To all the Gnomes I've punted before....

Yup, I used and old, bad, horrible joke.

      I promise that I won't rant angrily like the post before.  I am pretty calm and relaxed, and fully caffeinated, as it should be.

      My priest has finally felt the victory of having the gear to break into Throne of Thunder LFRs.  However, being valor capped for the week already, I almost feel punished sneaking into those for gear.  Go figure.  Of course, since my brain can't sit still, my Death Knight Illyrea has been telling me she needs to be leveled too... jobs are never done.

      Today, as I put up the raids for the week, I think about whether or not people are going to show up.  Not only that, I think about people who have played this game with me, who aren't here anymore.  People who have not only raided with me in the past, but have disappeared off the face of Azeroth altogether.

      Now, everyone who has played this game for any length of time has had this happen.  I know there are people I should think about here, but I don't remember for whatever reason.  This game at it's height during Wrath had about 12 million subscribers, and it is now down to 8 million.  That is roughly 1/3 the population of this game that isn't playing now.

      And for those who say that means the game is dying... well we still have several times more players then any other MMO out there.  I believe the next runner up was SWOTOR, and they peeked below 2 million, and now have less then 1 million.  That is not the discussion I am giving here though.

     Sometimes when I do that first pull, I think of tanks who had stood in my place, dpsers who have had my back, etc...  I have been members of other guilds a long time ago.  I was in Midnight (Now gone), Guardians of Light (Not 100% on the name on that one) and a couple others I don't remember.  However, I know some of my real ID friends are from those guilds back in the day.  I now pretty much stick to my home guild Fear Itself, or on horde side, Mission of Mercy.

     Oh, and for the sake of it, I have and Illyrea in AIE on Earthen Ring, and Trisham in the Convert to raid guild on Aerie Peak.  These characters exist so I can step into chat etc... with these communities that have been built around podcasts I enjoy.  I don't know if I will ever max level them.  But every now and then I like  to hear the chatter from there two groups, which are massive guilds that only exists through add ons like Greenwall etc...

     So, simply put... before that next pull.  Before you run that next LFR, life you glass of Mt. Dew, (or the beverage of your choice, I also recommend Apple Beer)  and think about those whom you have played with that are no longer in game.

     And give a wicked grin for those who come back....