It’s an ugly fact, but a fact nonetheless… sometimes people do bad things in-game. Whether it’s continually begging for gold, over-zealous loot whoring, or just plain pissing other players off on a regular basis, it happens and it sucks for everyone involved.

Over the years we have thankfully had few of these types of situations, but even the best of players can get under the skin of others, cause trouble, etc. Never the ones to be an unforgiving type, we have come up with a system of punishment that is meant to inform, guide, and hopefully rectify any aberrant behavior. The system generally has 3 steps, though certain offenses can and will skip some steps. Such offenses include (but are not limited to):

• Threats of physical violence,
• Overt begging (typically for gold, instance runs, or other types of begging),
• Abuse of the guild chat channel (including “adult” comments),
• Combative nature &/or poor attitude,
• Harassment (including sexual, racial, and other forms), and
• Serious misuse of guild resources (e.g. - robbing the guild bank &/or knowingly taking advantage of guild privileges).

Here are the normal 3 steps of punishment:

1. Verbal and/or written warning
   • When confronted with a problem that merits an intervention, an Officer will step in and counsel the offending member with a warning. This warning will denote the nature of the issue as well as possible steps to rectify the situation.
2. Probation
   • If the verbal and/or written warning doesn’t work then a more stringent method is set in motion: probation. Probation usually starts with a time period of one month and generally includes one or more of the following (but is not limited to the list below):
     • In-guild announcement of the probation,
     • Change in guild rank to Probation (which also includes no sponsoring of new guild members while under probation),
     • Removal from scheduled events (Raids, Fun Runs, etc.) for the length of probation, and
     • Barred use of the guild bank(s).
   • The specifics of the probation will be discussed amongst the Officers and will be relayed to the member(s) via in-game mail or forum message.
   • During probation the member is still expected to function as they normally would in-guild (e.g. - you can’t just not play during your probation period). The Officers will keep a close watch on whatever issues were noted during the pre-probation review, and at the end of the probation period a review of the member will be made by the Officers. The possible outcomes are removal of probation, continued probation, or…
3. /gkick
   • At this point the offending member has been counseled, put on probation, and nothing has helped. In the interest of maintaining a fun, friendly atmosphere, the offending member will be kicked from the guild.

It’s rare that we have to enforce any of these steps, but when we need to we have a plan in place.