Lemmings of the Light

My MMO experience all started in Everquest around 2001. I played many hours a week and had alot of fun in an all dutch guild called Lowland Elites. After some years it didn't give me the challenge I wanted unless I joined a so called hardcore guild (and raided 6 days a week).

I took a small break until they released the WoW beta. I was instantly hooked. I enjoy the Warcraft RTS games and the storyline in Warcraft3. After the Beta I started an Undead Warlock named Gargaz (after my character in Everquest) and joined the guild called dragon riders, started by some old everquest players who wanted to join the Horde. It was a small close knit guild with regular groups doing instances (4 hours to clear Razorfen Downs, being noobs and having no idea where to go.) Unfortunatly at level 60 there was little more to do and most of the people left for bigger guilds.
The only option to raid was to join said bigger guilds because raid alliances were not so well coordinated in that time.

I joined the guild Fellowship of the Horn and had my first experience being in a raiding guild. We did Molten Core and had alot of fun, forgiving everyone when the made a mistake and trying to split the loot in a fair way. Unknow to many were the discussions among the officers and a large group decided to split and form a new guild called Past Redemption. I was offered a spot and during that period raided an average 5 times a week. It was fun while it lasted and during classic Naxx it became more like a second job then a game. It was then that I decided that I don't want to spend so much time in a week on a game where I HAVE to peform on a certain standard or attendance. Shortly after the Burning Crusade was released.

I wanted to have the old goofing around feeling back when I leveled, so I started a new character out of any guild and no sponsoring/twinking/holding hands from other higher level character. One of my best friend had a character named Asphodel in Everquest. Asphodel is a beautifull white flower, but poisoness. It is said that they grew in the greek realm of hades, called the flowers of death. It is a fitting name for an elven priest, being fair and beautifull but also deadly in shadow magic (or having the ability to decide if you want to let someone live or not as a healer... /grin). That's when Asphodel the Blood Elf Priest was created.

Around level 40 I joined the Dragon Riders again, hoping to get that old days feeling back. Unfortunatly alot of older players had stoped playing and the guild looked foreign to me. At level 70 is joined Fellowship of the Horn again. They were struggling to get their raidgroup back together and were looking for some dedicated players. Those were lovely raids, trying to bang your head against a wall to figure out the strategy that worked for our raidgroup and as a healerteam given the full responsibility to organize ourselves without much raidleader interverance.
We made beautifull progress in our own way (healers working overtime to keep the MT alive while the rest trew everything they had at the boss, paying little attention to aeo damage.) The problem in bigger guild is, that you really don't "know" the other players and some switched around all week. After the guild started to fall apart, I was invited for a trial period in Crude Crusaders. I wanted to see all of Black Temple and the Sunwell and Crude Crusaders were trying to kill Kil'jaden. It was fun to see all the raids, but it didn't feel like fun having to perform at top level all the time competing with other excellent players for a raidspot.

When Wrath of the Lich King came around I joined the guild Twist of Faith started by some old Past Redemption players who wanted to purely do 10 man content.
That was an awesome time period. You knew the players, had almost the same raidgroup every time but you could be serious raiding and joking around at the same time. Everything was very open minded, discussing different tactics after wipes.
But with every great thing comes an end. People started to leave and Twist of Faith disbanded. After that I decide to cancel my subscription. WoW was a fantastic journey but I reached my destination.

Or so I thought. I tryed other games, but it didn't bring the classic WoW feeling back (only for a few days). That's why I renewed my subscription, but I didn't want to spent my time on the horde side anymore. To get a fresher feeling I transfered to the Alliance side. How long I will stay, time will tell I guess...