Friend Zone
Friend Zone is a World of Warcraft raiding guild on the US Darkspear server. The guild served as the catalyst for the reuniting of many of the core group members from the old days of Gorgonnash and acted as a launching pad for COMMUNISM to reform later on.
 2nd and most notable banner of WIDEVERSE Era Friend Zone | |
 The official WIDEVERSE Era mascot | |
| Predecessor | COMMUNISM, Vox Radix, Umbral Sect |
|---|---|
| Formation | April 3, 2012 |
| Founder | Nawp |
| Type | World of Warcraft Guild |
| Status | Active (Outside the WIDEVERSE) |
| Headquarters | Darkspear US |
Membership | 100+ |
Guild Leader | Nawp |
Co-GM | Vitaminwater |
Officer | Shelarahn |
Officer | Prude |
| Website | wideboys |
About
History
Background
After the failure of the 2nd COMMUNISM in late 2008/early 2009, the more active raiders split off into actual raiding guilds. Specifically, Nawp and Jessikuh(Who had renamed to Vitaminwater) who went onto join more prestigious raiding guilds on Gorgonnash such as lmperium and Umbral Sect. However, at a certain point Gorgonnash and its guilds were no longer providing the level of progression they desired, so the duo transferred to Darkspear to join the guild Vox Radix in July of 2010.
However, in April of 2012, they had grown weary of the raiding pace in the a hardcore guild such as Vox, and left to form their own guild.
2012
Formation & Early Days
With the newly formed guild, Jessikuh would contact many of the old Gorgonnash friends to come back. Prude, Shaynuh, Mandapanda, and Shelarahn were all invited via Facebook chats and encouraged to return from the game, for some after several years of hiatus. Since many of the old gang was returning after a long time, the first few weeks were spent leveling and trying to get into contact with old friends trying to lure them back to the game. Once most everyone was to the appropriate level, the guild began venturing into Raid Finder, and eventually into doing their own Normal Mode raids.
The first scandal of the guild came when several of the core members became angry that Nawp wasnt listening to anyone on the direction the guild should take, and as such split off in protest into Clavo. The situation resolved itself within a few days, with Nawp agreeing to be more mindful of everyone elses wishes, and the guild resumed as normal.
By August, the guild was clearing Hard Mode Dragon Soul, killing Madness of Deathwing Hard on August 17th. At one point, there was at least 3 weekly raid groups including alts going.
Guild Wars 2
The main members of the guild briefly got real into Guild Wars 2 at launch, but the venture was shortlived with Mists of Pandaria looming.
Merger
Realizing the depth of the talent pool on Darkspear was limited and spread across many potential raiding guilds, the officers of Friend Zone looked back to the old days. A group of old Alliance members from Gorgonnash had recently transferred to Darkspear to play together, and the idea was quickly pitched by Vitaminwater and Shelarahn to see if they could merge them into Friend Zone. After a brief period of deliberation, the group in its entirety decided to join, doubling the raiding force and putting the guild in prime position to make a run for server first kills.
Mist of Pandaria
The guild made a great attempt at the first tier of the expansion, but failed to take any server first, losing them all to Vox Radix. The raid team at this time consisted mostly of new recruits and the merger people. Prude and Manda had quit months before to live together, and several other founding members had also either quit or stopped raiding. Shelarahn had switched from his Druid to his Hunter, but coupled with increasing internet issues, was unable to raid and eventually voluntarily left the main raid team sometime during Heart of Fear progression.
FriendCraft
VitaminWater pitched the idea of having a Minecraft server to Shelarahn late in 2012. Shelarahn who at the time was the primary financier of the guild as well as website and IT go-to, set up a Technic server. Many of the Friends played, but desire was expressed for a vanilla server, so the server was wiped and a new map was started on Vanilla Minecraft. Sometime later, the map was again changed back to a Technic build.
2013
Attempted Hostile Takeover
6 months after the launch of Mists of Pandaria, Friend Zone had found itself stagnated and unable to attract the required talent to become the cutting edge raiding guild it had envisioned itself as. The guild master, Kinas, of a recently transferred raiding guild, <Check Please> reached out to the officers of Friend Zone to propose yet another merger. However, in his ever vigilant and paranoid state, Shelarahn delved deeper into the matter, find the guild very untrustworthy, and when details of the merger were laid out, it was revealed it was more of a hostile takeover, with the branding of Friend Zone to be disbanded and its raiders absorbed into Check Please. Shelarahn, with the help of the young VIGIL, tanked the merger, saving the guild. Vitaminwater and Nawp, however, were livid, believing Shelarahn had hindered the guilds chances at success. This began the slow crack between the officers of Friend Zone and Shelarahn.
Despite this lost opportunity, Friend Zone went on to achieve success on its own terms. With the Throne of Thunder tier, Friend Zone finally began beating Vox to server firsts and eventually became the top guild on the server, at the 25 man level. This success at that level would continue on into the final raid tier, Siege of Orgrimmar.
The Crownic Affair
Hostilities between the new guard of Friend Zone and Shelarahn only increased with his continued absence from the raiding team and his insistence on retaining the original vision of Friend Zone over the current goal of raiding at whatever cost. He particularly was at odds with the officers who had joined from the old Gorgonnash crew, who still held a deep grudge against COMMUNISM, seeking to finally rid Friend Zone of its influence.
The final nail came in the wake of Alinity refusing to accept a sponsorship offer that would have benefited the guild and Vitaminwater and Nawps refusal to hold her accountable. Check Please, who despised Alinity and still held a grudge against Friend Zone, supplied VIGIL with information about Alinity, specifically her boyfriend Crownic, and his personal information. Shelarahn, knowing his time at the gallows was closing in, chose to take the Chaotic Evil way out, taking down the Friend Zone website and replacing it with a blank page containing Crownics personal information. The officers were livid, and removed Shelarahn from the guild and all Friend Zone related platforms within 12 hours.
With Shelarahn out, Friend Zone was free to rid itself of COMMUNISMS grand designs, becoming yet another bland faceless raiding guild. Friend Zone continued to spy on Shelarahn for some months, until Prudes return and the beginning of the COMMUNISM Revival
Post WIDEVERSE
Ever since departing from the WIDEVERSE, Friend Zone has continued as a raiding guild with varied success. At some point Jorgan handed off the guild to a long time raider leader.
Gallery
Notes
- Official font was Trajan Pro