Eulogy

This is a story. It's pretty true. Actually, it's truer than true - it's the true story as it should have happened.

Once upon a time, Steamwheedle Cartel opened her doors to the world of Warcraft. I was there; I had recently started playing (on Rexxar), and wanted to see if the RP server really had RP. At the time, I rp-walked through the rope lines at the stormwind bank.

Right around the time the server was started, The Hammer of Magni was founded. I'm not really sure what their original goals were, since I joined later. They had fun, did stuff, raided. Eventually the "hardcore raiders" decided that there was too much casualness going on, and they needed to have a "hardcore raiding guild". There was some drama, and in the split the guild Audentes Fortuna Iuvat was formed (latin for Fortune Favors the Bold, or so I'm told).

As an aside, remind me to figure out how to say "Three Latin Words" in latin. That's the name of my next guild.

Anyway, Audentes Fortuna Iuvat (henceforth AFI) did stuff, had fun, raided. Eventually, the "hardcore raiders" decided that AFI wasn't "hardcore enough", and there was drama. From the drama came Alkahest.

Which, as another aside, is a term that refers to the universal solvent in alchemy, and not alcohol (although they share common root terms).

Anyway, Alkahest did stuff, had fun, raided. Eventually the "hardcore raiders" decided that Alkahest wasn't "hardcore enough", and there was some drama. From the split came Maniacal. A term chosen, apparently, to convey the quality of the hardcorosity of this particular new guild.

Nothing gold can stay, right? Every time, the Hard Core of raiders departs, leaving the soggy shell behind to wallow along in confustication and bebotherment. Name changes are good, direction changes are good, I guess. The harder core keeps getting harder and harder, and the casuals get left behind.

Unfortunately for me (or fortunately, I suppose), I wasn't ever part of this Hard Core. I joined the Hammer of Magni after AFI left, eventually becoming the guild leader there. Instead of doing hardcore raiding, I did hardcore role-playing. Phil and I cooked up some awesome RP activities for in-game and out-of-game stuff, and we had a blast. Eventually I burned out on that and (lots of stuff happened, that I don't need to get into).

Coming back, I gravitated toward Alkahest as a raiding guild, because they seemed like a good bunch of people - focused without being too "hardcore". They got stuff done, downed bosses, and had fun. All of it with less drama than you'd think. But like I said (and Phil alluded to before me (and Robert Frost really said)), nothing gold can stay. People came and went, there was drama, and there was no making the 25s work anymore.

I think the thing that hurts the most is where the guild leader put this out there: Alkahest had a reputation for being a scrub guild that was a stepping stone to the real raiding guilds.

That's a reputation that I don't think matters, honestly. It's the kind of thing that the "hardcore" people say to congratulate themselves for being so "hardcore". It's a self-perpetuating story about how we're so awesome because they're so not awesome. It's the kind of thing children do on the playground. It hurts because I'm clearly a "scrub". I don't play every day, I don't have the best of the best gear, I have a lousy arena rating.

When I raid, I am in the raid 100%. I pay attention to the fire on the ground, to directions being given by the raidleader, and to the overall strategy we're trying to enact. I know what kind of gear and spec I need to squeeze the most from the tier I'm playing at. But I'm softcore. I'm a scrub. I don't count toward the future of raiding. At least, the vision of the future from this particular guild.

Of course, by this time I have already left the server, and the guild. The new guild leadership was leaning in this "hardcore" direction, they were pushing for things I could clearly see I wasn't interested in providing. It wasn't what I wanted, so I split. But I'm sure I would have been left behind in the chewy gooey Alkahest after the Hardest of the Hard Cores all left. Because I'm a scrub.

I have nothing against people who play a lot of WoW. I know why they do it. I see where people want to spend every night playing (and I play a lot of nights too). But I'm troubled by the Hardcore / Scrub dichotomy, I'm troubled by the clear in-group and out-group labeling that happened (and continues to happen), and I'm troubled by this apparent power of words over reason. Does changing a guildtag make the people in the guild better somehow?

I wish the people of Maniacal the best of luck. Some of them were and are still friends of mine (at least on facebook). But I can already tell you how it's going to go: the hard core will eventually tire of the chewy, scrubby hangers-on, and there will be a purge.

So, this is a eulogy - for the raiding guild I once new. Alkahest was a great place, for a time. It was peopled with great people. But it died.