Violette: 8th December 2008

Violette: 122 members registered on the forums and roughly 74 players with full membership.

Kwak: Whilst Simon is correct the guild actually lists 408 members in its guild roster and is the second largest Destruction Guild on the Karak Eight Peaks server. However, as Simon has noted this is a bit misleading as a lot of those members are actually Alts. Simons figures are more accurate in that the Guild currently has 122 players registered as guild members on our website, of which, 74 have completed their Trials of Commitment (induction trials) to become full guild members.

Violette: Well we had a lot of discussion, and what I wanted was a guild name that was pretty short and to the point which sounded destruction-esk and which wasnt being used by another guild. So in the end I decided to do what I always do when Im stuck on a name and went to “Dictionary.com” put it onto thesaurus mode and entered words that related to our guild. I came up with a pretty decent sized list of words that sounded cool and were relevant to our guild and in the end it was decided that “Mayhem” should be our guild name and Im very happy with it its short but to the point sounds cool and you can use it in all kinds of fun play on words as Kwak has showed us. rofl.

Kwak: Yep! It actually took ages. Literally, weeks of argument and debate. Simon (the Guild Leader) and I had lots of ideas. I personally, wanted to go with Havoc, as in Cry Havoc, and let loose the dogs of war, which has a loose association with the Dogs of War, Warhammer Fantasy Battle supplement. But Simon objected on the grounds that Havoc was already being used by a Guild on another server. In the end Simon resorted to using the Thesaurus to come up with as many different words based on Havoc and Destruction he could find and we then sifted through them until we came up with a shortlist, and after further debate chose Mayhem. Mayhem has actually proven to be a really good choice, not least because we have since discovered the existence of the Mayhem Armour set which fits in perfectly as the Guilds ceremonial gear, and we regularly run Mayhem for All guild events to collect it from Tier 3 PQs where it drops. As Simon says it also works well when used in various guild Battle Crys and things I like to make up and use during the game. E.g. Mayhem is Everywhere., Mayhem Never Sleeps and Unleash the Mayhem being typical examples. The members seem to like these and often shout them at the enemy in battle.

Violette: Well…I think our guild has the best elements of both. Its what the guilds been trying to do since the start. Its not an easy achieve but its new and its different. If we pull it off (which so far we have been doing) it will be something of which Destruction of Karak Eight peaks should be proud. However. I think we will always come under heavy attack from the other strictly hardcore guilds as we dont conform to their views of what makes a good guild but you cant please everyone.

Kwak: Simon has said it all really. We consider Mayhem to be a casual RvR guild. We deliberately avoided any hardcore rules and concepts, the main emphasis is on having fun. However, as we have shown repeatedly casual does not mean unskilled or nooby. We have made sure that our members have access to all the services they need to master the game and we like to think that our members have all the support they need to meet the challenges of game, without being burdened with the usual commitments, rules and obligations of a imposed by a hardcore guild.

Violette:Well so far there has been very little drama due to the luck we have had with our recruiting and the fact that I think a lot of the people in our guild share the same vision of what they want our guild to become as the other officers and I do, which really helps to focus everyone on working as a team. But on the few occasions where there has been problems I have looked into what the cause of the problem has been, got my facts straight, and then privately handled the situation with the people involved and resolved it without any real hassle. Either the person realizes their mistake and is more aware of how to avoid causing problems in future or they continue to do so in which case I give them a warning or kick them. However, that hasnt happened yet as everyone I have spoken to have since just got on with their gaming and gone on to become key members of the guild and proving that they have learnt from it all.

Kwak: Basically, the only rules we have in Mayhem are concerned with member behavior, both within the Guild and when dealing with other players and Guilds. We have very strict rules about the way members behave both in game and on the Guild Site, and we generally discourage emotional outbursts and whining. Instead we provide positive guidance and advice on how to deal with in game issues. If a member does begin to get stressed or emotional our guild officers and members are mature enough to deal with the matter calmly and resolve the issue before it gets out of hand. Ultimately, the Guild Strictures do give the Guild Leader the right to cancel a players membership if they repeatedly cause trouble, or discredit the Guild, But so far that has not been necessary.

Well as stated above our guild actually realizes that all of the conventional guild templates like Hardcore, Casual, Raiding etc are flawed in many ways so what weve been trying to do is to take each one, look at it, work out whats good about it, whats bad about it, and create something new and different. So far this has been working great. We are Casual, but are beginning to do endgame which is going well. But we still do all the low level content with the new members which means that we have a strong presence throughout the game, which is great because not only does it make us recognizable but it makes it possible for anyone who is interested in becoming part of our guild to just jump right into the game and not have to work to get to a point where they can enjoy the guild to its full potential.

Kwak: I would have to say that the most unique thing about Mayhem is its organisation and structure. Mayhem deliberately set out to establish an active presence in every Tier of the game. Therefore, the guilds aims are not focussed on reaching Rank 40 and dominating the end-game, but are actually concerned with all of it, from Tier 1 to Tier 4.. To this end we have deliberately appointed Tier Officers who are responsible for managing the Guild presence in a specific Tier, and these officer and their appointed assistants effectively manage the guild activity in their Tier and make sure that no matter what rank a players character happens to be there is always help, advice and activities available to them. This in turn means that Mayhem is generally a very active Guild, with a steady stream of Guild Events and guild only activities going on all week and at all times of day. These events are always publicised as news reports on our guild site so that members can read about the events, and because attendance at a publicised guild event is one of the Trials of Commitment that new Acolytes have to complete before they are accepted as a full Adept member.

Violette: We are always doing activities with our guild members regardless of what point they are at in the game we always have events for pretty much every tier scheduled and officers for each tier as well to make sure everything is well managed. This is great because not only does it help them learn how to play the game, get geared up and get leveled, it is great fun and it lets everyone get to know each other a bit better which strengthens the guilds community and helps to promote the forums which then makes it easier for the guild to communicate and in the end makes the guild better and stronger in everyway.

Kwak: Like Simon says, there are always people online willing to help new players get started in the game. We take players into the guild at Rank 1, so we do occasionally get players who have never played before. In addition, we publish a range of guides both on the Guild Forum and in our Guild Wiki that highlight important aspects of the game and where to go to complete key quests etc. We even have a glossary of in-game terms to help new players understand the meaning of the in-game chat.

Violette: The best part of running a guild is when you see someone in guild chat say something really positive which reminds you of why you play the game whether its a compliment about the guild that just generally makes you feel appreciated or whether its a completely new member just got the game saying “This is an awesome game I love these features” because it just makes you appreciate the game all over again and seeing those people going up through the ranks and teaching them what you know and learning some things from them that you hadnt realized it helps to build the guild up and in the end is the point in having a guild. But on the negative side Id say the worst thing about leading the guild is when people you have gotten to know who have been with the guild for a long time and you have fought side by side with through many battles in the game start to think about leaving. If they dont really give any real explanation to why they are unhappy and then they finally leave, suddenly you feel unappreciated and a bit betrayed especially if they form there own guild and then start to try and poach members from Mayhem which has happened before. Its the worst feeling when you know that people are trying to take members from you because it breaks the trust that you have built up within your guild and makes you a bit paranoid.

Kwak: I love it when a plan comes together. And running a guild the size of a small company gives you the chance to plan and organise things to your hearts content. However, the worst thing is probably like Simon has said, losing members you value, or consider to be your friends. We actually refer to them as Lost Souls and sometimes write little obituaries for them on the forum.

Violette: This is a very hard question as I have a lot of good guild memories. But the most recent memory that was just awesome was the first Bastion Stairs run we did. We didnt expect to get very far because a lot of the hardcore people were saying "Oh you wont even make it past the first mob because you need high ranks and good gear etc etc" but Mayhem being Mayhem decided to just go for it and see what happens as a lot of members were very excited about going. So we turned up there went in and just completely slaughtered the NPCs inside, which surprised everyone after what we had been told. Anyway, we got near the end of the basic influence wing and had a big fight with this big demon lord thing (He means Azuk’Thul, although to be fair even I had to lookm that up — Kwak) and died a couple times. After the final attempt we got it to 1% and this was a big "Noooooooooooooooooooooooo" moment but anyways we called the event, went back to doing our own business and it got to about 11:30pm and I was just winding down doing promotions and my bit as guild leader and suddenly one of our guild members (Papp — Who had been the main tank during the event) came on and was just said "Look I cant sleep knowing that Dragon is still alive" and everyone had a bit of a laugh about it and then he said "Anyone up for going back" and we actually got about eight or nine people together went back and killed this "Dragon" got a lot of loot for it and since then the new guild saying "Mayhem Never Sleeps" has been commonly used on our forums.

Kwak: That Bastion Stair run was truly awesome, but my favourite moment was probably the T3 Scenario event we ran on the 8th February where our Guild Premade Team won nine out of ten scenarios played. It was imaganing the shock and horror on Orders faces as we dominated them again and again in their favourite Tor Anroc scenario. I like to think those guys learned to respect the Mayhem Guild Tag that day.

Violette: Well we havent been going for that long but over the last few weeks we have set up our guild heraldry, promoted a new Officer, taken our first keep and started raiding Bastion Stairs which is good progress in my opinion.

Kwak: The thing that amazes me is that somehow we have managed to recruit 122 members, who actually seem to love the game and manage to get along together. Compared to the drama and discourse that Simon and I were used to in World of Warcraft Raiding Guilds its just so refreshing have a guild that is actually nice and fun to be a part of.

Kwak: Well Ive already asked Steven for a few features to be added. But probably the most useful Guild-wise would be an upload function that kept the Guild Site Calendar in step with the in-game Calendar. That would allow Guild Members to check what events were scheduled from work etc. without needing to log into the game and allow them to plan their day to get home in time to attend.

Violette: Well I think Kwak is right with the whole auto updating guild calendar on the forums, as sometimes Im not sure if there is a guild event on but Im in the middle of something and dont have time to log onto WAR to check itd be far easier just to be able to bring up Guild Launch and have a look through it all.