Cult Of The Plush Gnome A World Of Warcraft Guild On Windrunner *** Guild Forums, Calendar, Charter, homepage, etc. *** Cult Of The Plush Gnome (CPG) and The Velvet Elvish (TVE) (collectively known as CPG/TVE) is non-traditional guild with an emphasis on community, fun, discovery, adventure, and learning. CPG/TVE does not aspire to be the best, but rather to have the most fun. We believe that there is no real end game, since the World of Warcraft is filled with opportunities for endless amusement and adventure. We are irreverent and sarcastic. We are mature and polite. A contradiction? Perhaps. But we're okay with that. Our principles are: Casual gamer and alt friendly. Focus on support and mentoring at all levels. Regular "humor and amusement" events. Insistence on mature and sportsmanlike game play. Intolerance towards racism, gay bashing, and politics. Discouragement of juvenile behavior and whining. Open door policy, with a trial period before full membership. CPG/TVE specifically tries to avoid: Passive or overt homophobes and racists. Attention grabbing elites, annoyances and tattletales. Blizzard-bashing serial whiners. Bores who use more than 50x their share of guild chat. Loot police who need to deconstruct every drop. Griefing, harassment, cheaters, and thieves. Maturity and intelligence - No asshats CPG/TVE is a guild for adults. The age limit is 19, but we do expect all members to act in a mature manner and have at least an average intelligence level. Does this make us snobs? Perhaps. But at the end of the day a guild should be a community where you aren't annoyed by asshats in your ranks. The motor mouths, whiners and spastics can form their own guild, because there is a very low tolerance for them here. There's no nice way to say that, so we just lay it right out on the table. Does this mean we have to be on our best behavior? Absolutely not. CPG/TVE is designed to be fun. We think Monty Python and MST3K are fun at it's best. We find MXE to be great sport. We don't worry too much about our humor being "tasteful". We find the word "fuck" to be boring and simpleminded when used too often, but quite appropriate when used......... appropriately. Whatever that means. Of course this creates a huge grey area in terms of what we will tolerate, and what we won't. Such is life. Try not to take things too seriously. Try not to be a dumbass. Who is in charge? Who do I complain to? Orophino - Guild Master Neq - General officer Ossa - General officer Karadan - General officer Non-guild complaints - If you are not in the guild and have a complaint about one of our members, please contact the guild master in-game. We tend to give the benefit of the doubt to our members, but if someone is truly being a jackass, we'll boot them or take other action. The Guild Master will make an effort to identify problem areas and deal with them. Don't expect satisfaction. We typically deal with guild issues within the guild, so if there is disciplinary action you won't hear about it. Sorry to disappoint you. Is this gnomes/elves only? No. The guild is not gnomes or elves only. Any race is welcome. But for many guild events it might be more....... amusing...... if we were all gnomes. Gnome synchronized swimming. Gnome conga line at the forge. Gnome peace march in Southshore. You get the idea. So it's encouraged that you run at least one gnome alt. This is optional. We will make an effort to make such "all gnome" activities low-level friendly so that you don't have to run up a gnome just to participate. How to join. Short version: - Read through this whole page,a nd the charter, and make sure we're right for you. - Go to the forums link at the top of the page. - Create an account there with a name we'll recognize as your character. - Go to the recruitment section in the forum and start a new thread with your application. - We'll contact you in-game. We may invite you for a trail. We may chat for a bit. We may invite you to an instance. Look for more detail in the recruiting forum. What CPG/TVE expects from you - A helpful and supportive attitude. CPG/TVE is about helping and having fun. Soloing is fine, but please help others now and then as well. - Keep guild business in the guild. Any community will have it's drama and issues. Please get these resolved in private. Talking to an officer or using the forums is the place to do this, not guild chat. - When we do wacky stuff, only participate if it's something you'll enjoy. Don't be a buzz kill. These events are optional. - Treat non-guild players with due respect. We don't expect you to be an angel. Just don't make us look bad. Remember you have the guild name floating over your head. What you can expect from CPG/TVE - Regular organized events and instance runs for all appropriate levels as often as logistics allow. - Helpful advice and answers. - Low stress. Low drama. Mature community. - Fun. It's our policy. Fun = good. Griefing = bad. Many of the things we'll be doing as a guild will be silly, weird, bizarre, etc. We will be doing these things for our own amusement, and hopefully the amusement of others. But there is a thin line between having fun and just being an annoyance. And it's a small step from being annoying to outright griefing. Try to stay away from griefing completely, and if possible try to avoid annoying as well. If you are going to go off on your own and do something silly, please spend some time thinking about how your actions might piss off other players. We want to avoid pissing people off. It's a game and people should have a right to play it without us screwing it up for them. As with many things there is a grey area here. When in doubt you are encouraged to post your ideas on the guild forum first. Alts, mains, and guild hopping CPG/TVE is not a guild that values unwavering loyalty and allegiance. If you have your main character in one of the hardcore guilds, and just want to use the supportive nature of CPG/TVE to level your alt, that's fine. If you just want to join the guild to check us out for a while. That's fine too. We hope to be a community you'll want to stay with longterm. However........ We take dim view of people who just want to use us so thay can get the attunements and keys needed to apply to some other guild. For this reason we typically make new members wait a bit before letting them go on certain attunement runs. Bottomline - We like to help, but we hate being used. Please understand. Reasons for removal or denial of membership - Babbling endlessly in guild chat. - Acting as an authoritative voice when you're usually wrong. - Refusing to ever help other members. - Repeatedly trashing the guild or it's members. - Creating more problems that you're worth. We don't take booting members or initiates lightly. And we will make an effort to talk to you about problems first. But we also have to maintain a positive and enjoyable community. Being a dork now and then is fine, perhaps even encouraged, but pooping in the guild over and over will get you booted. Class Balance and recruiting All classes are welcome and valued by CPG. TVE is a serious raiding unit and needs to have much more strict recruiting policies. Details about that can be found in the charter. Guild attire and tabbards A guild tabard is a gnome icon on a blue background. Feel free to buy a tabard if you want, but certainly don't feel obligated to. But the (optional) official Cult Of The Plush Gnome attire is bare feet, a regular kilt, and a red silk shirt. The tabard will be for wearing over armor. The disco threads are encouraged for running around town. Again, this is optional. Fighting mobs or dueling while wearing the kilt and silk shirt is considered an honorable endeavor by CPG/TVE members. Kilts and shirts can be made by tailors or purchased from the guild master. The specific items are - Red Swashbuckler's Shirt and Simple Kilt. If you can't afford to buy the clothes, they will be provided for free to full members. Why the silly name? Because we plan on doing silly things? Because if we named it "Stern and Fierce" the irony would go over everyone's head? My main motivation for forming this guild is my opinion that the game is frequently ruined by players taking things too seriously, and focusing on some imagined "end game" which really just a "grass is greener......" rationalization. The name is meant to be silly and self-deprecating on purpose. In this guild we will have fun. So the name is fun. Don't read anything into it beyond that. It's just a silly name. Official Loot rules: Loot rules - BoE - Greed everything, but need any upgrades. BoP - Pass if you don't need, need any upgrades, discuss otherwise. Pass and discuss all epic BoEs. Unlimited need rolls per run. Faction turn-in trade is encouraged, but selling is fine. Fair play and need before greed is the main consideration. Please try to make sure gear goes where it will do the most good. Please try to have no one leave angry. General loot guidelines: - Enchanters get no special treatment in terms of loot. You can not claim that you can "use" an item just because you can disenchant it. - Try very very hard to be aware of whether an item might be better for some other class. Even though a gun might be an upgrade for a warrior, it would be better utilized by a hunter. If a dagger gives a mana bonus, it would be better for a caster than a rogue. Just keep this in mind and try to be nice. - Drama over loot ruins the game. Not might ruin. Does ruin. Will ruin. Avoid loot drama at all costs. It's just a game. LET IT GO!!!!! Do not whine to the guild master because a warrior rolled on the gun you've been trying to get for weeks. Because the guild master will just encourage you to go play single player games. It happens. It's painful and it sucks, but it happens. Blame Blizzard for their crappy loot system. And then move on. - ** Need means you'll use it and it's an upgrade. Need does not mean you'll make lots of money from it in the auction house, or that your alt needs it. And if someone needs a BoE item, that is the main factor in who should get it. If more than one person needs it, then those players should roll. Greed is fine, but need takes precedence. This guideline does not extend to members not in the current group/raid. Having said all that, most green BoE items will probably end up being rolled for greed and sold, which is fine. - Accept that people make mistakes. Accept that disagreements are common. Talk things out. Don't yell. For most loot there can be several legitimate interptations of who it's best for. We ask that members make a good faith effort to only roll on things they should. Please. Thank you. - Educate players who are new to an instance. And keep in mind that Blizzard has put several items in the game that encourage loot drama. Do not fall for this trap. If a firsttimer loots the gem for the UBRS key, and you're been in LBRS 40 times trying to get it........... Well, that really sucks, and it means someone at Blizzards hates us. But it's still just a game. Don't be shy about switching to master looter before bosses. And don't take it personally if someone spams the raid channel with "Don't loot the gem. Don't loot the gem. Don't loot the gem." - If you screw up by looting something you shouldn't (and you will, sooner or later), please appologize and accept that people may get really pissed for a few minutes. It will soon be forgotten. Just let it blow over. We do NOT expect you to pay a gold penalty. We just expect you to acknowledge the mistake and learn. Participation and attendance There is no rule that says you have to attend any guild event, meeting, or activity. We will make every effort to see that everyone has something to participate in, but there will be no negative implications for not showing up. If you'd prefer to solo, that's fine. Just keep in mind that might be a bit odd, since this is guild based on activities and support. Getting help on your quest or instance The facts - - Guild chat is 90% worthless for getting help. - Scheduling something is 90% effective for getting help. One of the main functions of this guild is to help you. If you need help getting over the hump with a quest, or you want to finish an elite quest, please ask. This may or may not get you immediate help. If it doesn't, contact one of the officers and we'll organize to get some help for you. Keep in mind that other players have limited time to play, just like you, and they're hard at work getting their own stuff done. But while it's hard to ask people to drop everything so they can help you, it's much easier to schedule time so that players can make themselves available. Please make an effort yourself to find guildies to help you, but if that fails it is the task of the guild officers to find you help one way or another. Requesting an official guild event We like events. Please post your ideas on the forum. If enough people like the idea, we'll do it. Disagreements and personality issues In a virtual community where strangers are interacting in an environment with no real-world consequences, personality conflicts are bound to happen with distressing frequency. If you can't work your differences out in private, we have a "Guild Policy and Etiquette" section of the forum where these conflicts can be discussed by the guild. By bringing it out into the open we'll strive to make the guild stronger and more trusting. By resolving issues together we'll develop a culture where everyone has the same assumptions, and any unspoken rules are not complete secrets. Politics, religion, news, real life, etc I don't know about you, but I play this game largely to get away from these sots of things. We don't need more "real life" in our virtual happy place. Doing it a wee bit is fine. Doing it more than that is bad. Language and profanity The guild's policy on profanity and foul language is - Who cares? If you are truly an offensive person we'll find plenty of reasons to kick you out. But try to keep it reasonable. No one will be impressed with your ability to curse like a drunk 12 year old. At least make an attempt to amuse us. However, please try not to say things in the guild chat which a good number of members might consider offensive. This is a grey area, but please take it in the spirit it's intended. HOWEVER - This lenient attitude *does not* extend to Ventrilo. Many players have children, and they would prefer not to have your potty mouth broadcast over their speakers. Please keep voise chat clean and mature. Think of the children. Guild chat The guild channel is not a chatroom. It shares many feature with a chatroom, but it's not one. It's also not Instant Messenger. If you fill it up with babble about every mob you see, or your 400th complaint about how the game sucks, or a minute by minute update on what your latency is, or endless requests to join us in instances you are too low level for, or ............. Okay. I have issues. You get the idea. Please just keep the guild channel semi-clean. If you use it too much everything will scroll by before people read it anyway. Resource sharing and guild discounts To be added later. Raids, grouping and instances To be added later. Official guild events To be added later. Self-policing community From the guild master - One of the foundations of a community is trust in each other. I let you wander around Warcraft sporting the name of my guild because I trust you. I trust that you'll act in a civilized manner, that you'll treat others with due respect, and that you'll contribute in a positive way to both the guild and Windrunner. I give you the benefit of the doubt, because I trust you, so I ask for you to honor that trust and promise to be a good member. In return you can trust me to make every good faith effort to treat you fairly and honestly. I'm only human, but I'll genuinely give it my best effort. But I'm only one person. And I'm not going to spend all my time babysitting the guild. I want to play and have fun as much as you do. So it's my hope that this community will be self-policing. That is, all members will feel empowered to point out behavior which goes against the guild's best interests. And the guild forum is the proper place for this policing to occur. That way we can hash things out, hear all sides, and hopefully come to a resolution. This does not mean we need to deconstruct every transgression. Hopefully one of the things will come to an understanding of is what needs to be called out, and what's not worth bothering with. Self-policing also means that I will try to lead with a light touch. I'm happy to be the person ultimately responsible, and to be the bad guy when necessary. But I hope that the guidelines we settle on as a guild will be largely determined by guild consensus rather than dictated by the leadership. To facilitate that I hope we'll have our heated discussions in the guild forum rather than in guild chat or party chat. That way we can all add our two cents. Guidelines for officers To be added later.