Standing out in a jedi dominated world!

Site Admin Joined: May 24, 2008 Posts: 2483

Just a quick question to you all right now

How do we go about standing out ina game where jedi will be very popular and there will be many other guilds set up like ours?
Can not write too much at this moment, as i am at work ¬.¬

However would like to hear your thoughts on what makes us stand out, and will make us stand out once the game goes live!

Initiate Joined: Dec 14, 2009 Posts: 5

Speaking from past experiences of guild life I think there are just a couple huge factors in standing out as a guild.
One of these is building a social network. Keeping internal and guild only is great for some things, but a guild is often defined by what those outside think of it more than it's members. This keeps interest and new membership requests flowing.
Another issue is maturity. Any group can become large and well known. The important thing to ask is, what for? This also helps with learning and teaching others the aspects of the game. Great RP as well I think falls under this category.
Maturity also leads to organization which is another of the key factors in my opinion. From my few days of looking around the site though, I think this is pretty well covered with this group.
These are just my opinions on standing out as a guild. There will be many many jedi guilds in TOR, but I think the Academy will definately stand out from what I've seen so far. Very Happy

Jedi Master Joined: May 07, 2009 Posts: 1464

Organization, maturity, known for RP and known for helping people.
Also...enforcing a zero drama rule should be in effect.

Anyone that causes alot of drama gets one warning, then is let go upon a repeat. Drama within a guild rips it apart, and makes logging in feel worse than going to work. Cut the head off the snake fast to ensure those that like to stir it up are quickly delt with. This will keep the integrity of the guild as a whole complete.

Also, break and reset anyone that is a loot whore. Just because something is an upgrade for you does not mean someone else doesn't need it more. Check with others before you blindly take dropped loot. Crushing loot whore mentality with an iron fist also will breed a good reputation and help make us stand out.

And...something I personally am good at...being known as an efficient unit within groups. IE, anyone that wants to be a group leader needs to show competance in running a group, keeping loot fair (and similarly crushing the loot whores/drama fools) and things running smoothly. If this means you do not do an all jedi run, so be it. Yes it might be great fun to try and run as all jedi and die over and over and over again till you finally accomplish it. But everyone needs to KNOW the instance. Get them in there with a proper group that is diverse, get them learning how every event works and hapens, and slowly begin removing non-jedi classes till you finally get to an all jedi run. Word of mouth spreads. People learn you jumped right into all one classruns right away...they think you are idiots or morons, but.... if they hear that you farmed it, prepped for it, and accomplished the task with no deaths? You earn a LOT of respect from the community at large. If you are known for running a smooth ship, all buisiness with just the right amount of levity....the whole server hears about it within a week.

Now...standing out within the community also stems from RP.
If our people are respectfull of the lore, and of other's stories...we get a good rep. This means ZERO OOC talk in spacial chat people. Never, ever, talk about your day at work...chit chat about cars...spots...anything having to do with real life in any channel others can hear you (guild chat not-withstanding). The exeption is usually your region and trade chats (region being used as an extended guil channel normally) Where as spacial is pure RP.

Hosting events regularly also will make us stand out, every two weeks is a good way....and attendance by the membership had better be damn high or else it only makes us look like fools.

Site Admin Joined: May 24, 2008 Posts: 2483

Some good thoughts
Community is key, building something that gives us a good rep, and makes players waant to be a part of something, we have talked before about laying ground work so to speak when the game goes live, putting in the hard work, to branch our feelers out, to intermingle with the others and make a name for ourselves, RP is going to be essential, we want to create something that is going to be fun, something that encourages people to join in, but something that does not make people feel out of place,
We have a mix of styles and back grounds, partly to help create a melting pot so to speak, makes for something quite interesting, the bit about helping others is a good point, while not so much bending over back wards, it is still in a sense the jedi way to help those in need, and something we could do well to be involved with

Organising events and things like that are very high on my list of things to have, do them enough to keep people interested but not enough that it gets people bored with them, events should be special'

Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 11:39 pm

I agree that the biggest thing is keeping it a no-drama guild, and make our relations with other guilds positive and helpful, so that when people hear the name Force Academy they realize that we are true students of the Force and a help to the community.

Jedi Master Joined: May 07, 2009 Posts: 1464

We need a set in stone rules...posted on this website (not in the forums IMO) on things to follow, and displinary action.

Or set people to talk to for given things. Like someone to handle internal disputes, another for inter-guild issues, yet another for IC guild aps (how we should handle any guild applications once the game goes live IMO) anyways you get the idea.
Spread the guild assignments out so if one person is missing for a little while the guild wont stagnate for any reason.

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:52 pm

[quote="Darka"]Just a quick question to you all right now

How do we go about standing out ina game where jedi will be very popular and there will be many other guilds set up like ours?
Can not write too much at this moment, as i am at work ¬.¬

However would like to hear your thoughts on what makes us stand out, and will make us stand out once the game goes live![/quote]

To be honest, there are going to be thousands of Jedi guilds, it is fairly simple how we stand out. Out of these thousands of guilds, do you honestly believe that they will all, truly be "guilds", or just a tag on there name?

We can be popular by showing that the qualities and systems in which we run under keep us all together in a strong community to have fun, and they will see that. A true guild, everyone, and I mean everyone, or pretty close to everyone are involved in things, if someone is being left out, we are not being responsible members, officers, and leaders.

Basically by us being a core set of members who do group activities together, such as our role playing, have fun with one another, get to know one another and be who we say we are, and do what we say we do in our recruitment post makes us "one of the best guilds".

THAT is how you stand out.

Site Admin Joined: May 24, 2008 Posts: 2483

Double post
But a good point, having us work as a whole is important, one of my earlist memories of this guild was when someone need a bit of help on a quest, and twenty + people turned up to help them
All for One and One for all so to speak, help others so others can help you

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:26 pm

[quote="Darka"]Double post
But a good point, having us work as a whole is important, one of my earlist memories of this guild was when someone need a bit of help on a quest, and twenty + people turned up to help them
All for One and One for all so to speak, help others so others can help you[/quote]

Yeah sorry about! Clicked quote instead of edit.. If you can, which I believe you can with phpbb delete the first one if you will.

Thanks Wink

Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 6:34 am

we stand out by following Nempo's advice lol. IMO the way you stand out is by having many active, helpful members that are also competent players of the game. TBH I'm not concerned about our guild standing out to other people, I just want it to stand out as the best guild experience that I've had in an MMO. (so far it's looking good for FA =) )

Jedi Master Joined: May 07, 2009 Posts: 1464

Heruhl, you are too kind. I simply voice things from as many angles as I can, even if I may not agree with them, to get people thinking. Every angle needs considered, even if only for a moment.

Most fun I ever had with a guild was in DAoC.
4 years, NEVER was there a day or time of day where you would log in and not see atleast 20 others online. All active, every last one an RPer. A good many of them still harass me via E-mail and I havent touched the game in over 4 years lol.
Thats a biggy for me, every last one of them were RPers...varried from heavy to light but the guild was classified as heavy RP. Despite the fact we would jump down someones throat fro trying to RP in group runs (hardcore mindset, we are there to get a job done not dawdle for 3 hours in a spot that should take us 1) and heaven help you if you RP in PvP because we would let you die. PvP is all about forming up, laying out the strategy, and listening to your wing commander (there was a reason we held 5 forts for a year). All ranks were earned from RP with the exeption of Wing Commander wich was earned from pvp by your strategy suggestions working.

Earning a name in the RP community is not hard...it will happen weather you want it to or not. The question is, what sort of name do you want? If you want to be known as one of the best guilds...the threat of guild expulsion for acting like an idiot is needed.
IE, if a guild member is typing constant barrage of OOC chatter in spacial chat ( /say or /s in most MMOs) should recieve only one warning before disciplinary action is taken. Yes it seems harsh but if you want to be known as the best, you earn it by having only the best in your ranks.
Ninja looters are delt with imidiately (it only takes one bad apple to ruin a guild's reputation for good). Though by all accounts it appears that loot only shows up for yourself in flashpoints. Do note that flashpoints are not the same thing as repeatable instance dungeouns.
Group hoppers need to also be delt with imidiately. IE, you join a group for an instance...you sit your ass down and finish it. If you do not think you can finish it, do not go...simple as that.
PvP harassers....again deal with them on the spot. If you want to get co-operation from the Imperial guilds to set up planned PvP or even RP at a questionable location, the guild must be known for being upstanding individuals. IE....no members should gank, ever. No members should corpse camp, kill them and move on...don't sit around like a douche bag and wait for them to respawn. No lowbie poaching. No trash talking, all this does is make you look like an immature kid. And the final point...if a flagged individual is not harassing you, leave them the hell alone. Show some honour and decency and it gets noticed, especially if it is guild wide. This opens up communications with the other side and can allow us to organize HUGE battles where both sides can have fun and breaks to clean up the dead, bring people back together to begin fighting again as huge armies instead of minor skirmishes.

Yes I know this post focuses on alot of negative things but...it is the negative ones people remember for a LONG time and will get a guild branded quickly. Posative things get erased by even a single glaring negative. Only way we can fight it is to stamp it out damn quickly internally. Be known for not putting up with it even an inch and the guild will have a perfect rep.

Posted: Fri Jan 01, 2010 6:30 am

[quote="Darka"]Just a quick question to you all right now

How do we go about standing out ina game where jedi will be very popular and there will be many other guilds set up like ours?
Can not write too much at this moment, as i am at work ¬.¬

However would like to hear your thoughts on what makes us stand out, and will make us stand out once the game goes live![/quote]

Well, so far from what I read the forum, we'll be a multiclass guild... and such things will be available like mushrooms after the rain. What would makes us special and worthy of attention, is to get a reputation of people who don't blindly recruit, and that we've set some standards that are followed during the recruiting process and afterwards. Those standards and rules (and the ones which we might want to set in stone).

The discussion here already has pretty good ideas, which would make the life in guild fun for all.

Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 4:59 pm

[quote="DeBelem"][quote="Darka"]Just a quick question to you all right now

How do we go about standing out ina game where jedi will be very popular and there will be many other guilds set up like ours?
Can not write too much at this moment, as i am at work ¬.¬

However would like to hear your thoughts on what makes us stand out, and will make us stand out once the game goes live![/quote]

Well, so far from what I read the forum, we'll be a multiclass guild... and such things will be available like mushrooms after the rain. What would makes us special and worthy of attention, is to get a reputation of people who don't blindly recruit, and that we've set some standards that are followed during the recruiting process and afterwards. Those standards and rules (and the ones which we might want to set in stone).

The discussion here already has pretty good ideas, which would make the life in guild fun for all.[/quote]

Absolutely!

I've "always" believed in the philosophy of quality over quantity, and by following a strong basis of recruitment standards we will grow, slowly, but surely into a positively reputable community, as it already is.

Site Admin Joined: May 24, 2008 Posts: 2483

Its why we do not see much attention on the guild forums on the TOR site, i do not bump, rather have people know what they are looking for and seek us out, have people come to us because they want to be apart of it, rather then someone just looking for any old guild.

If we want to create a good name, we all have to want it, and be ready to work for it.
The first few month will be key, then sticking with it, creating content, hosting events both lighthearted and serious, mixing with individuals of others guilds,

Respect the players, and respect the tag.
Our actions will speak louder then words,

Padawan Joined: Dec 31, 2009 Posts: 52

Oh, and speaking of which...can I put an FA tag in my TOR signature?