01/06/2012
The End of an Era
It’s with a very heavy heart that I make this post.
GCR will no longer be fielding a 25 man raid team, effective immediately. As you’ve all seen over the past several months, the game as we know it has changed in ways that have made maintaining an above average, semi-hardcore 25 man difficult to say the least. The officers and I have done everything in our power to encourage people to join us in defeating internet dragons, but with the ever increasing ease-of-access to raiding, people aren’t interested in putting forth the time and effort needed to be a part of a team like ours. What you’re seeing is the death of the middle class, leaving behind only the highest level of 25 man raid teams to compete against for new applicants. Why join a guild with one or two hard modes down when I can apply to (and probably have a chance succeeding in) a guild with six? We’ve fallen victim to this new vision Blizzard has for their aging game. An unfortunate casualty in their efforts to bail out a sinking ship. Blizzard doesn’t want people to have to invest time to succeed in their game.
And that’s the thing, a lot of us have grown tired of investing so much time in this. When any idiot on the server gets to kill Deathwing and receive almost the exact same gear that those of us who have made such huge sacrifices of time and put forth so much effort do, it’s just not fair. I can understand their desire to broaden their player base, but they’ve gone a long way to cheapen the accomplishments of players like us. It would be like Ferrari deciding one day to cut costs and sell their cars for $15-20,000. Sure, it would be awesome at first, but eventually seeing nothing but Ferrari’s everywhere would just be fucking gay. Anybody who used to drive one before the price drop would look back on the days when driving a Ferrari meant something and be angry at the manufacturer for what they’ve done to the brand.
I’ll admit, I’m angry at Blizzard for what they’ve done to my favorite game. I’ve lost a lot of faith in their ability to make a game with heart, and not just some soulless platform to sell me $25 in-game mounts and vanity pets. Mists of Pandaria looks gay. I like the idea of the Monk class, but where is the story? Where is the villain? Why should I give a fuck about this game anymore? Vanity pet combat, what the fuck? Fuck, fuck, fuck. Previously too excited for words, I now find myself anxious about what’s in store for the ‘Titan’ project, the next great MMO from Blizzard. They’ve become so horribly shameless in their efforts to capitalize every aspect of their games now, and it sucks. But I digress.
Looking to the future, I’m sure you’re wondering what’s in store for GCR. The guild and community will remain, I will still hold the title of GM and play casually (as long as you all will have me), and I’m sure there will be some people running various 10 mans – keep a lookout on the forums if you’re interested in joining one of those. I’ll be abstaining for the time being, as I don’t think it’s fair to take the spot of somebody who might be more interested than me. I’ve purchased a 50 man ventrilo server, so we have a place to congregate and socialize, because the current one we’re using expires in January. I’ll be playing a lot of TOR of course, but I want to state very clearly that the 25 man did not end as a direct result of my, or any officer’s interest in that game. We’ve held on as long as we could, but eventually all good things have to come to an end. Anybody who wishes to leave the guild to join a raid team and push progression, I want to encourage you to remain a part of the community and frequent these boards and our vent.
In parting, I just want to say that I’ve had so many good times with all of you, and it’s been a true honor to lead GCR’s raid team. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication, for everybody who still is or has ever been a part of our group – without you, we would never have made it this far. Thanks to all the previous GM’s and Raid Leaders who I’ve looked up to, and I’m sorry I couldn’t keep it going. Hopefully you understand. A very special thanks to Sarasa for all of her kindness – for those who don’t know, she was always there to send me a tell when I was losing it on vent, telling me I was doing a great job and making me feel better. Thanks to all of our current officers for taking care of business, dealing with my insanity, and just being generally great people to hang out with (Mas is still a fgt though). Thanks to Waerjack for being Waerjack, Jadax for being Jadax, and OJ for being OJ. I hope to play video games alongside you guys for a long time to come. Thanks to Wolfspider for helping out whenever he could, and his solid advice when it came time to make tough decisions. Thanks to Serzert for picking up my slack when it came to strats and WoL analysis, you’re an evil genius. Thanks to Galaras for his guidance in being a leader and trusting me with the guild. Hopefully I didn’t let you down too much, heh. I’m sorry if I forgot to mention anybody specifically, if I named everyone I would never stop typing. And finally, one more time for posterity’s sake:
I’m sorry.
Love,
Shinaruh
Originally posted Wed. Dec 28th, 2011
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