The Guild Sphere: Raze

This week I sat down with the leadership from Raze, a Hardcore PvP that enjoy’s PvE, crafting and many many other aspects of the game, I hope you all enjoy the interview.

The name “Raze” originates from an old Vanguard pre-release Hardcore PvP guild. We were very involved in its community and loved what the guild stood for. But, unfortunately Vanguard crapped out, and the guild fell apart, aside from ourselves. So, when we finally figured, “hey what the heck, let’s make a Star Wars: The Old Republic guild”, Raze would be the perfect name, and we would pick up off the guild’s old values, with a few tweaks of course. The word Raze, if defined, means to tear down, which is kinda fitting for a hardcore guild, right?

Raze is a hardcore PvP/PvE guild, comprised of very highly competitive, highly experienced members. Raze strives to be the best in all aspects of Star Wars: The Old Republic’s gameplay, whether it is PvP, PvE, or crafting, you name it, we want to be top dog at it. However, our primary focus will be PvP, as our roots stem from PvP.

We have been gaming for many years together and have been involved in a few different guilds for games like Vanguard and Age of Conan. Both of these guilds we were involved in ended up falling apart. After we had heard about Star Wars: The Old Republic we decided to create our own guild based on our own ideals.

As previously stated, we want to excel in all aspects of Star Wars: The Old Republic, although we aren’t too fond of RPing.

Currently, Raze is split into three branches, the Tactical Branch (PvP), and the Strategic Branch (PvE), and finally, the administrative branch (guild leaders). Each branch is ran by its respective officer, while the administrative branch is ran by the two guild leaders.

The Tactical Branch’s primary focus is to plan out PvP groups and events, as well as devise suitable groups for our members in order to operate at peak efficiency.

The Strategic Branch’s main responsibilities are to gather intel and formulate strategies on raids, that would be suitable for our guild to take part in, as well as organize raids and plan out the groups. Both branches share similar roles, it’s just that one is focused on PvP, and the other, PvE.

The Administrative Branch, is exactly what it sounds like, it administrates the guild, and keeps in check along with the Officers, the guild rules, as well as upkeep the guild forums , and website.

Raze is run very tight knit, everyone is and should be comfortable with each other. We believe in achieving high levels of chemistry between members in order to form more efficient, and more effective groups, in both PvP and PvE. We like to keep drama out of the guild. Therefore the administration keeps an open door policy, so if there are any issues, a talk with one of the officers or guild leaders should solve the problem. And finally, communication is key in Raze, when not using vent, we use our guild’s homepage/forums for communication.

We are very serious about how we both, run the guild and play. Everything we do, is usually deliberate, deliberate in a sense that we are usually doing things for the betterment of Raze. Since Raze believes in efficiency we don’t waste time to get things done, if we can. As for play, without getting any more redundant, if you’re not trying to be the best at what you’re doing, you don’t belong in Raze.

Yes, as previously touched on, we do have a hierarchy. There is the Administrative Branch, which is essentially the guild leadership, they have ultimate say in any decision. The Tactical Branch, which is our PvP branch is ran by a Tactical Officer, whom in turn possesses aid from his Field Officer(s). The same for our Strategic Branch, which is ran by a Strategic Officer, who also may receive aid from his chosen Field Officer(s). This setup is still pending changes

We chose Sith because we want to be the bad boys, and girls love bad boys ;). Joking aside, we chose Sith for two reasons, primarily because the main focal faction throughout the film series has been the light side. Everyone and their mother’s cat wants to be a Jedi, or light side goodie, as it was in SWG. And we also chose Sith in hopes that, as stated above, we will be out numbered, and have more enemies to eviscerate into a glorious bloody mess.

Running a guild is the greatest thing we have done in our history of gaming. Being able to create something meaningful that’s based on your own ideals and goals and finding others that share the same mindset is awesome. We literally made Raze out of nothing, there was one point where we were in a room brainstorming ideas, it’s almost been 2 years and we have come a long way since then and are very proud of our members and our progress.

Raid planning will be handled by our Strategic Officer, however the position is vacant at the moment. But, major emphasis will be placed on how well certain members work together when configuring groups. Those, who consider themselves top-tier raiders will most likely find themselves in the core groups. But, due to the minimal amount of information released on raiding, we cannot give a definite answer on how raids will be worked out.

We actually just hit our “soft cap” of 40. Which essentially means, the application process, difficult as it was, has just become impeccable, so bring your “A-game”. We are aiming at closing the application process at 60.

18+, No if’s, ands, or buts, about it.

Our guild stands at 40 members strong.

What makes Raze stand out? Simple, our highly aggressive, highly competitive, and highly dynamic member base and foundational beliefs. We are unique in a sense that our members are very tight knit, we are constantly joking with each other, and can consider one another family. When we do battle, we are fighting alongside those we can trust, and alongside teammates we understand, and can work in unison with, to form a highly efficient, dynamic, and effective fighting force.

Some of our members are playing other games, some are enjoying life before TOR, and some are dreading the wait, meticulously awaiting their first chance to shed some Republic blood. We (theArsonist and Nosaffect) are and have been best friends since the sandboxes, and we spend loads of time on the forums. As previously stated, communication is key, especially during this downtime.

As a guild, none. We did play Rift as a guild, but it died out fairly quick.

I (Nosaffect) was a huge fan of the player/guild cities in SWG. That feature was nearly a deal breaker for me. Being able to produce a respectable guild city, in my opinion, is an excellent form of showing a guilds’ lust for progression and expansion.

If a prospective applicant is interested in joining, they simply have to click on the square banner in the middle of our homepage that say’s “Click to apply now”. Our homepage is located @ www.Razeguild.com. Also, on our homepage, if you were to click on our forums, the Sub-Forum, “Join Now”, is where the application process is also located.

Player cities, of course :).

Well thanks guys for taking the time to chat with me abit about your guild, best of luck to all of you and see you in-game soon.