Be Excellent To Each Other

Men of Science [MoS] Community Guidelines

We don’t ask for much: don’t be a dick, and you’re most of the way there.

Being excellent to each other means treating each other with basic dignity and respect, even when you’re in disagreement. It means taking the time to listen to each other, and to provide meaningful and relevant feedback or criticism without causing insult. It means being capable of accepting that feedback or criticism without offense. It means treating each other like family, and understanding that something that doesn’t mean a whole lot to you might mean the world to someone else.

Basically, being excellent to each other means having a little bit of basic human empathy.

With that in mind, we have a few specific guidelines that we’d like you to follow while using our site and while participating in our guild. In addition to the general “be excellent” approach to guild stewardship, these are a few of the tenants that we consider to be our core values.

• Let it go:

  It doesn’t matter if it’s an argument between peers or an opponent singling you out: let it go. Don’t get hung up on the little things. It’s totally okay to admit that you’ll never agree with someone’s point of view, or that you’ll never convince them of your own. Don’t let a difference of opinion get in the way of your friendship or your ability to enjoy each other’s company. In the same vein, don’t allow an opponent in-game to get the best of you. If you find yourself consistently ganked, outdone, or otherwise harassed by a single opponent, then just let it go. You don’t have to be the ultimate victor every time — it’s a toxic mindset to trap yourself into. Just let it go, and resolve to turn the tables on them with some practice, or even reach out to them for pointers.

• Don’t be selfish:

  If you do a good job of making friends and forging alliances with other players, and if you follow the rest of our guidelines, then for the most part you’ll never need to ask for anything. People will want to help you because they like you, and in turn you’ll want to help them because you like them. Be willing to share with your friends and allies without being asked to do so, and be willing to accept no as an answer if you aren’t able to find someone to help you out. Whether it’s in-game goods and currency, real world time and companionship, or simply answers or conversation here on our site, remember to share and to be flexible on both sides of a request.

• Don’t cheat:

  Utilizing anything that would give you an unfair advantage over other players, whether it is an in-game exploit or a full blown hacking software, is what we’d consider cheating. It’s not cool to cheat, and usually robs your successes of any feeling of achievement or meaningfulness. We want our guild and our community to play it straight and to play it fair, and to call out those who admit to using or who create such cheats. If you find an exploit either here on our site or in-game, please report it, privately, to either a guild officer (if it’s on our site) or to ArenaNet directly (if it’s in-game).

• Be loyal:

  When it comes to competitive play, it’s important to keep it fair and honest. If you have information about what other guilds might be strategizing, we don’t want to hear about it. Likewise, we expect you not to share information about what we’re up to with other guilds. When loyalties waver and the espionage game takes root, much of the joy of an experience is replaced by tedium and toxicity. It’s much more fun knowing that you had a plan that worked because you studied the opposition fairly and practiced accordingly, than it is knowing that your plan worked because someone gave you a head’s up. Remember that we play games to unwind and to enjoy ourselves, and not to unfairly ruin someone’s day. Keep it fair, keep it loyal.

• Represent us well:

  When you put on our badge and wear our colors, and when your name is appended by our letters, you’re representing us and our values. Guild representation isn’t just a checkbox on an in-game interface — it’s a statement that you’re one of us, and that you are who we are. While representing Men of Science [MoS] both in-game and online, we expect you to remember these values. Most importantly, we expect you to be excellent to others as often as possible. Represent us well and often, and with time people will want to associate with you because of our name alone.

We want you to feel like you’re a part of a family here, and that Men of Science [MoS] is your home-away-from-home. We don’t know what your current home is like, but we do know what we want our home to be like. If you can abide by our simple guidelines, then you’re welcome in our home and in our family. It’s as simple as that.