Big Fish in a Small Pond

I'm sure we're all familiar with the "Big Fish in a Small Pond" concept, or it's partner, the "Big Fish in a Large Ocean". When confronted with this concept, most people will refer to the transition of middle school to high school, or high school to college, or even college to the real world. Case in point, most people relate this to schooling. As I was driving home from school today, I realized that this could also define my WoW career.

When I began raiding, it was a medium population server called Durotan. Now, back in Vanilla, Durotan was home to quite a few predominate raiding guilds, including the Nightcrawlers. When free server transfers to Argaloth opened up, many of the top naxx clearing guilds left the server, for hopes of greener pastures. The server dropped down in overall progression rankings, with only one guild really progressing anywhere. This guild only managed up through Felmyst in SWP during BC, so they were not a high caliber guild. The emergence of 2-3 more skilled guilds during WoTLK helped the outlook of the server, yet to this day the server remains one of the least progressed PvE servers in the US. As a side effect to only having a few progressed guilds, Durotan's player base is lacking in the PvE department. The average player on Durotan is only skilled enough to kill Lich King 10 man with the 20% buff, if that helps you get a feel for how skilled they are.


I will now get to the point. During my time on Durotan, I was always in either the best or number two guild. I always thought I was great, one of the best. What I was experiencing, was being the best of a very limited player base. As one of the original Durotan residents puts it, blunlty, "You can be the best on Durotan, but it's kind of like winning the Special Olympics, when it comes down to it, do you really win?" Although I don't agree with the thing used in the analogy, it's pretty spot on. I never realized how true this was, however, until I transferred to Turalyon.


The people of Turalyon; they're what makes the server great. The community of Turalyon is one of the best communities in the game in my opinion. Not only is the commmunity nicer in general, but they're also more knowledgeable of the game. That, plus the addition of some US top guilds, makes Turalyon a much better server than Durotan in terms of progression. Upon transfering, I was unaware that so many great guilds were located on server. I was shocked. The playing ability of the people around me was amazing. I feel like it has really made me the player I am today. I take pride in being the top in whatever I do, whether it be a guild raid of a pug. Being top in pugs is actually difficult on Turalyon, as you'll always find good players from guild guilds who are able to play multiple characters to great proficiency.



Basically, the server change has greatly affected me as a person. I feel that I would not be as good a player as I am today if I hadn't gone to a better server. I love the people on Durotan, but they're no where near as good as the people on Turalyon, as a whole. So, I ask you, next time you want to think that you're a great player, take a step back and think of it all in context. You can be the best player in your raid or even on your server, but if the other people you play with are not playing to an acceptable proficiency, you are most likely not playing as good as you really think you are.