With Kilanna now happily welcomed into her “new” guild, I wanted to reflect a little on yesterdays events and what they say about me.

Kilanna was invited to join her first guild by a real world friend on the day she was rolled, so it is very much part of my EQII experiences.  I have very much enjoyed every part of the time and energy I have devoted to Kilanna and the guild, and hope to continue to support them either with the occasional group on weekends or perhaps her tradeskills.  In addition, I have several alt toons that will remain in the guild and that I am very much enjoying playing.  I am sure that they will continue to contribute to the guild even as alternate characters.

Before leaving the “old” guild I spoke with the guild leader to let her know the reasons for moving my toon.  Over the 12 months that I have been part of her guild I have developed a relationship with her that I believe to be a type of friendship.  As such, I was highly concerned about hurting her feelings.  I have seen other people treat her in such a way that it has hurt her feelings over the last 6 months and did not want to do the same. 

She and I formed a group so we could talk, and as I proceeded to openly and honestly explain the situation I was struck by the depth of my emotion.  I know that we invest a lot of time into levelling our characters in MMO’s but it would appear that I have also invested at least some emotional energy into EQ II as well.  My emotion was not about my character but rather about the relationships I have developed online. 

To balance this I would like to point out that I have healthy relationships with my family and friends in the real world, hold down a decent job, have a comfortable home, and have no problem in turning off my computer for real world committments. 

So my question is this – do I need to get a life or is this emotional investment to varying degrees part of the MMO ethos of community?