Naming It

When I decided to create the guild back in the summer of 2009, little did I know that it would one day mean so much to people. I had a vision which stemmed from playing alone on the Lethon-US server as a warrior who only ever reached lvl 31 and then changing to the EU servers with the creation of my first account when I returned home from a 6-month stay in the United States. The reason I switched was because I met a couple of lads in a previous job who were playing on Aerie Peak-EU and I wanted to join them. They were in a raiding guild called Illuminati and I joined up there which was fine until I was about lvl 25 on my dwarf hunter aptly named ‘Dambuster’ and I realised a shocking truth about the server I had joined….I couldn’t be ganked out in the wild!

I’m like WTF why can’t I be killed? Why do I no longer have to look over my shoulder as I once did on the American server on my lil warrior? What the hell is going on? I was on a PvE server yuck.

I recall sitting outside Orgrimmar at only lvl early 20s in the middle of the night hoping to find another low level horde who was PvP flagged so I could slot em! The place was dead and I was bored.

After that, I decided I was off to make my own guild on a real server where you get the jangling sensation of having to be alert, watch your back or be smashed up at every turn. I wanted to feel helpless and to learn the skills I would need to survive, or to cleverly position myself for resurrecting to make good my escapes. These were trying times in a dangerous world that I wanted to explore and I wanted to learn harsh lessons and learn them good!

I had no intention of an easy levelling trip and then expecting to be trusted as a hardened, seasoned fighter when I reached lvl 80, I wanted the chance to feel pain and then pay it back in spades. By god, I payed the bastards back over the years!

I vowed to lead this guild the same way, learning the long road in guild management, taking small steps as we laid the foundations to make The Dambusters a haven for the good people of the game regardless of skill. I had seen how some people conduct themselves in the game and I wanted to create something different, a place where the GM cared about the little guys in the guild, those guys who are so important but so undervalued who make up the bulk of a guild. I stepped forward with a vision on the 26th of July 2009 and promised myself that I would make something special starting as I meant to go on, by recruiting good folks and cutting short the stay of selfish or inconsiderate ones.

That philosophy has been the lifeblood of this guild and although it sounds simple in theory, it’s actually very difficult to stick to your guns and do things right with the temptation to fill the guild with names at all costs just to have a big population and the ego trip that could bring, not to mention the riches you could earn in the post-4.0 (since Cataclysm) days where guild banks make money from guild members.

It’s just as well gold has never meant that much to me in the game. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had gold in the past and I know how to make it but it’s just not that big a deal to me. For some guild leaders, it’s all about the munneh. For me it’s all about being the figurehead of something that means a lot to people. I want this guild to be remembered as one of the great guilds of World of Warcraft. I want people on other servers to know our name and to be aware that we operate with a mentality of putting our community first. A place where you are free of idiots you find in pugs!

I have experienced a few occasions in the past few days of such idiots and needless to say, they drive me berserk. It is not in my nature to stand idly by and witness a psychotic internet hardman bullyboy try to make a laughing stock out of someone who is clearly trying their best to do their job but for being undermined at every opportunity by said idiot in his attempt to make himself look big and clever. E-peens make my blood boil and I strike them hard wherever I find them. Not on my watch will you act like such a little BRAT!

This type of thing always brings home a timely reminder of why I made this guild and of the principles we uphold. I have been known to find people in our guild out in the world or in pug groups acting like idiots and swiftly launched them from the guild. Sometimes they don’t know I’m there, sometimes they don’t recognise my alt so they think they can act out and not be spotted for what they are. Other times people in the guild notify me of dodgy behaviour and I clamp down because no matter how I find out, if I’m sure of it then they will be prevented from polluting our guild immediately. We have worked too hard and gained too much respect to ever let our guards down. I will be making sure that our officers and general membership will always act as ambassadors for this guild meaning we can all be proud of being part of something good.

Each time you encounter an idiot in a pug group, just remember he can never join our guild and that his WoW experience is very different to yours. /Pity these guys because they don’t have the social maturity to ever be considered Dambusters material and be proud that you all ARE!

I’ve done it for 4 and a half years and the guild has grown better and better, the hard way. The long road is the most nourishing and we will be better off for doing it like this.

……and 90% of that was a total tangent to what I was actually supposed to be writing about……

The point of today’s blog was supposed to be aimed at shedding some light as to the reason I named it after 617 ‘The Dambusters’ Squadron from the British Royal Air Force.

As a former member of the squadron from my time as an airframe engineering technician, I felt proud of my time there and have some fond memories of the place so I decided, what better way to commemorate the famous old squadron than to name my guild after it. It ties in nicely with naming guild ranks etc and gives it something different to the guilds named after stupid fantasy war themes like ‘Dark Lords’ or ‘Stormwind Troopers’ or some other shite.

I’m trying to come up with a better front page for the website home page to immediately let newcomers to the guild what we are all about and what the name refers to.

Another blog post with good intentions written around a bit of a rant, ah well I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t get on the worn out pedestal eh.

/Salute