Life of a Nin

Last Friday my guild kindof disbanded, the word being passed around was that we accidentally disbanded, the MT got drunk, logged on the GMs account and disbanded us because someone said he couldn't. Its a great story, but alas untrue, in truth we disbanded due to a hiccup in progress, a stalling and recruiting phase which disappointed some of the truly hardcore raiders, in response the GM disbanded the guild to allow them to move on to where they wanted to be without feeling a loyalty to the guild was holding them back, he sacrificed himself and the guild to allow the players to make a choice.

We attempted to reform a little, however the number of people remaining with the intent to raid was low, and those we could recruit would not allow us to return to Black Temple, instead we were struggling in Zul'aman, an instance we farmed for Bears. The guild started again to lose people, even those who wanted to stay, to make it work couldn't see the point in time where we could raid again before WoTLK.

So the guild basically ended fully, it still exists, and in Wrath it may be revived hopefully, I know people want to push progress, to truly become a progression guild and to motivate ourselves to push onwards into content. For now however I was left guilded but effectively guildless, pugging Karazhan, so I made a hard choice, I decided to move servers, looking around I moved from Lightbringer, which has been my home for the last 15month or so to Silvermoon.

First Impressions:
Being honest, I was kindof disappointed that the server was the same, moving and nothing changed, I even logged in in the same place I logged out, mentally I know the servers are identical, just the population is different, but I had deep down wanted something to be different.

What struck me though was that people were talking, I decided to be silly and say good evening in /2, of course the usual people making the "lulwut" jokes were there, but people said Hi back, and I got a few whispers, people running past would inspect me and wonder why I wasn't guilded at the moment. I even got whispers from a member of Silence (the #3 ranked guild on the server, sitting with KJ at 16%), we talked a bit and he suggested I apply even though undergeared, said it was possibly a hard sell but that I might stand a chance.

Why Move?:
Its a hard choice to make, I left friends and people I have known for the last 15months to go and play on a different server, mostly because there was at the moment no place on Lightbringer for me, Protection Paladins, like a lot of Tanks, are in that unenviable position of being one or two in a guild, with the tank population of the top guilds on our server (we had 5 Guilds at 4/5 4/9 or beyond, only 3 in Sunwell) being stable there was really no chance to go anywhere. I like raiding, and while I could maybe pass the time till WoTLK doing not a lot, it seemed to me more likely that I would tire of the game and simply stop playing, after all if you aren't doing what you enjoy why bother doing it.

Silvermoon is an older server than Lightbringer, with a much higher population, rather than 5 Guilds there are 39, and several of them with Tank openings for BT and MH level content, heck even possibly Sunwell content, a place I really didn't think I would see before WoTLK even if I was lucky.

So is there something interesting about this?:
Yes, most definitely, the difference in server populations is huge, Lightbringer and Silvermoon are both classes as high population servers, yet on one there is a huge raiding population while on the other there is not. Comparing the differences in the economy, the type of player, and why we have what appears to be a raiding server vs a casual server, how this filters down through the rest of the population.

Perhaps its something Blizzard needs to look at, letting players know about the population of a server more than just Low, Medium and High, telling us what sort of people they are and how the end-game looks for those of us interested in it. Its an adventure in a new identical land, I get to see the differences between what appears to be a hardcore server and a casual one, and I get to start afresh. Its something that intrigues me if nothing else.

Do we care?:
Possibly not, but I wanted to say why I might not be having insightful posts about raiding for a bit, because I felts like I wanted to say something, and because maybe it will make a good series of posts. People have been lost between the Moon and New York City, well this time its my turn to be lost on a new server, and to try and find a home, some place I can have fun and enjoy the part of the game that appeals to me.