On BlizzCon and Community

I’m not at BlizzCon this weekend. I knew I was taking a heavier courseload at school this semester and I figured midterms would be happening about now — and I was right! — so I elected not to go to BlizzCon.

A ton of my guildies in Apotheosis, however, did decide to go.

On the one hand, I am totally jealous, but on the other hand, I am extremely pleased to see that some members of the guild that I put together for this expansion are out there, hanging out together.

Ten of my guildies went out and had dinner together last night (which is one reason Apotheosis cancelled our Thursday raid!).

Of them, I knew three of them personally before Cataclysm. There’s X, the warlock, who I’ve known for years through another segment of the Internet. There’s Kal, the priest, who I met during my travels in Wrath of the Lich King, along with her boyfriend Chronis (formerly a hunter, formerly a paladin, formerly a hunter again and currently a DK tank for us).

Also in attendance for the guild dinner: Shawnelle, a frost DK in our guild, and Srsbusiness, a shadow priest of ours, both of whom being people that Kal and Chronis previously knew from another guild.

Then there’s Raymiee, a mage, and Slout, an elemental shaman, who are a couple who applied to us back at the end of March. They didn’t know anyone in the guild previously.

There’s Entropia, an elemental shaman who was resto for us in T11 and has gone back to his DPSing ways. I’d met him in the Cataclysm beta, as I recall.

Tikari, a rogue and one of our officers, was a long-time “citizen”, shall we say, of our home realm, Eldre’Thalas. Hadn’t ever heard of him before, which is kind of rare when talking about natives from ET. He applied and kicked some ass and now I am subjected to being pumpkin-headed by him YEAR ROUND anytime he catches me in a city.

And then there’s Jasyla, a resto druid whose blog I’d read more than once over the years. (I think some of us still wonder why she’s slumming it with us…!)

Looking at this one photo of all of them, sitting down to dinner, coming together, feeling united by all being part of Apotheosis, meeting the people they’ve raided with dating back to January, for some… I can’t help but feel that there’s a real community that’s forming here, or that has already formed, and knowing that I’m responsible for bringing these people together in even a small way? That feels amazing.

Would Chronis and Kal ever have met Slout and Raymiee? Would Srsbusiness and Jasyla ever have met? Would Tikari and Entropia ever have even known who the other was? Would Shawnelle ever have encountered X?

My guess is no.

And to think that this all stemmed from me thinking, a long time ago, about how maybe I should put Apotheosis back together for Cataclysm. Over a year before Cataclysm released, I was thinking about it and starting to put wheels in motion.

And ten people, many of whom never would have known the others, met up for dinner on Thursday night and are hanging out together at BlizzCon this weekend. I had a little bit to do with that. And that… is awesome.