Guild:Ancestors Of Melnibone/Mission Statement

Goals
As a roleplaying guild I wish to create a microscosm within the Guild Wars architecture where the story of a powerful race that once thrived, still lives on in memory and dreams. I hope to create an environment where completing PvE missions and Titles can be roleplayed as a group instead of hench/hero'd solo while using guild chat as just another chat room.

As a guild we are not interested in any actions that require PvP interaction. Although some players may enjoy this part of guild wars we are more interested in the story of guild wars itself and the mini world we are trying to create.

Not everyone that joins the Ancestors needs to be an elite class of player. Many of our players will be inexperienced in the game and often refered to as noob. We are here to train these inexperienced players and help them enjoy the game more.

Elite skin fans are welcome but please remember that your elite trophy may not mean as much to some of us in this guild as it does to you. Players with platinum overflowing in their Xulani Accounts are not half as impressive as the player who just spent his only available game time with a new guy who just didn't know how to run his character.

Guide Lines
While rules may or may not be strictly enforced... Failure to make an honest effort at participating in the guild by following the guide lines can and will lead to a termination of your membership. i.e. If you are not a helpful active member we don't need you.


 * Respect your fellow players. Understand that all players have different backgrounds and different reactions to different situations thus...
 * No foul language. Although we only try to recruit mature players there is no way to guarantee that minors are not playing.  Respect the eyes and ears of our younger players.  Not everyone wants to see how crass you can be.
 * OOC Nationality of players can be very diverse so OOC racist comments of any type are unacceptable and will result in immediate removal from the guild.


 * Each member should choose his own storyline for each character he wishes to play. You do not have to play a decendant of Melnibone to join. I only ask that you make an effort to play the role you choose.  In character roleplay is not a requirement of membership, but is preferred.


 * As a member of this guild you do not have to have read the series but a basic knowledge of the history should make the roleplay much more fun. Reading the links on the main page will be considered as "in character" study of "ancient text" stored in the guild hall's libraries.  Your understanding of the principles of the FanFiction we are creating together will help earn elevated status in the guild.  i.e. Officer Position


 * Understand that prior commitments can prevent players from joining you in a session. If your request for assistance goes without reply then DO NOT begin to spam your request over and over or begin to berate others for your inability to respect their current engagement.

Chat Guide Lines
Due to the fact that the current alliance we are in is not a role playing alliance. These rules are hereby suspended until further notice.

After several long conversations with a fellow GW player and active RP fan, I have come up with a system of communication to seperate "IC" ~ "in character chat" and "OOC" ~ "Out of Character chat". Alliance chat is considered to be a "telepathic" link to your fellow members. Nobody but The Albino Prince himself completely understands how this link works but acceptance into the guild and direct contact with Elric or any of his officers bestows this link. *possibly a "gift" from Arioch to further torment Elric with. This "link" does not permit telekinetic powers in any way. So physical contact or damage from a distance is not possible. For information on the story behind how this is possible please read here*(link to come)


 * Team Chat should be used most often. If you are participating in this guild you should be in a group with the person or people you are roleplaying with.  Quick OOC questions and clarifications are ok here since switching to whipser and back to team can be a chore if you are in an adventuring situation.
 * Alliance Chat is to be used for "in character" messages only. "Calls for help" and general conversation between roleplaying characters is to be held here.  Out of character comments and conversations should not be on this channel.  Players that are "in character" are advised that they may turn off Guild Chat and only refer to the "telepathic" link of Alliance Chat.


 * Guild Chat is to be used for "out of character" conversations. I understand that doing RP 24/7 can become a bit of a stretch for our imaginations and chore for our tired fingers to type out... Sometimes we just want to put our brain on pause, play the game and accomplish that goal we set for ourselves.  While doing that we often like to just have idle banter and this is what guild chat should and will be used for.

Conversation Conventions:
 * Whisper Channel should be used for its normal private conversation use but in the event that you missed an important roleplay cue or need further explaination of a member's actions since some people will be turning Guild Chat off while in RP mode. At all costs please avoid asking for ooc explainations of an action in Alliance Chat.  Occasional mistakes can and will be overlooked but blatant disregard of this guild guideline will result in loss of officer status and then eventually membership.
 * Price checks and the selling of weapons and other items are strictly forbidden from Alliance Chat. If you need to do either of these actions please first make an attempt to...
 * Find the price on your own. Guild Wars Guru (need link here) has an entire forum dedicated to price checks.
 * List the item for sale on your User page here on wiki as our leader has here.  Announcement of an update to your "for sale" page is acceptable in Alliance Chat if it is done as a roleplay.  i.e. create a storage character and give him/her a merchant background.
 * E-motes
 * For any emote that is not already in game (i.e. /flex, /dance, etc...) begin your emote with an asterisk "*your text". Be creative as a conversation is always more than text, there are feelings and emotions that go with the things we say.  Caution: You don't have use an emote every time you open your mouth.
 * For example - "Elric: *takes a respectful bow in greeting"
 * Out of Character (OOC) -
 * If you cannot use guild chat to ask an ooc question or are in an adventuring situation use double parenthesis ((your text here))
 * Example: "Elric: ((what did that mean?))

Officer Status
Officer status in this guild will be determined on several factors. Some of the most important factors that everyone should be aware of are.


 * An officer should be respectable.
 * An officer should be mature. (age has no correlation)
 * An officer helps protect and further the guild storyline whenever possible.
 * An officer must own all four storylines to be able to reach any player who calls for help.
 * An officer should have more than just limited experience in GW. i.e. HM must be unlocked in all four stories. Eye of the North, Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall
 * An officer actively participates in RP with other guild members on a regular basis. While no standard of measure can be accurate in this field, the activity in AC will be an obvious indicator.
 * An officer is expected to create and maintain his own personal User page here on wiki. (For assistance just ask Elric)

Philosophy
After reading this essay by Vorith I felt moved to write one of my own. Vorith's essay is very good but IMHO I think he focuses on the PvP player primarily and forgets about the PvE player. If you have time, please read his as I will reference it below.

Since this guild is meant to be part roleplay, part title hunting, and part social group I wanted to share my thoughts and feelings so that every member can feel comfortable in their membership. As your leader it falls upon me to establish the right environment to interest people into joining and to keep them interested in staying.

A good guild is a big guild:
I think this rings true no matter who you are - pve, pvx, pvp... People are not always on when you are. When they are on there is no guarantee they will be interested in doing the same thing you are doing. The more people in the guild, the better your chances someone will be on. To belong to a good guild makes play more fun and interesting because you are sharing your experience with someone instead of hiding in a dark room lit only by your monitor blazing with nothing but you, some monsters, and some poorly programmed heroes and henchmen with less than perfect skills.

Unfortunately, this is not a big guild right now. If you share my philosophy and are willing to join us and work to further our mutual goals, then this can and will be a fun and exciting place to be. If you show a little dedication and allegience, if you are willing to pledge your loyalty to spreading our ideals instead of guild-hopping, then this can and will be a great guild.

The Player Types vs Style:
As mentioned in Vorith's essay there are many types of players. They range from just opened the box and never played an online game once in their lives to the elite or leet and sometimes even 1337 for those that think they are above such simple conventions as letters. The group of people that were born playing online games.

Vorith's essay seems to refer to a particular style of players known as PvP or often PvX since some are not pure PvP. His list of player types seems to leaves out the players who are not interested in the dog eat dog style of PvP play. Those other players are who I am creating this guild and this essay for. The PvE player, the player that opened the box and thought... "Wow, a fantasy world to explore... and I don't have to do it alone." For those people I have a different list of types.

Vorith is right. We judge each other and put people into groups and subgroups based on skill level during play. The following are what I believe to be a slightly more accurate list of player types and styles (since Vorith left out the PvE players in his essay)

The Neophyte -
 * This group just finished making their first character or two and haven't even decided their prefered class yet. They have created and deleted characters not knowing what they want to do yet.  They get to a new outpost and ask where the storage is instead of just looking around.  They know a decent part of the story and are halfway to unlocking hard mode for the very first time.  To these people I say... Welcome to Guild Wars!

The Noob -
 * This group of players has some kind of grasp on the game. They know what profession(s) they like and have even gotten their very first piece or two of their very first set of Elite armor.  They have beaten at least one or more of the storylines but hard mode is still scary because they haven't figured out how to out damage the enemy healers or how to out heal the damage they are taking.  They know how to put a semi-functional build together but still have no idea what IAS, DPS, or IMS mean.  They don't understand the differences between condions, hexes, and enchantments.  If only someone could help them.

The Experienced Player
 * At this point most people have played long enough to determine their preferred play style... i.e. PvP, PvX, or PvE


 * Style: The PvP'er-
 * The guys that play in RA, AB, and every other event that puts their skills at creating builds and teams of human players into the crucible. To these guys - We salute you.  We aren't recruiting these guys, but hats off.  For more on the types of PvP player's you can read Vorith's essay.


 * Style: The PvX'er -
 * The players who still like PvP but also play through the storyline because they enjoy both. We don't mind having you around, but you probably are going to have very much luck getting a GvG team together. For more on the types of PvX players you can read Vorith's essay.


 * Style: The PvE'er -
 * The group of people this guild is most interested in. We are looking for you.
 * Type I: The Initiated -
 * This group knows what they want to do in game. They have toyed with PvP and decided it wasn't for them.  So far this group has gotten a few titles and done a few missions in hard mode.  They have started sharpening their skills and know how to make their character survive in the PvE explorable areas and have even vanquished a few of the easier ones.
 * Type II: The Title Hunter -
 * This group of players has their first taste of the importance of titles and the respect that their hard work has earned them. They have gotten to "Kind of a Big Deal" with 5 max titles and are more than halfway to the next 5 with no plans on stopping any time soon.
 * Type III: The Pro -
 * Nothing in the game scares this group. From pre-searing to hard mode in UW or FoW, nothing is too hard and they always know what skills to bring.  They happily walk around displaying their title "My Guild Hall Smells of Mohagany" and have painted themselves into a corner because there isn't much left to really do in game but grind those last few titles that require a bit of luck, a lot of consumables, and mind numbing amounts of farming for gold to pay for their lockpicks, unid's, sweets, and alchohol.  As a PvP'er the only titles this group haven't worked on are the ones you get from PvP play.
 * Type IV: The Farmer and/or Collector-
 * Some times these are retired pros that come out of hiding and find something worth hunting for and something to do while chatting with friends. To these guys I say huzzah and good luck!!!
 * More often though these are a different sub-group of semi-experienced players who have read PvX Wiki and learned how to use some one elses innovation to repeatedly farm a few spots for what seems like infinite wealth. This sub-group tends to show off their wealth by bragging about their über-rare skinned weapon/offhand/mini-pet. Sure they more than a few rare items and a few titles but the titles they have are usually only the titles you might get second hand while farming.  This is a group of people we would like to try to avoid.

Our Membership
We are looking for The Neophytes, The Noobs, The Initiated and The Experienced PvE players. I believe in the trickle down theory and that helping some one else get through a part of... or better at... the game, will pay its own rewards greater than any solo hench/hero could ever pay. As each Neophyte and Noob graduates to an Inexperienced PvE Player our roster of qualified party members increases.

"Help those who need more help than you do and one day when you need more help than they do... They will be there for you."


 * To The Neophytes and The Noobs - We are here to help you. We welcome you with open arms, but we won't be able to hold your hand every day.  Don't become a pest if nobody can help you right away.  Yes, the more experienced often have free stuff to pass down... but don't beg and never whine.


 * To The Initiated - Congratulations on your choice to PvE. We welcome you but expect you to respect and help those who have less experience than you do.  One day they will be there to help you.


 * To The Title Hunters - Congratulations on reaching your goals and welcome. We expect you to help those with less experience.  One day they will be there to help you.


 * To The Pro's - If you are a fan or If you are looking for some where to share your experience, we are here to learn from your wisdom. If you are seeking approval or validation by ooh's and ahh's then please... move on.


 * To The Farmers - Just... No thanks... Not unless your idea of showing off is giving away your wealth.


 * To The Collectors - I don't think this will be the guild for you, but you are welcome if you are a fan and are interested in participating.