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Apprentice Member
Joined: 1/14/08
Posts: 371
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Acolytes have just been spotlighted over at IGN as well!
1. What is the meaning of your guild’s name?
Redruum decided he wanted something unique but only be one word. It came about because he had felt it tied in well with how the beginning of Age of Conan takes place. In Age of Conan everyone starts of as a slave and is freed when the slave boat crashes. So, since the generic term of Acolyte is a follower, he then felt the name was appropriate because we were followers of revenge. We wanted revenge against all those that try to cause harm to us and anyone in the future that may try to cause harm to us. We all band together to accomplish our goals and make it known that no one will enslave or harm us again. So we are basically followers of victory and revenge against all those that try to harm us.
Now, to tie this in with the Warhammer branch. Basically, the generic definition for Acolyte is still follower. We are still able to use the revenge card because the Dark Elves are seeking revenge from the High Elves for kicking them out of what they believe to be their own land and they will continue continue to follow the word of Malekith until this feat is accomplished. The Greenskins would be willing to follow whoever for quite some time so long as there are going to be wars to wage and battles to be found to sate their blood thirst. Lastly, Chaos is following the Lord of Change, Tzeentch, in WAR and he simply is might slight changes and asking a small portion of his followers to band together and follow the Acolytes. See all the following? The Acolytes are all followers. The newer members may be finally the Ethereal, Erudite, and Enlightened, but they are all following the direction we think it best for the members. It goes both ways and we understand the Acolytes would be NOTHING without quality members.
2. What is the history of your guild?
The Acolytes were officially formed on April 11th, 2006, which means we just had our two year anniversary not too long ago. The guild was created for the upcoming game Age of Conan. Our AoC division has been featured all over the web on various forums and is likely the biggest Age of Conan guild out there so far. There is a lot of hype for them going into the launch of the game and one of our members who goes by the name Avery even won a trip to go visit FunCom! On January 15th, 2008 the decision became official for the Acolytes to branch out into another MMORPG called Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The reason behind it was obvious. We needed to future proof the guild and there were more than a few current members who were interested in playing WAR. If the guild were just an Age of Conan guild and the game died or was unsuccessful, than all the members would leave to go play new games in new guild and then the Acolytes would be over. Opening the doors for multiple MMOs allows us to stick around for many years to come and since January of 2008 our Warhammer team has been hard at work recruiting a quality community along with making our presence felt outside of our own forums all over the Warhammer community as well.
3. How many people are in your guild?
This is going to be the first of a couple two part answers I would assume. In the Acolytes we currently have 399 total members. Of these 399, we have 43 people in the Warhammer division. Our division of the guild will be around 80 total members when recruitment is done, hopefully. While we want out guild to be big enough for all of our members to enjoy every aspect of the game, we do not intend to get absolutely huge, and we feel this is best for the guild.
4. How long has the core of your guild been together?
Well the core of the Acolytes based on our new forums has been together for quite some time. According to our dates we have two people who are still with us from 2005 and we have forty-five people who have been with the Acolytes since 2006. While the Warhammer side of the guild has been around since January 15th, 2008, we have three people who are only playing WAR from 2006, seven from 2007, and we had three people apply to the guild to play Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning on January 13th, 2008, two days before we even announced our Warhammer division. All of our Warhammer officers have been with us for at least five months now.
5. What style of play best describes your guild?
Well, according to our polls that we took it comes out like this so far:
PvE 12%
PvP 40%
Crafting 8%
Balanced 40%
However, most people had voted before we got to see the crafting video, city siege information, and the information on Public Quests, Lairs, and instanced dungeons. It might be a bit different than that now with all the new information, but as you can see the majority of the Acolytes are balanced players who like to enjoy everything the game has to offer and with a lean towards the PvP.
6. How is your guild structured?
We have multiple roles in the guild and there is plenty of room for advancement. The way we are currently structured is as follows:
Ethereal - The Ethereal should be the person who is watching over the overall well-being of the guild, as well as making sure the guild continues to progress towards whatever greatness that can be achieve with the resources available.
Erudite - The Erudites are the foundation of the Acolytes. The rest of the guild can depend on the Erudites to be there for them whenever they need something. Once the game launches, each Erudite will have some sort of specialty, be it recruitment, battle plans, resource management, etc. The rest of the guild can come to that Erudite with any suggestion or complaints that they have concerning his/her specialty. All big decisions regarding the guild will be discussed between the Erudites and the Ethereal, though we will of course always take what the entire guild feels into consideration as well. Because the Acolytes are nothing without it's members!
Enlightened - This rank will take full advantage of the great natural leaders we have within this guild. Sub ranks among the Enlightened will help to improve and expand the overall leadership of the guild. For example, people within this rank may be primarily dedicated to the bookkeeping duties of a treasurer, assisting newer members with any questions they may have, or having the responsibility of planning and/or leading major raids or sieges. If they are very well versed within their particular game class they may be considered as class officers.
As you can see this rank will be quite crucial to the Acolytes! Of course the Erudites and Ethereal will be doing things like this for the guild as well, but we do not want any of our members to feel like there is nothing to do within the game. We have already established a decent sized membership, and we can only predict more growth along these lines. We are counting on the people within this rank to help us with the everyday workings and guidance of the guild.
Disciple - The Disciple is a veteran member of the Acolytes who has proven he/she has gone out of their way to make sure the Acolytes are the best they can be, and is consequently entrusted and expected to vote on key matters! It is a training ground for potential future leadership within the Acolytes.
This effort is demonstrated by participation in-game with other members and out-of-game in our forums, in our IRC, and in our Ventrilo chat, and other Acolytes events and efforts. Promotion from Adept to Disciple (and vice versa!) is regularly considered by the Ethereal's and the Erudite's, at least monthly.
Depending on the mechanics of each division of the Acolytes (each game we officially subscribe to) we shall also have certain Disciples assigned to other duties (eg. land masses we obtain through battle; etc).
Adept - The Adept is recognized as a full member of the Acolytes after the two weeks of recruitment time has passed and have made a good effort to be part of the Acolytes. Also, obtaining Adept status allows access to the guild resources within the guild bank.
Apprentice- The Apprentice is a person who has just joined the Acolytes and must participate in a two week recruitment period to display his/her loyalty to the rest of the Acolytes, as well as giving everybody a chance to decide if the new member would fit in well with the rest of the guild. This also gives the Apprentice time to decide if the guild will be a good fit for them before they become committed to it. The Apprentice will not have access to the guild resources at this time as a precautionary measure.
7. What part of WAR is most intriguing to the guild?
While the Realm versus Realm combat mechanic tends to be what attracts players to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, this is not the only draw for the Acolytes. We know RvR is going to be fun. It was in Dark Age of Camelot, so why would it not be fun again here? The way that they talk about the crafting system sounds awesome, and we would love to hear more and more about this. Not having specific recipes on a list in front of you, and having to do the guess and check method actually sounds very entertaining. On top of this, a lot of the guild functions and features sound truly amazing, and we can not wait to play with these in game. It's likely that many guild members will be nominating themselves to be the "Banner Bearer" of the guild because it sounds so awesome. However, the most intriguing feature of WAR for us right now has to be City Sieging. While they have told the public a lot about it, there is likely a lot more that they have yet to explain. Like a great story teller, they leave us wanting more and more.
8. What led your guild to play Destruction
Several factors led to the decision to play on the side of Destruction. At the time of the decision, the Destruction races looked far more appealing, and their armor seemed much more ornate and unique. We also felt that, years after launch, the underplayed side would be Destruction, because the general population tends to gravitate toward the "good guy" side. Also, looking at the pairings, Dark Elves are far cooler than the High Elves, Chaos easily wins over the Empire (it's CHAOS!!!), and honestly, you can never go wrong choosing a Goblin or Orc over a stinking, tiny Dwarf!
9. What are your guild’s main objectives for WAR?
The Acolytes main objective for the game is to be the best at everything we do, but we don't want to sacrifice having fun in the game in order to obtain that goal. We want to be a successful guild without that "elitist" tag. What we mean by that is that we feel we can accomplish raiding dungeons, sacking cities, destroying scenarios, crafting, and role-playing, while still maintaining a well-liked image by the rest of the community. We want people to go "Wow, there goes the Acolytes! They just got back from pillaging Altdorf!", but at the same time also say "Yeah, those are really cool guys, always interacting with the public and willing to help out". We want our allies to love us, and our enemies to respect us.
10. What country/countries is your guild from?
While the Acolytes will be playing on a US server, we have members from all over the world, including the United States, Canada, England, and Germany. We even have a member from Japan who thought the Acolytes were the best guild for him! People from all countries are welcome in the Acolytes, but they will have to purchase a United States version of the game in order to play with the guild.
11. What are some of your past guild accomplishments?
The Acolytes were originally founded as an Age of Conan guild, and later, a WAR guild. Since the games have yet to be released, so there is not much to say on that front. That does not mean, however, that we are inexperienced. For starters, our guild founder Redruum, who you interviewed from the Age of Conan side, played Anarchy Online for many years. The developers created a set of armor later in the game, which was named after his guild, which is quite an accomplishment. As for me, I was a member of a top 20 Dark Age of Camelot guild in terms of realm points. I was also an Officer in a top 8 Shadowbane clan for over a year. As such, I know what it takes on the battlefield to get the job done. However, I don't like to focus too much on the past, because you can have all the experience in the world and still fall flat on your face when a new game comes out. For now, we are just looking to do the best we can as a guild. On that note, current guild accomplishments we are proud of include, coming up with an awesome guild backstory, having a bunch of members join the Warhammer Closed Beta, and, of course, getting our guild spotlighted on this web site!
12. What seems to be the most popular class choice for your guild currently?
The most popular class choice for the Acolytes so far seems to be the Chosen followed closely by the Disciple of Khaine. It seems as though the guild is leaning heavily towards playing tanks and healers, which is awesome. In an RvR based game you would think the majority of the members in a given guild would prefer to play Melee or Ranged DPS roles. I think this is a great sign for us!
13. What is your guild currently playing?
Oh man, what a tough question to answer! The honest truth of it is that, because we are a multi-game guild, our members can be found playing all sorts of games. You can find the Acolytes playing games such as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Multiplayer, Lord of the Rings Online, and World of Warcraft. We even had a league going for a couple of weeks for a game called Cal Ripken's Real Baseball! Somebody will mention a game over Ventrilo, and all of a sudden more than a handful of people have the game and are ready to play. We just enjoy gaming together. Also, we can't forget our main aim! We have a group of over ten people currently in beta for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning!
14. Are you still seeking members? If so how can they contact you?
Yes, the Acolytes are currently recruiting new members. At this time, we have a little over forty people in the guild. Currently, we plan on closing down recruiting at around eighty members. We feel this should give us a good amount of people logged in at any given time, which should make the game enjoyable for all members of the guild. Whenever you log on we would like to have at least a full parties worth of Acolytes online. There are multiple ways to contact the guild, but the easiest would be to register on our forums at http://www.The-Acolytes.com/. Once you register, go on over to the Warhammer section of the forums fill out an application. The application template can be found in the New Application forum. Other possible routes to find out more about the guild would be to make a thread on the public forums and ask your questions there, or send a private message to one of the officers.
15. Who would win in a fight Paul Barnett or a Pink Orc?
We believe that in a match up between Paul Barnett and a Pink Orc, several key factors would play a part in determining the outcome:
1) The Size of their Warband ....While the Pink Orc may be able to gather hundreds of other Greenskins ( Pinkskins?!! ), there are going to be thousands upon thousands of "Barnettics" when the game launches. These are borderline stalkers who would sacrifice themselves in the Battle for Barnett. I mean, before the game even launches Paul Barnett has 1666 "friends" on Myspace. I couldn't find the Pink Orc on there. ...Paul wins here.
2) The better WAAAGH!!!.....While Paul Barnett does have a great WAAAGH!!!, it isn't even the best on the staff. Orcs invented it so I would have to give the Pink Orc the benefit of doubt here......Pink Orc wins here.
3) Since these are two major factors in a battle, and the score is now tied, we had to come up with a third and final deciding point. Who would the Acolytes back? .....When it comes down to this it becomes an easy choice. Orcs are born all the time because of how they reproduce but Paul Barnett was born on January 15th, which is the same day ( many years later ) that the Acolytes Warhammer Division was formed! Because of this we would have to back Paul, and that alone should give him the victory.....Paul wins here.
The overall winner is Paul Barnett! |
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