In this weeks WildStar Guild Spotlight, I managed to chat with Awakening (previously known as Requiem) who took time out during WildStars Operations Week to answer several of my questions about their future in the game.

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Ten Ton Hammer: For anyone who has never heard of Requiem or Awakening (as you’re now known) can you tell us about your guild and how you came to be?

Awakening: Awakening is more than a guild, it's a community. We recruit the player, not the characters. We are devoted to creating a community of exceptional players who want to make Awakening a premier WildStar Guild. The main goal of Awakening is to be a top tier progression raiding guild, but we will also focus on competitive PvP with events focused on Arenas, Battlegounds, Open World PvP, and Warplots.

Awakening consists of players who have a wide range of experience in progression raiding and competitive PvP spanning several different games such as World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars The Old Republic, Aion, Conan, Guild Wars 1 and 2 and others. Many of us were originally a part of a well-respected multi-game community that was established over ten years go. We formed the WildStar division several months ago and began setting up the overall guild structure. During that time, the multi-game community began to undergo drastic changes in leadership and structure. It became evident that in order for us to focus solely on WildStar, we would have to break away and form a guild outside of that structure. Approximately five months ago we left that community and formed Requiem. Since then, we've continue to expand and we played extensively during the WildStar beta. We opened up recruitment on the official WildStar forums and began to recruit exceptional players in-game. Just recently, we have re-branded the guild from Requiem to Awakening.

Ten Ton Hammer: It sounds as though you ran into some trouble with the WildStar name reservation - what happened?

Awakening: We, along with most people, ran into a lot of trouble with the WildStar name reservation system. Aside from the delayed system launch, the majority of our members were running into the common issues everyone was experiencing. The problems ranged from the button that did nothing to the "???" response when you tried to save your character name. As the name reservation system went live, I quickly entered my character name and guild name into the system and I received the dreaded "???" response when I tried to save. After trying several times, I was able to save my character name, but our guild name was taken. The day was full of disappointment and frustration for many members, and it was extremely disappointing to lose out on our original guild name. As the day progressed, we started discussing alternative guild names and eventually we decided that Awakening was a great fit and we were able to reserve it through the name reservation system.

Ten Ton Hammer: How does the guild feel about having to change their name for WildStar? 

Awakening: At first, everyone was disappointed that we lost out on Requiem. We had invested a lot of time and effort into recruitment and we established a strong in-game presence during open beta. However, after announcing the guild name change to the guild the overwhelming consensus was that Awakening was a great for us. We are excited to move forward with a new name, in a new game. We have re-branded our recruitment threads, and look forward to building a strong presence in-game once WildStar goes live.

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Ten Ton Hammer: What’s your current impression of WildStar and how does it compete against the other MMOG’s you’ve been a part of?

Awakening: We have members who have been a part of the WildStar closed beta for quite some time, and we played extensively through the open beta period. Personally, I have had the great opportunity to see WildStar grow exponentially and I have no doubt that the developers will continue to work their magic and make WildStar a top MMO. I've played several MMO games in the past, and in terms of sheer quality at launch WildStar feels more polished and has more features than any of them. I really believe that WildStar has the potential to become one of the top MMO games ever released.

Ten Ton Hammer: What do you think WildStar’s long term prospects are and why?

Awakening: I think that WildStar's long term prospects are great. The development team at Carbine is top notch and they have achieved a level of transparency that is rare among MMO developers. WildStar has been in development for several years and it shows. They have features that other games took years to implement and completely new ones unique to WildStar. We are really excited to see where Carbine takes WildStar after launch and we look forward to being a part of that adventure.

Ten Ton Hammer: If you’ve played through some of WildStar’s raids already, how did you find them and how successful were you? If not, are raids something that interest you?

Awakening: Awakenings top goal is to become a top tier progression raiding guild in WildStar. Several members have been a part of the WildStar beta for quite some time and have experienced the raiding content. Carbine has established a high level of difficultly that we haven't seen in quite some time. Many MMO developers have begun catering raids to the needs of the casual player and we believe that it has caused many progression raiding guilds to go dormant. It used to be an accomplishment when you cleared a raid, and we believe that Carbine can return that feeling of achievement with WildStar.

Ten Ton Hammer: Does Awakening have any interest in Warplots and if not, why not?

Awakening: We are extremely interested in Warplots and the unique prospective that they bring to PvP and we fully intend on having weekly Warplot events. The general concept behind Warplots is great, and we believe that Carbine is just scratching the surface of what Warplots could be and we are excited for what the future holds.

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Ten Ton Hammer: Where end game content is concerned, how do you feel about Wildstar? Do you think Carbine have provided players with enough on launch?

Awakening: We believe that Carbine is focused on providing a solid end game experience for all players. We are extremely excited to experience both end game raids, the Genetic Archives and the Datascape. We feel that they are bringing back the pinnacle of PvE achievement with the 40 man raid group required to clear the Datascape. As long as everything functions as intended, we believe there will be plenty of end game content available to keep even the most active player satisfied.

Ten Ton Hammer: How are you preparing for the WildStar launch and are you actively recruiting?

Awakening: Awakening is currently recruiting exceptional individuals who are interested in Progression Raiding and/or Competitive PvP. If anyone is interested in joining or if they would like more information, we would invite them to visit our guild website at www.wildstar-guild.com. 

Ten Ton Hammer: Lastly, what makes Awakening unique and why should people seek out your guild?

Awakening: As we mentioned previously, we recruit the person and not the character. We have an application process followed by an informal interview in order for us to get to know the person behind the application. We are focused on bringing in exceptional players who are like minded. We are a progression raiding guild that intends on clearing end game content consistently, but we are not pushing unrealistic schedules on our members. The main reason people play a game is to have fun, and we want to maintain that type of atmosphere within Awakening. I have been a part of "hardcore" raiding guilds in the past that have implemented over zealous schedules and strict requirements that literally turned the game into a job. We believe we can achieve the same results, while maintaining the enjoyment of the game.

Ten Ton Hammer would like to thank Awakening for taking part in this WildStar Guild Spotlight. You can find all their contact details below:

• Official Website: www.WildStar-Guild.com
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/WildStarGuild
• YouTube: www.YouTube.com/WildStarGuild