Vanguard of War

The VoW core philosophy, as written on our first day as a guild, April 27, 2006:



All Vanguardians take the Vanguard VoW. They pledge to:



Our "rules" are easy to understand if you share our approach to life and gaming:

1. Treat other people the way you would want to be treated.
2. Do *NOT* fight over loot, even if it means missing out on something.
3. Do *NOT* attack other players' play style or skill, period.
4. Remember that you represent all of us with your words and actions.

We are willing to kick those individuals who make the rest of us look bad.

If you got that part, you don't need this part, but here's how to do your P.A.R.T. for the Vanguard VoW:

Play in harmony
Accentuate the positive
Respect everybody else
Tell us what's going on


Play in Harmony:
 ⊕ Act like your mamma raised you right... We like our happy guild, and we will boot people who insist on being obnoxious in vent/chat, throwing temper tantrums, excessive cursing and crudity, complaining, arguing, whining, bragging about stats, using l33t sp33k, harrassing people for instances, insisting on selling in guild channel, acting with chronic selfishness and self-centeredness, etc. Yes, we may boot you if you are chronically annoying. Again, these are listed here so we can point them out to people whose mammas did not raise them better...
 ⊕ Vanguardians *actively look* for ways they can help out, give things, offer advice, and work as a team. Yes, we're just that good, and if you don't, you're not.

Accentuate the Positive:
 ⊕ Be willing to believe the best about the your fellow guildies who have taken the VoW. If you really believe that your fellow guildies are dishonorable, mean-spirited, or selfish, we need to talk.
 ⊕ Treat each other with respect and kindness. We know life in Azeroth isn't any more perfect than life "out there." We also know we will not all like each other all the time. We overcome these problems by *looking for ways to*...
 ⊕ Overlook each others' faults. People who only have eyes for what's wrong with VoW and other Vanguardians do not truly care about the guild and should move on. If you see a potential problem, *please do report it.* We have forums, chat, game mail, and site mail, plus Moon listens to people all the time. Even better when he is not pwning bosses in Karazhan, though
 ⊕ Become a Gnomish Sky-Prop-up-inator Engineer! Again, we know we got trouble, big trouble right here in River City, but we have a *lot* of ways you can help us work on solving problems, and working together is part of the fun. Helping solve a real problem is one thing, but onstantly finding the worst is a real bummer, especially when all the complaints come from the same one or two Chicken Littles. Don't be Chicken Little. Do become a Gnomish Sky-Prop-up-inator Engineer!

Respect Everybody Else:
 ⊕ We have a very helpful and generous guild. People will help with groups if you respect their time by giving them a chance to plan and by realizing that we *all* have to keep a balanced WoW life - we all have to farm, craft, and run alternate characters. If you have trouble getting groups, we have in place some ways to work on the problem. Please see below on How to Find Groups.

Tell Us What's Going On:
 ⊕ We recognize there are life issues and in-game issues, too. Mature guild members will talk to us so we can work things out and will let us know if they need to be gone for a while.



The following marks of disrespect may result in removal from guild:

 ⊕ Acting like an elitist jerk. Period.
 ⊕ Disrespecting raid leadership. We allow for lots of discussion, and then in the end one person has to make a judgement call. We're all in this together, and raid leaders put up with more than most. If you don't think something was fair or right, it's not because we weren't *trying* to find the fair, right thing to do. Don't trust us? There are plenty of other nice guilds out there...
 ⊕ Breaking trust. We have to be able to believe in each other. Lying, cheating, stealing, being slimy or untrustworthy in any way, taking advantage of someone's misfortune, etc., make us think you should not be wearing our guild tag.
 ⊕ Unjust use of /ignore. No one should ever be put on /ignore without it either being explained to them or without them having some recourse to explain/apologize/make things right. There are definitely times when /ignore is warranted, but they should be few and far between, and never with guildies, ever.
 ⊕ Unjust booting of someone from a party without reasonable explanation, even if it is because you prefer someone else such as another Vanguardian for the spot. We do not boot others to make room for our own guildies. People who do so come across as elitist, cliquish snobs.
 ⊕ /gquitting to make a dramatic statement, without proper discussion and announcement by guild leadership. The /gquit rule applies to ANY character you have in guild. We are open to alts. Please do us the courtesy of letting an officer announce your removal or deletion of alternate characters, or we may choose to help you out by removing the rest.
 ⊕ Going absent from guild life without letting us know. We get attached to folks, and disappearing shows a great deal of disrespect to our friendship. It also makes it very hard for people to trust that when you're back, you're going to stay, which in turn leads to hurt feelings and awkwardness. All we ask is that if you're going to be gone a while, let us know in the AFK-Exteneded forum thread or mail message, NOT by just jumping into guild chat and announcing it.