R.I.D BASE OF OPERATIONS

Posted: **Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:10 pm**

Hello!

First off, thank you Lexx for the invitation to join the Executive Council. I look forward to working with you as well as the other council members.

Just some ideas/thoughts:

1). Activity--Guild activity is usually around 5-7 members online during primetime, 1-2 throughout the day. To bolster this, I suggest:

-Creation of a volunteer recruitment corps: consists of 3-4 guild members supporting the council in recruitment efforts. Forwards recruitment email to ANY unguilded imperial cl 90 player that demonstrates mature, respectable behavior during a 5-10 minute observation period. Before forwarding, /tell's the player, "Hello there, <name>, I see you are unguilded. Would you like to receive some information about RID, an imperial pvp, pve, space, and rp guild?" Recruiter forwards if consent is given.

-"Public" Guild Events: Advertise guild events (fishing/instances/cantina nights....) as open to unguilded imperials. Chance for people to get to know us a bit better.

-RP Patrols: Patrol major cities, get our presence out there! Get visible, establish ourselves as an IMPERIAL guild, a force to be reckoned with.

2). No Mercy (NoM)--This guild recently transfered from Bria, and before from my home server, Kettemoor. They are scammers, hecklers, same faction hunters, exploiters, and griefers. Their leader, Camel Man'Sam (or Came'l, Camel', any iteration of that, he has many alts...) has been perma banned twice for harassment. He once threatened to "gang rape" my former guild leader's children. Like most villains, NoM cloaks their illicit activities in the guise of loyalty to the Empire. They are staunch pvpers, and spend most of their time in Restuss. No action is required of us, only that we completely and totally ignore them. They feed on attention, simply don't provide it. Just be aware.

Thank You, and I hope to have a wonderful experience in this position

-Ramd Ketten

Posted: **Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:24 am**

I voted for the other guy.

1) That should be rephrased. "Guild activity is usually around 7-9 members online, with 5-7 members that want to participate in guild events." Lexx has already heard my rant on suspect moochers, but that's another story.

I send out the recruitment mail to most unguilded Imperials I run into along with a personal message preceding it. Note: I don't spam. After the March events, I received MANY random solicitations. I just kinda rolled my eyes, and deleted them. But, yeah, my method right now seems to work fine. It snatched Illiaxe. Part of the issue now is that some PAs make it very easy to join, others, more difficult. Ours is some-where in the middle, leaning towards to the difficult side. We don't put our members through a trial period. But, on the other hand, recruits need to apply for forum membership, THEN be approved, before they can even post their applications. This why I tell people when creating their forum accounts to use their main characters name.

Now, this touches on a bigger issue that Daiho raised shortly after he joined RID, we're simply too casual to attract the players that you and I would love to see in RID. Look at who we've recruited recently, lowbies. The game penalizes grouping with a level discrepancy, so that's all we can do with them is encourage them to grind (and space). Lexx, myself, and others have tried different types of events and whatnot and the truth is that people don't show up. That's the reality of the situation. We're simply too casual. I call them the '7-9ers'. They're on roughly from 7-9 pm EST, to do maybe one or two events, and they log. This usually includes BBs and maybe a Heroic or two. On nights that I work, I'm on roughly 2-4 pm CST, and 10 pm - 1 am. I've been fortunate to be active in the RP community so I have plenty of friends run heroics with at night.

Long story short, this is the thorn in the flesh for RID. Many people have left RID because of it. In fact, my good buddy Ruh whom left RID because his friends from Kette transferred over, told us that. He also confided in me that that was simply the cover story. The real reason why he left was because no one really wanted to do anything. Between 7 and 9, they would do their main guild activity and either do something else on their own or log off. I can't tell you how sad it was (Pre-GU10) seeing weekly guild activity peak on Tuesday nights. It was a tragedy.

Now, why did I mention Daiho earlier? He asked the question, "How can we get more hardcore members into RID?" And I responded, "You need hardcore members to attract hardcore players." It's a chicken and the egg conundrum.

Pheww...sorry for the rant, I've been meaning to post this exact topic for a few days now, but haven't gotten around to it. Thanks for giving me a reason.

In regards to the RP Patrols, you have 110% support from me. RID always has a solid contingent of RPers (more casual than hardcore). Unfortunately, speaking RPer-to-RPer here, you can't 'make' RID an RP PA. It simply doesn't work. In the past, we've tossed around ideas for an 'RP Division' (Pre-Exec Council era). The purpose of an RP Division wouldn't be to segregate RPers, but to give RID an RP outlet. In other words, a place for RID RPers to come together. Dila'ae, another former member, and I oversaw this idea. It was a Stormtrooper Division based out of Fort Keen. It fell through though, when Dila left RID and we saw few recruits. Unfortunately, it also drew hostility from older members who claimed I "was attempting to turn RID into an RP guild". Heh, we even had an RP Guild War going on with ChotW for a week, back in January.

NoM's something else. That's all I'm going to say. I don't talk to them, and only group with them when I have to (BFs).

Love,

-Arev

P.S. Next time I see you on, I'll move you into Fort Keen. I probably won't be on tomorrow until 10 pm or so.

Posted: **Sun Jul 19, 2009 8:28 am**

Arev wrote:I voted for the other guy.

Now, this touches on a bigger issue that Daiho raised shortly after he joined RID, we're simply too casual to attract the players that you and I would love to see in RID.

Man I joined RID on March 30 2006 so before saying anything ... get informed.

Thank you

On the other side, I love your suggestion Ramd but the problem is that we have already tried to organize event and it never works. I encourage you to try it and I'll fully support you.

Posted: **Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:23 pm**

Arev wrote:I voted for the other guy.

1) That should be rephrased. "Guild activity is usually around 7-9 members online, with 5-7 members that want to participate in guild events." Lexx has already heard my rant on suspect moochers, but that's another story.

I send out the recruitment mail to most unguilded Imperials I run into along with a personal message preceding it. Note: I don't spam. After the March events, I received MANY random solicitations. I just kinda rolled my eyes, and deleted them. But, yeah, my method right now seems to work fine. It snatched Illiaxe. Part of the issue now is that some PAs make it very easy to join, others, more difficult. Ours is some-where in the middle, leaning towards to the difficult side. We don't put our members through a trial period. But, on the other hand, recruits need to apply for forum membership, THEN be approved, before they can even post their applications. This why I tell people when creating their forum accounts to use their main characters name.

Now, this touches on a bigger issue that Daiho raised shortly after he joined RID, we're simply too casual to attract the players that you and I would love to see in RID. Look at who we've recruited recently, lowbies. The game penalizes grouping with a level discrepancy, so that's all we can do with them is encourage them to grind (and space). Lexx, myself, and others have tried different types of events and whatnot and the truth is that people don't show up. That's the reality of the situation. We're simply too casual. I call them the '7-9ers'. They're on roughly from 7-9 pm EST, to do maybe one or two events, and they log. This usually includes BBs and maybe a Heroic or two. On nights that I work, I'm on roughly 2-4 pm CST, and 10 pm - 1 am. I've been fortunate to be active in the RP community so I have plenty of friends run heroics with at night.

Long story short, this is the thorn in the flesh for RID. Many people have left RID because of it. In fact, my good buddy Ruh whom left RID because his friends from Kette transferred over, told us that. He also confided in me that that was simply the cover story. The real reason why he left was because no one really wanted to do anything. Between 7 and 9, they would do their main guild activity and either do something else on their own or log off. I can't tell you how sad it was (Pre-GU10) seeing weekly guild activity peak on Tuesday nights. It was a tragedy.

Now, why did I mention Daiho earlier? He asked the question, "How can we get more hardcore members into RID?" And I responded, "You need hardcore members to attract hardcore players." It's a chicken and the egg conundrum.

You're right, it's a self fulfilling prophecy, which is why I feel it is so important to become as visible as possible. The public's perception of a guild can often be more important than actually having droves of members. Example: Empire Day, 10 RIDs show up, new transfer thinks RID is one of the larger guilds, becomes more receptive to guild information.

Pheww...sorry for the rant, I've been meaning to post this exact topic for a few days now, but haven't gotten around to it. Thanks for giving me a reason.

In regards to the RP Patrols, you have 110% support from me. RID always has a solid contingent of RPers (more casual than hardcore). Unfortunately, speaking RPer-to-RPer here, you can't 'make' RID an RP PA. It simply doesn't work. In the past, we've tossed around ideas for an 'RP Division' (Pre-Exec Council era). The purpose of an RP Division wouldn't be to segregate RPers, but to give RID an RP outlet. In other words, a place for RID RPers to come together. Dila'ae, another former member, and I oversaw this idea. It was a Stormtrooper Division based out of Fort Keen. It fell through though, when Dila left RID and we saw few recruits. Unfortunately, it also drew hostility from older members who claimed I "was attempting to turn RID into an RP guild". Heh, we even had an RP Guild War going on with ChotW for a week, back in January.

The RP patrols would not be mandatory.

NoM's something else. That's all I'm going to say. I don't talk to them, and only group with them when I have to (BFs).

Love,

-Arev

P.S. Next time I see you on, I'll move you into Fort Keen. I probably won't be on tomorrow until 10 pm or so.

Posted: **Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:05 pm**

Ramd wrote:The RP patrols would not be mandatory.

That's not the point. No one said, nor was it implied they would be mandatory. The crux of the issue is managing RP in an OOC setting. In other words, since their is no 'standard and norm' for RP in RID, how do you manage it?

Daiho wrote:Man I joined RID on March 30 2006 so before saying anything ... get informed.

Thank you

Meh.

Posted: **Mon Jul 20, 2009 9:46 am**

Okay, well I read all these posts. I think a recruitment corp would be a good idea, it might work if this Council got in on the job first. There are plenty of potential recruits transferring in from other servers.

As for your current complaints about the guild Arev, I'm not sure what to say. Some people are "hardcore" while others are "casual." If I had the mental endurance to do stuff for this guild *every* day for hours on end, I would, but then it starts crossing over to the threshold where I feel I *have* to log on, rather than logging on for the fun of the guild in general. There are those who'd like to run every heroic, every day. I'm just not sure how feasable that is. We'd need people to help take the responsibilty to form up their own groups. I of course would assist, but would be unable to do so every day. It's also just a matter of finding more keyed CL 90's, medics especially. But with that said, it's not like some members aren't forming their own groups. Urkan does a good job of it, as do some other members.

I had a feeling Ruh left because he wasn't content with the guild. That's his perogative, and I hope wherever he is now suits him better. But who knows, there's lots of guilds out there that claim to be optimal guilds, but only let their new recruits down. I say this with no offense to many of the guilds, but SHC seems to be stagnant lately, AI just recruits massive amounts of people (even questionable people), IMPHL seems to be disbanding, etc. So what is there left? There's ISOC, but they're very close knit, and many RP guilds, but I don't know too much about them. I think all things considering, RID is stable... if I recall, no one (at least no one of significance), has really left RID since Bovive left (some of his friends did soon after of course). But other than that, I think we've been recruiting more higher level people, especially real life friends and family of current members (which is essential to establish long lasting ties within the guild). Many of our current members say they love the guild, and are letting others outside the guild know that. I think that's one of the best things we can hope for.

Anyways, I think the bottom line is this. There really is only so many things people can do as a guild:

*Heroics
*Battlefields
*Meetings
*Events

Heroics because people want jewelry, battlefields because people want GCW, meetings to keep people informed, and events to keep people entertained. We hold social events every Friday (granted, because of my trip to DC, that's been slowed down a bit). Our Friday fishing event was a success, a large participation, and we managed to do something as a guild afterwards (helping someone do a mission in space). Forming battlefield groups on a regular basis is easy, as are the occassional guild meetings. I think where we have trouble is forming heroics actively enough, so lets focus on that. We can focus on that by going back to Ramd's idea: making us more visible for recruitment.

We can set a day or two, or more, every week for these recruitment drives. They don't *have* to be RP exclusive, but it would be nice just to form up as a group in Imperial uniform/armor, and just patrol high-population centers like Theed and Eisley. Like Ramd suggests, it makes us seem larger and more active to unguilded Imperials or new players. It can only end up doing good things for us.

My philosophy is to *always* keep things simple, especially in a game -- but most of all, keep things fun. When it comes down to it, people play this game to have fun and fulfill their personal character needs. That's why it just comes down to those four main things (Jewelry, GCW, information and entertainment). Though I really have a hard time seeing any members that "mooch" anymore. Maybe they do it when I'm not online, but aside from what Decra used to do, I've never really seen anyone pandering for credits or items. But if there is anyone that does that, I would suggest making a separate post on that altogether so that we could sort it out.

Posted: **Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:48 am**

Ramd wrote:Hello!

First off, thank you Lexx for the invitation to join the Executive Council. I look forward to working with you as well as the other council members.

Just some ideas/thoughts:

1). Activity--Guild activity is usually around 5-7 members online during primetime, 1-2 throughout the day. To bolster this, I suggest:

-Creation of a volunteer recruitment corps: consists of 3-4 guild members supporting the council in recruitment efforts. Forwards recruitment email to ANY unguilded imperial cl 90 player that demonstrates mature, respectable behavior during a 5-10 minute observation period. Before forwarding, /tell's the player, "Hello there, <name>, I see you are unguilded. Would you like to receive some information about RID, an imperial pvp, pve, space, and rp guild?" Recruiter forwards if consent is given.

-"Public" Guild Events: Advertise guild events (fishing/instances/cantina nights....) as open to unguilded imperials. Chance for people to get to know us a bit better.

-RP Patrols: Patrol major cities, get our presence out there! Get visible, establish ourselves as an IMPERIAL guild, a force to be reckoned with.

2). No Mercy (NoM)--This guild recently transfered from Bria, and before from my home server, Kettemoor. They are scammers, hecklers, same faction hunters, exploiters, and griefers. Their leader, Camel Man'Sam (or Came'l, Camel', any iteration of that, he has many alts...) has been perma banned twice for harassment. He once threatened to "gang rape" my former guild leader's children. Like most villains, NoM cloaks their illicit activities in the guise of loyalty to the Empire. They are staunch pvpers, and spend most of their time in Restuss. No action is required of us, only that we completely and totally ignore them. They feed on attention, simply don't provide it. Just be aware.

Thank You, and I hope to have a wonderful experience in this position

-Ramd Ketten

Hi ramd welcome to the secret council area and council

i will respond to your post in the order you posted

Activity Im online most nights im UK time based and am online for a few hours most nights, i dont tend to sleep unless im really tired so i play until im nearly dropping off. This is probably the reason why im described as nerdy by people at work when i talk about any of my home life. I own a deaf cat a mad boxer dog and i play a star wars online game... im a real catch lol

Recruiting I try to chat to people in game a lot in the cantina and also in heroics i have a huge friends list but i think recruiting should be a two way thing. If a member shows a interest i send them the welcome pack lexx emailed me and i also send them to see lexx in game. I do this because although im a people person i dont like to tread on toes regarding recruitment. Lexx is rids leader and i try to send recruits to lexx so he can see what he thinks of them.

Guild events your ideas sound great , i love fishing and swoop racing and using mounts for racing its all good fun and i dont mind losing its funnier if you lose sometimes. I would love to see more guild events. If i could make a suggestion a "how many people we can get in daihos bunker fridge event sounds good ? I love heroics too so if you need a medic or commando im always available when im online for things like that.

Roleplaying - i used to roleplay a lot and i know lona who used to be the roleplay sentator i have been to a lot of her events since she moved to starsider server so far they have all been good. I also dont mind roleplaying or helping to improve rids cities by roleplaying in them.

Nom - i dont know them to well and haven't met many of them yet , i will try to treat them the same way in which i wish to be treated. Nasty guilds don't last long they tend to annoy each other and split up when you leave them to their own devices.

*hug* ramd *offers ramd one of lexx's hidden best cigars*

R.I.D BASE OF OPERATIONS

Greetings! My first post

Greetings! My first post

Re: Greetings! My first post