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Thursday, January 08, 2009 - Adam aka "Lunarstorm"
Welcome to the GNV Home Page!
Welcome! Happy 2009! We're a small online gaming group that has been around for over 10 years; we're currently active in multiple online games, e.g. World of Warcraft, Warhammer, and Lord of the Rings Online. But instead of discussing in-game details or posting screenshots of our gnome armies, here's a letter written by Greg, prior to our acceptance into the Warhammer beta program. I think it does a great job of explaining what we're about.
"10 years, 100 Player, 100,000 hours, 1,000,000 Laughs"
Over a bottle of home-brew, a dear guildmate once said, ... in the end, life isn't only your experiences, but those with whom you shared those experiences."
I thought back to those words as I stood over Bob's coffin. They had been spoken at his bi-yearly meet & greet prior to his aneurysm. I looked around the room and I had to smile through my tears as each came to pay their respects. We were men and women from all over the world, from all different backgrounds and of all ages. Each of us brought together as family though gaming, and now to celebrate the life of one of our own...
This October, GNV celebrated its 10th anniversary as a guild. Born in Ultima Online, GNV travels to new virtual worlds, when the proper time presents itself, seeking adventure and laughter. Over these past ten years, we have grown to 35 guild members, and are continuing our in-game success in both raiding and reputation. Through forming numerous friendships, we pride ourselves in spearheading the opening of new content to those whom would be cast aside by a typical raiding guild.
While many guilds can claim the same "in-game" success as we, very few are able to maintain our stature for such a long time. GNV has many core values that contribute to our longevity that I know will be valuable to Mythic. Our biggest being that we never forget that there is another person behind the computer screen. Within the guild, each one of us knows every member and the vast majority of our raiding-friends by name. This real one on one relationship enables us to coordinate, motivate, and celebrate each and every moment of our in-game success. Also, our behavior and escapades are infectious across all the servers we've ever been on (we had a GM in Everquest turn one of our dwarf paladins into gnome cause our running gag was so well known). You know you're doing something right when members from high-end raiding guilds ask to join your ranks because they want to feel part of something more.
GNV has always brought people together, and I can guarantee we will find a way to bring those in Beta together. Be it public quests, realm defense, stress-testing encounters, or just sitting around a campfire telling stories; GNV will be leading the way both in-game and out. Our members are Ph.D's, military, house wives, actors, computer techs, students, seniors citizens, high school principals, programmers, reporters, and graphic artists. The developers of WAR have an indispensable tool in GNV if they so choose to use it. These games are important parts of our lives, and we would love the opportunity to help make WAR into the home so many guilds hope it will be. Many of our favorite memories revolve around DAoC and Mythic, so our hearts will be fully vested.
When those outside of the guild ask me what GNV is all about, I like to mention that each year we travel around 10,000 miles to share stories and drinks with each other face to face. Even the family and friends who don't game come to join us. We've been there for birthdays, weddings, child births, and funerals. In the end, Origin, Sony, Blizzard, and Mythic will turn off their servers, but GNV will live on . . . just like Bob has.
Thank you for reading, and we look forward to working and gaming with you!
Tuesday, April 08, 2008 - Adam aka Lunarstorm
Illidan down to GNV and Friends!
I must admit, I briefly hesitated before declaring that Illidan's death was imminent. I thought "Could I jinx us? Will I feel like a dork for such a bold declaration if we stumble and just can't get him down for weeks? Or months? Or what if our small, scrappy crew starts to burnout and we just can't do it?"
As you probably know, there's a well known, well established, longtime raiding guild on our server who has been at the Illidan boss stage of BT for much longer than us. As of this writing, they haven't killed him. Who's to say that we'll fare better and kill him only a couple of weeks after seeing him for the first time?
All the above aside, I'm pleased to say that the crew came through. Less than 24 hours after I posted that his death was imminent, we killed Illidan. Although it's not a competition, it's interesting to note that our casual raiding crew is the third organization on the server to accomplish the feat.
Needless to say, we're all thrilled to reach this milestone. Stay tuned for screenshots.
Monday, April 07, 2008 - adam english
Illidan's death is imminent.
Despite repeated reminders and urgings to post updates of our raiding group's success, this site has been sorely neglected. Screenshots should be posted soon. but in the meantime, here is some text...
This update is dedicated to two distinct groups:
1. The leadership of GNV and Friends. Those who have continuously for months dealt with the headaches of slotting and attendance, DKP, strats, resist gear, etc etc.
Although multiple people have contributed, the single person who has perhaps contributed the most is Droknar. Our progress speaks for itself, but his contributions as both a raid lead and a main tank have been enormous.
2. Though each individual who contributes to our kills deserves credit, this thanks goes to the gamers who have been able to stick through it from the beginning. This "Thank you!" is for those select players who were able to persevere and stick through it all. This is for those who raided with us from Gruul's through SSC. From TK through Hyjal and finally, now, the Black Temple.
Even though every level 70 player now can enter Hyjal and The Black Temple, it was due to the above two groups' diligence that we got there in server record time and will soon defeat a major character in WoW lore: Illidan.
In closing: thank you! I'm glad I was able to be a part of it all. Although it's been a long road, and it sounds like some will hang up their WoW weapons after Illidan's death, I think we can all agree: it's been some of the best gaming, ever.
-Lunarstorm
