Ten years, two kids, and the World of Warcraft guild I never left

I joined Tauren Where It Counts as member #2. Ten years later, our World of Warcraft guild has put together an anniversary retrospective. A guild is a regular group of people who play together, and ours has spent a considerable amount of that time attempting to defeat very large enemies. Across 515 recorded raid nights, we’ve managed 2,996 boss kills and 4,130 wipes, which is what we call it when the team loses the fight.

Our community data-wizard-scientist-nerd Vris made an incredible retrospective using an absolute mountain pile of raider data.

I play as Slyxan, and there’s a tiny detail in that retrospective that needs a little context for this post: my 6.6-year absence. That was a break from raiding, the scheduled sessions where we work together to take on the game’s bigger challenges. During that time, I got married and had two kids. I couldn’t make the same commitment to those evenings, but I never left the guild.

Of the 21 people who were there for the first recorded raid in September 2016, three of us also took part in the latest one ten years later: Botokai, Keytosis, and me. I’ve been back raiding since September 2024, with another 61 nights recorded since then.

I made an early recruitment video where I refused to pronounce the word ‘server’ correctly. It’s quite a trip to watch today, 10 years later. Alongside the practical details about when we played and who we were looking for, I said we were “just trying to build a community of people who love to play the game.” I’m glad I still get to be part of that community.

▶ Play video

We always described ourselves as a group of working professionals. We wanted to do well, but we had jobs and lives outside the game. We couldn’t dedicate all our time to it, so the idea was to show up for the time we had agreed on and work through the raids together.

Botokai has a lot to do with why that still feels familiar. He’s our raid leader and former guild leader, and he has always taken the raiding seriously while still being able to keep things light-hearted. He’s only tried to retire once so far. It lasted a couple days. When I think about what made coming back feel comfortable, I would give him a huge amount of the credit.

Our guild leader now is his wife, Wrekkd, who joined as an early recruit. They met through TWIC and fell in love! That’s a fairly significant part of the guild’s history that you won’t find in a list of boss kills.

We’re all older now, and many of us have spouses and kids. Finding time to play together takes more arranging than it used to. My own long break is a pretty clear example of that, but the people are the reason I keep making room for it when I can. We all want to work as a team, and I enjoy having something we’re working towards together.

We’ve had meetups over the years, too. I went to one in Las Vegas in 2018, which is still the first and only time I’ve met them in person. They feel like close friends, even though most of our time together has been spent in a game.

There’s a lot of shit-talking, and some of it is honestly hilarious. People develop catchphrases, sometimes unintentionally, that become familiar to everyone else. (Joe, you are very much included in this.) Those little habits and running jokes are part of what makes an evening with this particular group feel familiar.

We’ve also started doing themed outfits for every raid night, using the game’s “transmog” system to change how our characters’ clothing and equipment look. We’ve had pirates, ninjas, and favourite sports teams, with a judge and a winner each night. Seeing what people come up with has been so much fun, and it gives us another reason to look forward to getting together.

To me, it feels more like a community every season. We have people who have been around for years alongside newer members, and we’re still adding things we enjoy doing together. We’ve finished this raid season, but we’re planning to team up with another guild for World of Warcraft: Forever, so there will be more to play and more people to get to know.

I wanted to share this on MPC because these friendships are part of my experience of gaming, too. I’ve met this group in person once, taken years off scheduled play, and changed quite a lot about my day-to-day life. I still look forward to spending an evening with them.

And finally, a massive shoutout to my husband, Dan, who is the reason I have both the space and the time to raid. He built my custom office shed, so I mean the space quite literally! Having time for a regular evening of gaming with two kids takes support, and I’m very grateful for his. Thank you, Dan, for making room for something that means so much to me.

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