Posted by TwinHits | 11 Comments

United We Stand: A Living Document

United We Stand is an Ask A Jedi series focusing on guilds, groups, and other communities in Star Wars: The Old Republic. By examining the communities that we form, we can create a stronger game for ourselves, build relationships that will last a lifetime, and perhaps even change the world itself.

I hope everyone enjoyed their chance to play Star Wars: The Old Republic recently; I spent my time meticulously writing down the exact values for my Twi’leks’ appearance bars. Time well spent.

Last time we talked about the idea of a governing document guided by the concept of transparency to embody the vision of your core message. We could quite literally go on for weeks just about how to write a good guild charter, but unfortunately there are so many other fascinating things about Star War: The Old Republic and its community that we should discuss.

This week, however, I want to highlight a guild charter that as offered up in the comments of last week’s article. GhostBoy submitted this document, one from his own World of Warcraft endgame PvE guild.

The interesting thing about reading GhostBoy’s charter is that you can tell it’s been in use for a long time, there are articles and sections that seem out of place because they were added in later in order to address an issue that came up after the charter was written. This is the natural evolution of a governing document and a sign of a healthy and attentive leadership.

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Posted by TwinHits | 5 Comments

Diplomatically Immune: The Seekers of Knowledge

I’ve always loved the idea of the Jedi Consular, the wise keeper of knowledge. She is not a warrior by trade, but rather one when necessary, a sage far more interested in understanding the problem then charging head in.

When I found out that they could tank, which is my favorite MMO position, and could be Twi’lek, my favorite race, I immediately decided that the Consular was going to be the class that I started with. So when I finally got into the beta, that was the first character that I created. I fell in love which the character, the story, the abilities, the animation, and the style.

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Posted by TwinHits | 16 Comments

United We Stand: Simplicity Isn’t a Vice

United We Stand is an Ask A Jedi column focusing on guilds, groups, and other communities in Star Wars: The Old Republic. By examining the communities that we form, we can create a stronger game for ourselves, build relationships that will last a lifetime, and perhaps even change the world itself.

Four weeks to go! We are so excited. It’s important to remain on track and not get derailed by the excitement, so let us return to our topic: how to build a guild from the ground up. Two weeks ago before I got distracted, we talked about how to build your core message, how to define your vision, and how to share your guild’s promise with everyone. 

We talked about what a good core message has and about how writing one will help you understand what you want the guild to become. We decided that when you write your message, you want to show what you want to do and the guild you want to become so that you will attract the right kind of members.

What do you do with this message? Well, basically you expand it to all the parts of your guild that you have to build. From this message we can develop a governing document, discuss how to make your guild visible, how to build legitimacy, and how to develop server presence. You can take parts out of the message and apply them to every situation, this way your guild remains true to a central vision.

The first thing that we need to do with our core message is to build our governing document. Yes, think the U.S. Constitution except written for your guild. The principle that we want to follow is transparency. This is usually used to talk about the governed understanding the processes of the governors, which is also important, but mainly in this case we mean simplicity. We want to build a simple, clear, and transparent document that anyone can read and understand. It should detail how your guild works, where one can refer to when there’s a problem, and outline and effectively accomplish the promise of your guild.

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Posted by TwinHits | 10 Comments

United We Stand: The Craftsmen’s Guild

United We Stand is an Ask A Jedi series focusing on guilds, groups, and other communities in Star Wars: The Old Republic. By examining the communities that we form, we can create a stronger game for ourselves, build relationships that will last a lifetime, and perhaps even change the world itself.

I know we’re supposed to continue with our model of how to build a guild today, but I had an idea this morning that I want to share with you and see what you think. In the meantime, keep working on your core message and send it to me if you want any input or help! A few weeks ago, one of our Ask A Jedi crafting columnists Zlatto asked in a comment, “What about the concept of crafting guilds?” Crafting guilds have always been a thing that people want and talk about, and some people will stand up and say, “Let’s make a crafting guild!” but they won’t have a plan or a purpose. I want to propose to you a model for a crafting guild, tell me what you think.

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Posted by TwinHits | 3 Comments

United We Stand: Message For You, Sir!

United We Stand is an Ask A Jedi series focusing on guilds, groups, and other communities in Star Wars: The Old Republic. By examining the communities that we form, we can create a stronger game for ourselves, build relationships that will last a lifetime, and perhaps even change the world itself.

Six weeks from now, we’re starting on a grand adventure, one that will likely change many of our lives forever. We’re not going to be alone though, everyone else is going to be there with us. Thus, the next six articles are going to focus on how to design a guild from the ground up, how to market your guild, how to make it an effective organization, and how to reach your goals. This plan goes right along with Ask A Jedi’s amazing new column Council Chambers written by the very talented Lady Republic, which deals with day to day problems and solutions for guild officers.

Before we get into that fancy topic, I want to give you aspiring guild leaders and officers probably the best and most useful advice I can possibly give, for beside all the cool ideas and theories we discuss here there will be nothing more useful then what I am about to say: You cannot do this alone. Before anything else, you must find one other person who completely shares your vision with you. This person will be incredibly valuable to you both as an advisor, a friend, and your greatest supporter. Once your guild becomes successful, you will never forget what they have done for you.

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