Anniversaries are important, especially with MMORPGs. Celebrating the launch of a game many of us play and have come to love is important. But even more so, I've come to love celebrating the anniversary of my guild or friend group meeting and adventuring together each year.
In The Lord of the Rings Online, my Kinship is about to celebrate our 15th Anniversary. While LotRO's 15th Anniversary is this month, ours isn't until July. But it's a monumental number. Fifteen years is too few to quest with such admirable and exceptional friends. It's also much longer than any other guild I've been a part of have kept up gaming together.
My Guild in The Elder Scrolls Online has been around since launch as well, but it's more just a place for players to pool resources in one of the five guild banks you can access in the MMO. My Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft guilds have been around for a long time too, but I've only been a part of them for a few years. My LotRO Kinship though was started by myself and a friend back in 2007 as a way to find a small group of players to enjoy Middle-earth with.
And it's been fantastic throughout the years. Since then I've been married, had a child, gone through a divorce, changed jobs and more. And all the while my Kinmates were always a constant presence, able to quest, talk, and more when I needed.
Every year on the weekend around July 17th (the start date of our Kinship), we would get together and run the Rift raid in The Lord of the Rings Online. It was something that brought us a ton of joy, especially early on as it would take the whole weekend for us to run the raid. We all had jobs, real lives, and more, so getting us all online at a time wasn't ever easy. But the Rift raid was one way we knew we could.
We even started to call the Balrog in the Rift "Eruchin's Bane" after our Kinship because during the first few Anniversary runs we could not beat him.
Now, we can with our eyes closed (it doesn't hurt it's a level 50-60ish raid and we're all level 140). But it's something of a tradition to commemorate the Kinship this way.
It got me wondering, though. Is a defined guild activity like this normal for your group? Is it the same thing each year like ours has become (and that's not a complaint, mind you), or do you have something bespoke planned each year? Let us know how long you and your guild have been questing together and how you celebrate!
