Ronin

General Principles
Ronin is a World of Warcraft casual raiding guild with an emphasis on personal growth, teambuilding, and above all having an epic good time. We welcome all skill levels, ages, races, levels, and genders. We do not welcome negativity, whining, infighting, theft, intolerance, deceit, or unreasonable expectations. We believe that WoW is a game, not a lifestyle. As such, it should be approached with the same sense of good sportsmanship that applies to any other game.

Because Ronin is a social guild first and foremost, we do not set an expectation for our players to attend raids on any fixed schedule. We believe that only the individual can decide what’s “fun” and no guild member will be penalized for lack of attendance (although your nose may be rubbed in the loot you could have rolled on had you attended).

Leadership
The word “Ronin” literally means “wave person”, one who is adrift at sea. It is a metaphoric term for a samurai who is without a master. It is a fitting name for our guild both because of the origins of our membership, as well as our organizational structure. To know our history is to understand our name and our structure.

The original Ronin council was made up of 7 members. These 7 formerly served as council members for another, more established WoW guild. That guild had a more traditional, rigid rank structure. At some point the “manager” of that guild decided to disband the council and strip the council members of their rank. The council members were (mostly) incensed. They decided, in private discussions, that their loyalty was to each other and the guild’s members, not to a tabard or name, and certainly not to a single leader. On a prearranged date, the 7 left the guild and signed a charter offered by a level 5 gnome. It was decided that the “manager” title would be held only by a low-level alternate character for one of the council members so that no single guild member would ever wield supreme executive power.

Today, the council of Ronin is made up of 9 members. The council handles purely administrative functions (Ventrilo server maintenance, web site administration, guild banking, etc.) The council is made up of dedicated volunteers who embody the social spirit of Ronin. Ideally, the council should be transparent, as “less is more” tends to be the watchword of guild policy.

Serving alongside the council is Ronin’s Officer rank. Officers are appointed based on experience and participation. Because nominations are activity-based, there is an expectation that officers will remain active in guild chat, organize instance runs, help guild mates with quests, etc. Essentially, officers are expected to continue doing the things that got them promoted in the first place! There is no obligation to serve as an officer, and all duties are volunteer-based. There is no level requirement for promotion to Officer.

The promotion process is profoundly simple: Typically, players that are active in-game, on the guild website, and in guild chat will attract the attention of one or more of the council members. One of the council members will post a promotion nomination to the other council members through the website. If the nomination is seconded (it almost always is!), then the member will be promoted.

Membership
Ronin’s council believes that a guild should be made up of people who enjoy playing games together. Therefore, we allow all of our members to invite others to join the guild. The burden of removing players from the guild is relegated to our officers.
Ronin, being merely an informal group of people, exists solely to serve its members. The members of the guild have no obligation to “serve” the guild.

Raiding
Upon reaching level 60, many of our players become interested in participating in endgame 10+ player raids. Ronin affords its players raiding opportunities by maintaining a guild raid schedule, actively pursuing alliances with quality raiding guilds, and providing resources to facilitate in-guild raids (such as VoIP communications, a website for coordinating schedules, etc.).

If you are interested in raiding, please take the time to prepare yourself for the raid experience. This means downloading and installing communications software (Ventrilo is currently the preferred Ronin communications platform), installing any addons that the raid leader requests, and studying the raid you’re planning to participate in on one of the many WoW informational sites. If you have not had much (or any) experience with 5-man endgame content, we would strongly encourage you to build your team-play skills there before participating in 10+ player raids.

Loot Rules
Ronin will not knowingly tolerate ninjas in our ranks. Everyone occasionally makes mistakes with loot, but a consistent pattern of inappropriate looting is a sure way to lose friends (and membership in the guild). Generally, loot rules are spelled out to all players prior to beginning an instance or raid. It is your responsibility to know what the loot rules are prior to beginning an instance. If you’re not sure, ask. If you still don’t get it, maybe you’re in the wrong party. Don’t sacrifice your reputation (or the guild’s) for the sake of loot. We have seen guilds implode over loot and it’s just not worth it.

RL Connections, etc.
Ronin is a WoW guild, existing (almost) entirely in-game. There is a distinct possibility that you will meet some great people and make a few friends through your membership. Ronin encourages in-game friendship and cooperation but does not promote any personal contact outside of the game. If you elect to meet up with one or more guild members in RL, that is your choice. Ronin bears no responsibility for your decision to hook up with any of our members; weird, nerdy, cool, creepy, or otherwise.

The guild will not reimburse members for any purchases made as part of a “guild activity”. You have no obligation to spend your hard-earned dollars on the guild, and the guild has no responsibility either to pay you back or to demand compensation from another member.

The Tenets of Ronin

Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk
- Maintain a positive mental attitude. Everyone has a hard day from time to time, but WoW is a hobby so please try to leave your troubles at the door. We, your guildmates, are here to have a good time. If you aren’t having a good time, simply log off.

Thou Shalt Not Curse Like a Sailor
- Please watch your language in guild chat. Many of us have young children who play (some of us are young children ourselves). Try to keep your language at a PG level. Some have argued that language restrictions should be lifted after 11:00pm PST, but that doesn’t account for our friends in Australia, please let’s just keep our guild chat clean.

Thou Shalt Not Jump Another's Train
- When you’re a leader, lead. When you’re not, follow. Many of our members are experienced instance/raid leaders. If you have the opportunity to run with them, learn from their triumphs and failures. If you are one of those experienced players, share your knowledge with others, but don’t stage a mid-instance coup. People learn by doing, and our guild gains strength even from failure.

Thou Shalt Not Be Forced to Stay
- You may /gquit and rejoin any time you like. We’re not the only guild on Kargath. Maybe you’ll be happier elsewhere. The only exceptions to this tenet are officers (who will not easily be re-promoted after a /gquit), and booted players (if you’re kicked out, there should be a darned good reason).

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" - K. Marx

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