Armed Forces is September's Guild of the Month
by Alex Ziebart 
Oct 19th 2009 at 4:00PM
October's Guild of the Month contest is still in progress, but right now it's time to announce our September winner. September's Guild of the Month is Armed Forces, a guild composed of United States military personnel stationed overseas, and they'll be walking away with a $100 SwagDog gift certificate. After being selected as our winner, Armed Forces was given the opportunity to write something about their guild that's a little more robust than the 200 word maximum contest entry. So rather than trying to tell you about them myself, I'll hand the reigns over to someone far more capable: A member of the guild.
Origins
Armed Forces was an idea that myself (Drahk) and our guild leader (Xertraz) had been toying with for a while. We are a collective group of members of the US Military, contractors and civilians stationed overseas. We had both been stationed overseas a few times before and the inability to raid with your guild because of the time differences has always been a huge problem. After discussing the issue we decided to take matters into our own hands and create a place that people like ourselves would have a home to come to that had like-minded people and raid times that suited them. Also, with the new ability to switch factions, it has made it even easier for people join up. So Armed Forces was born. In the beginning it was just a small group of Hordies on a small military base in England. But as word spread to other bases on the island we were able to recruit more into the fold. Before long we were able to recruit people stationed in mainland Europe as well. As people began to ship out to other over seas assignments they took on the challenge of recruiting people stationed in other countries.
Origins
Armed Forces was an idea that myself (Drahk) and our guild leader (Xertraz) had been toying with for a while. We are a collective group of members of the US Military, contractors and civilians stationed overseas. We had both been stationed overseas a few times before and the inability to raid with your guild because of the time differences has always been a huge problem. After discussing the issue we decided to take matters into our own hands and create a place that people like ourselves would have a home to come to that had like-minded people and raid times that suited them. Also, with the new ability to switch factions, it has made it even easier for people join up. So Armed Forces was born. In the beginning it was just a small group of Hordies on a small military base in England. But as word spread to other bases on the island we were able to recruit more into the fold. Before long we were able to recruit people stationed in mainland Europe as well. As people began to ship out to other over seas assignments they took on the challenge of recruiting people stationed in other countries.
Currently
We have people stationed in countries all over the world that can now see high end raid content that they might have missed out on due to being stationed overseas while serving our country. These countries currently include South Korea, Japan, Qatar, Turkey, Iraq, Germany, Belgium, England and Bahrain. We are a predominantly a casual raiding guild with a core set of hard core raiders lead by our raid leader (Perturabo) that make the way for progressions sake.
Some of the hidden benefits that we have found are that the people we recruit have a higher level of attention to detail, due in parts to prior military training, which can make for a great raiding mindset. Our members always know that the mission comes first so when real life takes a turn for the worst and it interferes with the game, nobody gets upset. It has also created a good support community for our guys down range as they are playing with people that have been in their shoes already and know what they're going through.
For the (Horde) Future
Our goals for the future are to expand the guild to where we can split into regional raiding groups consisting of Middle East, European, and Asian. We would like to see Armed Forces grow in size and provide an even larger foot print to further ease the raiding times for those spread out around the world and separated from the ones they love. WoW is just one of the few things we have that we can take with us and sometimes taking down that one boss that has been killing your raid for weeks is just the stress reliever you may need to keep you going through the tough times.
More importantly than the game itself, Armed Forces provides military and civilians alike a place to come and relax, escape from the pressures of everyday life, and have a good time just playing the game. Our members know each other, know their stories, know their problems. No one logs on and says they don't want to talk about their hard days, they let it out, they vent, because they know we understand and can sympathize. That kind of support structure means more than anything when you live thousands of miles away from your family and friends, sometimes it means everything.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Contests
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Tirrimas Oct 19th 2009 4:03PM
/salute
URK Oct 19th 2009 8:59PM
What an awesome idea! I wish we had known about this guild while we were stationed in Germany!
We'll probably be heading back overseas at some point so we'll definitely hit you guys up then.
I concur with Tirrimas,
/salute
Growl Oct 19th 2009 4:08PM
Damn! Would have loved to have know about these guys when I was in Afghanistan last year!
Pantyraider Oct 19th 2009 4:12PM
I was thinking the same thing. Except it's been a few years for me.
Verse Oct 20th 2009 5:21AM
here now
sargetony Oct 19th 2009 4:10PM
Yeah, gratz guys!
Reviction (H) of Stormscale is another Military Overseas Guild.
Members are stationed mostly in Germany with a bunch of European players.
Gratz again Military Forces. :)
sargetony Oct 19th 2009 4:16PM
Sorry, meant Armed Forces :)
onetrueping Oct 19th 2009 4:14PM
This, right here, is exactly why MMOs are a good idea.
Nazgûl Oct 19th 2009 5:46PM
Damn straight.
Ken Ferguson Oct 19th 2009 4:39PM
I'm glad to see a military overseas guild doing well. I tried one for a while but the raid times didn't work for me so I ended up getting up at 5am in Germany on the weekends to raid with a west coast US guild. Now that I'm back in the US it's much easier but I've been stationed in Europe in various places for about half the time I've played WoW and finding a raiding home has always been a challenge.
kunukia Oct 19th 2009 4:48PM
/salute everyone in the armed forces
Jinee Oct 19th 2009 5:05PM
I personally have never heard of them and I'm in a guild just like them except that if you go to wowprogress you'll actually see us on there...
Strane Oct 19th 2009 5:18PM
Good job on making a rude comment, and one that is not applicable to what thier guild is about. Its not all about progress, its about having a place to go where they can be with people of a like mind. And regardless of progression, I admire their guild more so than your just simply based on respect, which you obviously have none of. I highly doubt they would make a statement like you just did.
Aside from you sir, very good story, and good luck to you all.
Crööl Oct 19th 2009 10:33PM
A comment from someone being worse than a troll... you served and are still that classless? I have rarely seen that.. and those guys had real issues. I hope you work on yours.
This is one of the better guild highlights.
Plan Oct 20th 2009 3:07AM
Sorry, you can't play the "you don't have XX achievement? Then you must be scrubs..." game with these guys.
You know what's harder than taking down raid bosses? Signing up for the military.
Know what's even harder? Signing up when you know there are two wars going on.
Even more difficult than that? Coping with all the stresses that come from being deployed, and surviving through it to rejoin society.
My brother was a Recon Marine who survived Fallujah, and thanks to the fanatical safety measures he and the other NCOs instituted in their company, combined with the execution of the things they learned in training, NO ONE was killed during their deployment.
You could have "Undying" on 75 different toons and that still wouldn't be as impressive as what these guys do.
Step away from your computer for once, and take some time to think about why you should feel grateful for what these guys do for the rest of us.
artifex Oct 20th 2009 6:48PM
I went to Wowprogress, and its last update for my character was in May, when I left one guild. Been in at least one other ever since. So that site is not extremely accurate by any means.
artifex Oct 20th 2009 6:54PM
p.s. just went to their faq, added both Armed Forces on Shattered Hand and my own current guild to the queue.
Your arbitrary point of distinction is about to become nonexistant. /salute.
Samantha Smith Oct 19th 2009 5:16PM
grats guys, and good luck with everything.
shadowdk Oct 19th 2009 5:39PM
As a former member of the military i would like to salute you serving our country.
Any spare time you have where you can play wow, is well deserved.
Jinee Oct 19th 2009 6:19PM
It is applicable to what their guild is all about. We are literally the exact same guild-type. 90% of us in guild are Military, Civilans or Contractors with a couple of EU and US members thrown in for good mix.