PREFACE: As a certain mildly grumpy witch might say, “I aten’t dead”. I’ve just been struggling to find the time to write, and also deliberately holding my tongue on some of the things I wanted to write about just in case they didn’t work out. Alas may end up regretting her gentle prodding in my direction as I have a medium-sized pile of collected wittering to edit and this post is already far too long! So: first up, a catch-up.
Ugh, I’ve got lots to say but I’m struggling to find the time to say it. Between plenty of things to do at work, family visits, friend visits, a new language class, a significant other who I do occasionally like to spend some time with and two nights per week raiding, there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the week.
Right now you’re probably either trying to wipe the smug off your monitor (sorry about that) or wondering what the hell I’m on about (and wiping the smug off your monitor).
A while back I posted about being unable to organise regular raiding with my then-current guild, and whined about how difficult it would be to find a guild who would accept a total noob like me (let alone a guild which would accept a total noob like me, populated exclusively by lovely people). Then, at the end of May I was suddenly posting screenshots of a nervy DK, and an incredibly badly-worded intro to an Ulduar screenshot which included the fine expression of delight “I HAZ RAIDED”.
How? I found a new guild, that’s how. I rolled the terrified Tremble, had a highly entertaining chat with the GM and a couple of officers and omgomgOMG joined up as a triallist.
So, I handed over £30 to Blizzard2 to transfer a couple of characters to the new server (no bulk discount? For shame!), said a bunch of helloes and signed up for the next available night in the calendar. Since then, I’ve raided with the group five-and-a-half times, completed two1 one weekly raid and have killed bosses in Naxx, Ulduar, Trial of the 1-up/1-down, The Vault of Archavon & Friends and the Icecream Citadel. I’m no achievement whore, honest, but I’ve just counted 20 new raid dungeon achievements. Twenty! I’m sure you’ll agree, that’s a fine start for a new raider.
Finest of all, though, is the atmosphere, whether in-raid or just hanging out in-game. I’ve read many a horror story about guilds and the less-than-lovely people one has to accomodate in order to raid. I’ve comparatively little personal experience, but Tam’s list of guild types *feels* like it covers most situations. It’s wonderful, then, to be part of a group which steadfastly refuses to be any one of those guilds.
It’s wonderful to be part of a group where there’s still a sense of awe and a focus on enjoying the experience, rather than blasting through bosses as fast as possible to get ‘teh purpz’. In fact, people have gone to the trouble of suggesting I look *here* or *there* to make sure I don’t miss out on the little details (or massive details) that make the word so fascinating, and I’d swear they enjoyed showing me these things almost as much as I enjoyed seeing them!
To be part of a group which is happy and delighted to laugh at itself and revel in the occasional misstep is amazing, unexpected and removes a little of the “what happens if I screw it all up?” stress; even if it does mean that my first contribution to the guild “quotes thread” wasn’t the fantastically witty bon mot I’d hoped for, but instead the frantic “swaaaad125sss” messages I accidentally and repeatedly sent to the GL during a battle with Hodir.
Lest you think it’s all sunshine and flowers, there *are* some downsides. Much as was the case for little Ano in Single Abstract Noun, I’ve had to spend time customising my interface to separate guild/raid chat from regular chat in order to keep up. It’s far to easy to log in to run a quick random heroic, get embroiled in a conversation about … well, almost anything … and look up to realise it’s 2am. And I’m terrified that at some point I’ll catch the singing-in-Vent virus which periodically infects the channel — my singing voice is a surefire route to a swift gkick! Thankfully these are minor concerns (except for the singing).
Oh, and the mace? It’s actually a sword, dropped by Lord Marrowgar (I did say I’d be back for him). That wouldn’t have made such an alliterative title though.
Footnotes:
1. I’ve *been* on two weekly raids. Unfortunately, I’m such a colossal noob that I only realised I’d forgotten to hand in the quest from the previous week when I went to collect the current quest. *shame*
2. I started playing WoW not expecting to like it, but I did. Very much. Then I heard a lot of people talking about 5-mans and instances. They didn’t sound very friendly, it didn’t sound much fun, so I didn’t do many of them. Centrella, my alt-that-I-actually-play, was levelled from ~30 to 80 by spending most of her time in 5 mans. People talk a lot about “endgame” and grinding for gear. That sounded positively ridiculous. Now, when I check my stats, I see I’ve killed over 1000 dungeon bosses from the Lich King expansion. The notion of spending money on additional game services? Why would you do that, I thought. Two character transfers and an authenticator later, I’m considering a third character transfer and the prospect that I’ll have spent more on “additional services” than I did buying the game. Then there was raiding. It sounded a lot like work, but work you have to pay to do. Why would a sane person do that?
Conclusion: whatever I first think about something connected to WoW is almost certain to be wrong. On that basis, expect to see me on a sparklehorse with a Lil’XT in tow, updating my auctions from the mobile armory at some point in the very near future *sigh*
