Project Lore

I just found out that one of my guildmates passed away the other day after being diagnosed with Leukemia a few months ago.  To be entirely honest I barely knew the guy - he quit before Wrath was released - but the guild has a few people that knew him in real life, and a handful that have played video games with him for years.

Even though I barely knew the gentlemen I felt absolutely awful to hear the news.  I've experienced death in my life, so I understand the feeling of lose, the depression and the way losing someone close makes one feel so small.  It's impossible for one to express the appropriate sympathy and support via World of Warcraft, but all of us tried.  We gave our condolences via green letters, offered our support to the friends of the fallen and asked that they be passed on to his family.  We're even trying to organize a flower arrangement in his honor from the guild.  Although that may be incredibly odd for the non-WoW playing people at the services given the guild's name, Bonus Lizard.  Still we want to do something to show his family that'll he'll be greatly missed, even by people he's never actually met.

Has any ProjectLorian experienced anything like this?  I've heard of in-game funerals before - such as the one that broke out into world PvP - but don't think that's an option due to the account's security.  Any ideas would be appreciated.

Don't worry buddy, we'll get the Lich King.  You'll be missed.

It seems like a most appropriate time to reveal to all my first experience with quality guild drama.  You see the guild I've been running with since Warriors of Faith went in to administration mode died over the weekend.  It wasn't until yesterday that I managed to get one side of the story.  According to my informant, the former GM was fed up with the guild, snagged all sorts of materials and gold and gquit.  Your basic ninja scenario. Instead of flocking to some random guild I've decided to split my chances between my characters.  Solidsamm will be joining the guild that a large portion of Smooth Criminal's officers and members have moved to.  Solidsagart has already moved to a guild run by a friend from the "good ole days" of WoW.  She'll reside there for the foreseeable future, gearing up and possibly even raiding with them. Hot on the heels of the collapse of Smooth Criminals, I bring to you a tale of woe, back room deals and intrigue. Since the abandonment of 40-man content I've always felt that guilds have become a far more fleeting endeavor.  The social aspects haven't changed, but the difficulty of finding 40 competent people, and the more challenging raid content in general, lead to guilds and members remaining together longer.  Knowing those facts, you can imagine my old guild's shock and dismay when word came out that a few core members were thinking about forming their own crew.  A rumor of that caliber, which happened to involve three officers and the main tank, crushes moral, to say the least.  An even worse case, it could easily fracture a guild. Not the stuff of legends; a simple exodus of the executives you say?  Here's the kicker, the rumor started during the second All That Remains party.  As it spread like wildfire through the 30 or so people roaming my apartment the situation went completely nuts.  It became an elaborate game of telephone mixed with the too many cooks in the kitchen issue.  Everyone heard different things, tried to interject their opinions and create a plan of attack.  Personal feelings were used as facts, and players with conflicts of interest started writing guild policy.  It was a mess. Oh, the second kicker (would that be the placement kicker?), this all went down while the people in question were in transit to their domiciles from the party.  A party where they spent a weekend hanging out and having fun like everyone else.  Didn't matter, they were unceremoniously kicked before being confronted.  I bet they were surprised when they logged in! In the end the guild lost a few members, but ATR remained as the premiere guild on Matheridon-US.  The members were kicked, their new guild dreams died shortly after, and they joined another guild.  With the help of our ousted members the other guild became the #2 guild on the server, even grabbing server first kills for a good stretch of time. Friendships were tested, the guild hit a wall in raiding as it recovered, but worst of all feelings were hurt.  All because of a stupid rumor's ability to take on a life of its own, and cause once level-headed people to act on impulse instead of logic.  It pains me to even discuss the stupidity at how the whole debacle was handled.  At least everyone lived... What's the craziest bit of guild drama you've ever been tied up in?

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In every guild I have been in there is always that one member who makes the rest of us scratch our heads.  The one players who does, says or claims off the wall shenanigans that blows everyone else's mind.  The one guildie that makes you wonder if the Internet's anonymous nature allowed the character to blossom, or unleashed him on the masses...Hmm, now that I have put this in words, there have been far more than one of these characters in each of my guild.  If you will, I would like to rephrase my previous assertion.  There is always at least one who is active at any given time. That is far more accurate. For many players, it is this kind of social enlightenment that brings them to the proverbial table every night.  Finding and hanging out with these odd beings, where the only thing in common may be trying to take down a crazed dragon, creates for some hilarious situations.  I have certainly meet my fair share of oddballs along the way:

• An incredibly shy member came to the guild party with an actual deepdive helm on his head - just like his toon. He didn't take it off for over an hour, going so far as to drink through the mask.
• At the following party the stereotypical emo, angst-filled nerd showed up in all black and wierded everyone out.
• We swore this one guildmate was practicing stand-up routines on the guild because he had a stupid amount of ridiculously improbaby stories to tell every night.
• Another told us personal stories.  Personal stories that often turned incredibly graphic and disgusting.  As well as disturbing.  We feared laws - of man and nature - may have been broken.
• My brother played a female toon that he modeled after his girlfriend.  He quickly learned the benefits of doing so.  He kept a list of all the characters he collected donations from to document the "sleeze" in WoW.
• One former member, and still close friend, has refused to speak on Ventrilo for years.  Someone swore he heard him speak once, but no one believes him.  There is also a rumor that the person in question is a female player in hiding.
• The most famous quirk of any player is a former Dark Age of Camelot subscriber who refused to purchase a mount for WoW.  The Gnome stated that the world was too small (relative to other title's he had played) to waste the gold on a stead.  To this day I still hear about the fabled mountless Gnome on the server.

I'm not gonna lie, after getting into Grandpa's medicine, I have been known to transform into one of these entities.  When I do, I tend to make ridiculous comments in an attempt to get laughs from the crowd.  And yes Pixie, I even pretended that my toon was a girl to see how my guild would react.  Apparently, I am a very poor RPer.  What kind of crazy personas have you come across in Azeroth?  Oh, if you don't know any players with erratic or unusual behavior, then you are one!

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