An ever-evolving work-in-progress…
Originally founded on April 12, 2005 as Pirates of Balls Deep in World of Warcraft on the Illidan – US – Alliance server.
The short version – we’re a group of friends who go back to late 2004 (or further). Many of us have kept in touch. Some still play WoW, some just hang around to chat.
Now, if you’re interested, let’s talk about the last 15+ years…
Please stand, remove your hats, and cover your hearts for the Pirates of Balls Deep National Anthem…
“So, what’s up with the name?”
While it may seem offensive in nature, it actually began with a focus on Pirates. I cover more about why the Guild was founded below, but the abbreviated version is it simply began as a place for a group of friends to hang out away from the chaos of our main guild. When our small group was talking about forming the Guild, we wanted something “funny”. The server was already plenty populated with single-word guilds (e.g., Warpath, Saga, Empire). Pirates was a theme we grabbed on to early and the jokes kept rolling from there.
Being in our late teens/early 20’s, it is fair to say we had a slant towards the immature at times. “Pirates” wasn’t going to be nearly enough. We had to be from somewhere, or about something, or some other defining characteristic. We started testing the character limit on guild names, and many of our favorites quickly got eliminated. Then we began exploring the world of double entendres (or maybe just the blatant). Our ongoing search for the tongue-in-cheek kept evolving. Somehow we landed on a (fake?) fact that the origin of the term “balls deep” came from pirates putting cannonballs as far into the cannon as they could to get maximum distance.
It is kind of hard to tell this story and ever use the word “evolve”…but that’s what the joke did. Suddenly “Balls Deep” was a mindset; it was a way of being. We also tried to make it a place such as “Bal’ls Deep” to avoid the scrutiny of GM’s. Alas, we quickly realized punctuation could not be used in guild names.
And thus, there we were. A small group of friends with a name and a Guild. We plunked down our 10 Silver for a Guild Charter and began getting our friends and alts to sign it. The Guild came to be, we congratulated ourselves for a job well done, then logged back onto our mains to get ready for that evening’s Molten Core.
Pirates of Balls Deep was born.
Why the Guild was formed in the first place…
World of Warcraft was still less than 6 months old, but there was already a separation forming between those players/characters that would progress on to raiding, and those that would not. Old guilds were merging, new guilds were forming, and everyone was generally trying to figure out what the next stage of the game looked like.
The core of our early group were generally pushing towards raiding. However, there were some that simply had no interest or no time. Some also struggled to get a raid spot. Furthermore, most of us went from being in small, close-knit guilds to one large guild with a growing roster of new people. This lead to fun, dissension, and everything in-between.
No matter the person or motivation, there was a general desire to maintain some of that smaller community feel at times. Some just wanted a place to park their alts. Some wanted a place to level in quiet. Some just wanted a less chaotic guild chat. Whatever each person’s reason, the Guild roster continued to grow. It began as a handful of low-level alts and started becoming a place for the refugees who weren’t going to get a raid spot. Then people started inviting their friends who were looking for a guild. Then…
This is the part where I begin writing about how we got a Ventrilo server, and a website, and forums, and the a group of 30+ people who wanted to raid… But, that’s for another day.
Timeline of Guilds
- April 12, 2005 – Originally founded as Pirates of Balls Deep in World of Warcraft on the Illidan – US – Alliance server.
- This original “guild” exists to this day and is the one we have on Stormrage. It sat unused on Illidan for years as Brewmeister’s Guild.
- October 12, 2005 – Created PoBD after our full Guild name got reported
. - Since my Mage named Brewmeister held the GM spot, the Guild was renamed “Brewmeister’s Guild”. It also reset the /guildinfo founded date to 10/12/05 which is why the original PoBD on Stormrage lists that as the founded date.
- This “version” of PoBD is actually gone. Because…
- March 25, 2006 – Re-created PoBD after I accidentally /gdisband’d following a ZG run.
- This also happens to be the night of our first Ragnaros kill (and was about 45 minutes before the raid was to begin).
- See, back then there was no confirmation dialog or button to click when you typed /gdisband. It just instantly disbanded your guild. CT Raid was a very popular addon at the time and had a /radisband command to disband your entire raid. We had just finished a ZG run, and we were close to Molten Core invites. I wanted everyone out of raid so I could start a fresh one for MC. However, I typed /g instead of /ra and began receiving some very concerned PM’s about 30 seconds later.
- The area below needs work…
- Through October’ish 2006 –
raids 40-man content. We master BWL, hit the Nature Resist block on Princess Huhuran, and kill a boss or two in Naxxramas. - At this point raider turnover is becoming a greater issue, and the first expansion, Burning Crusade, gets announced. Raiding winds down and many people take a break until BC (or for good).
- By this time, PoBD has killed ~30 of the ~50 40-man raid bosses in Vanilla WoW. Hitting the Nature Resist gear block on Princess Huhu was the beginning of our raiding backslide. We got enough raiders attuned for Naxx, but a combination of raid burnout and the expansion announcement saw us calling it a wrap for Vanilla.
- January 16, 2007 – PoBD begins its Burning Crusade adventure.
- We master Karazhan. We kill Magtheridon pre-nerf. We raid into Black Temple. People transfer server to kill Illidan, etc.
- November 4, 2008 – Formed the guild Debauchery in preparation for raiding in Wrath of the Lich King.
- To me, this seemed like a good idea at the time.
- It wasn’t.
- December 7, 2010 – Cataclysm
- September 25, 2012 – Mists of Pandaria
- October 11, 2014 – Somehow a handful of us have been stuck on Grizzly Hills for a few years. I get excited and decide to start up a guild. That lasts about two days.
- August 30, 2016 – Legion
- October 9, 2018 – Brewmeister’s Guild is transferred off of Illidan to Stormrage and renamed PoBD. Our “original” home returns to service after nearly 15 years.
