Welcome to the fifth installment of FOTOR's
Guild Watch!
This time our guild of choice was
Zeroł, a RP/PvP guild on the side of the Republic. We were lucky enough to meet up with guild leader
MaxLiao, his 2nd-in-command,
Rooks and one of their members
Lutrik for this interview, so enjoy!!
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FOTOR
So, welcome to Guild Watch!! I'm glad you guys were all able to join us. Mind introducing yourselves and your roles in the guild for our readers?
MaxLiao
First of all, thank you for the consideration with this interview. Zeroł really appreciates this. I am MaxLiao (aka: Vas Den-Jas) Scion, and leader of Zero Zero Zero.
Lutrik
Hey, I'm Lutrik. I'm one of the guild members of Zero Zero Zero which is a subpart of the Legion of Myth community. I've been a member for a couple of months now. I have no official role, but I try to help out in any way I can.
Rooks
Rooks, External Relations Officer, 2nd in command of Zeroł
FOTOR
It's my pleasure to have you. So, which side shall Zeroł be allied with? Where will we find you guys playing later? =P
MaxLiao
We are on the side of the Galactic Republic.
FOTOR
Fair enough. What were your reasons for choosing this side..?
Rooks
Our guild’s has always tended to side with the establishment in games where there is two side. In SWG we were on the side of the Empire, and on WAR we were Order.
MaxLiao
On top of that, most of our members leaned to the side of the Jedi and Republic. We thought that we could make a more interesting guild story this way as well.
FOTOR
Ah, I see. As you've already mentioned it, care to elaborate on your guild story?
Lutrik
The in-depth answer to this question is one of the main reasons I joined the guild.
MaxLiao
Our back-story is better read on our site, but the short version is that we feel that both the Jedi and the Republic have failed to truly protect the Republic citizenry. One must fight fire with fire, and attack the Sith with the cunning and subterfuge they used against the Republic. We do not respect the Sith Empire, nor do we value their society in any way. We want nothing more than the ultimate expulsion of the Sith Empire from traditional Galactic Republic space by ANY means necessary.
FOTOR
Oh?
Any means necessary? Interesting choice of words... would you mind explaining further?
MaxLiao
While the Jedi think and contemplate about the greater mysteries of the galaxy, people are suffering under the hand of the Sith. No more bureaucratic red tape! No more sitting on the sidelines! It is time to rise up against the Sith, and those who would support them, and eject them, permanently, from the galaxy! We are beholden to no treaty, and although we will make every effort to eliminate collateral casualties, we will do whatever it takes to kill the Sith … anywhere and everywhere!
I guess this is more an in-character schtick, we will not break TOS/EULA to gain an advantage. However, (as a motif) we are not going to play ‘fair,’ We are playing to win!
Rooks
I will not allow Vas or any other member to harm innocent republic citizens. We may continue to fight this war after this so called peace, but if we harm the very people we are fighting for then we are no better than the forces we seek to free them from.
MaxLiao
We try our best, but if the greater good is served by killing the Sith, and unfortunately suffering some casualties in the process, they are necessary deaths. Saving thousands at the cost of a few are acceptable losses to me.
As you can see, this is why I have Rooks as the 2nd in command. He's my conscience. ;)
Rooks
The great good would come from saving those people at the expensive of letting the Sith forces live.
FOTOR
Haha, fair enough. Spoken very much like a general... so, would it be fair to assume you're a RPing guild?
MaxLiao
We are what I would call a light role-playing guild. Some of us role-play on our forums, and encourage people to create backgrounds and so forth, but we do not demand total in-character role-playing. All we truly require is that your character concept fits within Star Wars canon/lore, that your name is not something like Lukkee xSkywalkerx, that you use English (not IM shorthand) in public channels, and that you respect your fellow role-players.
We will always encourage role-playing, it is the foundation of who we are; however, we will not let that get in the way of high-end PvP (raids) or PvP combat. We aim to achieve and excel as well.
Lutrik
Officially we're a RP/PvP guild. Personally, I'm not experienced with roleplaying, but Zeroł ignited my passion for it. Everyone was helpful in the creation process of my character by providing criticism and praise. I had a few nights where Etheyon, the guild member who recruited me, talked to me over vent about the foundation for my character. He would critique him and I would make changes until I had a very solid idea of who my character was. It was really exciting. When I went to roleplay for the first time, I felt confident that I could portray him better than if I had done it all on my own.
Rooks
We found some so called "Hard Core" RP guilds tend to drive more people from RolePlaying than to RolePlaying. We wanted to keep it simple, we wanted to have a good back story for people to build off, and then make sure People keep their characters within the lore of the game. We feel this allows new people to break into Roleplaying (and as we have seen with our new members, this has worked out for us at least).
FOTOR
Mm, I see. So, speaking of new members,.. let's say that hypothetically, you had the ability to handcraft a guild applicant. What characteristics would s/he have? =P
MaxLiao
Really, as long as the person respects the lore/canon of the game and guild, is a team player, and doesn’t take offense easily we really don’t have exacting requirements. My perfect player is one who supports the team effort in the model set up by the game & guild. Yep, I was perfectly redundant.
If you read through our guild information, understand it, and like it then you’re already our model member.
FOTOR
How large is the memberbase at the present moment..?
MaxLiao
Our member base is between 25 and 50, depending on how you want to look at it. We have 25 officially applied, vouched, and approved members. However, we also have those on the side (spouses and significant others of current members), as well as our
WoW guild (Fifth Angel), many of whom are waiting for the release of SW:
TOR to join.
FOTOR
With the release of
SWTOR so far away, how do you keep activity levels up?
Lutrik
A lot of the members love the RP threads. I check the forums daily, and I always look there first for new posts.
Rooks
Also with the new
WoW guild joining us in the Legion of Myth, some of us have start playing with then to get some in game interaction.
MaxLiao
For our role-players, we have various RP threads (on our forums and the official BioWare forums). We also have the World of Warcraft guild that I previously mentioned, a weekly game night (pogo.com) that Lutrik sets up, quarterly contests that award cash prizes, and just the forums and community at large.
With school just starting we’ve had a quick drop off, but they’ve communicated that they are with us for the long haul, they just need to get situated.
FOTOR
Speaking of the long haul... what are your goals for
SWTOR? What are you hoping to achieve?
MaxLiao
Of course, our aim is to grow the guild; however, we want to do this while remaining small enough to retain our family atmosphere. We’d like to be a recognized part of the SW:
TOR community - in a positive light.
We’re looking to have a competent guild, capable of tackling any in-game content be it personal story line, end-game raiding, or PvP. We’d rather focus on skirmish style PvP vice Zerg (en masse) style PvP. I was in a guild that performed this very successfully in Warhammer Online, and I want to bring that to
TOR. They were small, but feared.
Individually, we hope to enjoy the stories that the developers provide each character archetype.
Lutrik
I'm going to let the higher ups take the guild goals. My personal goals are aligned and could be achieved solely for the reason that I'm a part of Zeroł. Relevant side story: I played
WoW since late beta up until the middle of Burning Crusade. I've gone back sporadically, but it's never lasted long. During the time of vanilla
WoW, I was a part of the best alliance raiding guild on Durotan. They raided five nights a week, and we were required to be there every night. I enjoyed it because I was their best healer, but I eventually got burnt out. It was the same thing every night for four hours at a time. There was no real community. It was all very stale. The reason this is important is because it took me a year and a half to be in a raiding guild that was worth anything. I wasn't prepared for the game, and I wasn't prepared for the end result. I vowed that my approach would be different for
SWTOR. It's about a year before the game is actually released, but I've already found a guild that vibes well with me. We decided a few weeks ago that "Casual Atmosphere - Serious Attitude" described Zero Zero Zero pretty well. I just want to have fun with like minded people while experiencing all the game has to offer. This could be RP/PvP/PvE. Zeroł does it all with the expectation that we will be great at it. I couldn't be happier with where I am.
MaxLiao
Many of us have been in hardcore Raid/PvP guilds as well as hardcore role-playing guilds. We want to remove the hardcore part that turns a lot of people off, or that fails to capture the different aspects of the game. We want to achieve as much as possible - we want to be successful in all we do.
I agree with Lutrik: “Casual Atmosphere - Serious Attitude!” We’ve even made that our current slogan.
FOTOR
Well, it works, so why not? =P
When and how did Zero3 start..? How long have you guys been around?
MaxLiao
Legion of Myth was formed by former Shadowbane players in 2003. Our overall history is detailed in depth on our web page (
http://legionofmyth.com/about/), so I won’t repost it all here. We have been around many of the popular MMOs since formation: Star Wars: Galaxies, City of Heroes, EverQuest 2, World of Warcraft, and Warhammer Online.
FOTOR
Not that surprising that
SWTOR is joining that list, then. =P
In your opinions, what makes LoM stand out from other guilds? Is there anything that you feel makes it especially worth joining?
Rooks
I will keep it simple for me, two words - Community and Backstory.
Lutrik
This goes along with my last answer. A lot of guilds claim to be casual with the intent on wanting to achieve, but they always fall short. As in, they can never organize people to do raids or whatever. Legion of Myth can back up Zeroł in saying that it will succeed in being a casual guild that will rival or even beat, in terms of progression and activity, "elitist" guilds that take themselves too serious for a game. Readers should take a look at the information Zeroł and LoM. The reasons for why they should join will be very evident.
MaxLiao
The biggest thing that Legion of Myth has to offer is that you don’t have to be in one of our guilds to be active in the community as a whole. We’re an overall community of gamers, so everyone is welcome to get involved in our contests and discussions. Sure, we’d like people to join our guilds, but sometimes they just want to be part of an overall gaming community, or perhaps they don’t play MMOs, but like other aspects of the video & tabletop gaming hobbies.
Of course, our contests - I can’t leave those out. We’ve had a story writing contest, a magazine cover contest, a web comic contest, and now an audio contest. Each offers real cash to the winner, but the main focus is on the community and having fun within the community.
As for Zeroł, I’d like to say that it’s the calibre and quality of our members. Every guild believes this, but I’m going to say it as well, our members are amazing! Our current membership is a perfect representation of what we look for in Zeroł.
We have an interesting back-story, we have structure without being overbearing, and we cater to what’s probably the largest gamer archetype out there - casual-oriented players that still aim to succeed.
FOTOR
Fair enough. I can definitely see that appealing to some people I know. XD
MaxLiao
Sweet, have them come fill out an application. ;)
FOTOR
Haha, you read my mind. I was just about to ask. XD
Where should people go if they plan on contacting you? What's required of them to become a member?
MaxLiao
There are two places they can go to check Zeroł us out:
~ #1: Our webpage: <http://legionofmyth.com/guilds/zero3/>
~ #2: Our forums: <http://legionofmyth.com/harbinger>
We have a four step process for joining. They are easy steps, but they are important for how we value our membership and get them involved in THEIR guild.
~ 1: Read and Understand our info on the webpage and forums
~ 2: Register on the forums. (Since there’s no game, we need to get to know you.)
~ 3: Download and install Ventrilo. (You can wait until game is released for this, but Ventrilo is a requirement.)
~ 4: Fill out the application. (Link provided in either of the application locations.)
By all means, come by our forums, review our web page, and check us out. The application can come in due time.
FOTOR
I'll pass that on. =P
Alright, I think that's all. Any last comments you guys would like to add?
Lutrik
When I was looking for a guild, I wanted a group that was on par with me. I had a lot of expectations for my potential guild, and I wanted them to have the same for me. I think I had four guilds approach me over private messages. I looked at all their webpages, and I even interviewed their leaders if they were available. I was serious about being prepared this time around so I had very specific questions for them to answer. I checked out Zeroł's website, but I never talked to Max. I didn't need to. I knew this was the place for me. It wasn't that I was tired of looking through the guilds and settled on the last one. It was that they impressed me so much that I applied immediately. My advice for readers who are guildless is that before looking, decide what you want from your guild. Have criteria and expectations. Don't settle for less. There is a guild out there for you: Zero Zero Zero.
Rooks
Well since I haven't had a chance I would also invite any Republic or Sith RP guild to come to our forums and check us out. We are always looking to make new friends with the community. An example of this is currently we have a Joint Role playing event with one of our friends (Eternal Vigilance), located on our main forums. While we have gotten a warm reception from our fellow Republic Guild, the response has been lacking form the Sith side. We really wish to remedy this before launch and get s few Sith guilds to see the benefits of joint in game events (RP PvP type fights). Any guild seeking more information can contact me (Rooks the external relation officer) and I would be more than happy to discuss with you.
Also as a side note I would like to say one last thing to all Roleplayers or future Roleplayers. I know in the past I have come close to giving up on roleplaying in
MMO as a whole
MaxLiao
I just want to reaffirm that our webpage and the Zeroł forums really detail what we are about. We encourage everyone to come by and check us out.
“Zeroł is a group of freedom fighters whose goals are to liberate every Republic citizen from the clutches of the Sith, and effect the total annihilation of the Sith Empire and its
supporters. Using any means to achieve our goals, we are bound by no treaty or rules of warfare.”
Zeroł is a guild serving the Galactic Republic on the <To Be Determined> server.
~ We will endeavor to play on a Player versus Player Role-Playing (PvP/RP) server.
~ Zeroł will actively take part in both Player-vs-Environment (PvE) and Player-vs-Player (PvP) combat - as determined by game content.
We desire folks who seek to be part of a team by joining in guild groups, raids, and events.
Although most of our members are people with school, jobs, lives, and so forth - and we expect our members to focus on real life over a game - we will always endeavor to be the best we can be in the game within our playtimes.
While in-game our motto akin to ‘win at all costs,’ we don’t translate that to our lives. So, while we want to annihilate every Sith ‘pixel’ in-game, we’d love to form a bond with one or more Sith guilds to coordinate potential RP/PvP events.
Of course, I can’t forget our military members overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think that SoulRebel is the only one at this time - someone will correct me if I am wrong - but we keep them in our thoughts and wish them a safe return.
We want to thank FOTOR for this interview, and specifically for you getting up ridiculously early to conduct the interview.
FOTOR
Don’t worry ‘bout it, it was no problem. It was my pleasure to have you guys! On behalf of FOTOR, thank
you very much for your time. =]
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If you've got any comments or suggestions for either FOTOR or Zeroł, feel free to reply to this thread. You can stop by Zero3's official site
here.
SWTOR Guild Watch: Zero3 
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