Recently I had a huge dilemma and reoccurring nightmares over a situation on my favorite game right now, World of Warcraft. I recently came back to the game and had been invited into a guild called the Shadow Riders that my gaming sidekicks Azn PMS (Navaru) and Lil Viet Angel (Kiyana) were in.  We were having a blast playing together again and I was meeting a lot of awesome people in the meantime. About a month after I had come back there were whisperings of paid server transfers coming soon, which were validated by Blizzard and then we girls had our trouble enter. 

The trouble essentially was we knew we wanted to transfer servers to play with all the other PMS, H20, and community members that wanted to come play with us and build our own guild, yet we felt a deep obligation and loyalty to Shadow Riders and all the friends we had made there, including the Guild Master Sponge/Hazmat. What’s a girl to do? Well, instead of choosing one over the other we decided to make a frenzied rush to level alt characters to take over on the transfer date set by PMS, August 1st.  You see it was just too hard for us to leave Shadow Riders as we knew we were dedicated members and they needed us, not to mention Azn was the main tank, which maked her a necessary commodity in itself. Also important to note was our progression was going GREAT and it was super exciting to see us downing new bosses every week.

On August 1st, we indeed switched servers (well Azn and Angel came a week later due to parents killing their cable because they thought WoW was the devil) and boy were we happy playing with our girls and guys again in our guild Pandora’s Mighty Soldiers. An amazing 80 people transferred or rolled new characters that first day alone and nothing made us happier then to see all these wonderful people we know and love come over.  That being said it was only about 30 very well geared and experienced level 60’s that came over right away and we knew we were going to be in trouble soon as most people wanted to start hardcore raiding right away, yet not all the people had transferred yet and we didn’t want to forget about our other friends currently leveling or close to 60. It was major heartache for me to sit out of raids because my warlock alt was only in the 50’s when I had come over as well, and I had to wait for the girls to get their cable back because we always leveled together.

It was about a week and a half after transfers that I made the decision that I indeed had to bring my mage over to our new server Scilla. It was heartbreaking for me to sit out of raids and even though I was almost 60, we only had one mage available who also was the second most geared warrior on her main. I also soothed my heart and my mind by knowing that it was not only my character that was needed, it was my time and dedication if our guild was to make it. I informed Navaru and Kiyana of my decision and we discussed for a long time and they supported my decision but were going to continue to try to run with both guilds on both servers. I understood their decision as well, and it just made me unhappier to know I would be letting Shadow Riders down. I decided to wait and pay off the remaining MC DKP that I owed as I did not want to leave without paying it back and figured I would give Sponge my notice when that was done and give him time to replace me.

It was in that week that we finally advanced to Nefarian in BWL and proceeded to do a couple of attempts on him and get him down to 19%.  A great victory for us as we had only started BWL 6 weeks before, and soon he would be a puddle on the floor. Yet, it was bitter-sweet for me as I knew that it would be a long time before I was back on this boss again as we were starting from scratch with our guild on Scilla.

It was the next week before BWL that everything changed for all of us. I already knew Sponge was worried about us as we were spending so much time on the other server with our alts, and he must have heard murmurings of concern about us leaving because he had already talked to Azn and Angel to reinsure commitment from them. However, I guess he wanted to get my reassurance as well, because he pulled me into a room on our vent channel to ask about my intentions.  Of course, I could not lie to him and I told him that it was indeed my intention to give him notice after my dkp was paid off. I am not sure what he expected, whether he was surprised or not I don’t know. We just had a long conversation of which I was in tears over the guilt I felt and him reassuring me he understood.

He proceeded to tell me his view on the situation which was filled with kindness, respect, and consideration. He said that he completely understood and sympathized and while he knows we are all second family here that he knows the bonds on the other server were tighter (something that made it hurt for me even more). Rather then leaving it alone there, he decided to pull Azn and Angel in for one last talk, a move that completely surprised me and them as he had already gotten their reassurance they weren’t leaving.

At that point he did an amazing thing for us, one that would hurt him and the raiding for a while. To make a long discussion short, he proceeded to give the girls his blessing to leave. He said he knew the girls wanted to be there and he could not blame people for wanting to play with their real life friends and he didn’t want them to stay because they were obligated, he wanted them to stay because that was where they wanted to be. While he knew they cared about the guild and raid, he understood that the ties they would have on Scilla would cause problems later on down the road and eventually they would have to choose one or the other as we progressed in both.  He then left us to talk about it among ourselves.

And talk we did, for about 20 minutes of tears, heartache, headaches, and more. First, they still weren’t going to leave because that move alone endeared Sponge to them even more, it had done the same for me. Then Angel decided she would leave as she was the Co-Guild Master on the other server and since the opportunity arose for her to consider leaving on a somewhat positive note (never 100% positive as you are still leaving friends and people that rely on you) she knew she should. She also realized Sponge was right in that the future would cause a conflict between the two guilds. Azn, however, hung stubbornly on that should would not leave and would not let these people down.

She asked if I would hate her if she stayed, and I said no but I wanted to ask her one more question. I basically asked her what Sponge kind of touched on before, “If you had no obligation to anyone and could freely without regret go where you wanted, where would you go?” She said of course she would go to Scilla but that didn’t stop her from feeling she needed to fulfill her duty here. Then all of a sudden she changed her mind. You see, Azn and have always played all our games together and been gaming for years on the same game. We have moved from R63, to Halo, to FFXI, and to WoW in the last few years and always have been together. So in the end she said, she would leave this game at some point down the road be it 2 months, 2 years, etc. And given that she would rather be with us on the new server.

So Sponge was called down and the girls told him their decision. He continued to be supportive and try to make us feel the best about the situation as he could, even though at the time it only made us feel worse as our love and respect for him grew to no end in that conversation. In the end he is someone we would consider our friend and would beg to make a toon or come over to our server just so we can still be around him, although we know he has too much work to run a guild already.  But, Sponge I THANK YOU and if you ever need a break from the madness over there come hang out with us as you will always be someone we want to be around.

To Shadow Riders: THANK YOU for those that we have befriended, many of you we are going to miss and truly love. It is not just a game for us, and our friends are the people we game with, as that is such an important part of our lives.  I am not going to mention names for fear of hurting anyone’s feelings by accidentally forgetting them. You know who you are. We are sorry we let you down and only hope that while you might not agree, you understand our position.

Please respect Sponge and take notice of what he does for you. The website alone, the organization of the raids, the farming, the time, sweat, money and tears he puts in many of you can not even fathom. Most people take for granted the work that goes into running the guild and don’t contemplate the hours he and a few others, spend putting mod packs together, making cool stuff like tutorials for profile creations online, etc. Change happens and stress is a natural part of the game, please continue to help build Shadow Riders and take it to new levels.

Last and not least, we wish the best for Shadow Riders and I know with Sponge in the lead (if you don’t drive him crazy first) that this guild could be the top guild on Stormscale. Help him out and build a future for yourselves and the guild for all the lowbies to come. Take advantage and cherish your time together because as I said, this isn’t just a game and I will argue with anyone who contradicted. This is a community, a lifestyle, a job, an addiction, and a bond envelopes you all even if you don’t see it fully. I love you guys and long live Stormscale and Shadow Riders.