The CircleGuardian Philosophy and Policy
- About Role Playing & Gaming

Download and read our policies and philosophy in pdf-format

CircleGuardians does not believe in strict rules or dictator-ish methods where everyone is “forced” to act in a specific way. We believe in variety, in people feeling free to develop their own gaming and role playing at all times according to their own wishes. However, CircleGuardians is a community for the likeminded. This means all of our members have joined after having read and agreed to the Official CircleGuardian philosophies and policies. Being likeminded does not mean we are all the same - it means we all want the same thing out of our gaming and role playing. Therefore we say that all in CircleGuardians are likeminded, not the same.

CircleGuardians like any other society is a gathering of people that share views, opinions and ambitions. This is the sole reason for the existence of policies and philosophies at all. They merely intend to ensure that CircleGuardians will always be a place for likeminded; People that want to experience quality role playing as they enjoy their games. Therefore one can say our policies and philosophies unite us and what we stand for. CircleGuardians never argue that our way is the only way, neither do we believe our way is the best way. We do not intend to be the best nor the dictator of how role play should be performed. We simply state: This is the CircleGuardian way.

iRL Profile
CircleGuardians is a society for optimistic and friendly people iRL. We do not allow people solely on role play talent and skills. If someone is egocentric, melodramatic and/or negative, they do not suit the CircleGuardian profile, even if they are massively talented role players. CircleGuardians cherish values such as “Optimism”, “Friendship” & “Fun”. That is in the end what role playing and gaming should be all about.

Role Playing
What is Role Playing according to CircleGuardians? Role Playing is a desire to make your character come alive - To create an existing personality and have the intention to see that flourish. It is impossible to measure role play talent, we all have our styles and variations. There is however a conduct to role play which the CircleGuardians believe to be more neat, stylish and professional than others. When role playing, the personality of your character is very important and should always be in focus. Things to think of as you make your character could/should be:

A - Is the personality of this character realistic?
B - Does this character persona suit the world I am role playing into?
C - Does this character suit the present CircleGuardian guild I am about to enter? Need I adjust something?
D - Am I flexible as a player?

There is no right or wrong - but CircleGuardians recommend all players to consider the bullet points above; That is how CircleGuardians view it.

Quality Role Playing
What is quality role playing anyway? Please think back to when you were reading the books of either Tolkien or George Lucas’s world. The courage, the legends, the heroes & villains - All is part of it. Let us say you are to play an MMORPG and want to know how to Role play with quality in the world presented to you. Imagine for a second that you are reading a book or watching a movie about this world - then ask yourself: “What would the heroes be like? How is the world? How would I expect the people in this world to interact? What role among those people would I want to play?” Quality Role Playing is mostly defined by the thought behind the character and the stories he/she represents. The better the detail and the more thought through they are - the better the quality.

The Lore Importance
The lore is a very important part of the realism of your characters. The world has its rules, beasts and its politics. Knowing the lore is a very important part in order to role play with quality. You do not need to know all lore as you start playing a game, but the more complicated you make your character the more you need to read up upon what is already written. Making Vampire guilds in Tolkien’s world is perhaps the most clear example of what CircleGuardians believe to be poor quality role playing. The members of the guild may very well be skilled individually in performing their role play but little does that matter when the story you role play break the lore. One does not have to be an expert in the worlds stories and tales before starting a character - then few would be able to role play even when the desire is there. But a key factor to remember is to always keep within what is decent and if you are uncertain about the lore - then wait before you role play tales that challenges the limits of the extreme. Keep within the lines of lore and develop the stories more - as you get to learn the lore better.

Skills
Individual skills and techniques for how to use game mechanism for every MMORPG is important. Speech is one clear example. The way a character address others will strongly impact others perception of you. Not only do you need to consider grammars, you need to imagine how people talked in the world you are role playing into. Every world is different.


Quality Role Playing - The CircleGuardian Way

How to socialise - Using In Character Chats - The Role playing way
A - Punctuation, grammars & capital letters - Always try to make an extra effort. By not stressing, you can avoid spelling errors. Both capital letters, correct punctuation and grammars are important to make In Character talk look more neat.

B - Length of sentences - Try to think through what your character is to say before you start spamming the chat windows. It is important to try and find a balance in the length of your sentences. Please watch example below:

Example A: (Knight is talking)
"It is very warm here"
"I need to take some armor off."
"See you soon."
"I shall find a private area."

Example B: (Same knight talking - version 2.)
"By the King it is warm in here. I better remove some armor. The heat is not gentle today."
"Do you not agree, son? Well, I shall be back soon, I need to find a more private spot."

In this case I would say that version B is the best choice by far. Firstly; you won't spam the chat windows to an extreme and also you will have more natural pauses in your sentences and allow other players to give feedback.

C - Use real words - Only use words that exist. Shortages and internet talk of our modern day is not considered good role playing conduct. I.E words such as "ppl" instead of "people" and "thx" instead of thanks are not something CircleGuardians want to see in any In Character chat.

D - Use correct language - Other factors that affect your chosen language in a In Character chat are seen below:

1 - The Setting - The setting of the game affect your language to a large extent. Your character/s would surely converse different depending on the fact if you are into an epic fantasy world or into a more modern sci fi world. Adjust your language accordingly.

2 - Race - Also, the race and the class will affect speech. I am certain you agree with that a cunning thief, a beggar or a scholared wizard would have a strong difference in their vocabularly.

3 - Character specific adjustments - Never forget that language can show a specific persona or perhaps a certain speech problem. The skilled role player will enhance his/her character by making language specific for his/her character.

Using Emotes to enhance role play
To make a character alive, not only speech is needed but also emotes. The emotes describe your character for others, things he/she does not say but which can be perceived. Emotes are used to describe body language, descriptions of odours, the clothing and much more. CircleGuardians recommend you to always try and customise your emotes as much as your speech. Using premade emotes will not make your character stand out while customisation could tell so much more of your character persona. Emotes should be realistic and never describe situations where other characters are forced to accept your actions. If you intend on making an emote that would affect another character, then the other player should always be given the choice to accept or reject your action with a response made of an own emote. One should never force emote anyone.

Realism in your role playing
Quality role playing consists of always striving for realism in all you do. If you one moment hold an epic speech inside a city as Bree Town and you role play a very serious Elf, if you then the minute after jump up and down as crazy, claiming that: "Oh, I am not IC right now. Now I am only fooling around." - That is definitely not quality role playing according to the CircleGuardians. Consistency is a key word to remember. To role play with quality, means to treat the world as if you are always in character.

We will mention three examples of how you can treat the world around you, as it is "always present" and therefore also provide you with an understanding of our mindset: You are always In Character:

1. AFK - The Role Playing Way
If you need to AFK, please mind that it becomes very weird role playing wise. Compare with iRL if you would all of a sudden stand silent, staring to your counterpart in a conversation for 10 minutes. Role playing with quality means to avoid this situation. Instead, you should first inform the counterpart OOC'ly that you will need to be AFK a short while. Now time to deal with the role playing situation. Either you walk away a short while, telling the other character you will come back soon or you make a custom emote describing how your character drift away in his/her own minds for a while. When you come back, announce it both OOC'ly to the counterpart player and again, show it IC'ly either by saying something appropriate or by making a new custom emote.

2. Changing clothes - The Role Playing Way
Let us say you want to change attire, do not stand in the middle of the street as you do that. Imagine iRL if you stand changing clothes in the middle of the street as you are talking to someone. It would be seen as a tad weird and so it becomes the role playing way. Instead you should excuse yourself and move to a private spot, change clothes and then come back showing off. This will show you truly perceive the surroundings in a way as it always exists.

3. Logging out - The Role Playing Way
Let us say you need to log out. What is logging out IC'ly, it has no real comparison, right? Since it hasn't, you can't really define nor explain it the role playing way. Some people say their characters will head to bed, some that they need to travel away on a journey, both works just as fine. Vanishing in the middle of the street is definitely not a smart move, imagine iRL once again. How would you react if someone suddenly vanished into nothing in the middle of the street? You would be quite shocked I suppose? And you also risk logging in, in the middle of another Role playing conversation at the same place where you logged off. Not good at all. What you should do, is to move your character away a little from the open area. Find a decent spot where no one see you and where you diminish the risk of logging into a role playing session. Then you log off.


CircleGuardians hope that you by these three examples above understand what we mean with the saying: "Treat the world as if you are always in character". Tons of examples could be mentioned but we believe the general message has come forth.

We hope you are intrigued by the immense possibilites of immersion of the CircleGuardian Way.


Gaming & Guild Policies - The CircleGuardian Way

Basically every guild made by CircleGuardians, have the same conduct. Small variations may appear but the ambition and strive for professionalism and immersion is always there. We always have clear beliefs of how we are to enjoy a game together. Please read below:

A - iRL Priority - iRL is always most important. In a guild made by CircleGuardians, you must never excuse yourself for your iRL. CircleGuardians care for the well being of our members.

B - Online Time - CircleGuardians never punish our members for low online time. However, for practical matters, it is always good to converse with the guild master/officers about how often you intend on being online already when you apply to join a specific guild. It is also considered as well-mannered to inform a guild master/officer if you intend on being offline for a longer period.

C - Guild Activity - As said in "A" and "B", CircleGuardians do not punish a low online time. However - we wish to ensure our members that CircleGuardians always strive to make active guilds. Therefore, guild masters/officers have the authority to kick a member that has been offline for 30 days without telling the guild master/officer about the reason for why.

D - Online Actions - CircleGuardians does not control what you do with your online time. It is up to you yourself if you want to casual role play, participate in events or enjoy the game as you come online. All meetings and role playing in our
guilds must build upon every single players interest and desire to be PART of what we are doing here. However, if you are rarely online and when you are, rarely socialise with the other members and show little interest to get to know our community, the CircleGuardians; you risk being kicked from both the community and the guild. We want you to show interest in our guilds, be part of it, be active at this forum and to show to others that you want to be part of our little community.

E - Alt Character Policy - CircleGuardians make active guilds and we welcome you to join us with your main characters. Only if you have your main character with us, your alt characters are welcome. We welcome every alt character you may have if you are a regular member since we embrace the time we have together and want us to spend as much time as possible together online ingame and at this community, the CircleGuardians.

F - Levelling and Game Progression - CircleGuardians will not aid you with power levelling your characters. As said before; We expect you to have a high level of maturity and thus also be able to take responsibility of your own game play. The mature player should realise that everyone has a desire to do their own things ingame. In CircleGuardians we have the ambition to enjoy games together on equal terms.

G - Role Playing Activity - In CircleGuardians we differentiate the terms of Role Playing Quality and Role Playing Activity. By role playing quality, it is sheer skill, professionalism and delicacy. By role playing activity it is more a definition of how much of your online time you dedicate to role playing. In CircleGuardians we go by the motto: "Always In Character" and therefore we believe that our members always role play. Be it a dungeon crawl, a raid, a battle in a scenario, a role playing event; Our members shall always mind their character, follow the CircleGuardian role playing conduct and honor the immersion. However, it is up to anyone how they want to use their online time. If a player wants to participate in casual role playing only 10% of his/her online time that is totally fine. If a player enjoy casual role playing 90% of his/her online time, that is totally fine too. In CircleGuardians we respect the wishes and the wants for our members. Some wants to experience the game more than others and care for game and character progression. Some other level far slower than others and enjoy the everyday small talk role playing wise. Both of these profile of persons are just as much CircleGuardians as the other. What matters is: "You are always In Character".

H - Guild Role Play Structure & Organisation - Our guilds will always strive to be a source for fantastic RP potential - massive casual role play, role play storylines, events and more. However, no CircleGuardian representative will ever serve any member role play on a silver plate. The maturity and the ability to take own initiatives are important with any member of the CircleGuardians. The CircleGuardians believe it is up to every member in our guilds to aid role play progress and to aid storylines. CircleGuardian representatives will often provide lots of role play material, storylines and sometimes perform events. But under no circumstances are they forced to do so. They must be able to enjoy their online time and do what they please, just as any other member in the guild. Every member is part of it and we are all responsible of making role play progress. There are no chefs, servants and customers - instead everyone of you are chef, servant and customer all at the same time.

I - Guild Chat Policy - The CircleGuardian guilds does not have a specific policy on the guild chats. The guild masters/officers may choose if the guild chat is In Character or Out Of Character. Since CircleGuardians stand for quality role playing and therefore a realistic perspective any In Character Guild Chat needs to be explained as to why communications is possible from miles away.

J - Membership Length & Ending - If you are approved as a member and as such allowed to register onto our forums - your membership is for life. As long as you approve of and intend to honour the CircleGuardian official policy about gaming and role playing, you will always remain a member of CircleGuardians. Most importantly, CircleGuardians does not crave any activity in form of you as member having to participate in a specific amount of MMO's or other games with us to keep your membership. However, we want you to always embrace our CircleGuardian efforts and prioritise them & to participate in our CircleGuardian guilds when you are given an opportunity to do so. The want and the desire to participate in the CircleGuardian activities is what unite us, to experience games together and to always try to stick together as we make worlds come alive. The Caretakers of CircleGuardians grant themselves the right to remove a member if they are considered to not suit our policies and/or philosophies or showing indecent manners and behaviour not deemed to go hand in hand with CircleGuardian values.

Greetings dear members!

The Caretakers have put a lot of work into freshening up our old policies and the general philosophy of our dear community. We thought it was a tad old, a bit too much text, a tad too long, not really updated and sometimes the same thing was mentioned in three different places in different words.

By that, behold the above post - our new and fresh policies and philosophy.

You will also notice that all the other old threads are deleted since we have now gathered all the most important facts inside the above post.

We hope it is much more clear, appealing and in a more short way describing our dear community to ourselves and others.

Please read it through and enjoy!

Thank you!
/Best Regards
All the Caretakers of CircleGuardians
Swampland, Any & Razzmatin

Our new, fresh philosophy and policy are now available for you all to download in a pdf-format. Please view the document available and feel free to hand it out to anyone asking of our community, curious of joining us or whatever other reason.

Link: Download and read our policies and philosophy in pdf-format

Thank you!