First of all I would like to apologize you haven’t seen a “Guild Sphere” column the last month. But hopefully we will be back at full strength through out the summer. Feel free to contact us if you want your guild featured on our website.
Where did your guilds name come from?
When we first founded it was initially named The Hidden Dragoons, taking two of the founders, another, and myself, as the two names that made up our guild name. Later though when we changed it to The Dragoon Brotherhood, we took the meaning of the light cavalry unit used in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentance description of your guild?
The Dragoons are a very unique guild that values the person and not the character. For many years we have played most major MMOs on the market, and strive for excellence (particularly in PvP), while not sacrificing frienship, teamwork, and the relaxed atmosphere we have. In this guild every member is valued, instead of limiting based on gear choices, we help each other to grow, and have thankfully retained members for many years, which as a leader, is a huge source of inspiration.
How did your guild come about?
We were founded in the now closed MMO named The Matrix Online which was an exceptional game for community. At the time we felt there were alot of elitist roleplay guilds and we decided to stear away from that, accepting and helping people grow, rather than demand and suck up to the elitist side of the roleplay community. We formed a strong member-base that helped each other, and there was and always has been since, a strong air of friendship, loyalty, and a real desire to help others. It is on these principles we were founded five years ago on, and these principles we still thrive upon today.
What kind of play style do you focus on? PvE, PvP, RP:
Primarily we are PvP, generally because the guild has alot of hardcore PvP’ers. Our PvP style is all about fighting as one, never running away, and growing as a unit. We do however have many PvE’ers and Roleplayers and aim to do all content. We just focus more on PvP.
What is your guild set up? How do you run your guild?
The guild is run by a leader (me), who oversees everything. We then have a series of ranks that make up the body and work very well with each rank creating a better whole, rather than each having a seperate function. As a leader I am honest, strong, but very caring honestly. I’m not for all, I have been heavily critized, and not all enjoy my honesty, but then we have members that have stayed for many years. I think when it comes to rules and how we work, we are very honest and clear about the limits we set. For example, we want you on ventrilo 100% of the time that you are ingame. Not to us that’s fine, and we understand that for many it isn’t and we make sure we tell them that. We don’t look down on those who play this way, but some have a problem or get upset over it. Normally issues arise when people have a problem with things which initially they said was fine, and then realize it’s not, but that comes in the territory.
As a guild, and I cannot stress this enough, friendship is key, it’s like our currency here. Everyone is aiming to have everyones back and help one another. Now that doesn’t mean we are constantly over-bearing, on the contrary, life is generally relaxed here, while we have lots of laughs on ventrilo. We rarely have drama, and problems are fixed fast.
How serious do you play and/or run the guild?
Generally things are relaxed, we have aims, but becoming the best isn’t something we push to the point where it’s not fun anymore. We just do what we enjoy, and do it alot, and quite often it’s the secret to our success. When it comes to me, I take the members very seriously, many I have met in real life, which has always been a great pleasure. Although games come and go, it’s still people behind the characters, and it’s a been a fantastic journey meeting people from all over the world, all jobs, and each being a unique person. It’s one of the most profound parts of MMOs and guilds for me.
Do you have ranks or a certain hierarchy in your guild?
We have a divisional system which sounds more complex than it really is. It works like this:-
When you’re fully accepted, you choose which crew you join. Your crew is there to look out for you, and be a go to guy should you need it. You also fight for your crew in internal events. Each crew is lead by a Captain.
A Marshal oversees two crews, and their Captains, and is basically a guide for the Captain when it comes to crew management. A Marshal loses their crew, but gains larger departments (events, website developement).
A Grand Marshal oversees two Marshals, which heads up the entire division (Grand Marshal, two Marshals, and four crews). They are our officer rank, and really just make sure everything going smoothly in their divisions. They run large departments, and sit on a council to assist leadership.
Each rank is wisely chosen, and every member works hard. No rank really excels the other, they all have different parts to play. We try our best to make sure that general members have great says, so members joining, fully accepted members after trials are decided by ALL full members, and not just the officer team. It sounds a bit more complicated than it is, but it works extremely smoothly with every rank connecting with each other. There are a few more ranks in there, but they are the back bone.
Why did you choose the Sith Empire?
In most MMOs we are the bad guys and a vote long ago determined that we would go Sith. Not to mention Malgus is a great inspiration, that guys just badass!
Why do you run a guild?
It’s all I’ve done in MMOs (my forth day of playing we founded this guild), and I keep doing it for the people. I love doing what I do, and couldn’t imagine a day without this guild. The guild goes through ups and downs every one of them do, but I keep trudging on, mainly because we have such excellent people to trudge on for!
How do you approach Raid Planning?
We did do some raids in WoW, but it wasn’t a huge thing. We did an auction DKP, and just had sign up, and turn up. When it came to selecting who goes, we tried to take everyone and sub people out evenly so that all could come, rather than make a core, and then go to create a B team. Our members were mature enough to make it work, and we never had problems with raids in general… except when we pugged 😛
Are you always open for new recruits or do you want to keep a certain guild size?
We are open to all, but we prefer to be pretty contained. We feel 20-40 is probably the best number of people that suits our style. Keeping it small and contained and making sure everyone is individual. You have to remember, we are also always on vent, so 20-40 is larger than it sounds!
Age Requirement?
Probably 15+ we say probably because it’s rare we are faced with younger players joining. The majority are adults, with families, or young adults who are in Uni or College. We don’t really want kids, but if players of 15 or 16 can handle our type, then why not?
There is too much focus on age these days, which I don’t always agree with, it’s the person not the age.
Guild size?
We are sitting at exactly 15 active, small yet contained, and all on ventrilo.
What makes your guild stand out from everyone else? What makes your guild unique?
Our friendship and brotherhood is unlike any other. People really value each other, and everyone has a place. When you join us, we really make efforts to make sure you enjoy your time here. We have multiple events, awards, Hall of Fame meetups of old members visiting with new. Large events that we run over long periods of time, not to mention the huge server wide events we have done. In PvP unlike sooo many, we stand and fight, we don’t leave each other to die we fight as one and die as one. Many are against this idea, they run to guards, mount up near death, and to us, watching our pixels die means nothing to leaving our members while we save our own skins.
How do you spend your time until release? Do you know each other in real life or do you spend a lot of time on forums?
Our guild has been founded for many years, so we are just playing games together and hanging on vent while rambling on TOR, especially as some, like myself, are at the boiling point of hype. Lately we have been playing APB, with a few FPS’s thrown in for good measure. We are more MMO’ers though, so we are looking forward to getting into TOR.
What Other Games are you currently playing as a guild?
APB lately, and a few FPS, but we play lots together, most just chill, play something, and if it interests (and most of the time it does), then we all play it.
If somebody is interested now how and where can they apply for membership?
Visit our website at http://forever-dragoons.com and click the recruitment tab!
One last question, if there was one thing you could ask the Dev’s to include, what would it be?
To not forget the value of the community, please don’t make it as shallow as WoW, make being a good community member valued, and award teamwork.