Unrestricted Free Agent

Might as well take some time to talk about the peeps since they deserve some mention... "Unrestricted Free Agent" is my current guild. It's the second one that I have ever been in, and it's *mine*. From an Uber-Toon standpoint, we're not much to look at. we don't even have enough 70's to run Karazhan (part of the reason that I have yet to go there)... but you know what? I like the people here. A lot.

I used to be in a guild called "A Band of Brothers". Cool name, terrible management. It was run by some kid who was about 14 years old and his parents took away WoW at some point, leaving NOBODY in the guild with permissions to do anything for about 3 months. Membership slowly dwindled, people left and I eventually took the remainder of viable players that were left and we moved on. Because of that, I sometimes wish I had named the new guild "Catharsis", not only for symbolic reasons but also because it sounds cooler... but I kind of like having my waiver-wire tag under my nameplate too.

Our problem as a guild is, we've only got 8 or 9 regular players (counting me), and not everyone is skilled, levelled and/or geared to run 10 mans, or even a consistent 5 man team. Still, the people that I see on a consistent basis in this lil' guild are some fine people to play with. By Tenure, to the best of my knowledge, the major players:

Mkristo - My college room mate's main (70 Enhance Shammy). He's got a slug of alts, too, and 3 of them are on the cusp (or very close to) Outlands. Much like myself, if he'd sunk more time into one main instead of playing the field, he'd probably be pretty well into raiding. We think alike, though, and try to build armies for ourselves.

Elgordito - A good friend that I play hockey with. 70 Prot Warrior, he has some minor alts but is still on the WoW learning curve. He's improving a lot, though and as soon as he figures out how to hold aggro on multiple mobs better and manage his abilities more effectively, he'll be fine.

Nessiness - My wife's character. She does complain a lot about the hours I put into the game (which are, by my own admission a lot) and at one point figured "If you can't beat em, join em." 70 Elemental Shaman. Between her and Mkristo always being around, this is one of the big reasons I never rolled a Shaman - because I invariably have one to group with when I need it!

Sklank - Joined up when I formed UFA. He's younger, so he's not on as much as I think he'd like to be, but he's a solid player. Since he plays a Priest, I'm hoping that he'll bang out those last few levels to 70 soon and I can have a consistent healer to run with.

Mokodo - Joined us not too far in and plays a Prot Warrior. Super nice guy, kind of quiet but obviously interested in learning and improving and not too far from 70. His wife plays too, but I don't think anyone of her characters is above 30. He's got a bunch of lower-level guys running around, too. I think that they're all Warriors.

Oatiesweed - We hooked up with her Paladin on a BRD run, and she's stayed around. I sometimes feel guilty that I can't do more for her, because she's probably the one in the guild (outside of me) that's most interested in raiding, but we just don't have the horses to pull it off. I'm glad that she's here, though. She's funny in Guild Chat and a good contributor for everyone.

Frostpwn - A friend of Sklank's he's got a Frost Mage and also plays his character well. He and Sklank should ding 70 pretty close to each other, and when they do it will expand our options a lot.

If we ever get it together, we can put together a decent 5-man on a regular basis. Some days, though, it feels like a mighty big "if". As much as I like our happy little family, I'm currently exploring options for places we can go to merge into another guild and open some doors for everyone involved. the trick is finding someplace that's laid back enough to be enjoyable, serious enough to put together 10- and 25-man raids, yet conscious enough of real life that they understand not everyone has a schedule for raiding. I feel like I owe it to them all.. but that's the burden of being a Guild Master. Time will tell, I guess. :)