Three Become One

Two days ago, Swarley and Ziyal spoke with me to let me know they were going to be taking a break from the Empire to roll some low level Republic on another server, and play more casually perhaps until some new content came out. We have a great deal of respect for one another and worked together to decide that Infest and I would carry on with the guild to continue doing activities with those who were interested.

Merely a week after joining Via Tyrannum, I found myself switching everyone back to Sin in a gambit to preserve authority and a sense of purpose and direction. It's not what anyone expected or planned, but I believe it could work out for the best.

Today a few people rightfully came to me with some concerns about the status of the guilds. I did mean to give it more time and had planned to but things were looking grim and I do apologize for the abruptness of these changes.

I would especially ask for those Praetorian Guards and Legionnaires of Via Tyrannum to give Sin, and myself and the others, a chance. I know that these kind of changes can seem like a hassle if not downright exhausting, but I believe the rapport I found with the officers of VT we had seem something worthwhile in one another, and I would be honored if you would try things with us and see how they go.



Some folks from Sin and VT said to me, and others were feeling and I'm sure would feel as time went on, that Via Tyrannum would be a hollow reflection its true self without the officers and raid leadership who lead them to glory and victory.

So out of respect to those leaders and in recognition of their well earned sabbatical our membership required that I make a bold move. Other members rightfully felt that they had not been involved and had as much time to get to know everyone in terms of the "cliquey" type of atmosphere that can occur with these size raids.

So last night we moved to Sin, with an all new ranking system that takes a page out of VT's playbook - and Lirof/Leira, the guildmaster of Legacy of the Fallen, is also joining sin with his members as my co-guildmaster. With this fresh infusion of lifeblood from Sin, Via Tyrannum, and Legacy of the Fallen, we will have enough folks to run raids any time are needed, and their will be many new people to meet and play with in PvE and PvP.

I am pleased to say that last night Infest, Aleesi and I were able to take a group of folks who for many was their first time raiding and venturing into EV and cleared everything up to Soa. The ventrilo will remain up at all times for anyone to use.

And as always, if anyone has any questions, doubts, concerns, or disagreement with me, or feels like they haven't been heard or need a chance to do something else in the guild - send me an in game mail, whisper me, or hop on Ventrilo. I will be more than happy to help you or discuss challenges as needed.

It is my hope that the majority of folks who do wish to continue playing SWTOR on Ven Zallow Empire will join us in Sin and the exciting new group of players we are forming.

Peace is a Lie,
Zode

A New Chapter

After several days of talking with the officers of Sin and the Emperor and Officers of Via Tyrannum I am pleased to announce that we will be officially joining forces. As Sin grew larger from a dream of a great place to play into a legitimately competitive force in PvE and PvP progression, it became a lot for a one man administrative show to handle, as you can see from the drama and whispers I am subjected to.


A merger with VT allows us many new options in the ability for member to accomplish their personal and social goals. Via Tyrannum has multiple hard mode raids through KP and EV, and Sin's hard mode and late night raids will have a new source of members to draw from as well as new opportunities for raiders to find times and groups that suit their needs.

Casual members will find there are always players on with whom to PvP, RP, socialize, or do hard modes. With our strength of mature, adult members our newly reforged guild is no doubt one of the largest and most professional on the server.

Swarley and I have both played MMOs for over a decade and were very aware of the potential pitfalls and hazards in uniting under a common banner, and spoke at length (for hours) on how to avoid these and make an equitable arrangement that is to everyone's benefit.

Swarley and I will function as co-leaders, and their will be a council of six officers, three of whom will be selected by each of us. Each council member will have two lieutenants or sub-officers as well. For those of you who may be concerned about the badges you earned in Sin, don't be: Zode will maintain control over member notes and will continue to update each persons badges as they reach milestones for their characters as well as offering this opportunity to current members of VT. Swarley was also impressed by my ability to conduct fair and efficient business and raise money and materials for the guild bank and has appointed me treasurer.

I'm pleased to announce several excellent Sin members have already bravely made the transition: Vampuir and Aleesi, as officers who can invite you to the guild whenever you, the reader, are ready. As well as Jecht, Jezter, and several more excellent players. I look forward to seeing each of you as a strong member once more. For the time being my alt Skeletonwitch is holding my position of High Warlord in VT while Zode wraps up business in Sin and lets everyone know our course of action before I appoint Sin's bank character, Beth, to the GM position.

Please check out viatyrannum.com and consider checking out the forums. I was also very pleased with Swarley's respect for the culture of positivity, professionalism, and respect for other players and our guild chat will continue to have a zero-tolerance policy for bigotry, sexism, homophobia, and other rude, crass, profane and inappropriate speech.

Please feel free to shed your Sin cocoon and blossom into a lithe young butterfly of a guild: simply whisper Aleesi, Vampuir, Swarley, Mellas, Ziyal, Skeletonwitch, Zode, or another officer and let them know you are a member of Sin ready to be invited.

This is a very exciting time for us all, but it is one of change, and MMO players are well known to hate and fear change ;) if you have any concerns please feel free to comment here or send me an email or in-game mail. This decision was not made lightly but I believe if given a chance we will find new allies and victories within our reach.

-Zode

Finally, some drama!

No growing guild is complete without some drama, outrage, in-fighting and other soap opera excitement. Tuesday a tank and recently promoted to officer to lead raids, Trogdar, did a fantastic job leading raiders on Tuesday to 1 shot every boss in EV and 2 shot Soa. I believed the raid was ready to try hard mode and so tonight I had scheduled 2 raids to go at 6:15 with our allied guild included, since Sin only had 1 "A TEAM" raid and many more people were interested in getting involved. Trogdar logged on at 6:50 and refused to work with our allied guildmaster and lead his own raid with the A-Team, excluding other Sin raiders. I was very proud of them for successfully defeating the first 2 bosses in hard mode EV before being struck by the bug on the third boss of being unable to reset the instance after locking the pylons and wiping. After this Trogdar really let me have it and ranted at me in guild chat telling me what a terrible leader I am and how I have failed everyone and let them down by flaking out on raids. This puzzled me as I had let everyone know I would be spending time with my wife and son sometimes and that is why we had other raid leaders. The raids were very successful so I'm not sure if everyone was angry and resentful like Trogdar said or just his own feelings from a lack of communication. I was also disappointed to see Trogdar try to random off items when that is forbidden in our guild policy. Also in the recruitment policy is the philosophy that we are not here to be a super elite PvE raid guild at the expense of real life job, family, or school. And we are also based on being inclusive and helping others not making one super-elite raid team and telling the rest of the 50's too bad. But by all means don't take my word for it, the following conversation is long but I tried to be as diplomatic as possible, unfortunately I did not find much understanding. Caution: explicit language follows.

Enter: Via Tyrannum

Dark Side Guildmasters wielding Green Sabers.

Good news, everyone! Today I spent many hours conversing with the Guildmaster and several fine officers and raid leaders from Via Tyrannum. ( http://viatyrannum.com/ )

They are currently clearing all the hard mode content with a couple raids and are looking for more raiders and players to work with so we have formed a close alliance for the time being. They have over 250 members and a well established web-site and team. They use TeamSpeak right now but are considering switching to Ventrilo. Our raiders are invited to try some of the hard mode content with them tomorrow (Thursday). Please be online around 6:00 PM and speak to Swarley, Mellis, or Ziyal if you are interested in this content.

The best way to get in touch with them may be logging on to their Teamspeak server or whispering in game, go to http://teamspeak.com/?page=teamspeak3 to download Teamspeak 3 and one of their members will set you up with the address. 

Via Tyrannum has a great deal of respect for us as a guild, our policies of respect for all players, and recruitment practice of only finding the best and most mature, reliable folks for members.

This alliance has the potential to open new doors in terms of PvE content for raiders, as well as a larger network to run Hard Modes and Warzones with. Basically the gameplay situation will be enhanced for both guilds involved.

They did help us do some runs tonight including the Belsavis world boss to try to get more schematics, and some Force Ghost runs for more crystals, and some Hard Modes.


I encourage you all to start to get to know some of our new brothers in the Via Tyrannum, as I am very excited about the potential this relationship has for Sin in furthering all of our personal and professional goals.


-Zode

Sin 2.0 - Rank Achievment System!

Icon of Sin: Final Boss of Doom II

I am very pleased to announce that I have developed a new ranking system for the guild that has been on my mind for awhile. With the help of a couple officers, members will now be recognized within the guild through their rank for their achievements in ToR. All members will know right away just how accomplished a player is.

Players will earn badges through their PvP, PvE, and RP activity and accomplishments. These achievements will then earn badges, and rank will go up with the number of badges obtained. Which badges have been earned will be visible in the member note, such as «\/» would indicate the Vainglory badge has been obtained.

The badges that may be earned are as follows:

«\/» - Vainglory Badge - Pride - This will be a specific personal goal or quest assigned to you by Zode.

«Å» - Asmodeus Badge - Lust  - Obtain the 4 piece PvE set bonus.

«§» - Iblis Badge -  Wrath - Rise to Valor rank 60: Battlemaster

«Ł» - Leviathan Badge - Envy - Defeat Soa in the Vault of Eternity.

«Z» - Beelzebub Badge - Gluttony - Get all three crew skills to 400.

«M» - Mammon Badge - Greed - Donate 250k to the guild bank for tax purposes.

«ß» - Belphegor Badge - Sloth - Follow the blog sin-guild.blogspot.com - and comment on a post with your in-game name to achieve this badge.

However, not everyone is called to such a Dark path and their are those who find honor in a different calling: to be a member of the Empire who walks the path of light. If they choose to forsake the above badges, they may instead pursue the following heavenly virtue medals:

[H] Humility Medal - Humbly complete a personalized quest bestowed upon you by Zode.

[C] Chastity Medal - Get your 4 piece PvE set bonus.

[P] Patience Medal - Reach Valor rank 60: Battlemaster.

[K] Kindness Medal - Get three crew skills to 400.

[T] Temperance Medal - Defeat Soa in the Eternity Vault.

[R] Charity Medal - Donate 350k to the guild bank to be distributed to the less fortunate.

[D] Diligence Medal - Follow the blog sin-guild.blogspot.com - and comment on a post with your in-game name to achieve this badge.

The updated ranks for the guild are as follows:

0 Guildmaster - Icon of Vainglory - Zode

1 Reverand Mother - Blessed Queen of Zode

2 Dark Council - Icon of Gluttony - Zode's Inner Circle

3 Dark Seducer - Officers and Recruiters.

4 « Ìߣͧ » Icon of Wrath - 7 Badges

5 « ŧmºÐ³µ§ » Icon of Lust - 6 Badges

6 « Łë\/!ã†hªñ » Icon of Envy - 5 Badges

7 « (V)åmmøñ » Icon of Greed - 4 Badges

8 « ßé£þhèG¤® » Icon of Sloth - 3 Badges

9 Recruit - Initiate drawn in by a Dark Seducer.

At this point the plan is: twice a week, Tuesday and Saturday, there will be a ceremony at Dromund Kaas or the Imperial Fleet for those who have achieved the Badges required for promotion. This will allow us to put on our finest regalia and socialize with Sin members of all levels.

Sin enters 16-man Eternity Vault.

Tonight's raid was anticipated by many, and as our players have leveled to 50 we had 16 ready to raid tonight. A mix of our eight-man team who had cleared Eternity Vault, some players who had come a few times and sat bench others, and new 50's some of whom had never raided before!

So tonight Trogdar, Vampuir, and Infest tanked. Aleesi, Hahaumissedahh, Vrassek, and Uncanny came as healers, and Achilis, Koithim, Jecht, Demoneta, Demi, Lizbeth, Kuroyama, Gorb and I showed up to deal damage.

All of our more experienced raiders were very classy and helped teach the newcomers about aggro, boss mechanic dances, ways of preparation , how to use Ventrilo. Everyone had a great attitude and a lot of fun. Congrats to Trogdar on his 4 piece set, as well Infest and Jecht on their Tier 2 gloves. And also four people for their Tier 1 helmets including Haha, Vrassek, Lizbeth, and Infest!

After a grueling time clearing through some enhanced 16-man trash, we finally made it to Gharj. After several attempts we had him to 9% twice and getting blocked by the enrage. We decided to go work on our gear and come back with more focus and a tight group.

We'll be raiding Thursday at 10:15 PM and see who shows up, and if interest continues we will through the weekend as well.

Eternity Vault 5/5 Cleared: Soa, The Infernal One defeated.

Sin stands before the defeated Infernal One.

Congrats, everyone on a job well done. I could not be more proud of our raid for showing up on time and prepared with a great attitude. It has been amazing over the last few weeks to watch this guild grow from just a small group of friends with a vision, a vision of a guild that could bring in mature, adult players who want to socialize with like-minded people in the pursuit of better PvP, PvE, and RP than could be achieved alone.

And with the defeat of this the final boss of the first PvE raid, and breaking 140 members - each of whom we have gotten to know personally before recruiting them - I feel we have succeeded.