How Much Would You Sacrifice for Guild?

Every single player that has ever raided or PvPed or did anything that is based on a schedule in game has sacrificed for their guild.  Sure it might not seem like it when you are home on a tuesday night anyway so what is the big deal to log in to raid, you were going to be there anyway.  But do not let it fool you, at some point, even if you only raid when you really had nothing to do otherwise, you are still sacrificing something for the betterment of your guild.  Your time.

Have you ever been tired and did not feel like playing but because it was raid night you played anyway?  Ever not been feeling well but still stepped it up for your arena team?  Ever wanted to watch something on TV but figured you would just watch it later so you could make a guild event?

Think back, I am sure if you are a good team player there are times you have sacrificed for your guild.  Where would you draw the line however?

Even something as seemingly simple as a guild treasurer sacrifices a lot for their guild.  Even if they are the type of person that likes to play the auction house and they enjoy doing so, when they are doing it for the guild cycling things out of the guild bank they are not doing it for themselves.  Every minute they spend making money for the guild is a minute they are not making money for themselves.  Do you ever give your guild treasurer the thanks he/she deserves for keeping the bank clean and keeping the gold flowing in?  Well, you should, because they are sacrificing their time and using their skills for you and everyone else in your guild.

I've often said here, more so it seems at the beginning of each expansion, I sacrifice for my guild.  I tank or I heal when I would rather be there on my hunter with fluffy at my side but if I am needed to tank, I tank.  I make sure to have a tank geared as best as I can for an alt just so if I am needed I can help the guild.  Do I enjoy playing it, sure, but that does not mean I am not sacrificing for the betterment of the guild when I would rather be there on my hunter.

I am not a huge PvP fan, I think I have said that before, but I have ran with players in guild because they needed a partner.  I spun it in my own mind as I can use this as a chance to get better at it and while that might hold true it is more a case of doing it to keep a guild member happy, and more importantly, in the guild and happy.  This is a case a little further down the line of how much one might sacrifice of themselves by doing something that they are not really completely into doing.

My guild has always been a helpful guild and we think nothing of it.  Someone new comes in and needs help and there is always someone that is willing to step up and help them with their class and spec.  To help them with the gems and enchants if they can not afford them on their own, often at their own cost using their own materials.  I've even seen guild members go to the auction house and buy stuff for people just so they would be ready and not ask for a single thing in return.  Most might just think of it as people being helpful but it is sacrificing a little for the guild even if it does not seem that way.

Recently being things have been a little blah with recruiting myself and a few others have been pugging some heroics so we can get more experience figuring that with some additional heroic experience it will make recruiting easier.  It would definitely be easier to recruit when the core team is further along, and while we are still missing tanks, it is not going to happen in guild at the moment.  Not to mention pugging make us stronger so we can carry newer people through the content on normal to gear them up so they can catch up that much easier. 

This is not sacrifice you might say because you are getting something out of it in terms of further progression, but have you ever pugged heroics?  Hit and miss usually, but even when you grab a hit where you walk in and one shot bosses you still need to deal with the gay remarks, racist remarks, and over all poor behavior that peoples mothers should have taught them better than to talk about in mixed company.  It might not be something you feel is insulting to you or that you are sacrificing of yourself subjecting yourself to that, but to sit there and have to read this or listen to this is a great self sacrifice to me but I do it for the betterment of the guild.

When SoO first came out and in the weeks and months that followed I reached my limit for self sacrifice.  We started running two flex runs a week, the 25 man, the main 10 man two nights a week and another 10 man weekend run that sometimes went two nights as well.  When the third 10 man popped up that meant I was raiding 7 nights a week on most weeks when really all I wanted to do was two nights for the main 10 man and maybe a flex night for alts.  But the guild needed me, if I was not on to lead the group, or not on to fill in because we needed a tank or a healer or another damage dealer, the run did not happen and then guild morale would fall.  So I had not choice, I could not take a night off, like it or not, I had to be on and I had to be willing to run the group if the person I had put in charge of it were not there.

It started to make me burnt out.  Even if we only raided 2 hours a night that was a lot more raiding for me, I had never run with a schedule like that before.  It was not the 2 hours a night that got me, but the 7 days a week that did.  Sure I might pop on and play at least a little every day, but there is a difference between that and having enough raid ready characters for that many groups and to lead them and their variously skilled players and getting all my characters ready for it because I never knew which one I would need.

Sometimes you just have to say enough is enough.  I was, still am, completely burnt out.  In some strange sort of way on the inside I was glad when things started to fall apart and we decided to scrap the 25.  I was glad when the majority of players that were raiding said they did not really feel like doing the flex runs any longer.  I was somewhat glad when the second and occasional third 10 man fell apart.  I could go back to raiding one or two nights a week.  A nice and easy casual schedule.

That was what I call my height of sacrificing self for the guild.  I gave all my time, even if I did not want to, to help the guild expand but in the end it took too much of my own time from me.  I could no longer play the game.  Every free second in the game was about raiding, getting ready for it, helping people get ready for it, working with new recruits, balancing teams and who would run what night.

I play a lot, but I do not play that much.  I could not do it and I reached the point where as much as I wanted to do it, it was sacrificing too much.  Too much of my time, too much of myself.

I know it is a hard question to answer because many people do not even notice all the things they do for their guild.  I never think anything of helping someone with knowledge, or gems or enchants, at my own expense, but that is all sacrifice.  For me however, the ultimate sacrifice, the one that became too much for me, was the sacrifice of my time to where I never had any time to play for myself any longer.  I learn something new each expansion and this expansion taught me my limits on how much of myself I could give.

How much would you sacrifice for your guild?