I Love my Guild

**Warning: You may need a gamer dictionary to fully understand this post**

I absolutely LOVE my guild. When I first started it, I wondered at the success of it. It was essentially founded out of my need to surround myself with people in my time of hurt. I couldn't bear pressing the "U" key to bring up the guild window (old habits) only to find I wasn't in a guild anymore. The list of guilds on the page called to me, begging me to join, but how, after leading a guild, could I possibly go back to just being another name in a list? I still had that desire to lead a guild, to get my hands messy with the day to day running of the guild, to feel that blessing when people praised my guild. I had enough support to create a new guild. My friends encouraged me and eventually, I did. From the Ashes I felt was an appropriate name, as many of the founding members, like me, had had many bad experiences with guilds. Out of the ashes of those "fallings out", this guild, I hoped, would soar.

Since then, we've seen our trials and tribulations, but mostly we've just had many many good times. There have been days and weeks when I was convinced that our guild was failing. I've learned that those dull times, when no one is online, no one does anything, and I can't even talk to my officers and co-leaders, are going to happen, and usually don't last long. This last week was like that. I was used to having 15-20 members online a night (a good number for a guild of 100) but we tended to max out at 8 or 9 that week. No one talked, no one grouped up. It was boring, to say the least. I did my best to stay optimistic. That dry spell would soon end, and we'd be flooded with activity again.

Sure enough, this week has majorly picked up again. I had an especially good amount of fun last night. I was slightly concerned, since I wasn't feeling well, I didn't want to take on stress that would make me feel worse, but instead, I was blessed. One of our members, Ieia, is fairly new, but he's fitting in quite well. He raids in a guild called Insurrection, which is one of the larger, richer, more notable guilds in the game. Well, last night was a night filled with banter and fun. We had some interesting discussion. Envy, who is notable for being a flirt, and I had our back and forth all night. I play hard to get like no one's business. It's all in good fun. We just enjoyed ourselves. While some of us might have been mindlessly crafting, or finishing quests they should have finished ages ago, or whatever, we just talked. For us, the game is more than just killing every orc you see. For us, the game is our outlet. In my case, it's how I can "get out" with friends.

In RL (real life), I have to pace myself. I can't sit in a barstool, or even a regular chair for long. I can't walk for long. I need breaks and pit stops. I'm slow. The more impatient of my RL friends will just "let me catch up" while they go do whatever. Sometimes, it involves me leaving the fun early, missing out on so much. It's very painful. I'm the odd one out.

In game, I have no such inhibitions. I am free. I can run, sometimes faster than my buddies. I can keep up. Letting people "catch up" is not limited to those who are slow and the catching up is usually done as a group. We all help people "catch up" to where we are in a quest. I'm not the only one "catching up". If I need to take a break, I can put my buddy on auto-follow and take my break. People aren't waiting on me to have their fun.

Well, back to the story, Ieia was saying, after a particularly crazy bit of banter, that one thing that he hates about his raiding guild is that they don't have this fun, playful, casual chat. Everyone's so serious, and most of them in there hate each other. And I had to think back, even to day 1. One of the things I've considered one of my greatest blessings is that most of the people who've been in our guild for any length of time have been good people. Care-free, fun, understanding, caring, kind people. I can't help but admire them.

From the Ashes has been in existance for 6 months, as of Monday. We've been very successful as a guild. We have 100 members, many of which are very involved in the guild and are major members. We're a lvl 53 guild now, and we're moving along nicely. We have a Guild Hall, and plenty of money and status has been donated to it for upkeep and amenities. But easily, the thing I consider to be our biggest success, is the quality of the friendships and bonds we have. Many of these people I would love to meet in RL some day. Some, I already have. We know each other on a personal level, beyond just the game, beyond what class you play.

Call me an addict. Tell me I need to get out more. Say I'm wasting my life on a video game. At the end of the day, I know where my priorities lie. I may have an addiction, but not to the game. My addiction is to the people and the fun times I have with them. Our hang-out is Freeport, not the Mall. We may not sit in the seats next to each other, but we're watching the same movie. We might not be shopping for clothes together, but you can bet my friends will comment on my armor and will be the first to help me get new stuff when I need it.