my quest rewards and occasionally some cool loot. But….I usually end up feeling bad because I’ve involved other people and taken them away from what they could be doing AND they can’t even say they were helping a guildie because I’m not one. BBB is, but it’s not the same. So I end up walking away saying to BBB, “ugh, I’m going to have to join your guild if we keep bugging your friends to help.”
As I said this most recently over the past weekend, he said “yep, type /gquit and I’ll invite you to join” (note this response was uttered about a million times by him followed up by “did you quit yet? Did you do it yet?” to which I would replay “ugh, no.”
Now what’s the problem…why can’t I just type that one phrase and suddenly have a whole new group of people to get to know?
Well, first, I like having just a few close friends to chat with (I’m very much an introvert) and although, everyone I’ve met from BBB’s guild has been great, offered advice and even sent me presents when I’ve leveled or cut gems for me for free - thanks Nawat! - it still feels like a big step to take. To suddenly have guild chat with hundreds of people (ok, in reality, they rarely have more than 25-30 people on at a time, but still the potential is there) and honestly, some of the guild chat I’ve seen while sitting next to BBB while he’s playing, says that there are some ridiculously obnoxious people that feel the need to share their opinions about everything and anything with the guild (and I’d have to be mature and not respond back telling them how completely dumb they are being). And then there’s the potential for drama (which you all know happens fairly regularly since BBB runs here to share it right away). I still have to hear about that as BBB rants, but beyond that, it doesn’t really affect me now because I’m not in the guild.
But on the other hand, there’s the reasons BBB offers -more people to play with and get to know, better guild bank, chance to eventually raid (yeah right, by the time I’ll be ready for Kara, there will have been like 5 new expansions and no one will remember Kara at all). Now some of those reasons do sound good and the reality is that everyone in our small guild is also in Legatum so I wouldn’t be losing them, just gaining new people. But I still can’t seem to make myself type that one little phrase.
So this is where all of you come in (assuming you’re still reading at this point and haven’t declared that I’m a nut and you’re busy writing BBB begging him to remove my admin posting permissions)….I’d like to hear experiences from people who may have started out in a smaller, “family” guild and then moved into a larger, more serious one. What did you like or not like? Were you happy with your choice in the end? Or for those that haven’t switched, why have you stayed with your smaller guild?
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