Today we get to visit with the guild that breathed life into the Black Vulkar’s Guild Co-op, which we covered here at TORWars last month. Black Cloak excels in several areas as a guild and is a very fine example to take lessons from. Most interestingly they have succeed in breaking away from the norm of guild raiding. Often, when a guild can field more than one Operation on a weekly basis, they will end up going with a program consisting of a progression group, which pulls home all the big victories and accomplishments, and a (or several) casual groups consisting of anyone who wasn’t good enough to make the A-team. That standard formula breeds internal competition which some may see as beneficial – at least for the guilds progression chart. But Black Cloak disagrees. If all their Ops teams aren’t finishing a boss, that boss accomplishment isn’t achieved by the guild yet. Harsh fare you think? I see it as taking responsibility for the whole guild’s sense of teamwork. That’s the kind of glue that will keep a guild together through MMO after MMO.

There is some heavy symbolism in Black Cloak's logos

Quick Stats:

Allegiance to: The Empire

PVP, PVE

Server: Black Vulkars, US-East

Founded in June 26, 2011, led by Arthearius

68 Members

Found summer of 1999

One of Black Cloaks many banners

What prompted the formation of your guild?

We formed the guild originally in 1999 during the peak of EQ1. We hardly knew what a guild was or even what it’s purpose would be. It was so early on for us as gamers we still had no clue Naggy and Vox even existed! So raiding wasn’t our reason. I think in the end we just wanted to give us an identity, something that we could attach our pride to. And as people began to group with us the guild grew.

When did you guys form the guild?

Summer of 1999 is the closest I can get you. At the time we really didn’t have enough foresight to see that the guild would grow to what it is today and thus we didn’t really keep records of anniversaries or even how old the guild had become (until recently). I can remember the formation of the guild was done in the grand city of Qeynos in the realm of Norrath.

Oh you are making me homesick for Freeport with all this talk…

Black Cloaks is a great guild - But I do wish there could be less skulls.

How did you pick the name?

We have held several names throughout the years, usually tied to the game’s lore. Black Cloak was different. Instead of looking into the Star Wars lore and deciding what to name ourselves we realized we had reached a point with the guild that a name that ascended just one game was way overdue. It took months of throwing possible names out there to find just the right combination to make it feel right for us. We wanted a name that was unique but simple (which is a difficult task let me tell you!) and didn’t require a translation on google.com or dissertation to explain it’s meaning.

In the end we started talking about who we are and how to describe us. Since we had become an older adult guild our playtimes had lessened but our skill had gained, we were on later in the evening and logged off at reasonable times (our employers don’t like the sleepy versions of ourselves as much now lol). We operated much like Special Operation units would. In and out fast, with maximum precision and execution. We then decided on the word Black to signify that play style. We then felt we needed something physical to represent us. Coming from a D&D (v2.0 to properly date us) background many of us had a strong affinity for the Many Starred Cloaks” organization and choosing to also use Cloak to symbolize us was an easy choice.

Thus began the era of Black Cloak.

They're livin' it up at the Black Cloak Cantina...

How many members are you strong? How many are active?

At the time of this interview we have 68 members, of which 15-20 are daily players and the res have smaller play schedules. With regularity we have 20+ online during our peak play hours and 5-10 in off-peak hours.

What hours of the day is the guild most active?

Our main play hours are 5pm to 1am Pacific Standard Time (GMT-8). Our operations, social events and PvP events start usually around 8:30pm and last until about 11pm. We have had a bit of stirring in the weekend time frames and may be adding a set of operations to run on a Saturday but as of now our raids are set for mid week.

Bunnies! Why is it never bunnies?

What is unique about your guild? What, in your opinion, makes it stand out from the crowd?

Black Cloak by it’s very nature is almost a niche guild. We are an adult guild only accepting applications from people over the age of 25. In addition we look for a certain mentality. For those that have read or decide to read our recruitment post it’s fairly obvious that we are looking for a certain type of player, and if you don’t catch it there, then after reading our application process you will understand what I am talking about. We have been together so long and with relatively the same players that we are slow to mix in too many personality types. Admittedly this forced us to be a small guild for many years as the genre matured. With SW:TOR we saw that trend nearly disappear. Instead we have seen over 60 applications come in within the last two months and nearly all of them have very similar answers regarding playtimes, player motivations and guild expectations.

Silly question but if you were to choose a theme song for your guild, what would it be?

Mustakrakish by Dethklok. I won’t elaborate because half the fun is finding out why!

Tell us about your guild’s web design and art work.

If you take a look around the site you’ll notice something quickly: Black. We don’t like a lot of fancy graphics and flash images or anything like that. With the current age range centered on the 30+ player we just like to get to the info with little distraction.

The main logo and banners are made from simple GIMP renderings and a winged skull (which represents coming death for those we face be it NPCs or enemy faction players). The winged skull is a slightly altered image from a former guild (retired) back in EQ1 that has been hanging around on my HD for some years.  We affectionately call him Karl (and that’s an entirely different story!)

I suppose Carl The Winged Bunny wouldn't really have the same impact.

What is the most important piece of advice you would give to a new guild starting up?

Be yourself. Start with the leaders. Who are you guys? How do you like to play the game. Don’t get tied up in the “we need players” mentality that leads to large guild with polar opposite personalities. This usually ends up in drama and often guild implosions. Start small and take caer to invite only those that will integrate well into your player styles. Along those lines find other smaller guilds to ally with. If you find you have an applicant that doesn’t match your style, refer him/her to one of your allies instead.

Don’t compromise. The genre is big enough and SW:TOR popular and young enough that you can be niche and find enough players to achieve your goals.

What, in your opinion, are the most common reasons for a guild to break up and do you have plans to avoid that?

Mismatching of personalities and leadership that’s not dedicated are the leading reasons for guild break ups. If you just open invite to grow you will see many different things happen. Some of which are ugly and cause drama, others create what we call the “fringe member”, a player that never socializes with the rest of the guild and over time becomes jaded and will lash out.

Leadership is the hardest variable to control. The GM and his officers have to have a desire to do guild management. It sucks up a lot of play time and gives little reward in the end. Honestly if it doesn’t give enjoyment all on its own you might want to consider finding a replacement leader for yourself and helping the guild in other ways. I have lead this guild for the majority of existence but I have passed the torch a few times when I felt I just couldn’t or didn’t want to invest the time necessary.

Black Cloak Needs You

Are you looking for more members?

We are always on the prowl for new members but we do have a soft cap. Right now we have the officer corps to handle more invites but a date soon to come we may have to pause as we look for more potential leaders. If you are interested please contact us sooner rather than later. Having the proper leadership for the roster size is a key sticking point with me and my officer group.

What is the level breakdown now in your guild? Many high levels or low levels? Do you guys tend to level one character quickly from start to 50 or do the majority play with several alts, levelling more slowly?

SW:TOR is a fast paced level curve and as such most of our players are level 50. With that said we have each tier represented every night. We have a group of guys that are altaholics and some of us that like to stick on one guy until we feel we hit the ceiling on them. Either type of player first well into the guild as a whole.

How is trade skilling and in guild trades handled?

We have a Quartermaster position that handles requests, materials and organization. If a member needs an item they can contact the QM and then he subsequently will put in the work order for it and get it going. Most items are less than 24 hours away from being in their hands!

Squee! Black Cloak has us on the front page!

When looking at prospective applicants and their applications, what is your pet peeve? Or what would you advise NOT to do?

Don’t send us an application that reads like our daughter’s text messages! We are looking for players that have the gumption to actually integrate (see our sponsorship program) into the guild and that honestly takes work. The less effort you place into an application often forecasts the effort you will show within the guild. Other than that after reading the recruitment post and application process, if you still feel like we are a good fit just answer openly and honestly and you shouldn’t have any issues.

Do you have a naming policy and if so what is it?

We are not an RP guild per say but we have a few policies about names. If your swtor.com name or in-game player name is racist in any way you will not be accepted into the guild.

Raiding with Black cloak

Have you decided on a loot division system? And if so can you elaborate on why or why not?

We are a casual to moderate guild and we find the Suicide Kings loot system to be quite effective. If the looting becomes more simple (i.e. Mods from gear become more restricted) then we would most likely return to the Need Before Greed simple roll system.

BC has never and will never use DKP of any kind.

You have a unique set up for raiding in Black Cloak instead of the progression group + x amount of scrub teams that most guilds run with. Can you tell us a little about that?

For many years Black Cloak was a smaller (10-20 players) guild and thus had a regular set of raiders that grew to know each other, eventually becoming a very efficient raid group. Having been in large guilds when exploring other games I realized that being in a larger pool of players usually meant getting your name out there and trying to wriggle some raid time into one of the various groups. In most cases the guild leaders cared more for the main progression group and so the leadership for each subsequent group was increasingly inadequate, which led to less success. So how does a guild with a medium to large roster (60-120) achieve the close-knit efficiency of the smaller raiding guilds? For Black Cloak there are two key areas you have to have a handle on: Leadership and Teamwork. We have taken the best elements of small guilds (familiarity with the same players each week, scheduled play times andcamaraderie) and created our Operation Squads. As of now we have four squads: Alpha, Bravo, Delta and Whiskey.

Each squad has their own schedule and rosters that see very little change from week to week. This creates a sense of teamwork and when you achieve success you share the inherent enjoyment with the squad mates that you have been through the trenches with. We track each individual squad’s progression with a graphical banner, provide them with squad specific subforums and as you have seen a name to rally under. This all provides an atmosphere where the players become attached to each other in the same way a small 10-20 man guild would.

Operations: Join a squad!

Teamwork without leadership will eventually fade and become meaningless. As I stated earlier it’s not easy to find a raid spot in medium to large guilds and when you finally do you realize that your squad is usually a distant worry to the guild leaders. In many cases this is because the “main raid group” for these guild contains all the “go-getters” and self-proclaimed Pro-players. Leaving the next raid group to be led by people that don’t necessarily have it in them to put the raid group on their back and bring them to success. Black Cloak takes the approach that the sum of all their squads equals the Operational Progression of the guild. If only Alpha does well while Delta flounders the guild as a whole does not benefit. To ensure we have high rates of success we spread our “best” players among the different squads, appointing leaders that can help teach and lead others. We believe that raiding isn’t a natural talent but a learned skill and having strong raid capable leaders in each and every squad will bring over-arching success to the guild.

Black Cloak members that have achieved full membership are able to contact a Squad Leader and let them know of their interest in the squad. If there are no openings in the foreseeable future the Squad Leader will contact me and when there is sufficient interest and a leader to carry it, a new squad is created with a schedule tailor made for those 8-10 players.

Black Vulkar Coop Banner

What, if anything, do you consider griefing?

This is a tough one. We don’t like to see our members kill opponents that have NO shot at defending themselves. However we do tout the all encompassing “Red Equals Dead” warcry so just about anything goes. The game is set up well to get away from griefers and in all honesty griefing in the traditional sense does not exist in SW:TOR.

Guild amenities. What does your guild have to offer its members?

BC has a great website built on the Guild Launch system with over a year of advanced premium service already donated! We have a vent server that will grow when needed and a great group of guys to play with. Our tradeskill program is a great benefit and our connection to other guilds, the BV Guild Co-Op and the community at large are all things that will serve members well.

What was the toughest hurdle for you and your guild to get over in the time you’ve spent together?

Game failures. 90% of those that have retired from gaming had something to do with game failures such as AoC, Aion and Warhammer. Warhammer alone cost us 15-20 great players. If a time machine ever becomes accessible to me (and after I take care of more important matters) I would love to go back in time and institute a “wait 90 days” rule before we all jump into a new game. Might have saved us a few members and broken hearts.

Arthearius and Carl forum sig

Tell us about You. What draws you to SWTOR?

The Star Wars lore is amazing. Nothing in entertainment seems to come close to the vastness of it. Watching the original moves as a kid I just fell in love with the idea of the Jedi and it’s fight against the Emperor. But it wasn’t until I started playing the KOTOR franchise and reading into the lore a bit more that I started to really take a liking to the Sith and their beliefs and the intricacies contained with in.

What class are you playing?

All through beta I was planning to play a Sorcerer. In the last final hours I rolled up a Juggernaut and haven’t looked back yet. I usually gravitate towards melee heavy classes and when I was able to see what the Jugg had to offer in that department I was sold.

What made you decide to run a guild?

A lot of the necessary traits for gaming guild leadership come naturally to me and I enjoy managing the guild, thinking of new ways to make it better and stronger. It’s something I feel adds to my overall satisfaction with the game. As my members can tell you I don’t do it for the ego boost or for some sort of spotlight. In fact once my officer corps are ready to roll they are the ones that get the spotlight. I like to spend more time in the basement constructing the next great thing to make us even more appealing and fun!

SWTOR – World Bosses – Black Cloak Galactic Tour

To find out how to join the Black Cloaks see below

If you wish to learn more about Black Cloak you can visit their guild website, find them on Twitter or stop by their recruitment thread.

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This week’s Galaxy of Guilds is brought to you by Enjin.com, where you can set up and host an epic guild page for free.

If you would like to submit your guild to the Galaxy of Guilds feature series please write to Kristen @ TORWars DOT com. Mark the email ‘Galaxy of Guilds – YOUR GUILD’ and tell me why you think your guild should be included in the series.