Sometimes, there are some things you don’t know that you miss till they’re gone.
I suppose pouring out my heart to the general public like this is dangerous to my feelings, but that’s alright. I believe this is more than another boring population statistic, but rather a close community of friends. Anyway, I’ll continue on.
Long ago, long long ago, I wrote a blog, telling you all about my lovely guild. How we came to be, so long ago, one big group of friends forming a close-knit guild mere days after they came out. The MaskOfSmak, or MoS for short, was named for the initials of the original four’s names (Mipsacri/Arcel/Shmooki/KitsuneAyame). For the longest time, well over a year, these were my best friends, my guild mates, the people I turned to talk to! We grew and grew, till we had the max amount of members, and I knew most all of them fairly well.
I was content.
Over time, things changed, we all grew apart, and everyone began playing MS less and less. Shmooks stayed at 65, I found myself having less and less time for the computer because of work, Kitsune disappeared from the online world all together, leaving Za (known in MS as Arcel) there to level up alone.
But somehow, I was still content.
Till, a few days ago, all of that changed. For reasons I am not aware of, perhaps it was indeed time to move on, Za decided to disband MaskOfSmak. At first I thought this was outrageous, but I didn’t show it. My reasoning simply was, I do believe Za had the most say in this, he had the most effort into this, and he was our leader. If he wanted to leave, he probably has a very good reason for doing so.
Perhaps that wasn’t such a good idea. Perhaps I had the false hope that maybe if I agreed, he’d decide against it. In the end though, I thought it wouldn’t effect me, it’s just pixels, right?
So, I calmly and rather emotionlessly picked up my two million that Za owed me from originally making the guild at the FM on his way to Orbis. I encouraged him to do what he felt was right, even if I was lying, I was lying more to myself than anyone. I took a deep breath as memories flashed through my mind, moments that could never be replaced with my precious friends. Like someone waiting to be executed, I stared at the guild for a while as Za retreated to the Orbis headquarters, just standing there dumbfounded in the FM.
He paused, just before it was gone, and simply typed out ‘Again, I’m sorry.’
It was at that very moment, that very second, everything in my mind was trying to reverse it. “Stop!” I wanted to scream no, to go back in time and stop myself from agreeing to this, “No, don’t do it, just turn around and come get your money back!”;to stop him from deleting what precious memories these were to me, but it was too late.
‘This guild has disbanded.’
My heart lurched at those words, typed so bluntly on my screen. It hurt, so badly to hear that. It was a mistake, a mistake! I wanted to take it back! I wanted us to be together for longer, the MoS was supposed to be together forever!
We made a promise, when we were all high levels, we’d go hunting together. We never got to do that.
Tears welled up in my eyes and began rolling down my cheeks, and as I thought about why I was fighting back tears- it dawned on my that it wasn’t those pixels I was attached to.
It wasn’t the mesos or the characters; I didn’t care about any of that.
It was the people, the humans behind them.
My friends.
All those fun and great times we had together, they can never be re-lived. I don’t think I’d have the heart to ever join another guild again.
So we’ve all moved on, Za with his viking buddies, Shmooks with his real life friends, Kitsu, hopefully to better things. No longer do I stay up late with guild chats, having weird random, and quite hilarious conversations; nor do I have a funny little guild bunny icon under my name. It’s lonely. And thus ends another chapter in my life, a special one to me.
I’ve learned from this experience though. These things, MaskOfSmak will live on forever in my heart. My friends are still out there, and I’m sure they’re enjoying life just as much! Never forget how important friends are to you, you might not realize it until it’s too late.
Reach for the future, never give up!
~Mip
(R.I.P MaskOfSmak still pwns you!)
(This is my cheering up song, maybe it’ll cheer you up too: Sambomaster – Kore de Jiyuu ni Natta do Na)
(A little about the pictures:
1st: Christmas before this one, just having fun.
2nd: Last April/May, trying to get things together to pose for the guild screenshot contest. Obviously we didn’t win. π
3rd: Wow, this one is really old. Easter time of 2005, I think I’ve been playing for too long. :D)
A chapter ends, and another begins.
Just continue from there. And err. . .Don’t cry!
*pats back confortingly*
*sigh*
I’ve never been in a guild where I’ve actually grown familiar with the members. . except SoulSociety, but most of those people were the kind that only care about ranking and they hop onto a new server as if there’s a cholera outbreak or something. . and so Bellocan came out and it was inevitable. . me and some other person who were both guild rank 4’s were the only ones left active, and since we were only guild rank 4 we could not make it active again. .
Joined another guild, but it sucked. The leader quit after a couple of days leaving us (some idiocy by the leader meant that ALL of us were jmasters -_- total democracy never works right. .), and, after it functioned as a nameplate for a bit. .
But I suppose. Having something for a long time and then having it taken away. . hurts more than not having it in the first place.
*pats back confortingly*
T_T Yeah. I felt like that too, when my guild Genesis fell apart. I thought I’ll never leave, because I’ll stay in there to wait till everyone returns, and be ready to greet them once they do. In the end, I still left for another guild, even though it will never match up to Genesis.
But at least Genesis is still there, the active members on my BL and the leader’s character in temporary coma while he serves the nation, waiting for the time when everybody comes back. The plan then is to invite everyone back to the guild and bring in some new blood andΒ
Amazing how attached you get to people you have never met face to face before.
You can still keep in touch through the BL, right? And surely you have more than just Maple to keep in touch. :/
Cheer up soon. *hands over cookie*
I had my own guild too, Chain Of Command Regiment. I grew very close with many members. But soon, all of them went inactive and even my closest friends decided that they should take leave too. Therefore I “disbanded” my guild. That 11.5 million was worth it, the whole experience, the joy of Maple Story and most importantly, friendship.
Well, alot of them wern’t on my BL; and it’s no fun only seeing half of a conversation, you know?
That’s the downsides of BL chit-chat, you kind’ve are only talking to them half of the time. The other half is explaining to your other buddies what you’re talking about to one person. It’s not like a guild where everyone is all talking together. But this guild dismissal was a long time in coming, we had been inactive for a bit.
The thing that vaugely inkling’d my sadness was the fact that less than four hours after disbanding, Za got into the guild ‘VIVE’, an ultra-high profile guild with Shynobi in it. Kind’ve makes me wonder, you know?
Oh well, he’s a kid, it’s understandable. ^^
~Mip
(Wow, I’m getting such a response from the oldbies (and some newbies!) Thank you all very much!)
Aww, I feel sad. =[ I hope PyroTales doesn’t disband; there are lots of nice people in it, and we all have fun.
Well, feel better soon!
Omg! I’m going so freaking emo right now! One of my guildmates, just passed away, in real life! She was still very young and had a prominent and bright future ahead of her. At least you still get to keep contact with your ex-guildmates =(. Wow, I’m really crying, now.
Haha. Most of Genesis left in the first place to join another guild. High-profile ones, ones with people in their time zones, strange ones with weird misspelt names (‘Beauties’, anyone?). . . I don’t think anyone holds it against anyone though, because we know that it is inevitable.
And BL chat is madness, but that’s the fun part. ^^ Sometimes, people get so irritated with just seeing half a conversation that they add each other and wham, mini-guild chat. XD
*sighs again* I’ve never seen a guild chat message in ages, and last Friday was the first time in 3 months that more than 1 person on my buddy list was on at one time.
I’d forgotten what it was like to explain to one person that I’m talking to another.
Looks like I’m not making any friends any time soon. I already decided to quit Maple until May, at the earliest.
How I miss the good old days of the Ludi PQ. May not have been good experience-wise, but you actually meet people. But now, AC and idiots dominate PQ -_-
omg thats so sad,
its almost like my story but the guild wasn’t disbanded.
My like best buddy in the ms left the guild we were in, and i hate talking in buddy exactly because of the reason that you don’t know the other half of the convo. He left because of the Guild Leader though. i was so sad when i saw “Pyracross has quitted the guild” TT_TT but we still do stuff together sometimes,
Man, I didn’t think anyone would feel this way about having their guild disbanded,
I’m sure, however, that I would feel the same way if my guild would be disbanded. I’ll try to keep that from happening, for I am it’s leader.
But somehow, I just feel as if this is the inevitable fate of all guilds big and small.
I feel sorry for you guys that you miss your friends.
I know how good it is to have some,
The Ninja was right, Mip.
I was once in the guild ‘Naruto’ somebody i made a trade from basilmarket with told me they needed one more person to make a guild, so i joined. The guild was a great thing, i wasn’t a jr. master only because of my low level, and lack of game experience. We’d get a new member almost everyday, and when we’d run out of room, we’d get an expansion. But then the guild was too big. No more expansions. So the people who were in our guild got along, we’d train together, and when we got an equip that we couldn’t use, we’d give it to a guild mate who needed it the most. But then one thing happened that pulled the whole guild apart. the leader went inactive. Let’s get a guild symbol, we have enough money finnally! The guild leaders inactive tho, and the worst part was, two of the 3 jr. masters left the guild when they heard the news. and the other one turned evil and left to see us struggle. So for another month and a half, we continued on with our lives ignoring the guild, but staying in just because, no one had accepted that the guild would fall apart. Every time it would say “blank” has quitted the guild, we’d all feel sad inside and reminded about our good memories, and how they were all gone. But one day, the guild leader logged on. everyone who had stayed in, he turned into a jr. master. And then he annouced that he’d quit maplestory because of his job and school. So he left the guild in my hands. it stayed like that for a long time, we’d make new memories, and we’d support eachother through quests, and give away equips. Then when it seemed as though everything was better again, everybody went inactive as the school year began, also when i found out most of the guild mates were going to high school, and wouldn’t have time to play. So i went on, the only guild member to ever be on for the next few weeks, and letting people in, just didn’t seem right any more. So, just to erase the memories, I left for good, and Naruto was no more.
That’s my story.
So sad. Even sadder is this picture. link Perhaps some of you will recognize it. Others might not.
I’d bet Mip does though. It’s the one of the few mementos left of our guild. Even still, my memory has faded to just who everyone is. If any of you know, I ask you to speak out.
Peri: Woah, where did you get that from? More specifically, who are you anyway? That’s Kitsu’s art, I can tell that anywhere, and yes, I do recognize alot of that. o_o Ouch, memories sting a bit, but, I’m glad you showed me that, thank you.
~Mip
I saw you on Bera once. STR Bandit right?
Awesome.
Im so emo right now too,
heavenbound, is my guild, and it was seriously hit by a storm of people leaving a month aago
so i can relate to what your feeling
I didn’t disband MoS to join Vive with all the higher levels, I promise you that Mip. I just didn’t like looking at an empty screen when I opened guild. And a friend was kind enough to let me join.
Again, if I haven’t said it enough, I’m truly sorry. We can still chit chat in buddy, no? <3 It won’t be the same, but it’s still chit chat. D:
Two of my best friends, scratch that, my TWO and only BEST friends left.
one because of a smega his mom caught, the other because she found a ‘better’ game.
I’m sticking with maple. period.
This is a quite different from the topic, but if you don’t have any where to go, my guild will take you in with open arms. I am master so Jr. mastery is immedite if you have more then 2 mil (You don’t have to give me anything, just show me in cash)
The name is Merchants and it is in BROA
@Min: Thank you for the offer, but no thanks. I’m in Bera, and I’m not looking for another guild, it just wouldn’t be right. ^^
~Mip
Yay, Mip is finally back!
But Mos is gone >_<
Well, of course every cloud does have a silver lining. . . no?
Let’s see if you can find the silver lining along this dark gray cloud, hopefully, you will.
Someday. . .
Ahh. . . Mip. Sorry that your guild got disbanned. Personally I wouldn’t really know what’s it like to loose a guild that means something. Most of the guilds I joined. . . I only left five minutes later. However I am in one guild. Very active, at all times. Everyday. I don’t talk much and they hardly know who I am. They just say ‘Oh! That’s Tenan’s friend” or “Hey that’s *suchandsuch* girl” etc. Most of them know about BasilMarket. VERY VERY few know about MMOTales. Everyone in the guild is from Game FAQ’s Board of MapleStory. So they know me as the Collage Maker. : Some title huh?
But yeah. . . Don’t feel bad. Because one day, you neven know, when MaskofSmak might come back. And if it doesn’t. revive it!
Some people can go through the online world, beleiving they have no friends, or that those friends are not real simply because they are pixelated. But if you spend enough time with those people and get to know them so they become friends you share good times with and bad, then that is something truely beautiful. It will hurt, having precious memories taken away but remember, there just that, memories. Although the guild that birthed those memories may be gone, the memories them self are still very much intact, in your mind and in your guild members.
You can sit there and remember, but don’t try to hard, because in the end, you may end up forgetting.
You owe it to yourself and to your guild mates to remember the good times.
Thats, so depressing. -sob-
When our leader wanted to quit, I told him flat out to grow some -ehem-, and that if he ever disbanned the guild, I would muder him in the first degree (we know each other in real life, which made that threat even more effective ;P).
You’ll find another guild someday. Thanks to an invite from my friend, my lone khaini character joined a guild full of Brazilians who hardly speak engrish, and I’m having the time of my life π
Well, I kinda know how you feel Mip. HeavenBound for me though.
We all just move on with life, and keep the good memories within.
Mip, I feel the same. Even though the game is filled with pixels, the memories that we carry are not. That’s was most important, right? Besides we’ll be together once again. *tear drops* Like if you need anything come and ask me. Its what we’re here for, friends till the end. I’m the mage that did Meditation in the Kerning picture.
~Shadow (Ex MoS member) RIP MoS, long live its lovely memories that will stay in our hearts.