Fluff
Apparently, our WoW guild meetups are a tradition now
Last year I posted here about our first proper guild meetup. I wasn't really sure why I was sharing it at the time, other than being genuinely proud that a bunch of people who originally met through World of Warcraft had somehow turned into an actual community outside the game.
Well… we did it again.
From August 27th to 30th, Equilibrium Celestials got together for our second official guild meetup - four days away from WoW, Discord, M+ score and damage meters, and four days of actually spending time together in the same place.
And somehow, the second year felt even more special.
Once again, people travelled from all over to make it happen, some covering hundreds of kilometres just to spend a few days with people they originally knew as character names on a screen. We booked the place in advance, planned the whole weekend and managed to get a pretty damn good part of the guild together.
We also took things a little further this year.
We had our own competitions, games and challenges throughout the meetup, complete with prizes and rewards. Some were competitive, some were ridiculous, and some probably made a lot more sense after a few drinks. There was plenty of food, late-night conversations, endless inside jokes and, naturally, enough WoW talk to make it obvious that none of us actually escaped Azeroth for the weekend.
But honestly, the organised stuff wasn't even the best part.
It's the weird little moments in between. Sitting around doing absolutely nothing. Hearing people laugh about something that happened in a dungeon months ago. Finally putting real faces, voices and personalities together without a headset in between. Watching people who live hundreds of kilometres apart interact like they've known each other forever.
That's probably the coolest thing about running a guild for me.
WoW is ultimately just a game. Servers will eventually go offline, expansions come and go, metas change, people reroll, guilds disband and characters we've spent thousands of hours playing will one day just sit there untouched.
But some of the people you meet along the way stay.
When I started this community, I definitely wasn't thinking that one day we'd be booking accommodation, travelling across countries and organising real-life guild competitions together.
Yet here we are.
Second meetup done. Four days together. One hell of a group of people. And apparently, this is a tradition now.
I still don't really know why I'm posting this on Reddit.
Nostalgic, our guild used to do the same thing for many years (since mid/end of vanilla)…we’ve all gone our separate ways but what an amazing time those were!
It’s sad but so true, in the early wow days, I want to say vanilla - tbc, maybe wrath, guild meet ups were a very common occurrence, by that time a lot of guilds have spent YEARS playing with one another, you damn near became extended family
I was in a guild from end of vanilla to wrath, and were still all on the same FB group, many of us don’t play anymore and life goes on, but it’s still nice to see the old gang every now and again
I was mid at deeps but damn I was a walking first aid clinic with my holy priest…virtually unkillable, was so fun…..later on was a great DH tank….ahhh damnit im gonna get sucked back into playing this drug!!! :DDD
Honestly same! Some guildies managed to make it to my husband and I’s wedding last year. Of course we had a WoW themed wedding as it was how we met and yeah, it was surreal trying to put faces to the voices I’ve heard for over 7 years. ❤️
That’s awesome, I’ve been in the same guild since launch. A lot of people have disappeared over the years and we all kinda dropped off from Warcraft last expansion. I’m still trucking going solo until they decide to come back. We will talk on discord tho.
Yeah the picture has some people from my husband and I’s original guild and the rest are the guild we are currently in. It was really nice having both “families” there 🥹
Man I wish all guild meetups were like this.
Mine had a meetup of about 8-9 players in EU, and the result of it was the guild imploding a day later. Ended up having to find a guild with a week to go on the patch because of it.
I would very much like to know myself, it was never explained, people just started leaving guild one after the other till we lost like 8 core roster raiders.
But the little context I could gather from what was being said on discord, it would seem it was over a girl in the guild who might've done something stupid with someone while being with another.
Guild went on a 1 week break from lura p3 prog so those 8 people could meet up, just for it to end that way.
I wish it wasn't that stereotypical, but i think unfortunately it most certainly was.
So unnecessary too, we could've just finished the tier out before they paused for any vacation. Then again, the entire tier was just bad decisions galore, so in the end I just accepted it.
Same. My OG guild did a meet up back in 2005 or so and it was a blast. My current guild does one annually, but I'm just not tight with them. I log in, raid, log out. They're good people, but it's not the same.
God I wish I got to meet some of the people I was in guilds with. Sadly many stopped playing years ago and I just have a graveyard for a friends list that shows me how many years it’s been since many have logged back in.
You guys look like such a cool and happy group of gamers coming together. Such a blast from the past to see this tradition kept going, even tho I unfortunately never had something like this in the past. Enjoy the game and time spend together, your guild is awesome!
Thank you so much ! Yes, we are literally highly compatible. This, and few others who unfortunately could not make it to meetup, are core of the guild and we, despite almost 1000kms between some of us, love each other so so much. No matter age, our oldest guy on meetuo was 41, youngest were 19 and they were talking and laughing together whole time.
I miss my giant old guild from Vanilla. We used to run the largest guild on the server and it was strictly RP based Horde guild on Feathermoon (RP). That was before social media so its hard tk find those people.
This looks amazing and I am super jealous. I'm glad you made it an annual event. Cheers!
My guild has been doing this for about 10ish years now (we didn't meet up during the pandemic). It is always great to get faces to names. We always have a great time.
One of my fondest memories was stuffing my entire PC full of clothes and then packing it (monitor and all) into a luggage for a flight from Florida to Minnesota for our meetups back in Vanila/TBC.
We would pack all of us into our GM’s Dad’s (who also played) basement and raided together. It was one of the best “LAN” parties ever.
Last year was our guilds first year doing a similar guild gathering. In Sept we will have our second annual gathering and the whole gang is looking forward to it. We also did prizes and games and even had an instructional class doing WoW themed cookie decorating.
This year we have minifig painting lined up and the event is extended an extra day this year. Our guild formed in 2009 and some of us have been playing together since then. We regret we waited so long for this gathering.
It’s really awesome to see your guild doing this and is a reminder in the world of internet toxicity there are pockets of wholesome awesomeness.
Same here! I host a guild meetup every other year and we get a really good turn out of about 11-15 people each time. It certainly has been a whirlwind running my guild and never did I think we'd make lifelong friends out of it but I'm so glad we have.
👍 also have a Finnish only guild that does meets twice a year, we rent a cabin for week and enjoy Booze, food, board games card games, watch movies, have regular beerbong championships and other tournaments (only gotten a game music quiz award from last years summer so far 😅, too many good beer bong players..) First time i went was 2020, been on every meet since.
Did this with some folks in an EQ guild, and weirdly even one time the guy who was running a MUD that I had been playing for over a decade, invited a bunch of us players to his house, he even raffled off a flight for someone who was out of state to get to come out for free.
Love seeing these kinds of posts. After 20 years of playing I finally found a really good guild that actually cares. We've played together a couple years now and were basically like a little family. Unfortunately not all of our schedules lined up this year but a bunch of us are going to Blizzcon together this year! Cant wait!
My guild does this too. Our first meet up was in 2022 and we've been doing it once a year since. The first one was a bit nerve wracking bc you never know how its going to go but it was awesome and I look forward to it every year, our next one is in a few weeks.
Enjoy it ! Are you planina on some activities? Me as GuM and my wife bought Meccha Chameleon figures (3d printed) for every member and they painted it and hid. Then, everyone was searching for other figures and took photos of them. Best Hunter and Best hidden char got rewards !
We are gonna be meeting up in a tourist area this year. And I know they have some things planned out. We almost always play cards against humanity and board games of some type.
every guild since vanilla for me has been toxic, starts out great but just ends up toxic or silent. guess we are all not meant to experince the "group feel" of the game. ive been solo now for a couple of years and have had a better time than sitting in a guild.
A similar thing happened to me and my friend group, we all met in lethal company, a year later we met up for valley fair, this year we met up for an unfortunate reason, but we all met because of a game. Don't understand the ability for a game to be the catalyst behind you finding a group of awesome people
For those of you who did not go to your high school reunion, or are in the midst of contemplating going, but fear that the event would be too overwhelming.
The elation and joy that a guild meet up can unleash inside of your feelings, for many days - even weeks afterwards, is in many ways similar to what some people feel that do find the courage to attend their high school reunion, especially when they have a lot of trepidation about attending the event.
If you have an opportunity to attend a guild meet up, or your reunion, and are not sure you want to go, do yourself a favor and go.
Just go, because it will help you overcome a lot of obstacles and stress that you might not even realize you were holding onto.
I had something like this growing up!!! It was such a formative community-building experience and I hope to achieve something like it again. It’s so so so heartwarming to see other guilds doing the same thing 💕
Yes!! Our guild meets up every two years, and we always vote on the place to give everyone a chance to make it! So glad you get to make those memories with your guild.
Congrats guys that's awesome :) We've just actually done our 20th! From our Vanilla guild on Doomhammer-EU even though none of us play any more. Here's to many more years :)
Probably because you put many years into a game that you know, willhave no tangible reward when you power it down. But now maybe you’ve built something beyond that.
Hey now. I've played WoW off and on since 2006, and I started EVE Online the same year and played until 2015 or so. Even made it as far as being an AT commentator twice and going to Iceland. There are a few of us who wander between the two games!
*I am not in this photo, this is not my guild, I'm just another random EVE veteran who plays WoW
Love it. My guild from vanilla is still together, though of course people have come and gone over the years. We still have a core group that you expect to see log on in the evenings when new content comes out. There's a married couple who met through the guild as well as several folks who have brought their partners or children into WoW and who now play with us too. Back in the day we did some meetups but haven't done one in ages.
Relationships built through gaming are stronger than people realize. Two guys I played EVE Online with for a decade heard I was getting married and flew themselves out from Europe (I live in the US) to crash my wedding. I had never met them in person before. I just got a message from them one day asking when and where the wedding was, then a few hours later an itinerary forwarded to me showing flights from Sweden/Croatia to my city around those dates. Crazy fuckers.
Love everything about this!!! Thanks for sharing. I’ve met many of my WoW buddies over the years, never a large meetup though, that would be the dream.
This is magical. Can’t help by mention Bro 2nd on the left is getting sores on his ankles most likely from diabetes / unhealthy eating while gaming a lot. If he wants to be the dad/uncle/grandpa who can do things, he needs to make a big change really soon.
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u/Megatto95 Aug 30 '26
You should recreate the photo in-game so we can see what characters you all play.