Our WAR Guild

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No, this isn’t a post about that other guild going the PvE pansy route… 😉 It’s a post to let you all know that the plans for forming a Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning guild of our own have finally come together. We (Graev, Bartlebe (a good friend), and myself) have been hinting at and even gathering feedback from our readers for many, many months now regarding whether or not forming a very specific type of guild would work. Good news – we think it will!

What are the basic ideals of our guild?
Our guild has a simple purpose. We want to create an energetic, fun-loving and mature community where people can come, hang out and play games together. We’re not a l33t guild. You wont catch us tracking DKP or any of the other annoying trappings of a serious guild. We’re here because we love games, we love playing them together and it’s as simple as that. Our members are, first and foremost, a community of friends. We like helping each other out, talking about the fine art of video games and bustin’ skulls. If you like the way this sounds and want to be a part of our community, then you’ve found the right place!

I really want to emphasize our ‘community’ philosophy. Mmorpg guilds often have these horrible stigmas surrounding them that we are aiming to completely avoid. We have no leaders, charters, councils, applications, ranks, strict rules or expectations. We are a group of people who want to have other like-minded individuals together playing and enjoying Warhammer Online.

Graev and I have often been so frustrated with the stereotypical guild format. Wouldn’t it be nice to know you can log in to a game and just have fun with a steady group of people free of drama? Having people in-game to socialize with when you’re leveling, group with, RvR with, run dungeons with when you want to, and have at your disposal under the umbrella of a ‘community’ and not a ‘guild’ are things we are setting out to accomplish.

While our ideals and philosophy sound very “casual”, we are seeking to provide an experience for our members that is all encompassing. Personally, I am anything but casual and those who have played with me will attest to this yet I hold these principles of community above all else. All playstyles fit in our community.

Warhammer Online is being designed in such a way that small guilds, big guilds, community guilds, and guilds of all sorts can all accomplish the same things. The Alliance system and fundamental shift from raiding end-game to 6-man content we’re going to see a lot of doors open to us.

The Details
Our community will be playing the Destruction realm on a Open RvR ruleset server. On the Open RvR servers players can engage in RvR combat with the enemy realm in almost any place they encounter one another whereas on a Core Ruleset (pve) server you are safe in the PvE areas and can not attack your enemy unless you are both in the flagged areas. We feel that the Open RvR ruleset is the truest form of gameplay in a RvR and Warhammer style game and will ultimately lead to the most enjoyment.

Guild Name: Happy Fun Guyz
Realm: Destruction
Server type: Open RvR
Goals: Actively RvR, run Dungeons, Level, Explore, and provide a means to experience everything WAR has to offer.

Who can join? Anyone. We mean it. We’re not looking to impose class restrictions or decline someone because this is their first mmorpg. If you’re someone who seeks what we are offering and agrees with our ideals then you are welcome to join. Most of our members will likely be readers of this blog, friends, and people we meet in-game who recognize what we’re setting out to do and can’t help but join the fun.

Do we have a website or forum?
We will not have a website but we will have a forum for members to use. This forum is currently being setup (it’s just about done) and will be nothing overly fancy. It’s simply there for the OPTIONAL use of our members should they desire a place out of the game to communicate and talk about gaming. Details to come on this soon.

NOTE: This forum is also being setup to incorporate discussion surrounding this blog and gaming in general. We will have two categories; one for the guild and one for the blog. Everyone is welcome to use them once they are setup. We’re going to closely monitor the forum and evaluate its usefulness.

These are all the details I have for you right now. If you’re interested in joining our WAR community please feel free to leave a comment here or get in touch with me privately. I will happily answer any questions you might have to the best of my ability.

  • I’m in!

    If you want some awesome names then check out stuff from Skaven or 40kOrks. My favorites are Doom Hemisphere and Wyrdboyz.

  • I’ve been reading your blog (and many other bloggers out there ) for a while now and I’ve been waiting for something to suck me into actually posting on your guys comments section. I’ve actually been thinking about the WAR community in general and that I should get involved in it but worrying that its too late. But this seems like a great way to finally get my foot in the door. I love the ideas of the guild and it pretty much spells out what I hope to do in the game. It would be great to start off with a good group of people who want to relax and have some WAR/RVR goodness.

  • I want to add in that while our ideals and philosophy sound very “casual”, we are seeking to provide an experience for our members that is all encompassing. Personally, I am anything but casual and those who have played with me will attest to this yet I hold these principles of community above all else. All playstyles fit in our community.

    Warhammer Online is being designed in such a way that small guilds, big guilds, community guilds, and guilds of all sorts can all accomplish the same things. The Alliance system and fundamental shift from raiding end-game to 6-man content means we’re going to see a lot of doors open to us.

    I’m excited.

  • If I can get my hands on a copy of WAR, then I’ll totally get in on this…as long as we do lots of smashing the little Order players for kicks and giggles.

  • I’d be very interested. It’s always good to have some people in the guild that have ‘tested’ the game and can share some tricks with the rest of us.

    Will time be a factor? I’m in the central time zone and I think your in the Pacific time zone Keen. Is that a problem, because I’ll be headed to bed about the same time everyone on the west coast is all warmed up.

    I’ve only been in small community guilds and have never had a complaint. So your casual philosophy is very appealing to me.

    One final question, explain Open RvR vs the other?

  • I am for one sad, because I am definatly leaning towards playing an Ironbreaker or Witch Hunter myself as an Order man!

    Chosen is the only class that really appeals to me on the Chaos side, too bad really, for this means my dwarf will have to chop down your little goblins!

  • Keen I found your blog about 6 months ago and I think its a great site. Thank you. Count me in! I look forward to joining you guys. A guild with no drama and people who just want to have fun playing the game! Can it happen? I hope so. On a side note I was shocked to read you guys live in Corna. I lived in Norco for years. just thought what a small world

  • @Vort: Time zones should not be much of a problem because at most we are three hours apart in the continental U.S. I have never had a problem playing with east coasters.

    As for the rulesets let me give you a quick rundown:

    Core Ruleset – Nicknamed “PvE servers” because you are safe in PvE areas and can only RvR in designated areas. Seeing your enemy and being able to attack them can only occur in designated RvR areas. Unlike DAOC, PvE areas are not segregated fully. There will be times that you will be PvE’ing on a Core Ruleset server and not be able to attack the enemy.

    Open RvR – If you see your enemy then you can attack them regardless of whether or not you are in a designated RvR area or a PvE area. This is a traditional “RvR” approach given that any time you saw your enemy in DAOC you could attack them.

    @Danath: Ironbreakers smell like donkey dung and Witch Hunters are Van Helsing wanna-be’s. Go Destruction! 😀

    @William: Very small world indeed. I visit Norco almost on a daily basis.

  • @Vort:

    The Open RvR is alot like the PvP realms in WoW, where the two sides can pretty much beat the living daylights out of each other pretty much anywhere, while the Core Rules, or ‘Normal Servers’ have certain areas in each zone where the RvR is mandatory, while you can choose to flag yourself in a PvE section of the map and do RvR there. So, basically, Open RvR means you can battle in almost any zone, throughout the zone, while the Core Rules have certain areas in each zone where you will be flagged, but in the other parts of the zone the flagging for PvP is optional.

  • aww i would love to join your guild but i think EU and US will be split up and the time difference (~9hours) would be kinda bad too >.<

  • To me Open RvR servers sound like something Mythic didnt want us to do ideally. Their idea is to focus all of the players in one pvp area where there would be battle around the keeps and objectives all the time. Open PvP ruleset makes this battle area a lot bigger and only results in less focused fighting and more griefing (attacking when engaged with mobs etc.).

    I cant see a reason to join an open PvP server, but obviously you can.. what am I missing here?

  • I’m not trying to steal your thunder, Keen, but just in case any of your readers would feel more comfortable on a Core Ruleset server they would be welcome in that “other guild.”

    Casualties of War (http://casualtiesguild.com) will be on core ruleset servers. I say servers (plural) because we will have an Order arm as well as a Destruction arm each on it’s own server.

    I can see how a lot of people would find playing in your guild preferable to the route we “pansies” have chosen, but we’d love to accommodate those players that just don’t feel comfortable with the Open ruleset. If you fall into that category please come by our site and visit. If you choose to play on an Open server, I’d recommend you hook up with these guys. I certainly would if I were going the Open route.

    Best of luck to your non-pansy guild. I only wish that we could see you on the field of battle.

    Waaaaagh!

  • Count me in!
    Just one question, Are you going to have a like core group of people thatll doing all the PVE an do all the hard core things?

  • As long as my friends aren’t suddenly super motivated to organize their own guild I’ll drag ’em along in =D. See you there!

  • Hi keen, you are sure you want to play in open rvr server ? open-rvr server means no bolster for rvr so all the lowlvl zones will get deserted, and people will only rvr with his lvl 40 chars. Also open rvr means that if you are 22 you can’t help your friends in tier 2 and also open mean ganking in PQs, becouse war is designed that in PVE the 90% of the content its exclued by sides there isn’t any reason for you to go to PVE enemy zones, only for gank propouses.

  • well if WAR sucks me in and i happen to be on your server (which i doubt aussie) ill join… im looking at a chosen

  • Sounds like a nice concept! Hopefully, you’ll have room for me if things don’t work out with my guild! Good luck, guys! 🙂

  • @Kenesi – That’s not 100% correct. I’m not sure about the lack of “bolster” on these servers (you may be correct), but several of the PvE zones are shared (won’t flag you for RvR), so you likely will run into enemy players without actively seeking them out for ganking purposes.

    The biggest drawback I can think of for open RvR servers is the Public Quest format. Some of the PQs are challenging enough without having to worry about enemy players trying to ruin your day. Hopefully, the slower pace in PvE will be counterbalanced by the additional XP of PvP you’ll get.

  • Wow, that made sense in my head but not once I reread it…

    Let me clarify point 1)

    On the core servers, both races will share some PvE space, but the system won’t flag you for RvR. One the open-rvr servers, you will be perma-flagged RvR (right?), so that when you’re in these shared PvE spaces, you can actually fight your enemies rather than just stare grimly at them.

    Yes, you could go deeper into their PvE spaces to gank them or trouble them at lower level PQ spots, but I’m not sure how much that will happen. If there’s no XP/renown incentive, why waste your time?

  • Woot! Me and my former WOW guildies (don’t know how many will join me yet) would love to join your super-guild. But we are likely going Order. Oh snap!

    However, I’m sure I’ll roll a Destruction toon to see how the privileged side lives.

    My guess is that if you are lucky you might get a couple of peeps joining your guild. /sarcasm.

  • I’m in! Open-RVR is just another challenge, who wants to play on easy mode anyways?

    I was hoping you’d pick Order, because of the current crazy preference towards Destruction, you know how they almost out number Order 2:1 in beta? Though…Mythic has some secret system that will hopefully balance that out.

    Can’t wait to go to WAR with Da Gild 😉

  • Easy (more like fun) mode or constantly ganking or being ganked.. hmm terrible decision..

  • I would love to join! I am a casual player who doesn’t get a lot of time to play because of work and family life. It would be great to be apart of a guild where I felt welcomed even though I would contribute very little. I just love the mmorpg genre and its a great way to unwind after a crazy day!

  • The main problem I have with an Opern Server is how does one go back and experience the content of lower areas if you are too high.

    I am one that likes to go back and take a look at areas of a game that I missed.

  • Snafzg said: “If there’s no XP/renown incentive, why waste your time?”

    The incentive for some people is to simply make your life miserable.

    I’m going to try Open RvR but if I’m miserable because of these kind of people I’ll switch to the other rule set. No sense in playing a game when your not having fun.

  • We’re hoping an Open RvR server will shake down to be something like PvP servers in WoW. It wasn’t a constant gank fest and it wasn’t like you had to constantly fight off other players. It was fun, exciting,unpredictable and TONS of fun. Besdies, we’re tough! We can take a little heat from the ladies on the Order side. 😀

  • I am not worried actually about being ganked that much on an open server..it is just that i hate beign restricted on going back and looking at earlier content or helping a guildie out on a quest or two!

  • I would love to be part of your guild. I was part of a big guild in WoW (AIE) that work the same way. I am been searching for a guild and was hoping for a WAR blogger to creat one.

    I just want to know if when the guild will go live. Are we going to run tests in beta or will the guild go live when the game does.

    Keep us up-to-date.

    Khaos Out

  • The Bwast will lay waste to the girlish Order, all the while cackling and howling with pleasure. Muahahahahahaha. I’m so in.

  • Bartlebe, I assume you played a rogue or a druid or leveled in a group all the time? That is a must if you think wow pvp server is fun..

  • Will the Order bloggers be going on the same server as you guys, or have you decided to be on two different servers so that we can’t kill eachother and form long-lasting rivalries?

  • @Jukasa

    Actually I played an undead warrior and ran solo or with a friend a great majority of the time.

    Not everyone is as annoyed by competition as you seem to be.

  • I love the sound of this guild but I’m not sure about playing on an open server. I enjoy fair (or at least sort of fair) competition but I have no patience for being ganked and griefed in a fight that I have no mathmatical chance of winning. I play to have fun and that’s no fun.

    I remember reading something about War preventing griefing by turning a player in a chicken if they zoned into a lowbie area with the PvP flag up. Are there any anti-griefing mechanisms in place?

  • @Dylan

    The chicken thing is true. If you’re over a certain level limit for the area and you enter it, when you attack another, lower level player you will turn int a chicken.

  • @Bartlebe, some of us dont like the gank or be ganked game at all. I dont consider griefing fun, but thats just me..

  • Those of you worried about the “gank” mentality on a RvR server should understand how the game world is designed. In each tier of the racial pairings each side has a section dedicated to them where one would have to be extremely brave to sneak in, avoid npcs and the plethora of players, just to have a chance at “ganking”. Then there are the “Shared PvE areas” which on a Core Ruleset server means you’ll be Pveing alongside your enemy (not teamed up with) and not be able to fight them. This goes against the ‘spirit’ of Warhammer and RvR thus why we have decided to go Open RvR.

    We do not anticipate rampant ganking like there was on WoW PvP servers because the game world is not setup with the zones being almost completely shared.

    And furthermore, the higher level you get the smaller the safe areas even on a Core server. By Tier 4 you’ll have 1/4th of the map safe and 3/4 RvR.

    We know this isn’t for everyone. That’s why there are alternatives. This is how we like to play and how we feel/believe the game can be enjoyed the most. (I’m not speaking out of ignorance here… I know just a tad about what I’m talking about when it comes to RvR – keep that in mind)

    As for the other guild(s) out there forming around the Blogosphere I wish them the best of luck (You hijacking bastages! Recruiting on my blog *shakes fist*). Their choice of Core Ruleset and mostly Order realm are just not for us. 🙂

  • Well, the Casualties are going BOTH sides, Order and Destruction, Keen. 😛

    So we’re not 100% pansies.

    Seriously though if any of you lot want a good organized Order or Destruction guild that’s going on Core Rule-set servers, check us out – http://www.casualtiesguild.com

    I hope you don’t mind the shameless plug, Keen. 🙂

  • You guys are splitting up onto two different servers? That’s tough to pull off.

    You guys sure do like to plug, eh?

  • @keen: It is just for fun/social sake, so a split won’t be so bad. I don’t think we are going for server domination 🙂

  • Count me in. I am still worried about the standard issues of PvP griefing like Zone/Spawn camping and “zerg” squads. Though the chicken rule should make the lone high level noob farmer from being an issue.

    Also it seems like there will still be some “safe” areas when you do want to get away from it all. Though now I am curious about the other side “disrupting” a PvE based public quest.

    Granted the PQ in the Joint area could be designed as to accommodate both order and destruction at the same time. And that would be fine.

  • Hey Keen and Crew,

    Long time reader, first time poster! Count me in on this one. I’ve always been interested in playing on an open RVR server. You’re right, it’s most fitting for this type of game and for the Warhammer world. It’s WAR baby, come on!!

    I’ll say this much though, you can probably expect me to be a slow leveler. I’ve been hyped about this game for awhile but not being able to explore lower level zones is a major drawback, so I’ll be taking my time leveling up and taking in the world. If the world is flush with lore and scenery, having to explore it as a chicken that will most likely be ganked at every turn is poor. I really hope Mythic comes up with some other option. Hell, I’d even support a time-limited /explorer option that would let others attack you but not the other way around.

    Anything.

    I’m signing up with you folks for all the reasons you say you want to have this guild. It sounds like a ball. Until the time when/if Mythic makes another option, let’s have a riot.

    If I may ask though, doesn’t the limitation on exploration/helping lower level players (PQs), etc. bother you? I’m a PVP’r at heart and it was enough, before anyways, to make me consider rolling PVE or RP. What are your thoughts on this and do you think there will be some other option in the future to open the doors for retroactive zone travel?

  • @Raegn

    I’m not totally sure on this but this is how I believe the chicken system works:

    As long as you don’t ATTACK other lower levels players while in a lower level zone, you should be fine. Just entering it will not chicken you. Beating on lowbies will though. So resist the urge to crash low levels parties…as fun as it may be.

  • dude keen there is a guy in my guild when he got on ventrillo I could have swore it was you. heh just thought you should know there is is a faker out there (jk)

  • We DO like to plug.

    We wouldn’t mind if you plugged your guild on our blogs either. You can even post about it on our forums if you like.

    We won’t even change the links so they point back to our own blogs.

    The reason I posted here was to offer an alternative to your guild, not as competition for it. Even though you want to be on an Open server, some of your readers may not.

    I feel bad that you saw it as a hijack or something underhanded. Please remove my posts if you find them to be in bad taste. It’s not our intention to do anything underhanded.

  • It’s a bit tacky and in poor taste to plug something like a guild recruitment and website on someone else’s website/blog specifically in a post about a guild/community they’re starting. I’ll admit that I was slightly taken aback by it. I don’t think you guys meant it as a hijack or underhanded in any way but I am a little shocked to see it happen since it’s not something I would ever think of doing. It would be like Pizza Hut standing outside of Domino’s holding signs saying “Our pizza tastes great too! Visit our store just down the street!”. It’s awkward, more than anything.

    I think what you’re doing is fantastic and the blogosphere getting together in a guild sounds really cool. We definitely target two very different styles within a general audience to the point that we are not even in any form of competition whatsoever – in fact the very thought is contrary to what we’re trying to start. I think people can decide for themselves though which style they like more without all the dissuasion.

    Definitely best of luck to you guys.

  • Best of luck to you guys too! Like I said in my first post, I’d want to join you all if you were going Core.

    Tear it up, we can’t wait to see what you all do wherever you land.

  • Don’t want to crash the party at all but the description of your guild isn’t uncommon. Actually a lot of guilds start out with the exact same attitude, yet after a short while they eventually splinter and break apart due to friction from within. In a nutshell, if you want an “energetic, fun-loving and mature” community then you need to work hard at defining this type of environment from the very beginning from YOUR viewpoints as the founders of the community because others joining may have their own viewpoint of what these words mean.

    An easy way to define your community’s culture is to basically roleplay situations that might occur within the guild. From that roleplaying, you can then set down some simple easy to remember guidelines with which people can then get a better handle on the type of environment you are creating. This is even more important, since as you said, you want to create an environment for everyone. Therefore not only do you have to realize and respect the diversity of the entire community but you also have to find ways to bring unity and a focus to this diverse group as well.

    Just to give you an example, here are some simple guidelines that my friends and I often use as starting points in our guilds to promote respect, diversity, and unity amongst everyone.

    1. Keep swearing to a minimum please.
    2. Do not offend another player with racial, sexual, or personal remarks or actions.
    3. Try to be a team member. The more you help the guild, the more you will be helped in turn.

    Again if you are accepting everyone, assume a diverse mix of people. Your guild mates aren’t just young to mid aged guys and gals who like to party hardy but someone of any age, race, profession, and sexual persuasion.

    Finally, the idea here isn’t to create a guild with a ton of rules that makes it boring. Instead it’s just to create some simple guidelines to allow easier interaction with one another on a global level (i.e. guild chat channel). Of course there is nothing stopping people from creating subgroups and smaller subchannels within the guild to chat within, especially with their close friends. And if anything, we actually highly encourage this within our guilds as it helps to maintain a strong bond of friendship within the guild and also helps to maintain the diversity within it (i.e. people gravitate to a subgroup that suits them).

  • @Nollind: I really appreciate the feedback. We have something similar to your example in the works and currently being outlined our our Forums that we are setting up. The Forums (and in due time this blog) will really outline more of the direction we’re going so that there can be no mistaking it.

    Since the founding members of our community are in fact my brother, my good friend who I have played with in several games, and myself, we have a stable foundation. From here we are inviting the readers of this blog and our other friends to join us. That compounds the sturdy foundation. From there we open it up to anyone who wishes to join the community. The diversity will definitely be there.

    I have always been of the mindset that one must lead by example. This will be very apparent when the game launches and people can see firsthand what we’re striving to accomplish.

  • Sounds like my kind of guild. I’m done with drama, DKP and all that other nonsense. I’ll keep an eye on this one 🙂

    Destruction? Cool. I could go for either faction personally so this isn’t an issue at all.

    Open RvR? Great. Considering the Tier / Chicken system, ganking shouldn’t be a problem and being able to RvR anywhere (considering it’s the entire purpose of this game) is very appealing.

  • The guild will do fine as long as the banhammer is applied when it’s needed and not to me.

  • If and when my guild decides to go Order, I’ll make sure to encourage them to go on whichever server Keen and friends go on. Hell, if I do my job I might get a few blog posts dedicated in my (dis)honor! ;p

  • Hah sounds great, I was planning on going Order but assuming you can roll different sides on different servers I would love to make a guy and join your guild. I read your blog so please post the server name when you guys decide and I’ll be there, not sure on class yet, might be cool to do a poll on your site of what class others might roll. I tend to like to choose a class that not so many others want to play so in that respect could fill the guild out with more divercity.

  • Good luck with the guild, Keen, you guys should do really well. If you weren’t rolling stinky Destruction, I’d roll an alt to check out the “real” WAR game 😉 In the mean time, I’ll be happy playing with the other flowers on the pansy server 😀

    Man, a Lurikeen going Destruction. It just doesn’t seem right! My worldview is all messed up.

  • Hi!

    I’d be a blast to join our guild. have always enjoyed reading your stuff, and it would be great to have the chance to play WAR with you guys. Hope I get an invite!

    cheers!