World-famous guild Exodus have decided to drop out of World of Warcraft’s 25-man hardcore raiding race. In a farewell post, Guild member Killars said that the “game isn’t to blame”, but rather “the raiding community”.

“It’s an inevitable sort of flaw in the competition of the top end raiders,” explained Killars.

“You see… we’ve basically been killing ourselves off slowly since day 1. In the last few years we’ve certainly picked up the pace, but the ‘hardcore raider’ is a dying breed and it’s certainly becoming a more difficult breed to be a part of.”

Killars said that the sheer time commitment and level of dedication required to stay competitive in raiding will ensure that Exodus are only the first of “many” guilds to throw in the towel.

“Raiding for many many hours on end is fun, CAN be exciting, and at the end of it all can really prove who really wants that world first/us first/realm first the most,” he elaborated. “Unfortunately we (hardcore raiders) pushed too hard. Tier after tier we just keep adding to the insanity in both farming preparations and actual progressing. It’s almost as if progression itself never really ends after a end tier boss dies.

“Combine this with Blizzard actually putting new content out faster, alts playing a big role, PTR/BETA, dailys, coins, BMAH, well… you just get lost in it all. Right now there are a few legit world first guilds left. The competition is slim because the competition is literally eating each other (well not that literally). Good luck to everyone left in the race for this expact [sic], but I don’t know how much longer this sort of thing can last.”

Killars himself is “way too stubborn and foolish” to leave the raiding community altogether, and has since joined a new guild – Duality on the Zul’jin server.

Is he right? Is high-end raiding now too hardcore for even the hardcore?