My first guild

From 2000 to 2001 I played Everquest on the Lanys T'Vyl server, using already Tobold, Waldin (my "main" at the time), and Raslebol as character names. At that time all EQ servers where in North America, so all the Europeans played on US servers. Due to the time zone difference joining a US guild as European didn't make much sense. So my first guild was "Die Sonnenkinder" (German for "Children of the Sun").

My first guild was small, but closely knit. I had some online friends in that guild which whom I did hang out in the game practically all the time. We never reached the end-game of EQ, we all got stuck somewhere in the 40's levels, but we didn't mind much. Playing together with friends was more important than "winning" the game. We all had lots of alts, and usually managed to keep close to each other in levels. The two guild masters had strong opinions on loyalty, the importance of helping each other out, and of sticking together against all odds and against the temptations of other guilds promising faster progress.

I guess the time I spent in that guild really embeded a vision of what a guild should be in my mind. Unfortunately nowadays this vision has become definitely outmoded, and if I dare to speak of loyalty on a guild forum I get laughed at. My fault for sticking to concepts that don't apply any more in modern games. I'll have to learn to live with the modern concept of the disposable guild, which only serves as a means to an end. Not that I'm likely to change guilds much, the idea of loyalty sits too deep in me. But I'll better stop complaining about people using guilds as stepping stones to the next guild, and changing guilds with changing requirements. Having strong views on morals and shouting them out loud makes you about as popular as the people standing on a soap-box at the Hyde Park corner in London and preaching ethics to the passing, uninterested masses.

My first guild ended tragically when SOE installed their first European servers and offered free server migration to all Europeans. The guild basically split in half, one half preferring to remain on Lanys T'Vyl, the other half moving to the first European server, Antonious Bayle, and founding a new guild named Wolfsbrut there. I moved, together with my closest friends, but the old guild leaders remained behind, the new guild leadership on the new server had different ideas, and it just wasn't the same any more. Of course the steep leveling curve of Everquest, where in the medium levels you already need to play weeks to level up, contributed to a feeling of being burned out. When Dark Age of Camelot came out end of 2001, many people including me left Everquest. We kept in contact my e-mail for a while, but like all gaming communities, once you don't play together any more, people drift apart, and I lost contact.

So one thing I learned is dreading server splits like the plague. They are causing situations in which you are sure to lose. If some of your friends move to the new server, and some of your friends stay on the old one, you end up with mixed loyalties incompatible with each other. A bit like being friends with a couple that divorces. My current WoW server Runetotem being old and full, and Blizzard continually adding new servers and offering server migrations, I fear that one day my current guild on Runetotem will run into the same problem. My advice for server splits: Stay put and persuade your guild to not move. It is nearly impossible to move *all* guild members, and if anyone moves, the guild splits.