In our last episode, our fearless adventurers were facing the dreaded Soa!
This is the final installment of my thank you series to the Mercy Gaming Community. This one may be a little schizophrenic, but I want to get it all in.
I used to be a very solo oriented gamer. I never really wanted to put myself out there and get to know people. The odd thing is, I always used to complain to my wife that there just weren’t too many people I knew that were interested in the same things as me. I guess I just got turned off by the couple of times I tried to go out on a limb and find some like minded people. I met up with some people to play pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons one time. I found them on a D&D forum. That ended badly. I tried to go to a local collectible gaming store to play Warhammer miniatures. That also ended poorly. I guess I just assumed there were no “normal” people out there that were into the same things that I was. In truth, I just didn’t look hard enough.
Like any other gathering of people the folks who make up Mercy Gaming come from all walks of life. We have people with white collar jobs and people who are in college. We represent both genders and a number of different races, creeds, ages and even countries (looking at you Ms. T.). What makes this community work? In a word … Respect. The people who log into the games, forums and vent channels all have a mutual respect for each other. Many of us know each other on a first name basis and have each other’s personal email addresses and even phone numbers. We are accountable to each other and therefore show each other respect. Does that mean we don’t aggravate each other from time to time? Not at all. But it means that instead of calling each other names and screaming at each other before logging out of a game or vent, we simply go our separate ways and give each other a break. It works!
As most people know, Star Wars: The Old Republic has seen its struggles. Unfortunately, our IMC/RMC guild was not immune to this. Gamers left to go play other games, folks left to join other guilds, and a war of attrition was fought and ultimately lost. To log into SWTOR at any given moment as an IMC or an RMC guildee you will most often find yourself alone. Did this game deserve the fate it has? Who knows, but it saddens me to see our guild so empty.
But as most things that fight to survive, the IMC/RMC SWTOR guild adapted and became the Mercy Gaming community. What do we play? To put it plainly, whatever we want! We have people like @Doubleunder who helped found the guild and is avidly playing GW2. Raeban even stops by now and again to play with him. We have people like @Tarantella who had her fill with SWTOR very early, but loves The Secret World and WoW (and rumor has it Pandas!). We have Maric & @MMOGC who play everything it seems! We have @JVC920 who is the worlds wealthiest man measured in digital currency and who is always chatting it up in vent. Musei, Mr MMOGC, @RyanHVND, Trent, Chris “Mr. Sparkle Powder” Zypher, Pat and so many more. These are my friends. They make any game fun just by simply playing it together. The IMC/RMC may be shadows of their former selves, but the spirit of what was formed back then lives on.
Some days I don’t log into vent at night. But this is the exception to the norm. I have a group of kindred spirits that I know and care about. I might not know them if I saw them on the street, but as soon as they say hello in vent my face lights up because I know I am with friends.
Thank you Mercy Gaming for giving me a home, for giving me a place to belong and be around people who have the same interests as me. We might not all be playing the same game anymore, but our relationships transcend SWTOR and become more about each other and less about the games.
This is the conclusion of my story, yet it really is not.
Have fun in your games, and find friends to share it with!
-Pid