This week I sat down with one of the admissions officials with the Sons of Light, a republic RP guild guild focusing on PvE and some PvP
Where did your guilds name come from?
Our former leader, who has since left, chose the name for our guild back in July of 2010 when the Sons of Light was first formed. Our name reflects our dedication to what is true, righteous and honorable. Our motto “Dum Vita Est Spes Est” meaning “While there is Life there is Hope” is a constant remainder of the principles we will uphold in game play.
Can you give me a quick 2-3 sentence description of your guild?
The Sons of Light is a heavily community-based Republic guild that holds our individuals above everything else. We are continuously forming new outlets for our members to exercise their talents and leadership abilities as we wait for the game’s release. We take pride in being an international guild – currently having members from seven different countries.
How did your guild come about?
When our former leader left the Sons of Light five of us were left to preserve the guild. Over the course of the next two months we did a complete restructuring of the SOL and created what you see today on our site.
What kind of play style do you focus on? PvE, PvP, RP
We plan on playing on an RP server with a focus on PvE and some PvP.
What is your guild set up? How do you run your guild?
Our guild is split into two branches: a Military Branch and an Administrative Branch. Members are expected to hold a position in both. The Military Branch is essentially an organizational chain of command that subdivides into groups depending on class. The Administrative Branch on the other hand is responsible for the upkeep of the guild and encompasses the Recruitment Department, The Ambassadorial Committee and the News Staff. I high level of communication is essential in running the guild.
How serious do you play and/or run the guild?
The amount of work we have put into the SOL is beginning to pay off as we attract more and more experienced and active players. We are an extremely hard working group that realizes that we are creating is something pretty unique in the guild universe. When the game does come out we plan on playing 10-25 hours a week.
Do you have ranks or a certain hierarchy in your guild? If yes, could you tell us a bit about it?
One of the aspects that makes us stand out from other guilds is our chain of command in the Military Branch. Each class has a set of five ranks, four of which give a member real responsibility over either a squad, a platoon, a company, or an entire class. A notable hallmark of the our chain of command is that we do not fill our top ranking positions until everything below has been filled. In this sense we work from the ground up, promoting members we see most active and capable of leading in battle. The hierarchy we have place now is purely for organizational purposes and does not necessarily reflect how we has a guild will fight in game play. During game play we will have mixed-class companies to accommodate for the variety of tactics needed to beat whatever challenges we encounter.
Why did you choose the Republic?
The classes available to Republic players interested us all greatly to begin with and even more so after seeing the videos of Jedi Knight and Trooper character progression. Quite frankly the good guys always win in the end so why be on the losing side?
Why do you run a guild?
My role as Guild Coordinator was not something that I exactly chose but rather inherited after our former leader abdicated his authority to me. The potential I saw in this guild from day one has never left me and is what keeps me manning the helm of this sometimes dysfunctional ship. It is a beautiful moment when you realize that a guild is more than just a way to enhance your gaming experience. Over the last ten months I have made friends from the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway and even New Zealand and learned things about the world I would never had hoped to learn otherwise. The reason I run this guild is not for the game or to prove something to myself, but to build relationships with real people and learn whatever they have to offer.
How do you approach Raid Planning?
Although little has been revealed involving raiding in Star Wars: The Old Republic, we can ensure that great emphasis will be put how we organize our raids so that all of our members get an equal opportunity to participate no matter what time zone they occupy or real world responsibilities they have. Our raids will be planned with great scrutiny to make sure people aren’t waiting around or forced to play in a group that does not have enough players of one class. Raid times, participates, and the combat chain of command for that particular raid will all be announced way before we actually engage ourselves in game play. We have yet to decide whether or not we will be using vent.
Are you always open for new recruits or do you want to keep a certain guild size?
Right now recruitment is in full gear, but in the future we plan on capping out at just over 150 members. We limit the amount of members so the chain of command for each class runs smoothly. If we feel capable that we can take more members after reaching our cap and not comprise the guild functionality we shall do so after much consideration.
Age Requirement?
There are no age requirements for the SOL as long as there is an understanding of maturity amongst our members.
Guild size?
Right now – 31 members.
What makes your guild stand out from everyone else? What makes your guild unique?
Without a doubt our guild structure stands out as the most unique aspect of the SOL. It is comprehensive and allows for a more functional and proactive environment – something I think my fellow members will value more and more going forward. Moreover the leadership opportunities in guild are endless for those with the self initiative to work for their ideas. It is worth mentioning that we have a strict activity policy that forces us to remove a member from the roster if they have not signed in for over a month.
How do you spend your time until release? Do you know each other in real life or do you spend a lot of time on forums?
Well the sol has a strict life before guild policy and when there’s no problems involving our members we’ve got numerous forum topics including polls, discussions and RP threads. Well we’ve got numerous members across the world so i suppose some of them may know each other, some us are friends on facebook but our main way of communicating is our accounts on chatango were the chatrooms usually pretty active.
What Other Games are you currently playing as a guild?
We’re still working on finding a game which all our members will play
Guild systems in other MMOs? (Likes/Dislikes)
Well we like the idea of being able to design guild uniforms to wear in game and I’ve played a few games where that or similar things are possible for example on an mmorpg i played in the past a guild could design its own tunic
If somebody is interested now how and where can they apply for membership?
on the main site: www.sonsoflightguild.org there’s a tab at one side of every page which says applying to the sol? click that and fill in our application form.
One last question, if there was one thing you could ask the Dev’s to include, what would it be?
well for me personally the ability to customize your players personality like in Saint’s Row for example you can change your characters voice, walking style, fighting style and even stance