Boo! Hiss! Fury sucks! Yeah, I know. Compiling this was hard. In the preparation of any history, particularly one so tied to such strong personal emotions, there's always the temptation to include only the positives while glossing over the mistakes and embarassments, the hubris and failures, and presenting a carefully selected, flattering version of the past. It would have been so easy to do that here and cherrypick those moments that put me and the alliance in the best light, particularly after the anti-Fury attitude that had gotten so strong at the end of TDZK. There are many things on this page and in my logs that I now read years later, with the benefits of age and hindsight, and think to myself "what the hell was I thinking?" I was far from perfect as a leader, and this page reflects that. And Fury, too, was far from perfect. This page reflects that as well. Anything else would be untrue to what actually happened and what Fury really was.

Memory is a funny thing, and in the process of sorting through these ancient things and glancing at old logs to remind myself of what happened when, it's been interesting to see how what happened corresponds to what I remember. And what I've discovered was that everything was a struggle. Raids were a struggle. Planning was a struggle. People were a struggle. Leading early on, when I felt totally over my head, was a struggle. Leading later on, when I arrogantly thought I had it together, was a struggle. Even the times I remember as idyllic, easy sailing were a struggle. I'd remembered the long hours and sleepless nights and emotional energy poured into the alliance, but I'd forgotten much of the daily battle to get it right and how often I (we?) came up short.

And yet, I've been pleased to find that the things I remember most fondly about Fury -- the warmth and humor, the camraderie and teamwork, and most of all the fundamental strength and goodness of so many of the the people we had -- are alive and well in history. Fury was only an alliance in a stupid, obscure webgame, but if subsequent years dealing with organizations of every form in the "real" world has taught me anything, it's that true synergy is a rare and wonderful thing. For all its flaws, Fury achieved at its best moments that special energy where the right group of people happened to be at the right place at the right time, where the perfect blend of shared values and complementary differences and mutual trust made everyone a bit better than themselves. Sure, it happened in a long dead webgame, but that's a hard thing for any organization to achieve, no matter how trivial the context, and it's something I'll always be proud of. In the end, it wasn't about the game at all, and it never really was.

Solace