"What is Diamond Katana?"

Diamond Katana is an fourteen-year-old RPG guild. Diamond Katana (DK), known more simply as Diamond in some game worlds, is comprised of individuals who are friends. We prize the importance of friendship, honour, and respect.

It is our belief that Elder Scrolls Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, World of Warcraft, and Rift are games, and as such, the emphasis should be on fun. We are less interested in politics and personal gain than we are getting together to enjoy ourselves. We’re an extremely a-political guild. The type of people who fit in best are those who aren't interested in gossip, personal advancement, and power. We don’t have regular meetings — we don’t need them. In fact, our officers have only had a couple meetings in the past six or seven years. We’re here to play games and have fun with friends, not play politics. We have full-time jobs (or school) and families; so we have more important things to do than worry about how many realm/status points/levels our guild has, or how to “make a name” for ourselves, or the structure of our guild.

We tend to play together as a guild. And we are a guild of people -- of friends -- not of characters. As such, though it’s not an absolute rule, DK members tend to have all of their characters with us regardless of game or world. Most of the core of this guild has played together for years. We’re small, numbering in the low 20s. We remain very open to new members, but tend to grow slowly emphasizing compatibility first and foremost. We have had one of the lowest turn-over rates of a guild on any of our servers, whether in Everquest, EQ2, DAOC, WoW, Aion, Rift, SWTOR, or other games.

With respect to demographics, most of us age in our 30s and 40s, with a few in their 20s and their 50s. It is maturity, however, and not age per sé that is important to us. All present members are from Canada, the US, Great Britain, and Sweden, but we have also had members from Japan and Hong Kong. At present all members speak English; though we have had members for whom French and Japanese were their native tongues (where upon we all learned more about other languages and had some good
laughs along the way!). About one-quarter of our members are female, one of the higher percentages in online games. (By members we mean real people, not characters; some studies have suggested that over 50% of female characters are actually played by males.) We also have many couples who play together.

DK is a casual role-play guild, whose most important aspect is friendship. The emphasis for us is on having fun. To us there are no winners or losers; you only lose if you don’t enjoy yourself. We strive to continue to learn to work together better, but never at the expense of forgetting that these are games.

"So what? What's so different about DK?"

Very well established guild -- with an ongoing fourteen year history

Mature guild -- average age is in the lsate 30s. You certainly don't have to be a given age, as long as you're mature

Very strong guild morale/ties -- reflected in an extremely low turnover (averaging less than 2 per year over the past five or six years have left for other guilds across the games we play)

Gaming Guild -- We're not based in a single game, and thus members can play other games together as well. Members don't need to look for a new guild when a new game comes out. So unlike the hundreds of guilds that come and go every time a new game comes out, as games tend to come and go, this one sticks together.

Extremely little internal politics -- as noted above, we're here to enjoy games together, not sweat whose cyber character can do what. We are a guild of people, of friends, not of characters. So we're interested in how well you fit in, and couldn't care less about what level your character(s) are

Light role-play -- Though not all, many in DK have played paper & pencil RPGs for decades. In games where RP servers are offered, we tend to go there. Though RP is certainly not a requirement in guild groups (we're often busy joking around most of the time), we do ask that on RP servers all contact with strangers be done by default in RP unless sure that the person is okay with out of character. Our guild-chat is primarily in out-of-character.

Code -- We try to loosely follow a Code in our games (Bushido -- Honour, Bravery, Compassion, Courtesy, Sincerity, Loyalty, & Equanimity)

"What type of people fit in?"

You might fit in:

Friendship - if your main goal in these computer games is to have fun with friends

Non-über - if it's not that important to you that your characters have the "best" gear or how fast you get to the level cap in a game. Many of us will get there; it's just not a race to us. We share our equipment

Maturity - if you've seen a little bit of life, and are willing to listen to others

Light Atmosphere - if you've a sense of humour, as we joke around a lot in our guild channels

Enjoy helping others - if you like to help other people out, whether a new player asking for help learning the controls, a stranger with buffs, or a guildmate with a quest

"What types of people do NOT fit in?"

You probably wouldn't fit in:

Power Gaming - if seeing how fast you can get to the level cap in a game is important to you

Taking games seriously - if you get really upset when you or your group dies on occasion, or if you base some of your self-esteem off of cyber numbers (e.g., check daily to see where you rate in realm points in a game like DAoC or WAR, or where the guilds "ranks" in status or level, or worrying about the building a "reputation" for your characters and/or guild based on "überness"). We tend not to over-identify with our characters and thus don't care about such things.

“d00ds” - if you like to use so-called 'd00d speak" (i.e., intentionally misspelling words, exchanging numbers and letters, and alternating upper and lower case letters so that others will think you're "kewl")

Gossipers & Drama - if you tend to talk about people negatively when they're not around, "play head games,” and/or get involved in drama

Users - if you're looking for a guild just to help you get to level X or item Y

Rudeness & Manners - if you can't take the time to say "please" or "thanks" when someone helps you


"Where can I find out more?"

If this description piques your curiosity at all or sounds like a good fit for you, I encourage you to visit our website at www.diamondkatana.com. Here you can read more about our history and views on gaming and see if it fits your style of playing. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at therin@diamondkatana.org, or any of our members as you see them online in a game.