Sweet child o’ ours

As with most children, it was conceived in passion late at night. A heated discussion about what we wanted, realisation that the best way to have what you want is to do it yourselves. As with most children, the idea terrified us somewhat, the responsibility, the aspect of learning on the job so to speak. But somehow Rem and I agreed that we’d give it a try. That we’d start our little guild and see if there were any like-minded folk.

We procrastinated for a while. Someone had a thesis to finish. And then he had to relax afterwards. But come the begining of this year, we talked again. And talked.  And then emails started to fly back and forth. About our ideals. About what we wanted. About our philosophies. Some were short. Others were walls of well-thought out and beautifully written text. For both of us it was vital that we had these ideals set down firmly. We didn’t want to be just another guild name  or one of those recruitment posts saying come join uz, we is fab an wanna hardcore guild.

We needed rules before we started recruiting in earnest. We needed to be clear about attendance, that there weren’t any specific requirements. We wanted to set out how we felt about how criticisms should be made and taken.  We needed those rules so that if anyone proved to be a wowcock/dickhead/douchebag, we could justifiably kick them. And we needed them in place before we started to recruit.

Rem and I spent more time still bashing out these, so that they could be displayed on the forum that he’d set up. We were impassioned. Colt was our voice of reason. His input was as vital as anything we did.

And so, the nursery was painted forum was set up, and we started the recruitment process. Both Rem and I were in that hospital corridor pacing, nail-biting, phase, wondering if anyone would ever think of joining us, with our limited experience in WoW. We agonised over it while jousting. That was good, it distracted me from the actual act of jousting and I think I did better than ever before at the Tournament grounds. And then, one day, when I was spamming trade channels in the hope that someone, somewhere, might hear my plea, I had a whisper. From an interested party.  And when he joined and asked if there was room for his girlfriend, we were over the moon. After that, recruits started to trickle in slowly at first – Rem had written probably the most impassioned recruitment post in the history of WoW – and we gained members. A wonderful mix of people fed up with the hardcore aspect, people new to the game, people new to raiding. All of whom are lovely, pleasant, crazy folk who’ve read about us on our forum and liked what they’ve seen.

It scares me sometimes, I worry about the guild, like a mother hen might. Is everything and everyone okay? If something isn’t right, I do my best to make it right. I want to be there, approachable, for people to discuss things with me. But, like any mother of a youngster, I also need to be firm, to keep those nasty prowling wowcocks away. To stop it turning into a nasty little ASBO teenager. So I’m posting this link from The Wordy Warrior about guilds just to keep me on track when I need it.

And a reminder of something very important.

Yes, it scares me. But it’s rewarding too. Even now I have to pinch myself, because I can hardly believe it. To know that there ARE lots of like minded people out there, who want it to work as much as we do. To have that home in WoW, surrounded by lovely people, and a lot of laughter and fun.  That’s been worth every moment of agonising about if this would work. And (apologies for being overly soppy here) I love this guild. I care about everyone in it.

So…here’s to those impassioned moments late at night, filled with Grand Plans, and what ifs, long may they continue!