The bandwagon has been jumped upon.

Reading thru all the love/hate blogs on raiding was kind of interesting, so I figured I would hop on the bandwagon.

To start off, let me describe my own personal progression, and how it changed me - for the better or worse as a gamer, a person, and as a raider.

I started the game a few days after retail, and since I was an old EQ junkee, quickly leveled up to 60 and "raided" scholo, stratholme, LBRS, UBRS as a pally offtank. My idea of offtanking was to grab a mob, run away and heal myself until it was time to kill it.

Fast forward thru 2 months of dead end play, and I rerolled horde with some old friends. Quickly got to 60 as a rogue, got in on the pvp scene to rank 8, and decided to make a mage twink. Level 49, 300+ fire damage, joined a prominent pvp guild, leveled to 60, rank 12 and we started to raid.. ZG at first, then joint runs thru MC, we got up thru Garr and then everyone blew up over loot. I left to join a real raiding guild. This is where my "real" raiding began, it was no longer something we picked up and ran on an offnight when we had people, it was scheduled, rigorous, you needed potions, strategy.

I still distinctly remember everything from my first night of raiding with this new group of people. The mages all greeted me with open arms, we joked, laughed and had a fantastic time. They told me to work on my damage - since I was raiding MC as a fire spec, not realizing how much I was gimping myself.

That first night I picked up my T2 leggings and I was hooked, thats the moment I sold my soul and the greater part of my free time for the next 18 months. That was my first raiding guild I loved every single one of the 39 wild, funny and crazy people I raided with. We won fights and had fun, we wiped and had fun, whatever we did was a pure and absolute thrill. Fast forward 6 months down the road, thru alot of frustration with performance quirks in AQ40, alot of loot drama and presto - Naxx. Once again raiding was FUN, less stupid frustrating mechanics, and I even get to be fire again! It had its ups and downs, but I still loved it again. I looked forward to our Naxx nights, and grew to resent the DKP bloating thru people showing up for BWL farm nights but cant be bothered to come to Naxx. More drama, lost a few key players to transfers, and we finally kill Maexna just before Christmas.

Burning Crusade comes out, we race for 70, we have a core of 10 players into Kara exactly 9 days into BC, where we get our server first, and guild first kill of attumen. (At about 2 in the morning since we had just finished our key runs earlier that night) I am PUMPED, we're back in the swing of things, I dont get to see 3/4 of the people I used to raid with, and our mage crew got destroyed via inactivity, quitting, dropping guild, but we're still progressing, learning, playing. Karazan basically destroyed my guild in trying to fit a group of 30 (Active) players into two 10 man instances that had the balance to function. We ended up losing I think it was 4 of our key officers/GL players during this process, so we retooled with very light handed leadership. It didnt work very well, but we still had a pretty solid crew.

During our Mag learning, I had a real life tragedy that made me reevaluate everything I had done, all the time I had spent on a "silly" game. The countless hours I could have been going to college, having a job I cared about, looking for someone I would like to spend the rest of my life with. I was out of game for nearly 7 whole months, pretending like I could lead a normal life and not miss it. But the fact of the matter is, I did miss it. I love people in general, but the people I was guilded with were kindred spirits, in one way or another. We laughed together, we swore during pvp together, we QQ'ed together. In more ways then they will ever know, they were my family, they were a group of people that made me feel at home, in a space that doesnt even exist.

If the people I have come to love decided they wanted to change games, I would go with them. If they decided they want to keep raiding, I am all for it. The main point beyond getting this all out there is as follows.

Some nights I love raiding, some nights I hate raiding, but no matter what its the people I know that keep me logging on and playing. Being good or bad is almost a non issue, the badges/upgrades/loot debate is a side thing in my mind, I still get excited to see an upgrade, but I show up for everything that I can, loot is just like a funny story I get while hanging out with my friends.

EDIT: Its like your grandmother that may have a commemorative plate from each place she has visited, that reminds her of the trip, for me, thats why I still have my 5 piece NW set banked, I still have the first epic I remember earning(Azuresong Mageblade). I have a bank full of junk, and a head full of memories. I wouldnt trade my experiences both good and bad for anything else, as they have helped me develop not only as a player improving his skills, but as a person, learning to be more tolerant and forgiving of others honest mistakes.