22/10/2012:
We’re organising for a server-wide WvWvW event and putting out the word. This week, we (Gunnars Hold) are fighting against Gandara and Fort Ranik(French).
I’m in Lion’s Arch, talking to people on both voice comms and in-game chats, as well as occasional forum chats and updates.
I’ve put out a few messages, encouraging people to gunnars-hold.eu where we’re building a server-wide area for better comms and organisation.
I get a message from some chap asking if I was the guy enquiring about his guild. Now, over the weekend I may have possibly had a few light refreshments, so I’m not entirely sure if I’ve chatted to him before or not. So I keep it a bit vague. Which is easy, because vague is exactly what is in my head at the time.
He thinks I’m applying to join his guild. I chuckle and tell him, no, I’m just trying to help build better server comms by getting people to use gunnars-hold.eu.
Then it occurs to me, well, since we’re chatting…
A few minutes later, I’m invited to join his officers and a few of his alliance officers on their Teamspeak server for a chat. It turns out that these guys have just moved from Underworld server.
I explain what we’re about – multi-alliance, full community involvement, promoting WvW via strong community ties where people assist each other and are encouraged to join in. They explain they are used to very serious WvW and their server had effectively died.
Promising.
Sadly/happily its dinner time, I need to go take care of my fuel tank, we agree to chat later that evening.
Fed, watered and then into various chats with our own alliance and other alliances during the evening organising for the WvW event on the evening of the 23rd. While busy doing this, I get a message in game from one of the officers of the guilds that have moved from Underworld. They are pleased we seem very serious and would like to chat some more. I’ve got a lot to organise so I tell them I’ll pop back onto their Teamspeak around 8:30pm. I let our guys know there’s some new guys on the server that might be worth talking to and to get them to tackle one of the zones we’re fighting the next evening.
Delayed in alliance meeting, I’m slightly late. All their senior officers are present. I apologise and they proceed to explain in detail what they are all about, how they run many commanders, are used to very serious WvW and what they want from the game. I in turn explain that we’re all about building the community, I expect it to be at least 6 months in before we’re getting to where we want to be but we’re working hard to get there.
They tell me that they are four big guilds but one of their guilds is still debating as half want to stay on Underworld and half want to move to Gandara. Not a big deal to me, when server moves occur its more unusual when everyone agrees than dont.
I’d been avoiding asking about numbers so far as I didn’t want to seem like I was just recruiting WvW numbers but felt this was an appropriate point to ask.
“So how many of you have already moved here to Gunnars Hold?”
Pause.
“Gunnars Hold? We’re on Gandara.”
Pause. Another pause.
I burst out laughing. One of the guys on comms groans, “Oh this is awkward.”
I say, “Nah, this is pretty funny.”
So we just start chewing the fat about the previous weekend’s WvW battles, some of which I was in and generally there’s a lot of ouch and laughs from both sides.
Then one of them says, “How about we all just attack the French? You know, we just agree not to attack each other and beat the crap out of the Fort Ranik.”
I laugh but inwardly am cringing a bit. My own alliance in concert with another alliance are actually scheduled to hit the Gandara server the following evening.
“Well, uh… we’ll definately be hitting the French but I can’t guarantee we won’t attack anyone else.”
We chat a bit more then I take my leave, wishing them well and looking forward to seeing them on the battlefield.
Moral of this story:
Don’t use local chat channels when in an overflow server. Shizzle gets wierd.
