Clan Interviews: Duchy of Wessex

A new interview with Duchy of Wessex is up. You can check out the interview to see how WSX works and maybe you might be intrested to join up. Click below to see what DoW is all about

Also if you are intrested in publishing an interview on Darkfall Warcry, e-mail me at [email protected] and I’ll get back with you as soon as I can.

1) Could you tell us a little bit about the background of your guild and how you got started? Has your guild been established for a while in other games or will Darkfall be your first?

The leadership of this guild goes back quite a few years, to 1999 Asheron’s Call. Yet, while Asheron’s Call was our first taste of MMO, we really hated the fact that nothing we did could affect the environment of the world, nor could we affect other clans. We made all the other grinders hate us by the schemes we tried to cook up to “steal their members” since it was the only form of PVP we could engage in! (At least on the Harvestgain server) But the real birth of this clan as a PVP MMO gaming entity came in the prerelease of Shadowbane. Aeneas and I drew out our plans for the guild on napkins while eating at a Chinese buffet.

2) Does the guild fit into a profile such as rp, pk, anti-pk, rpk etc?

Well, the Duchy of Wessex is made to be a competitive clan in PVP MMOs, so it’s definitely a PVP clan, as all who follow Darkfall are. I suppose our attempts to immerse ourselves within the world provided also means you could call us an RP clan, although our take on that is a bit different than you might expect.

3) What race or races will the Duchy of Wessex be? If a recruit is not this race will they not be accepted?

We’re about 80% human. We take dwarves and elves as well. If you want to be a dog, you could stay in a doghouse outside of town, but as far as we know, it probably isn’t going to work.

4) Do Duchy of Wessex members always RP on forums and/or Ventrilo? Or is RP only set to In-game?

Heheh, yeah, we RP on Ventrilo. Can you imagine that? lol Actually, Aeneas and I are actors who work out in LA from time to time, but you probably won’t catch us breaking into accent on Ventrilo…too often. 😉

No, but seriously, for us, the RP is built into Wessex itself. The whole point of Wessex is for once for a guild to actually work and function like a nation- that is to say, when you log in to play the game, the other players in your group are functioning as parts of a real government and with less of the sense of a turf gang. This is one reason why the name of the clan is a name that might describe a place, rather than a sports team name like “Bloody Swords” or a music group name like “the Pretenders” or even a movie name like “Black Orison”. Whoever looked at a map and saw such place names?

Yes, the whole raison d’etre for Wessex is to emulate the experience of
being in a working feudal monarchy as much as possible. We appreciate
history more than fantasy and are striving for that kind of atmosphere. That means that the “RP” is built into the roles and jobs people will carry out while making this nation run. It matters less to us if someone acts like a stereotypical knight or makes up a back-story for a character than it does that that person carry out all the required duties of the position of “knight” within our society, for example.

5) How does the Duchy of Wessex government work? How could one advance in the ranks of your guild?

Right, so the whole point of Wessex and the most unique thing about it is the government. As I mentioned, Wessex is strictly modeled on a historical noble’s court and the province that it rules. We’ve done this in an extremely well researched way that most guilds going for the “kingdom” theme in the past have overlooked. Every position or occupation within Wessex does what it did historically, and that means that people don’t have fluff titles just so they can prance around and “play princess”. A knight, for example, is not just any guy with a sword and armor who wants to put “Sir” in front of his name – no, in Wessex, true to medieval history, a knight is someone who holds a fief of land from a liege lord. And that means that it’s a little harder to become a knight, but the payoff is in the sense of immersion and the realistic atmosphere that this provides. Crafters are called “burgesses” and live in the towns, and are free to make their own “crafting guilds” within the towns themselves. We have heralds, clerks,
reeves and other authentic positions in the ducal court that all carry out administrative tasks that keep track of everyone and will make the place have the extra organization perks.

And to make all of that a reality and encourage people to follow whatever career they like, we’ve designed Wessex with a really streamlined and clear sense of advancement that is not based on favoritism, but on skill, awards, and in some cases, even examinations. Everyone who joins Wessex occupies the rank of “villein”, which is essentially a serf or the “thrall” described in the DF sites Mercian lore. The one thing we have broken from true feudalism as in history is the fact that our aristocracy or gentry’ class of players is not closed by birth. Our villeins can try to excel in PVP until they are knighted or taken as squires; they can take the examination on our site to become administrators for the court who help war, organization and the economy; or they can begin practicing a trade skill until they can buy a shop within our towns and live as “burgesses”. The whole thing is so
functional and ideal because it came to be this way out of necessity in real life – it was that way because it worked under the barbaric and uncivilized conditions of the early dark ages – conditions very similar to what we will see at the beginning of Darkfall.

Finally, we also have a really great and easy to update Flash medal system that allows us to reward our members with boxes of virtual “medals” that can be clicked over like a trophy box. It’s incredibly functional and really gives a way to track your character’s involvement in the guild as a “career”.

6) What type of player are you looking for? And what makes your guild a better choice for a player than any other RP guild?

We’re looking for players who have a specific and strong talent or are
otherwise very intelligent and resourceful. The talents we need range from skill in PVP, skill with words and persuasion, skill with command, or even skill with graphic design.

If a player is looking for a place to role-play, (or even if they are not), Wessex is the best choice possible, because the size and organization can provide you with a realistic backdrop – a complete society to weave your story in, with archers, footmen, heralds, crafters, horsemen, assassins, rangers, and peasants.

That’s just not possible in a small RP guild with 20 players, 10 of which are knights, 9 of which are nobles, and 1 of which is a king.

7) How large is Duchy of Wessex member base? Are you expecting to grow and if so how large are you expecting to grow?

Wessex currently have around 110 active members, and we expect it to grow as we occupy land in the game. Wessex’s feudal system allows us to handle slightly more numbers without sacrificing efficiency.

8) How would one apply to your guild?

On our flash website, www.duchyofwessex.org, best viewed at 1024 x 768, we have a button for an application in the lower left hand side.

9) Do you have any alliances or enemies yet? If a guild was looking to Ally with your guild what would be the requirements and where could they contact you at?

We are hoping to remain neutral with most Mercian guilds. If there are other Mercian guilds or perhaps even Mirdain or Dwarven guilds who would like to contact us, we always receive emissaries in our topmost forum in our forums.

10) Please make any additional comments you would like now:

If you’ve ever wanted MMO gaming to make you feel like you were taking part in a great historical novel or an epic war movie, Wessex is the clan for you. Watch for a Wessex recruitment video to be posted on the Darkfall forums very soon!