Guild:Comite De La Biere De Nains (historical)

Comité de la Bière de Nains (French Dwarven Ale Committee) [CBN]
Originally formed in October of 2005, the French Dwarven Ale Committee became an official Guild Wars guild on December of the same year. Why the discrepancy between the times, you may wonder? The story of how the guild's creation is a rather unique one...

It all began on the French fansite, France Guild Wars, with a forum post between several active members. The thread included a survey to determine if Lord Coxie (who they proclaimed to be a pathetic Warrior/Elementalist in love with his axe) would be able to seduce Elfy (a beautiful Ranger). The survey became a great subject of interest on the forums, and a lot of the members decided to play the part of the paparazzi. They organized parties among each other to take screenshots of the two "protagonists" of this self-made story. During these parties, a lot of Dwarven ale was served, which led to the discovery of two important facts. First, they loved the ale. And the second—their point of contention—was that the ale was simply too expensive. When the last of their gold was dropped, the party stopped—and that simply would not do.

This led to the creation of the committee, whose job it was to protest their ails with ale. Their first step was creating a banner behind which people could rally. Logos supporting the Dwarven Ale Committee began appearing in the signatures of numerous forum members. The committee also took to the streets of Lion's Arch every Sunday to stage its protests—followed thereafter by a drinking party on the beach in Fisherman's Haven. The guild was then officially created in December, because those supporting the cause had become good friends accustomed to playing together. Their staged protests would continue all the way into March of 2006.

The friendships that formed turned out to be a key point to the future growth of the guild. As a smaller group (currently with twenty active members), all members in the guild know one another—and this tight-knit community is important. Whenever a new member joins the guild, no new members are accepted from that point on until everyone has had time to game with and talk to the new member—both in game, and on the guild's forums.

CBN's philosophy is that of friendship and loyalty. Its members aren’t mindful of game achievements or the performance of their guildmates; they play only for fun. The committee feels that people consider CBN more as a community guild than a common guild.

The community plays an important role in CBN, as guild members are active on the France Guild Wars site as moderators, guide writers, as well as creators of fan-art and fan-fiction. One of these projects includes a tourist guide written in-character and in a humorous tone, counting the flora, fauna, the story of the inhabitants, and the geological curiosities of the lands. When considering new members, CBN looks for players who are active within the Guild Wars community, and who have an interest in keeping that community alive and thriving.

Because of the guild's focus on in-game community rather than strict gameplay, its members rarely talk about strategy or tactics. They are not concerned with the builds that their guildmates are running, and their typical play style highlights the strong bonds between the guild's members—even if their "take what you have and play" approach does not work with others. When playing as a group, CBN's members find themselves performing at their best. As far back as they can remember it has always been this way. They do not devote much time to planning, they need only to play. Because they get along so well, they take it as a sign that perhaps the guild was simply meant to be!

In closing, the members of CBN would like to state that despite the fact that the theme of their guild revolves around the in-game consumption of Dwarven ale, they make a distinction between in-game and real-life activities. They do not encourage drinking in real-life, but rather, enjoyment of the act in-game as a means of participating within the Guild Wars community.