A Tribute

[Basil Dreadflint]

A TRIBUTE

Background
When I first started playing POTCO, I had no idea how big it was, how many people there were, how popular the game was. Within minutes of signing in, I was hooked. Over the next few weeks, I found many good friends and some of these are still my friends. Eventually I found a guild that I really enjoyed being a part of and these people became my ingame family. Alas, that guild died out shortly after the re-release of the Pearl Boss Battle. I was alone again. For 3 weeks I was the only person in that guild.

Quite by accident, I found another guild, and they seemed to be pretty alive and vibrant, so I asked if I could join. This was in late March, 2008. The Elite Circle became my new home in-game. In June, I had an idea, to create a 'sister' guild which would be only for players that had already achieved a level of mastery. The new guild would be for their second, third, or even fourth pirate. A place where experienced players could get together and help each other relearn the game.

It took 3 tries to get a name, and eventually only by mispelling it could I get it approved. Dueces for the fact that it was for 'second' pirates, Wild for how we were going to play the game. Initially, Dueces Wild only had about 5 or 6 members, but they came in from all different guilds. At about the same time, the guildmaster of TEC went missing. The senior officers held the guild together very well, and the guild, TEC, continued to operate. For over 3 months they ran this way.

By September, it became obvious that the GM wasn't ever coming back, and that something had to be done if the group was going to continue. After a few discussions, it was decided that the best thing to do was to move all of the TEC members over to DW, and so that is what was done. Dueces Wild became the new guild, and wasn't just for second pirates any longer. After the move, DW had about 60 members. Dueces has grown and prospered.


TRIBUTE
During all that time, I was always in awe of certain of the larger guilds. Mostly, they were just names to me, stories that I heard. One of them was the War Wenches. They were a long established guild, pretty large. Stories about them and their antics were everywhere. I considered making a female pirate just to ask to join the Wenches, but never did.

Late last year, during the time period when the FIRST big batch of players started to leave the game, the Wenches started to lose members. Eventually, they fell to the point where they only had a fraction of their members playing. The core players. Eventually, their GM, Bella, came to the Dueces and asked if we would be willing to accept the remaining members of War Wenches as members of DW. We were thrilled to have them, and at the same time appalled that such a successful guild as WW would be placed in such a position. Most of the remaining Wenches moved their Pirates into DW.

One decision that was made was that Bella, and Piper, and maybe one or two others, would remain in WW. They would bring in second, or third, pirates to DW, where they could play. They would leave thier main toon in WW and keep the WW guild name alive and active in the event that Disney would release new material, improve the game, do SOMETHING that may entice the old timers that had left to return. In other words, DW would become a temporary home to the Wenches, until their members came back.

Last night, Dueces Wild held a private party to celebrate their 1 year anniversary as a guild. We ended the event at our usual place, and were having a really fun evening. Without warning, Bella came in as Bellatrix, (WW GM) and declared that she was moving her to Dueces. My immediate reaction was one of extreme sadness. For her, for the War Wenches, and for the game itself. To remove the Guild Master of such a well known guild is an admission of the state of the game. I could hear the sadness among others in the game. I even told Bella that I would bring her in, guild her, but that it hurt to do so.

I think that, when the War Wenches logo left Bella's name, at least 6 officers of DW hit the guild invite button. We will never know who exactly guilded her into DW.
Sawyer then went and brought Piper over.
Thus officially ending the War Wenches.

The War Wenches may no longer have a GM, and will play no more as a guild, but they will live on in the players and in the Dueces Wild guild. It is our honor to have them.

This is a tribute to the War Wenches, and to all the other large and successful guilds out there that have gone away.


I have compiled a list of guilds that, at one time, held a place on the leaderboards, but no longer exist. I know that there are MANY more than those that I have listed. I will gladly add names to this, if people ask me to, (PM please, don't fill the thread with guild names.) but I want it to be solely for those guilds that were large and well known. The guild had to be on the Top 100 list at one time.

War Wenches
The Elite Circle (Now Dueces Wild)
Bad To The Bonez (BTTB)
The Dolls
Partners In Crime (PIC)
Dragon
The Pirates Templar
Unguilded Valor
Tortugan Terror


Gone, but not Forgotten.