Guild Name: Experience Penalty
Server: Xegony
Guild Leader's Name: Parkz (Pherrous, Xatinya and Evadore are the three other Co-Leaders; however they are all inactive at this time.)

How did your guild name get chosen? EP was conceived here on Sony's The Newbie Zone forum by posters that wanted to start fresh on a new server. The name was offered up by the poster Lumpy125ca, who is better known on Xegony as Gnero or Forthan. With many of our founders being mature EQ veterans, but none of us in a hurry to level or progress through content, we thought it was fitting.

Are you the original leader of the guild? No. Our original leader was a character named Lovelia, but she wasn't comfortable with the politics involved with leading a new guild. She passed leadership to Xatinya, then deleted her character and left the server (Zebuxoruk was our original home). Xatinya then petitioned to add Pherrous, Evadore and me as Co-Leaders.

When did your guild come into existence? January 2005

Do you have a website dedicated for your guild? http://experiencepenalty.webs.io/

How many members do you have in your guild? At the moment there are over 370 on the roster. I'd estimate that right now we have about 60-70 active, full-time members. Most of us have, and regularly play, alts of all levels.

What kind of ranking system do you have? Is there much opportunity for advancement within the guild? We try above all to be a democracy. We have no limit on the number of officers in guild, or the number of leaders for that matter. Basically, if you stay active and show a good attitude and a willingness to help others, you'll end up being asked if you'd like to be promoted. We take our reputation as a mature and friendly guild very seriously, and do not hesitate to remove members that do not show those traits.

What are your current recruiting goals? As always, we take anyone of any level that is friendly and mature, but we are really on the lookout for crowd control classes, i.e. Enchanters and Bards, at this point in time.

Does your guild have a 'charter' and other rules that you abide by to help hold the team together? Yes. We have a very detailed charter posted on our website as well as a "rules of play" section that covers the things we don't condone in game.

What are some benefits that your guild offers that other guilds don't? Grouping opportunites for all levels and classes, casual gameplay at any level, and an understanding that real life outweighs our gaming time.

Does your guild exist in other games? No

What type of guild do you have, ie: family, casual raiders, hardcore raider, etc.? Casual family, with non-mandatory raiding.

What content are you currently working on in the game? Everything from Gloomingdeep to TSS. Progression-wise, we're not even in PoTime yet, and are in no hurry to get there. Over the last month we've been working on Sol Ro Tower minis, Xanamech in PoI for factory keys, PoJ trials, Slavedriver Menlo, DoN progression, and PoR mission arcs. What I really love about this guild is that you can group with five others on a Tuesday night working on PoP progression, and the next night you can choose to group with the same bunch while clearing out Unrest or tearing up a LDoN adventure on alts or in shroud form.

Is role playing an important aspect for your guild? Not really, but we do not discourage anyone from role-playing.

Can you go through some of your great battles and quests you've conquered as a guild? Taking Nagafen down with only 16 players, grossly under-geared at the time and with our highest level healer a 42 cleric, was probably the most fulfilling for me. Our first Sol Ro mini was up there too.

How often does your guild participate in these events on a weekly basis? Just recently we've begun having a non-mandatory raid every Saturday night.

What has been the best expansion for the guild? Since we have mains and alts of all levels, we use content from every expansion everyday. The biggest change to the guild brought on by expansions came from the addition of the guild hall. We love our guild hall and use it for a base of operations at all levels. Now if I could just get our members to actually take stuff out of the guild bank...

What advice might you give to people just starting out with a new guild or planning to start one? Surround yourself with like-minded people. Speak to be heard. Help when needed. Ask for help when in need. And for Karana's sake, if you need something done, do the research yourself, and point others to your findings, never expect others to lead you through your tasks.

What makes your guild unique? Attitude, effort, and respect. Never have I been around a more positive bunch of people who are willing to put in the effort and time to get what they desire while respecting others, in and out of guild. I'm sure every guild leader says it about their members, but we really have gathered some of the best people I've ever met. /salute EP!