It’s 1 month since the launch of Guild Wars 2, and I thought it’s a good time to pen down some reflections for Yakisoba.

The guild has been growing at a super quick pace and even though we have closed recruitment and only open our doors to friends of members, there is still a long line of Yakisoba hopefuls who want to join the guild. We have a lot of new passionate and friendly members who have quickly assimilated into the guild culture. There are still some very quiet new members who go about playing the game with little or barely any interaction with members, and we really hope that they will step up and take a proactive approach to warm up to everyone.

We have been doing very well in WvW with our fellow guilds in Titan Alliance, constantly beating other servers and putting our homeserver on an undefeated streak at the moment. Currently we are in the top bracket for WvW. We are very proud of the fact that our homeserver has shown a great level of organized plays in WvW and have pulled out truly amazing coordinated takeovers and defense. More so, I am very proud of our WvW officers and captains who have placed in such a sheer level of dedication to the guild by constantly (and almost daily) organizing WvW sessions, even though we initially wanted to put WvW on a 4 times a week activity.

We also recently started organizing our first ever guild event, a raffle in our attempt to encourage more members to donate to the guild in order for us to progress to the next level for WvW, and at the same time still give something back to those who contribute. Nobody likes to be give away money freely, but we need to quickly raise enough money to buy the WvW Commander Scroll for our WvW officers. It cost 100 gold, but it is permanent. This allows our officers map presence in WvW and also to form a huge party and give instruction and coordinate fights with non-Yakisoba players to fight along side with us.

But having said all of this, it’s important that we do not take for granted the good things that has happened for the guild. Any guild can easy crumble. And I do not want this to happen. Yakisoba has the advantage that we have been around for 7 years and counting, and we have a strong core membership group that has a great deal of pride of being a Yakisoba member. To lose all of this to a guild drama would be stupid.

I should take this time to remind everyone that always be mindful of their words with others. It’s fine to joke and tease, but be careful not to go overboard. It’s fine to show off a little, but becareful to come across as arrogant. It’s fine to rage during an intense fight, but always remember at the end of the day to apologize. We are all humans after all. We expect all members to be matured about their dealings with each other. Toes will always be stepped on, and feathers will be ruffled from time to time, but at the end of the day we should remember that we are all Yakisoba members and we must have that pride to be a part of a community that take cares and help one another. If you don’t have that emotional connection to the guild, then perhaps you will need to relook into your membership here.

I also want to emphasis the use of mumble while playing with each other. Voice communication is crucial in not just team play, but also building community and getting to know each other better. Members who spend a great of deal of time playing with each other while using mumble often form very strong friendship and camaraderie with each other. Very often, new members are promoted to Core Members status once we are familiar with them and can see the level of dedication to the guild. This is not about favoritism, but about familiarities.

Now that we have unlock the 100 slot Guild Treasure Trove, we are going to give a section of the guild bank to Core Members who will have access to deposit and withdraw items to share with other Core Members. We will not police over this section, and we leave it entirely to trust. Core Members are welcome to share anything they wish here, and take whatever they need. Just take what you need, and leave the rest for others. Do not ever sell these items for your own profit.

Also, it has come to my attention that there are members who don’t want to WvW because they just want to focus on PvE to farm money. While PvE does seem like an easier way to farm money, helping out in WvW actual helps the money making easier because of Power of the Mists bonuses. Currently at 100k points in WvW, we have accrued a 6% bonus to gold per kill, and this will continue to grow. The WvW queues in our server takes forever, but everyone should queue for it whenever we have all-calls. We need members out on the front lines to fight and ideally we would like to field up to 30-40 members during each organized session. The more we have, the easier it is for us to pull off single guild fights against larger zergfest.

Lastly, I really hope that we can keep up the Yakisoba spirit many months into the game. We are here for the long haul, and hopefully ArenaNet keeps churning out content to wet everyone’s appetite for Guild Wars 2. My vision for the Yakisoba is remain one of the best guilds around for members to be in. Not because we are hardcore or elite but simply because we have the best community for members. And to do this, I really need each and everyone of you members to make the effort to keep this spirit of the guild up!

While I have not had the luxury to play very much recently due to work commitments, I am glad that our officers (a shout out especially to Shader, Enzer, Cara and Kuch) have been tirelessly running and managing the guild well in my absence. I hope to return back very soon and steer the guild to greater heights, and I look forward to playing more with all fellow Yakisoba members.

Cheers!

Tsubaki

Leader of Yakisoba