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 Lady Republic | 4 Comments

Council Chambers: Making The Most Of Allies And Adversaries

Council Chambers is all about the ins and outs of guild leadership in Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Each week, we’ll look at running and managing a guild through good times, bad times and everything in between.  

This week’s entry focuses on a unique aspect of TOR, the Allies and Adversary system.  This system allows a guild leader to connect with up to three other guilds through the TOR guild window, and will ideally place all of these guilds together on the same server at launch.  In order to be an ally or adversary of another guild, you all need to be requesting the same type of server (PvE, PvP, RP-PvE) and also the same time zone (EU, US East, US West).  For most guilds, if they used this feature at all, it’s been as a way to connect with friends from other games or other well-known guilds in the community.  But it turns out, there may be a lot more to the Allies and Adversaries system than just connecting with some friends to land on the same server.

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Posted by Lady Republic | 0 Comments

Council Chambers: Fostering Interest In Your Guild Pre-Launch

Council Chambers is all about the ins and outs of guild leadership in Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Each week, we’ll look at running and managing a guild through good times, bad times and everything in between.  

Within the last week, the developers at Star Wars: The Old Republic pushed out the third, and final, phase of the pre-launch guild deployment system.  In this third and final phase, the system checks to make sure your guild has at least four members who have pre-ordered the game in order to create your guild for you when the game goes live.  With a little over a month now between phase 3 and launch, one of the biggest questions for many guilds out there will be how to not only recruit folks and secure their pre-launch spots, but also how to retain them.

Last week, we talked about advertising a guild through the Star Wars guild forums and how to begin building membership for your new SW:TOR guild.  This week, we’re going to talk about the other half of the recruitment effort – holding and maintaining interest.  No matter how great of a recruiting drive you make, if you don’t find ways to keep players engaged and interested – they don’t stick around, which leads to even more time being spent on recruiting.  So while it’s very important to recruit new members, it’s also key to make sure the ones you’ve already recruited feel like a part of the group.

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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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Posted by Lady Republic | 5 Comments

Council Chambers: Recruiting In The Old Republic

Council Chambers is all about the ins and outs of guild leadership in Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Each week, we’ll look at running and managing a guild through good times, bad times and everything in between.  

Hello and welcome to the first installment of Council Chambers, a column specifically for all those guild leaders and officers out there, as well as those who aspire to be.  I’m Lady Republic, a long-time gamer and MMO player as well as a guild leader for…well, more years than I care to admit.  I’ll be contributing columns about guild leadership, management, and troubleshooting guild issues – so please feel free to write in with any guild management questions you’re running into!

Dressing For Success

Today, we’ll be talking about a unique aspect of The Old Republic’s guild system – the pre-launch system.  Many of you will have some experience with forming up a guild in game, but in a world where the game isn’t even live yet – how do you recruit members using just the forums?

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