I orginally wrote this series of raid blogs as a member of the Everquest Guild Southern Armada 2004/5. I had been playing EQ on the Karana server for about 3 years when the Guild that I had been a member of for the better part of that three year period, imploded, and I was left without a connection to most of the people I had spent all day, every day with.
At this point I decided I really wanted to see the high end raid game. In essence I was either going to quit or commit. I had spent so long in EQ I felt like I wanted to get into the "end game" and see what the deal was, see for myself what everyone was taliking about. So I looked about on the web to find an aussie/kiwi raid guild that wasnt going to require massive online time.
In my search I stumbled on the Southern Armada web site, had a good look around and after several days of thinking about it I applied to join. I transferred to Prexus about a week later and the following Blogs are my experience as a member of a high end raid guild in Everquest.
I started the blog for me, as a way for me to record my experiences and to have something to look back on. I let a few people from the guild know about it and within a couple of weeks I was getting "why havent you posted?" tells the day after a blog was due. Over the peiord of the 2 years that I wrote this, I recieved quite a lot of emails, ingame /tells and several people actually took the time to post on the SA website saying how much they were enjoying the series and my writing.
The original site where this was hosted recieved traffic from all over the world and quite a lot of it, usually straight into the next blog episode. One backpacker actually sat down in a cyber cafe in Spain and read the whole thing start to finish. I dont think I have ever been as proud of anything in my life as when I found out that that backpacker spent AUS80$ in order to read the entire continuing adventures of Ulaa the Necromancer and Southern Armada.
I think a lot of people were interested in the original blog because SA is a casual guild. It isnt one of those arrogant uber guilds who treat gaming like a job. We raided because we loved it and I was describing encounters that due to the mechanics of the game, many people, even those who had played for years, would just never be able to see or experience. It was a window into a world that was closed to many people.
I also very much enjoyed bringing to life the people and personalities of Southern Armada. SA is full of some amazing and incredibly dedicated people. My experience in EQ went from being Ok to being an absolute blast, I couldnt wait to logon and play the game every day. I would Raid till 2am and be at my desk at work at 7am twice a week for 2 years.
SA triumphed in EQ and moved on to the World of Warcraft. For various reasons I stopped playing that game, some personal, some preferential and some hardware related. I am however forever a member of SA in my head. I am currently involved with a game called Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and I am a site admin with the aussie fan site Ausguard.com I am very much hoping that as soon as VG is released SA will move to the new game and I can become an active member again.
I have now migrated these blog entries twice. I am hoping that by putting this up on one of the largest blog sites in the world this will be the last time I ever have to do this. I know they aren't all that relevant anymore as people have well and truly passed through these areas, but what the hell I still like to look at them and maybe one day they will inspire someone else to log onto a game and go on a raid.
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