Highlighted Guild
- Affinity – Galactic Republic
This week, we welcome the guild Affinity to Community Checkpoint. Reading posts/emails by guilds is how I find guilds for this article. Affinity’s guild leader, Coet made a post on SWTOR’s Google+ community page. The post was telling folks about their guild and if anyone on the Prophecy of the Five (Pot5) server was interested, they should contact them. The link led me to their website and I started researching. It was after I joined their site, Coet messaged me and we had a brief, but very informative chat. We discussed a few topics, including perceptions of guilds located on PVP servers versus guilds on PVE servers.
Let’s meet Affinity & a bit more about life on a PVP server after the Jump…
- Guild Q&A
How did Affinity get started? What challenges and excitement comes from being a newer guild?
Affinity was started as a core group of members who broke off from another guild because we were looking for a less casual environment and a chance to lead teams into progression.
some founding members of Affinity
The biggest challenge is keeping the momentum going, we stepped into this guild with a solid group of 8 that all wanted more, we set up a website, set up a mumble server and all that happened fast out of excitement for this guild. The tricky part is keeping it going and making the guild an environment that players want to be a part of, by recruiting players that have the same goals and morals as us.
Some of the excitement for our leaders included setting up a website, creating guild videos and getting to know new people.
Another challenge is getting new members excited to be on the ground floor of something big! We have all these wonderful ideas to offer and we want new members to Affinity to not be discouraged by our numbers right away! With our core group we all had a similar schedule. We now have a few members with different schedules that want something that fits into their schedule. That’s what we want to provide…something that fits everyone’s schedule and play style.
What server and faction is the guild a part of in SWTOR?
Affinity is on Prophecy of the five Server and is a Republic Guild
Since your guild is on a PVP server, is that the primary focus for the guild? Is this a common misconception of players and guilds on PVP servers?
PVP is not our primary focus, I’d say as a guild we focus on both PVE and PVP equally with one of our leaders in charge of each. I think it is a common misconception that people have of PVP servers, the only real change is that while questing you get that chance to throw yourself one on one against a player of the other faction, if you are unlucky it’ll be one against four.
And of course it’s hard for a group of us to not enjoy beating down the unsuspecting Imperial here and there!
Can you help explain what some of the differences and similarities Affinity faces being on a PVP server compared to a PVE server?
There are not a lot of differences for the guild, being on a PVP server, sometimes we’ll get the occasional Imperial or Imperials who don’t want to let one of our members continue his quest, so we group up and take them out, to teach them a lesson, don’t mess with Affinity.
Should a player unfamiliar with PVP shy away from a PVP server? What “sales pitch” would you give gameplay on a PVP server? How does it benefit players etc.?
PVP servers are great! There is nothing better than doing a quest and seeing an Imperial doing the same thing and ruining his day by stopping his progress.
It’s a huge benefit, especially for players new to the game, NPCs can only give you so much of a challenge with their simplicity other players will really show you how well you know your class and how skilled you really are, its tests like these that make better players.
It also adds more to the universe and lore! The freedom to attack and be attacked while questing keeps things interesting and keeps you on your toes. You’re never truly safe in the open world and your adrenaline pumps when you see the opposite faction cruising by on a speeder unaware of your incoming Force Leap or stun!
Affinity is a well-rounded guild. How is the membership getting organized for Operations? Where is the guild in relation to endgame progression and where do you see the guild in six months?
The membership for the guild started out with one full ops group and as we get more members, more groups will be formed around their schedules and their classes.
With endgame progression we are now working on the last 2 hard mode operations, Terror from Beyond HM, and Scum and Villainy HM.
In Six months, I see us with multiple ops groups progressing and downing content, as well as a couple PVP teams that are winning Ranked Warzones regularly. Socially, I see us with a couple hundred members with 50 active daily as well as our name known across the server.
Although PVP is not the only thing, the guild is working to get a PVP team established correct? Does the guild feel BioWare is going in the right direction, as far as PVP Warzones and the current ranked system?
We are setting up a Ranked PVP team, with just a couple members shy. After we fill those spots, we will start getting into the ranked PVP system. We feel as though BioWare is going in the right direction with PVP even though it’s a hard situation to get right, it needs to be fair for new players and still benefit the veteran players. Once you get beyond the grind for gear, the system really does come down to strategy and skill and that’s what PVP is all about. I’ve been a part of under geared teams many times before and won, the right strategy makes all the difference.
However, we would like to see the possibility of some versus matches. This would allow some members the ability to team up in groups of 2, 3, and 5 and face off in a team death match style arena.
Affinity has its own ranking system for members. Can you explain the system and how it helps the guild work towards its goals in multiple areas?
I love our ranking system, it works great and it defines who we are. The system also helps identify what the players are interested in, with our two different branches, Strike force branch for PVP and Task force branch for PVE. It really helps to have two leaders who specialize in PvP and PvE respectively and they have their right hand assist them as well. New guild mates will get the force sensitive rank, with this rank they get extra attention in the guild, we help them out and make them feel welcome, run extra stuff with them and keep an eye on them to make sure that they are the type of person that we want in the guild. Once they prove that they are a good fit for this guild they will move up to Padawan. At this rank, they really get to sit back and decide, do they want to be a part of Strike Force or Task Force? Then the leader of their chosen team will step in and begin aiding them become what they desire! Our senate is another huge part of this guild, we don’t have one leader because we do so much that one person can’t handle all of that (PVP,PVE, Website, Videos, Events, Recruiting) it’s just too much.
Affinity meeting
There are 4 of us that share the load and decide together what direction is best for this guild. Coet is leader of the PVP team, the guild video maker and event organizer. Oprious is the face and voice of the guild, leader of the PVE team and heading up the weekly updates (Oprious’ Overview). Leshha is the webmaster, all the cool stuff on our site was designed by her, and she also assists with leading the PVP team. Ol’benn has had a lot of experience in this game so he is our class master and operations strategist, with his experience he is able to help out all of us other leaders.
Is the guild currently recruiting? If so are the any requirements or steps potential members need to do to apply to Affinity?
Affinity is recruiting, we don’t have any requirements except that they must be subscribers to the game, that way they can experience the whole game along with the guild. Other than that, we are taking all classes and roles. Once you get in the guild we require that you set up an account on our site so that you can keep up with guild news and events. If they want to join us, check out our website, all of us have our character names on there so you can whisper us in game or fill out an application and we will get back to you.
Has the guild seen the dev post, by Bruce Maclean, discussing the tentative timeline for Game Update releases? What are the opinions of the timing of the update releases and the content? What changes or positives does the guild see in the brief description in the forum post?
We have read the post, some of us more than once, we are very excited about it and I’m glad that Bruce was able to send this out. It’s helping the guild set in motion goals and objectives for our progression and improvement.
I personally love the timing of the content releases, keeps us all busy, right when we are getting done with the current stuff the new stuff comes out.
Positives are definitely the extra guild bonuses, although that’s not why we want people to join our guild, I think it’ll help our recruiting effort. On top of that, TFB Nightmare mode will be great and with that our guild is going to push to be ready for it when it comes out.
Did the guild take part in the Gree Event that was from the 21st-28th of May? Are you happy to hear the event will be scaled up to level 55, when it comes back July 23rd? What is an event or type of event Affinity would like to see BioWare add as the next recurring event?
We LOVE the Gree event, we were a little bummed that it wasn’t 55 this time around so most of us skipped the dailies there, but next time Xeno will be downed every week! We are excited to see if they have some new armor or weapons with it too.
I love these events, me personally I fell in love with them when the Rakghoul plaque came around, I’d love to see a new event like that, where you see it affecting players around the fleet, exciting and funny at the same time.
These events are awesome because we can see that Bioware isn’t just working on having cool vanity items from the Cartel Market only. Even with the events created for the game, Affinity tries to take what the game has and we create our own events!
How is the best way for players to contact the guild about wanting to join, find out more information or possibly participate in one of your sponsored events?
The best way to get in contact with us is through our site, the leaders of the guild are constantly watching it and updating it, fill out an application and we will get back to you right away. For guild sponsored events same thing, we will be keeping our site updated for our new upcoming events.
The next one is going to be big and we are trying to get a lot of people involved so there will be posts on the swtor.com forums and in general chat on the fleet a week prior. I’d like to officially announce now that it will be a speeder race and the prize will be all the parts for the coveted Explorer Speeder! This event will take place June 22nd at 9 pm EST. All are welcome to join in this event. Our goal for this event is to get our name known on the server and also to have some fun. We are also hoping to pull in some new members from it too.
a wave goodbye
from Affinity’s GM Coet
That’s it for this week’s Community Checkpoint. I want to thank all the members from Affinity. Special thanks to their GM, Coet for all his help with answering the questions and of course all of his time. I want to wish them all the very best in-game and everything they do! If you are thinking about rolling a Republic character on a PVP server, I would suggest contacting Coet or any of the other members in Affinity from the Prophecy of the Five (Pot5) server. Don’t forget to go to their website and watch the official SWTOR forums for details about their guild sponsored event on June 22nd.
How exactly can you have your guild, like Affinity, highlighted on Community Checkpoint? All you need to do is submit your guild/group’s website and some basic information in an email to me at, jason@corellianrun.com. At Corellian Run Radio, we love to highlight members in the SWTOR community, from guilds to the many people working to plan events, contest, etc. We look forward to hearing from you! Thanks and see you next week!