While stalking one of our rival guild’s websites, I ran across a link for a series of blog posts that I hadn’t seen anywhere else. Admittedly, I’m not the best blogger out there at keeping his/her/its finger on the pulse of Game Blogger Nation, but I’m surprised I didn’t run across it before. Anyways, it’s a brief series from guest authors about World of Warcraft and the costs/benefits of hardcore raiding on the players. The View from the Top, written by a former guildleader of a raiding guild who walked away from it all and tells his tale. There’s a followup, The View from the Top: Redux, which clarifies authorship of the first article and highlights some of the comments it generated. The final in the series, Warcraft: Another Point of View, is written by another guest author who is still a hardcore raider and disputes any implied responsibility of the game itself. Other than some jackholes going wild in the comments, the short series is a balanced, civilized discussion of MMO raiding and its toll — the blog owners should be proud, it’s fine work. Listen to the bell, raider, it tolls for thee.