Days of Yore

Once upon a time, there was guild that did 25-man content in BC. They were an okay guild, but they'd been founded upon ideals of friendship and loyalty. There simply weren't enough raiders on the server who upheld those ideals, or if there were they were already loyal to other guilds. Recruitment brought in more and more people who saw a chance to raid in TK and SSC, but who didn't particularly care about the core values that had formed the guild in the first place. These newcomers, by and large, came and accepted their loot and then they moved on.

A few of these new raiders stuck around. Some of them learned from their new companions, and formed loyal bonds of their own. It wasn't enough to fill a 25-man raid when Wrath came out, but by and large the guild was content with that, and the guild leader said, "I don't care about loot. I care about content. We don't need the headache of larger raids."

The guild leader had a loyal cadre of friends that he filled his 10-man raids with, and this left a lot of the newer people to envy. Some of them left the guild in a blazing fit of guild drama. Others sought pugs and thought that this would be their lot in life. A few weeks after the first group was formed, however, a new raid group was formed from the leftovers and alts.

There were difficulties. People couldn't be sure they'd be able to show up. Some people were more serious about attendance than others. Some people just had different obligations pop up, and couldn't always make it. Wrath had just come out, and some people just couldn't find the time to level up to 80 as fast as the others.

The "leftovers" group started with a DK and a warrior tanking. There was a warlock in the raid who more often than not brought his shaman to heal because it was so hard to find healers. There was a paladin healing by his side, and his real life friend who played a rogue. There was a boomkin reroll who wanted to bring her DK to dps, but ended up respeccing to tree because there was always a shortage of healers and she REALLY wanted to raid and never have to sit out and feel like a sidelined reject again. Nobody likes to feel left out, after all. And there were more dps who came in and out, but the group had fun no matter who was doing what. There was a bit of drama and frustration because people couldn't always play the roles they wanted, but for the most part it was fun.

People came and went. Our tanks didn't want to have to always be the tanks, so new tanks were brought in at times. By the time Ulduar came out we'd pretty much settled on two paladin tanks. The warlock and the boomkin/dk became the shaman and the tree healers with a parade of other healers until a priest finally stuck around. The dk tank became a mage, the warrior tank became a hunter, and slowly the other dps positions filled with people who could show up regularly.

Finally the core had formed, and the group solidified until it surpassed the guild leader's group. And, having met that unspoken imaginary goal, and having beat the final boss in the game, their competitive spirits had nothing to unify them any longer. The many and various dps replacements had taken a toll on this group, and changed the personality of the group, and finally turned the group against each other. They did not know it, but that day a great darkness came.

The darkness is growing. It's feeding. And it's here.

Cataclysm can't come soon enough.