Right now I am in the process of trying to decide whether or not to switch servers. That’s the short version. What follows is the long – and long is what I mean, so read on if you dare.
The possibility of me leaving my server doesn’t have anything to do with guild drama or anything like that. It doesn’t even have anything to do with my recent posts about WoW apathy. (And there is certainly plenty of that to go around!) When you get down to brass tacks, it hinges on one issue, albeit a major one: playtime.
I have been a member of my guild for about 5 years. Yes, I have been in this guild since BEFORE WoW was even released, I began playing with them in that tank of an MMORPG, Horizons. (Ugh! Double UGH!) It’s an old, tight-knit guild whose history goes beyond even that, they began life in good old Asheron’s Call. (If you must know, it’s the guild that was formed by Faile Bashere, and if you spent any time in AC during its heyday, you probably know who that is.)
Anyhow, I have been with them a very long time, and they have almost everything I want in a guild. They are all mature players, and have moved from game to game over the years, and they have a nice balance of a casual, family feel and enough raiders to keep me happy. I love them, I really do. The problem is, I hardly ever get to really PLAY with them.
Part of being the “Part Time Druid” is playing part time hours. I log on around 9-10pm GT, and by that time most of my guild events are long since over. I’ve only been able to participate in a dozen or so guild events in the last year, and have actually spent more time in our alliance events than strict guild events. I just flat out can’t often log on at 7 pm GT, which is around the time most things start. I have a family, and I cannot sacrifice very much, if any, quality family time for a bunch of ones and zeroes over the internet.
Now, another part of being the “Part Time Druid” is that I’ve recently gained a number of NEW WoW friends. I’ve met a lot of other WoW bloggers through the wonders of Blog Azeroth and my ungodly long list of Google reader blogs. I spend a good part of most days hanging out in a Blog Azeroth chatroom, chatting about everything WoW (and a lot of things non-WoW.)
Anyway, through this new bit of networking, I found what could be a very nice new home. It turns out that Fimlys of Asleep at the WoW and Twisted Nether fame is in a guild that happens to be west coast centric. What that means is that most of their guild events start right around the time I usually log on. Another blogger, Lady Jess also recently transferred over to that server to join Fim.
So last week in BA chat, I told Fim I was going to roll an alt over on his server, just to hang out a little. So I did.
What I found out quickly was that when I logged on, there were roughly DOUBLE the amount of players logged on as there were at the same time on my server. Sometimes many more than that, even.
So, then I decided to take another baby step. I transferred my highest level non-70 alt over, a level 52 Shadow Priest. Thus far, I’ve found the guild quite enjoyable, and very welcoming. I’m starting to consider going “whole hog,” and transferring my two 70s over there as well.
But it’s so damn hard to decide.
I’ve been with my present guild for SOOO LOOONG. I love all the people, and in very nearly every way they are very compatible with me. But the one area in which they aren’t is a pretty dang big area.
One the other hand, this new guild is quite welcoming, and very compatible with me in terms of playtimes. However, they are a bit behind my present guild as far as progression, and if I make the switch I don’t know how soon they will get to where my guild is now.
But do I care all that much about progression? The answer is probably no. If I did, I probably wouldn’t be with the guild I’m with either.
But God, I’ve been with my guild for so long, it’s hard to even imagine leaving them behind. Have any of you reading been with a guild for over 5 years? Do you know anyone who has? In my experience, guild hopping in WoW is fairly common. I’ve been with these guys since BEFORE WoW. They’re like a comfortable old shirt, everyone knows me, and I know everyone. But at the same time I honestly hardly get to see them. I chat with them more on our quite lively message boards than in game, and I can easily continue to do that if I choose.
I just. Don’t. Know. And I could really use some advice. So if you’ve read this far, I hope you’d be gracious enough to leave a comment with your thoughts, or even send me an email at PartTimeDruid@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!
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I may be a teensy bit biased here but join us! I’m not really sure what to say because Mythos doesn’t fit my own time zone (currently) but I do really enjoy the people in the guild. And a PTD would only add to the awesome factor!
Oh, it seems painful. I’ve only been in my guild for a couple of months, still getting very attached to it. I can just imagine your struggle. Anyway I didn’t really want to comment on this post since I’ve got no good advice to give – I just wanted to congratulate you to an awesome blog. I’ve never seen it until today which is a shame – it’s really in my taste.
hugs and greetings!
@Awlbiste–
You are biased, but your opinion is more than welcome at any rate.
@Larisa–
Thanks much for the kind words!
God, that is one hard choice. One hand you have great people who are your friends and you have been with for a very long time, but you can’t play with them. On the other side, you have great people, but really unknown and forcing you to make those connections again.
I think the main question is, why are you thinking of moving? I think it is because you want to move to play with people, not just to be in the same guild with them. If you can’t play with your friends, then what is the point?
Have you spoken to anyone in your guild about this? What are their thoughts, like in ways to keep in touch and such?
I wish I had more advice, but I am not sure what I would do in your shoes.
Good luck, my friend.
@Bre
Thanks for your thoughts. I did in fact send a PM to my Guild Leader before I wrote this post. Up to this point I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone in my guild, but I know at least a couple of them read the blog, so I at least wanted it out there.
One other possibility I thought of after writing the post was just to leave my druid where he is. I have been participating in raids with him that the other guild presently does not do, so perhaps I could just split my time in some way between two servers. Maybe I’m thinking too much that I have to do ALL one thing or ALL the other.
I have no real helpful advice, except do what you need to do to make your time investment worth your cash investment.
Even in my situation, leaving my old guild was very painful. Alot of those people were awesome, but with the stuff going on, I had to go. I did leave a lowbie alt over there in the guild most of my former guildies have joined, to keep in touch and I pop over there to say hello as often as I can. Maybe that’s an option to consider, i never really plan to level her but I like having her there to putz around on and socialize, since their raid times will never work for me anyhow.
Good luck:)
I’ve been with my guild for about 2 years now and we had a really great time. Recently things have started to fall apart, as many players started playing other games. I still like those who are still around very much, but decided to switch to another server, where some real life friends of mine (and some people I don’t know at all) have started a new guild. I have no idea yet how this is gonna end, but hope I can get a fresh start there without playing alone.
I know your “part-time” problem very well as well. I’m a father of a 9 month old boy. So my playtime is pretty limited as well. So I will probably never get to raid much, since I can’t organize my life around a raid schedule (I wonder how you manage to do that).
If you want an advice. Try out playing with your new friends and stay in contact with your old guild through other means. As long as a high level char stays there, you can go back there for guild events or scheduled raids that fit your timetable anytime.
Mum-
We’ve always had a long accepted policy of playing with those that best fit your schedule. This isn’t the first time this has popped up. Honestly, this is probably the worst time to use as a benchmark for us. Everyone is starting to enter pre-expansion mode (the “Why invest alot fo time now when its obsoleted in the fall with WOTLK release???!”) that we saw when BC was looming. In addition, being a casual guild, we’re seeing alot of folks spending more time out and about enjoying the summer and less spending time in game. It may not be something those of us like (or have come to accept
) but it has been a fact of life for a couple years now that summer is just a time to do something different, in game or not, until fall arrives.
I honestly don’t have any good advice for you. The folks that have left us to go to other servers because timezones better matched always seem to drift back. We like to think its because of the people in the guild.
I have done something similar with Sidhe Devils to what it sounds like you are doing. But I left my “main” in my longtime guild on another server. Sure, I spend most of my time these days on Kael’thas, but I pop over to Uldum to do the daily fishing quest and say hi to everyone over there.
If you are unsure about leaving your longtime guild, then don’t. Those types of relationships should not be “thrown away” lightly. But spend more time with your Shadow Priest and see if you want THAT to become your new main.
Damnit! Had a huge post written up and the connection timed out… lets try again….
I was in a competitve FPS guild until University started in 2005, this guild started in 1997 and I was part of the first 20 people in. They were everything I wanted, and we moved from game to game to game. When Uni started I didn’t have the hardware or connection to play in FPS so I bowed out. I still pop around for Various things now and then and keep in touch.
Now there was 2 paragraphs of my rambling about my time since leaving them for WoW and how it hasn’t been what I wanted… but you neither want to read it nor does it add much except for maybe showing I know somewhat of where you are coming from here so I will leave it out… maybe I will make a blog about it in the near future… I should write that down.
My advice is to only take your main 70 over. Leave the other there to participate when you can, and also keep active on the forums. 52-70 is easy peasy so you will have your main 70 and your Priest there. This way you can have you cake and eat it too… something that I haven’t found yet.
You know your guild, Mum. You know what we want is a dedication to maturity and personal empathy much more than character progression or even personal contribution to guild progression. I think we can all agree that you’ve accomplished this. While we will hate to see you leave, and you will always have your board identity with which to communicate your good and bad times with us, I would discourage you from splitting your game-time allegiances. If you don’t have enough play time as it is, you will have even less if you attempt to progress toons in two different guilds. There’s no reason to short-change your new guild (should you follow through with the switch), and no reason why your current guildmates cannot appreciate your continued contribution to the WoW community via your blog.
While this decision is a difficult one, everyone knows others have made similar decisions before and still maintained a healthy relationship with the guild. We have members who left years before I even signed on, and yet I know them and communicate with them on a level that surpasses one WoW guild.
Don’t be afraid of the future.
And, whoever gets you, should you switch servers, will be getting one freakingly awesome tree. <3
I’m rather surprised you presented this here first instead of in the forums for your guildies to see.
3 things –
1 – when TBC came out Bandits were running 5 mans and things into the early hours of the morning. Why? They were super excited about new content. Why aren’t they doing that now? They are bored. When the expansion comes out I can almost guarantee they’ll be back in all over again.
2 – splitting your time between two servers is silly. You are a very consuming person, which is fine, and one of your characters will get all your time and energy.
3 – like Ease said, “you know your guild”. You also know that this is a cycle of a casual guild. It’s happened before, it’s happening again, and undoubtedly it will happen in the future.
We will always be here, in some form of game. You just need to decide what to do with your time.
I don’t think I have any particularly good advice to give beyond what the other posters have said before me. But I can share a personal ancedote – before starting WoW I played another little MMOG called Puzzle Pirates. I met a lot of cool people while playing and although I moved on to play only Warcraft after I realised I can’t support two MMOG habits (hehe) I still remain in contact with many of them.
If you want to be able to play at the same time as (more) other people there are a couple of choices – try and make connections with more people playing the same times as you on your server, or take the plunge and make new friends with new people on a new server. Could I overuse the term ‘new’ any more? The point is – making new friends doesn’t mean losing the old ones imo
@Jess–
I definitely don’t have any REAL issues with my guild as you did. Mine is more a question of convenience.
@Moobar–
Thanks for your thoughts. Basically, the way that I am able to raid is just like the way I’m able to play at all. I schedule my time to do so, and schedule it for when the baby and wife are already in bed. This plays into the problems I have, as I’m almost never on during my server and guild “prime time.”
@Din–
Certainly, at least some of this has to do with the lack of people playing right now, but actually this only set off what I’ve been thinking for some time. I’ve always kind of been “out of the loop” with guild events, always. One of the things that has really kept me going is the times we are raiding with Slack. I can work that into my schedule pretty easily.
@Barona–
One of the options I am considering now is to just leave my raiding druid where he is. I’d hate to miss out on seeing further progression in T5 content, and it would give me an avenue of still playing with my old guild when I wanted to.
@Valthan–
Again, splitting time is an option right now. I’m just not sure HOW I would split that time.
@Ease–
You do make a compelling argument that I should go whole hog if I’m going to do it at all. My playtime is limited, and splitting that already limited playtime by server/guild could make things worse for me. Also thanks for the kind words.
@Clest–
I linked to the post right away so everyone could see, as I thought it was just as easy as doing it twice. I largely live my WoW life through this blog, now, and part of that is sharing my experiences and thoughts on the game without reservation. I also made a point to PM Amy before I even began writing the post to give her a heads up.
Although it is true we’ve been through this before, even during the good times my schedule puts me on the fringe. I don’t think I’ve EVER been on a guild raid beyond Kara, and I was the first bandit to play WoW. (And I still remember some people getting testy about me singing its praises too much!)
Yikes, tough call. I’ve been in my current guild for 4.5 years (the first 3.5 of that in FFXI, the last year primarily in WoW), and I can’t imagine leaving them. That said though, I’m on Eastern time, as are many of the other members. The raids do run later than I’d like, but as I’m fairly casual, I don’t see me ever leaving for another guild since I’ve been with them so long. I made a character on another server and just could not get in to it at all, because I didn’t have my friends from my old guild with me.
We’ve had several people who’ve been mainstays of my guild move a character or 2 to a more raid timing-conducive guild. We actually have a separate chat channel for just that reason, to keep everyone “together” per se, but allow people to have alts in other guilds if it fits their schedule better. That obviously wouldn’t help in a situation like yours though, where the guilds are on 2 different servers.
I’d say at least keep either your hunter or your main with your present guild. Transferring both would mean you seldom play with your old friends at all, which would be a huge bummer. It’s your call obviously but I think you’ll have some guild withdrawals if you don’t keep one of your 70′s over there. Play a bit on your priest with the new guys, make sure they fit you well, and then considering another character other, I’d suggest.
Hope that’s helpful…that’s a really hard decision to make
Mum, if i was in the same position as you were i would probably transfer my characters over and see how everything goes. just because your not a bandit in WoW, doesn’t mean your not a bandit. some might say so, but not in my book. i know we have not played together very much but i do notice that we are both logged on usually at the same times. PvP has become one of my favorite things to do in WoW. Which is good because it doesnt hinge on the fact of forming a group for advancement, unless you get into Arenas. Although it is very easy to find an arena team need one’s services. something you might already be aware of if that currently a bunch of us from WW have shifted over to cho’gal and started horde toons. we figured we PvP’d together so much was that the next logical step would be to go to a PvP server. since character transfers are not allowed PvE to PvP we all had to reroll. This is the most fun ive had in a MMORPG since playing on the Darktide server for Asheron’s Call. i mean its just a video game, if your not enjoying it then why bother. some people like to watch sports center at night, others like to knock back a couple of brewskies. it seems like you enjoy to play WoW. so go ahead, your allowed to enjoy it. who cares if some people get upset. tough. its your 15 bucks a month and its your time not theirs. do what you want with it.
P.S, great blog bro, i love reading it as i have rolled a druid over on Cho’gal. keep up the great work.
Heyas Mum,I think …. you have it correct about the family thing,they come first and they will always come first
I am fortunate enough to have both my wife and son play 
But if they didn’t,well,they come first.About the turmoil of leaving,well,I know you have friends here and you have and will have new friends anywhere.Am I sad to see people leave our guild,yes indeedy,sometimes it bothers me so so very much.But….you have to be happy.My belief is that we have so little time here,that life is so short,that I try to make the most of every day.We will have our ups and downs,but I try to be happy as much as I can.I am so sure that if you do switch,Amy is not gonna kick you off the boards 
(she may throw you in the basement with naught but candy,but still….) For myself,I will remain by Amys side til she stops playing period.I was with her wayyy before she joined Failes guild,we may have separated a bit,but I always find myself by her side.And that’s how I like it.If she left WoW tonight,and joined Runescape,well,Runescape here I come 
Don’t kill yourself over this,do what you think is best.After reading your post,it sure seems like you want to move.Just do it,and if it doesn’t work out,well,there is always Runescape 
Just don’t disappear for good bud !
I have no idea if this helps at all,but,be well and take care !
Mum,
What you mention makes logical sense.
Let me just say though, the heart wants what the heart wants,
Earlier this year i got upset about a few trivial things and left the guild.
Not one day that I left and played on a differnt server or guild did I not miss my family
Many people may come and go in your gaming life but your family, gaming, real life or other lives in your heart and they will always bring you home, I found that out the hard way.
Trust your instincts. They’ve gotten you this far in life. The fact that you’re even asking yourself this question shows that you already have an idea which way to lean. Logically speaking, you can’t get much play time with the current organization. I’m sure they’re all great people and such. But what’s the point of being around such great people if you don’t get to play with them on your time and hours?
/quote:…..
Have any of you reading been with a guild for over 5 years? Do you know anyone who has?
/end quote
Umm yeah !!!!!!!
The answer to both of those is YES !!!
Games ……. they come and go … Bandits, last forever ….
oh well, call me a tad bit biased.
This is a tough one. I know, because I’m struggling with the exact same decision (even the same guild) right now. The only difference is I don’t have a toon in T5 content.
I started playing on Shadowsong because I had friends there, but as time progressed, many of them have lost contact or moved on in some way, for one reason or another. My playtime has become rather solitary, and I don’t like that one bit–but it’s still so hard to leave behind old friends.