Refugees

Congratulations! If you're taking the time to read this post then it's a safe bet you've just set your feet upon the path toward become a full member of Refugees and have achieved Recruit status within our EQ2 chapter!

But what does that really mean? What's the difference between a Recruit, an Initiate and a Member? Who actually runs things around here? What's a Sponsor and why is having one important? What do the Guild Recruiter's actually do and who are they? I thought Dolf Lundgren killed that alien bad guy at the end of 'I Come in Peace' so who is this Matpuk fellow?!?!

I know, I know - the questions can be overwhelming when you're just starting out. Whether you're new to MMO's or just new to us, I am hopeful that this quick write-up will act as a 'quick-start' guide for you and help you to acclimate to being a member of our family. So let's get started, shall we?

Guild Membership Level
Just about every organization know to man has some type of structure under which the members of that organization live/work/play. In Refs case this is broken down into membership levels. Here's a quick breakdown:
CoE - The Council of Elders/Officers for the EQ2 Chapter.
Senior Member - Members of Refugees who have been with the guild 2 or more years.
Member - Members of the guild who have earned full acccess privileges.
Initiate - Newer members of the Guild. This is the first membership level that has access to withdraw items for our in-game Guild Bank - but only from the first two deposit boxes.
Recruit - A brand new member of the guild.

How Long does each membership level last?
This truly only applies to the first three member states (Recruit, Initiate, Member).

Recruits - The Newest Refugees
Being the newest members of the guild, Recruits stay as Recruits until they have met several criteria. The least of these is participation during guild-sponsored activities. Refugees doesn't require you to be at every run/raid/event. We do ask that you participate when you can though in order to help further the Guild's growth and progress within the game. Recruits should rely on their sponsors heavily for questions/concerns they might have about fitting in to the guild, as sponsors should have a full understanding of what it means to be a Refugee. The Recruit period of your membership lasts until the CoE awards you a promotion. For some people this could be 2 weeks. For others it oculd be 2 months. That really depends on you, your level of participation in the guild, and whether or not you are busy earning the trust and respect of your guildmates and the CoE itself. Recruits can see and deposit items into the Guild Bank in-game. They cannot withdraw items from any area of the Guild Bank. As this period of your life with us is one in which you are checking us out as much as we are checking you out, we truly hope that you will use this time to help grow the guilds reserves and contribute to the bank without expecting much in return. A Refugee doesn't do things to help guildmates because they expect a reward - they do things to help guildmates because they want to and because we are a family. Helping your family members helps you earn trust and respect. If you see an item int eh Guild Bank which you need - such as a book or harvested item - simply ask one of the Officers in Guild Chat or privately if they think it would be ok for you to acquire the item even though you're just a Recruit.

Initiates - On Your Way to Membership
An Initiate is a member of the guild who has, thru deed and loyalty, shown themselves to be worthy of trust from us. Accordingly this is the ifrst membership level allowed to withdraw items from our in-game Guild Bank. Initiates may See/Deposit in all 4 of the Guild Bank vaults. They may also withdraw items from within the first 2 Vaults. As with your time spent as a Recruit, Initiate status is something which further gives you time to make sure Refs ig oing to work for you as along-term home. Again the time period can vary from person to person at the discretion of the CoE, but if you make it to Initate status, you're well on your way to becoming a full-fledged member.

Members - the Heart of the Guild
If you've taken the time to read our History then you can easily see that Refs has been together a long, long time in many different chapters through many different games. Making it to Member level in Refugees is like finding a real friend - now you're stuck with them! The members of this guild may well take a hiatus and skip a game we are currently in but come back if and when we open a new chapter in another MMO. Throughout our history this has happened, and it's to be expected as different games/playstyles appeal to different real-life personalities. The important thing to remember is that once you're a Ref, you're pretty much always a Ref. It truly takes doing something egregious to get banned to a point we tell you not to come back. Simply be respectful of others, read our Charter, our History, our Codes of Conduct and our Rules and Regulations and you'll more than likely be fine.

Sponsors - A Big Responsibility
In order to be a Sponsor and oversee a new Recruits transition into the guild you must first have reached Member status yourself. A Sponsor after all has the responsibility of making sure that the Recruit entrusted to their care actually ends up making it to Initiate status at the very least. A Sponsor should be willing to group with their Recruit, show them the ropes and explain to them what being a Refugee truly means to them personally. They should, in effect, act as a mentor, taking the new person under their wing and 'showing them the ropes' of being a member of the guild.

Guild Recruiters - What's Up?
For our EQ2 Chapter, Hecubus/Hecubar/Poolmefeengr has been elected as the Guild Recruiter. You can read all about what a Guild Patron/Recruiter is expected to do within our CoE section. However, while Hecubus is the direct Guild Recruiter it is the responsibility of all members to be on the lookout for new, qualified, high-caliber candidates for the guild.

Who is that big ogre Bruiser?
Matpuk, the Refs Co-GL for EQ2 has chosen to play an Ogre Bruiser here in the lands of Norrath. For those of you running with the Alternate Appearance settings turned on in-game you will note he bears a striking resemblance to the villain from the B-Movie 'I Come in Peace' starring Dolph Lundgren. If you hear him spouting 'I Come In Peace' in-game, now you will know why! :-)

What Is TeamSpeak And Do You Need It?
TeamSpeak is a voicechat system designed for use by groups of people across the web. You can download it for free from http://www.teamspeak.org. Please use version 2.0.32.60. Refugees has our own dedicated TS server which we use to communicate with one another while gaming. You can acccess this server by downloading the client, then going to the Connection menu, choosing connect and using the following information: server = largephil.com username=anonymous password=letmein. After achieving full member status all Refugees are given permanent usernames and passwords for use on the server.

Some items all Refugees playing EQ2 should also consider picking up:

The Profit UI
EQ2 Maps
Combat Tracker

All 3 of these can be downloaded from here:
www.eq2interface.com
Well, that's it in a nutshell. Hope it helps! Welcome to Refugees!