[Neraphym]

We have been given a challenge by Cspace. We must win 3 unrated guild battles. This is not a difficult challenge to undertake, but it will require time, careful planning, and patience. In order to achieve this goal, we are going to need more active members, and we'll need to do some training in the art of pvp battles. I've divided up our task into three phases.


Phase 1: Recruiting

The Defenders of Aderon have decreased in activity over a year, and it's time we reversed this trend. We need to start recruiting people to join our guild and contribute to our clan activity. Guild Wars: Nightfall is out, and I bet a lot of people got it over the holidays, so there will be an abundance of new and returning players out there looking for a guild. We need to pick up a bunch of people so that we can have 8 people online and ready to fight at the same time.

There are a few different ways to attract new members. The first way is to go to a populated city and spam our name and see if people respond. This will get a few people, but they aren't as likely to stay. A more powerful version of this tactic is to host some kind of party within such a town. We can have lots of guild members hanging out in a spot dancing, giving away free beer, or just having a nice convo. People will see us having fun and they'll want in. We'll get more people this way, but it costs some money for beer and maybe some free presents.

Finally, I recommend we just play the game together, rather than alone. A good trick to getting more people to join is to do missions or team farm with another guild member or two. You will represent our guild in the eyes of your other party members and people will see what we are all about. At the end of mission before you disband, see if any of your party members are looking to join a guild. This will net us a few more members, who will probably be strong.

Phase 1 will not have any completion date of any kind. Unless we reach our member cap, we should always keep an eye out for potential members. To invite someone, just contact an officer that is online and one of us will invite the recruit. If you find someone new on the guild list, try and befriend them. One of our strongest assets is our awesome community. If someone feels like they belong, they won't want to leave, and keeping new members is key. Also, have them come to the forums and check us out.

I'm also considering giving rewards to those who successfully recruit new active members.
/* Keep your eyes peeled for an update here. */


Phase 2: Training

If we want to win our matches, we need to do some training. We need to practice in the PvP arenas and find a team strategy that works right. Our biggest concern is getting a good team together. When we have enough members to get 8 people on at a time, we need to make sure those 8 people have strong characters that can form an effective group. A good tool for finding out what characters each member has is by keeping the Members List accurate and up to date. Make sure you post any significant changes to your account in that topic, and have all your level 20 characters listed.

Once we get the team together, we need to do some work on strategy. I'd like to see some people contributing to the Build Directory by creating more entries, specifically PvP focused builds. We should also brush up on our team strategy by doing some homework. Read some of the guides on GvG posted on Guild Wiki or Guild Wars Guru.

The most important thing we can do to increase our chances is to practice in real combat. Let's start doing some PvP battles in the arenas. Practice makes perfect, and the experience will be invaluable in battle. Do it alone if you have to, but try and have other guildies with you. This will help us build some team synergy. Finally, we could do some scrimmaging to hone our skills. We will have some events and practice fights to help with our training.


Phase 3: The Battles

Our mission is to win 3 unraked GvG matches in a full 8v8 battle. Our opponents must have 8 players (i.e. no 8v6). These matches must take place in a guild hall, not an arena, and we cannot use any members from our alliance. It's just the Defenders of Aderon. We are only required to win 3 matches, so we can fight the same guild over and over until we get 3 wins. Because these matches are unranked, we shouldn't hold anything back. We can fight and fight until we win, as losses will mean nothing.

These battles will be schedualed in advanced, so hopefully we can get lots of people to show up (enough for an 8 man team, but extra people showing up gives us better selection of professions and builds). So far no match has been schedualed.
/* Keep your eyes peeled for an update here. */


Mission Status: Incomplete

[Troll]

Sounds good, whats the reward.

[Neraphym]

Well, the problem is making sure the new member is active and stays active. I don't wanna give a reward for someone that joins and leaves in the same day. I'm thinking something along the lines of 1 Ecto/Shard per player recruited who participates in a GvG battle (win or loss; during this mission).

[Cspace]

I'll be glad to help, but no reward would be necessary for me. The greatest reward is in knowing that DoA can finally do this kind of thing together, as many have long desired.

[Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin]

Phase 1: Recruiting

The Defenders of Aderon have decreased in activity over a year, and it's time we reversed this trend. We need to start recruiting people to join our guild and contribute to our clan activity. Guild Wars: Nightfall is out, and I bet a lot of people got it over the holidays, so there will be an abundance of new and returning players out there looking for a guild. We need to pick up a bunch of people so that we can have 8 people online and ready to fight at the same time.

There are a few different ways to attract new members. The first way is to go to a populated city and spam our name and see if people respond. This will get a few people, but they aren't as likely to stay. A more powerful version of this tactic is to host some kind of party within such a town. We can have lots of guild members hanging out in a spot dancing, giving away free beer, or just having a nice convo. People will see us having fun and they'll want in. We'll get more people this way, but it costs some money for beer and maybe some free presents.

*will do that right now and see if it actually works*

[Capozide]

Good luck with that. I can't be bothered with many games until I get a new PC.
Regards,
--Andrew

[Goto]

I'd strongly advise against random recruitment such as shouting the guild name in chat, or giving out rewards to people that join. It kinda gives people the wrong idea, and we don't really want to lose who we as a guild are in pursuit of gaining more activity.

That said, with a little more effort (talking to the prospective members, and giving them a sense of what our guild is like, or as Alpha suggested going farming, questing or missioning with them) I'm sure we can improve matters to the point where it's feasible to take part in some GvG. I haven't been too active on the boards in the last few weeks and that's going to be true for a little bit longer still, but I've been getting in some GW when I've had a chance. I've still got very little experience with PvP of any sort, but I'm going to try to read up on some of the common builds to try to get a sense for what might work for me.

Another thing that might be useful for training is something that goes on a lot already, just playing together. You can't get an idea of the playing styles of other people without spending some time teaming with them, so go ahead and invite guildies along with you next time you're doing a mission, exploring, or making a farming trip.

As the Sunspears say, you never fight alone.

[Cspace]

Indeed, I'd suggest against using public channels to openly recruit unless it's really necessary. That said, however, I don't think we should just rely on grouping for recruiting purposes either. Players tend to get picked up by guilds very early on, to the point where beyond level 5 most players are already in guilds. If we were to group with random people with intentions of recruiting them, we would in effect be trying to show that we're a better guild than the others represented in the group. That's fine, but the majority won't switch, and seeing that we're limited by up to seven others per group, it could become a long process. It's great to attempt to recruit those with whom you group, but while it sounds good and could work for a larger guild, in our situation I don't think we should lean only on methods along these lines for picking up activity.

For that matter, since we don't have much activity right now, we would be forced to do something with quicker results if we don't want to lose those we recruit.

Open recruitment can work, but only with certain methods. In some games sending [polite] PMs to those who are guildless can work, and it could potentially work here if we hang out in the newbie areas. Just be sure you don't try to recruit the same character twice.

Another way that is more effective is to have a party of some sort in a populated (but not crowded) area. Seeing a bunch of people wearing the same cape doing something fun can be attractive, and we can get a lot of attention depending on what we're doing. If we are after the guildless instead of trying to switch people over to us, we could easily do this in a newbie area for Factions or Nightfall. Heh, without technically openly recruiting we will overshadow everyone who is trying to recruit.

Lastly, there may be an outlet for us on Guild Wars communities, although the members there are almost all in guilds to begin with. Compared to some games, I'm not sure how much this would help us, but it may be something to look at.

Anyway, hope this helps.

[kelik]

I'll lend my main character to the effort. I've been playing alot of planetside lately, so, being rusty is an overstatement of my skills <_<.

[Cspace]

I've been playing alot of planetside lately, so, being rusty is an overstatement of my skills <_<.

Here's a complete change of subject, but which server?

[kelik]

I've been playing alot of planetside lately, so, being rusty is an overstatement of my skills <_<.

Here's a complete change of subject, but which server?

Um, markov. I mostly fight with the TR empire, but I do have a VS character too.

[Cspace]

I've been playing alot of planetside lately, so, being rusty is an overstatement of my skills <_<.

Here's a complete change of subject, but which server?

Um, markov. I mostly fight with the TR empire, but I do have a VS character too.

Ah cool, haven't been on in a bit, but I have a VS character on Emerald.

[kelik]

Ok one last off-topic question.............are the battles pretty big/hectic there?

[Ratty]

Malum ad Infinitum(N/mo) / Astaroth of Aderon(E/mo) at your service

I should probably get some practice at pvping..=P

[Cspace]

Ok one last off-topic question.............are the battles pretty big/hectic there?

Haven't really played in a few months, but there were frequently queues during the battles so they can get rather big. I remember some slow times though, just depends on the day I guess.