Sadrea

We had some EPIC wars (one of which I think I ralleyed something like 30 guilds to either fight by our side, or were set to help us out on bounties... all because a guild founder accused one of my guys of causing someone to have a heart attack and die in RL... dead person coming back to the game after a month, of course.)

Good grief, I had forgotten all about that. Everyone's reactions over at TWP was pretty priceless over that little gem.

I first joined FS because a really good friend of mine was playing it and he got me into the guild he was in, Men of Earth. After about six months, we kinda had a falling out. I decided it was time to move onto a different guild. Neither of us are the type to start drama, but I figured avoiding awkward situations would be best for both us.

I was level 152 when I left the guild, but still very much a noob. I knew the basics of hunting, but that was really about it. My only inkling on how to even look for a guild was to pull up the Top Rated Guilds by Level list and see what was out there. I looked at several different ones and read their descriptions. Eventually, I found one that really caught my eye, that screamed "you need to apply here!" That guild was The Wicked Players.

So, you can imagine by disappointment when, after the hours I had spent combing through guilds and then the hour or so I spent filling out the app to make sure it was perfect, I received a message from a recruiter politely declining my join request. I started the search again.

I had just about made up my mind on another guild to apply to when I got a message from Shadrick asking if I was still looking for a guild and still interested in joining TWP. I said yes on both counts.

"But I thought my application was denied?" I asked.

"I'm one of the guild founders," he said. "I outrank them."

Next thing you know, I was in TWP.

It wasn't until then that I truly realized exactly how much of a noob I still was. I learned even more about hunting, combat sets, buffs outside of the xp gold ones, aspects of Fallen Sword I had never thought about exploring like the arena, bounties and upgrades. Plus everyone was so welcoming, they made sure I felt included and answered any questions I had, no matter how stupid. While I had seen in the description and the questionnaire the bits about them being a warring guild, I didn't think much of it. I figured it was just an empty warning like the guild founders used to do on the old AOL RP chat rooms to keep people from messing with their members.

Boy was I ever wrong! I found that out about a month later when I got to experience my first guild war.

At first, I couldn't help but wonder, "What the hell did I get myself into? Was joining a mistake?" It was all very overwhelming. Finding targets in the opposing guild to hit hourly with 100 stam hits, hitting targets hourly, bounties, loosing levels, participating in delevlings, leaving the guild to strip naked, have your own levels dropped by the guild and rejoin to be within range of someone in the other guild or having allies delevel you, etc. To someone just coming into it all, it was complete and utter madness. I panicked and turned to guild chat for help. They were happy to help me out by walking me through how to gear up based on my targets in the guild, explaining everything I needed to know about about PvP and getting my first hits out of the way. It didn't take long before I was hooked on guild wars and was throughly enjoying myself.

After getting a couple of wars under my belt, I decided to make the process for finding targets easier. I taught myself how to make basic Excel sheets and would input the enemy guilds roster in it by level to post on our message board. This landed me the role of Minister of War for awhile.

The last war I was involved with before I had to take my hiatus was a big one. I can't remember which guild it was with, but it lasted right about a month. It finally ended when one of the guild founders of the opposing guild, who had been away from the game that whole time due to RL, came back online. He was very shocked by all this and immediately got in touch with MaxDamage, I believe, and got the process started for a ceasefire. By the time it was all over, I was at least 80 levels below my virtual level and needed a break. I was burned out after all that, after doing nothing but hourly hits for so long. When I tried to come back a couple of months later, there had been so many changes to the site it was almost impossible to play on AOL dial-up anymore. They had just introduced the titans and my old computer hated it. So, I gave up, just popping in periodically to collect my gold, spend xp and say hi.

I finally came back after several years in November of last year. I came back to find TWP a largely dead guild, which made me very sad. They weren't just my guild, they were my second family. It got lonely playing by myself after awhile. Back to the Top Guilds by Level List I went. I recognized a lot of the same names I had looked at before, but this time most of them were weeded out immediately for having level minimums I wasn't quite at yet. Thankfully, Fallen Alliance had no such minimum and in them I have found my new family.

As a funny side note, it was my time with TWP and my experiences with guild wars that make me want to laugh every time I am bountied for doing 10 stam hits for Daily Quests. I actually DO laugh when they attempt deleveling as it's never organized, so the most I've lost since being back is 3 levels.