A History of War Machine from My Perspective
Apr 24, 2020 12:42:08 GMT 10
eiellith and Nearra like this
Post by choco on Apr 24, 2020 12:42:08 GMT 10
I was chatting on f/b with a couple of old mates during the week, and they asked me if I was still playing WoW. "Of course," I said. Then we started the "remember when" stuff, and it brought back many memories, good and bad.
I then realised that there couldn't be too many current (active) members who would remember those days, and this novel you are now reading was also prompted by the announcement of a clean-up of retired members.
This guild has evolved since it formed way back in 2005 (I think), but has maintained its original objects that you can read about in the forums. They haven't changed much at all, so we must be doing something right to have survived for so long. My story here is intended as a sort of "History of War Machine", because I am pretty sure that I am the longest serving (albeit not continuous) member (please correct me if I'm wrong).
I got into WoW during Vanilla when my son and his mates invited me to join them in a LAN party at our place in Jerrabomberra (Queanbeyan, on the ACT border). They set me up and just told me to do "quests" and "level up." It wasn't that much fun, actually, because I kept getting killed. Each time I ventured out to do these quest thingies, a bunch of Horde toons would come along and gank me, which was usually followed by some giggles from my son's bedroom where he and his mates were playing (I was across the hall in the home office).
That was my first lesson in PvP.
I worked at the time for the Australian Federal Police as a Technical Writer/System Admin/Sharepoint Admin. A few of the propeller heads (software developers) played WoW, but I never took much notice until I realised what it was about after my son and his mates had finished with me. They even had a WoW Players Sharepoint site for the IT section. I asked about joining in, because, "Hey, I play WoW, too, ya know!" I found out that they were all in a raiding guild called Oceania and only recruited Level 60 toons.
On the way home that day, I stopped off at Harvey Norman's and bought WoW. I'd asked my mate at work what the best toons were to play, and he explained some of the characters. "Priests are good," was all that I remembered, so I rolled a Priest and called it "Choco."
We were on a US PvE server (Azjol'Nerub) and I started my journey, determined to join my mates. It was a long process to Level 60. I had no idea what I was doing. I joined a guild that took anyone (Midnight Hour) to level up, and finally made Level 60 a few months later and applied to join Oceania.
That was when the first expansion was rolled out - The Burning Crusade - so when I joined Oceania, I had to level to 70 quick smart! What a glorious day that was for me! At that time, there were about 10 players at the AFP, most of whom were in Oceania.
By the time I was ready to raid, we were doing Karazhan. I took a day to get attuned and learned to heal in raids as a Holy Priest. I also rolled a Hunter, with the new Draenei race!
Just as I was getting proficient in the role, Oceania fell apart. Several of us carried on as best we could, but we were losing players every day. I was lamenting this with fellow players at work, and one said, "Well, why don't you join my guild?"
This was Vialdrain, a Holy Priest, who had been with WM through Vanilla WoW. I joined, after an interview with the then GM (no names, no court martials). Several others followed, but after a few months it was me, Vialdrain, Edalicious and Magefest, who all worked at the AFP.
We made our way through most of the content, having a lot of fun. But we started having issues with mustering the required 25 players for a raid team, and we PUGged almost every raid. The GM was getting testy, and many good Officers left quietly. One night, after clearing Gruul's Lair and on our third wipe of Magtheridon's Lair, the GM erupted, claiming we were all slacking off and not taking the game seriously enough. He called us AFP guys a "clique" and accused us of undermining the guild. It was all bullshit, of course, but we all left.
WM struggled along, and I joined Naughty with Vialdrain. This was a serious raiding guild, and you had to perform or you didn't get a look-in. Vialdrain was a much better player than me, but I made the grade and we went on to clear SSC.
Then along came WotLK, and after levelling up, I couldn't devote the time and effort required to get into serious raiding, so I was relegated to Friends and Family. I eventually left and joined Fey Mercurial. This was a much better guild, well structured and supportive, and I stayed with them for about a year. I PUGged with War Machine almost every week, doing Naxx, and the GM was always nice to me. I enjoyed my time back with WM, but as long as that particular GM was in charge, I would only PUG with them. Unfortunately, Fey Mercurial's raid times started too early, and eventually I left but continued to PUG with WM.
At the start of Cataclysm, after trying a few guilds and not enjoying them, Edalicious, Vialdrain and I formed our own guild, Our Mighty Guild, and recruited all of our lost AFP friends and anyone else who wanted to play, including my son, who drove Balckrmund, a Death Knight. We did quite well, but our GM (Edalicious) got WoW overload and stopped playing. Our Mighty Guild fell apart.
By then, Dakhan and Bannox were running WM, and I re-applied during Cata.
I've been here ever since.
For Firelords, I switched to my Hunter, and had a blast, but always came back to my first toon, the Priest Healer. I still enjoy playing as much as I did when I first started. I'm not much of a "gamer" and have only played a few other games, like Thief and Fallout. Of other MMOs, I had a brief fling with Rift, and joined others on our SWTOR guild, but both these were short lived.
I do hope we keep this guild strong, and I am positive that this will be the case if we adhere to the original objects. Please take the time to read them on the WM site (https://warmachineguild.net/) and on the forums. Support the officers, raid leaders and loot managers, because we need them more than they need us!
Thanks for reading.
I then realised that there couldn't be too many current (active) members who would remember those days, and this novel you are now reading was also prompted by the announcement of a clean-up of retired members.
This guild has evolved since it formed way back in 2005 (I think), but has maintained its original objects that you can read about in the forums. They haven't changed much at all, so we must be doing something right to have survived for so long. My story here is intended as a sort of "History of War Machine", because I am pretty sure that I am the longest serving (albeit not continuous) member (please correct me if I'm wrong).
I got into WoW during Vanilla when my son and his mates invited me to join them in a LAN party at our place in Jerrabomberra (Queanbeyan, on the ACT border). They set me up and just told me to do "quests" and "level up." It wasn't that much fun, actually, because I kept getting killed. Each time I ventured out to do these quest thingies, a bunch of Horde toons would come along and gank me, which was usually followed by some giggles from my son's bedroom where he and his mates were playing (I was across the hall in the home office).
That was my first lesson in PvP.
I worked at the time for the Australian Federal Police as a Technical Writer/System Admin/Sharepoint Admin. A few of the propeller heads (software developers) played WoW, but I never took much notice until I realised what it was about after my son and his mates had finished with me. They even had a WoW Players Sharepoint site for the IT section. I asked about joining in, because, "Hey, I play WoW, too, ya know!" I found out that they were all in a raiding guild called Oceania and only recruited Level 60 toons.
On the way home that day, I stopped off at Harvey Norman's and bought WoW. I'd asked my mate at work what the best toons were to play, and he explained some of the characters. "Priests are good," was all that I remembered, so I rolled a Priest and called it "Choco."
We were on a US PvE server (Azjol'Nerub) and I started my journey, determined to join my mates. It was a long process to Level 60. I had no idea what I was doing. I joined a guild that took anyone (Midnight Hour) to level up, and finally made Level 60 a few months later and applied to join Oceania.
That was when the first expansion was rolled out - The Burning Crusade - so when I joined Oceania, I had to level to 70 quick smart! What a glorious day that was for me! At that time, there were about 10 players at the AFP, most of whom were in Oceania.
By the time I was ready to raid, we were doing Karazhan. I took a day to get attuned and learned to heal in raids as a Holy Priest. I also rolled a Hunter, with the new Draenei race!
Just as I was getting proficient in the role, Oceania fell apart. Several of us carried on as best we could, but we were losing players every day. I was lamenting this with fellow players at work, and one said, "Well, why don't you join my guild?"
This was Vialdrain, a Holy Priest, who had been with WM through Vanilla WoW. I joined, after an interview with the then GM (no names, no court martials). Several others followed, but after a few months it was me, Vialdrain, Edalicious and Magefest, who all worked at the AFP.
We made our way through most of the content, having a lot of fun. But we started having issues with mustering the required 25 players for a raid team, and we PUGged almost every raid. The GM was getting testy, and many good Officers left quietly. One night, after clearing Gruul's Lair and on our third wipe of Magtheridon's Lair, the GM erupted, claiming we were all slacking off and not taking the game seriously enough. He called us AFP guys a "clique" and accused us of undermining the guild. It was all bullshit, of course, but we all left.
WM struggled along, and I joined Naughty with Vialdrain. This was a serious raiding guild, and you had to perform or you didn't get a look-in. Vialdrain was a much better player than me, but I made the grade and we went on to clear SSC.
Then along came WotLK, and after levelling up, I couldn't devote the time and effort required to get into serious raiding, so I was relegated to Friends and Family. I eventually left and joined Fey Mercurial. This was a much better guild, well structured and supportive, and I stayed with them for about a year. I PUGged with War Machine almost every week, doing Naxx, and the GM was always nice to me. I enjoyed my time back with WM, but as long as that particular GM was in charge, I would only PUG with them. Unfortunately, Fey Mercurial's raid times started too early, and eventually I left but continued to PUG with WM.
At the start of Cataclysm, after trying a few guilds and not enjoying them, Edalicious, Vialdrain and I formed our own guild, Our Mighty Guild, and recruited all of our lost AFP friends and anyone else who wanted to play, including my son, who drove Balckrmund, a Death Knight. We did quite well, but our GM (Edalicious) got WoW overload and stopped playing. Our Mighty Guild fell apart.
By then, Dakhan and Bannox were running WM, and I re-applied during Cata.
I've been here ever since.
For Firelords, I switched to my Hunter, and had a blast, but always came back to my first toon, the Priest Healer. I still enjoy playing as much as I did when I first started. I'm not much of a "gamer" and have only played a few other games, like Thief and Fallout. Of other MMOs, I had a brief fling with Rift, and joined others on our SWTOR guild, but both these were short lived.
I do hope we keep this guild strong, and I am positive that this will be the case if we adhere to the original objects. Please take the time to read them on the WM site (https://warmachineguild.net/) and on the forums. Support the officers, raid leaders and loot managers, because we need them more than they need us!
Thanks for reading.
Would be interesting to know if Meri was there when you were! She's still in contact with a few people.