Below you will find a writeup by the unofficial Ten Ton Hammer guild written by ZeroMerc. Please note that this guild, although holds the name "Ten Ton Hammer," is not an official Ten Ton Hammer guild nor does it have any affiliation, outside of the fact that is is comprised of many members from our community. We here at Ten Ton Hammer can not in any way influence this guild, get you invited, or otherwise. You'll need to speak with the guild themselves, located on Hydraxis, or view their forums in order to find out how to join up.

Once in a while a guild will come along that does not fit any cookie-cutter mold; a guild that goes its own way with merry disregard for the accepted practices of successful guilds.  In addition, it challenges conventional beliefs and then succeeds in not only becoming a strong, growing, viable collection of gamers at all levels of game play but also a supportive community of online friends who participate in all aspects of the game.

The Horde guild Ten Ton Hammer on the Hydraxis server is one such guild.  It was the brain child of a few members from the www.tentonhammer.com/wow forums, conceived as a place to gather in game and take a break from their “main toons” on various servers. None of the original founders expected the guild to last as a viable guild; however, the celebration of its 3rd birthday on February 2nd , 2010 will prove that even cool people can be wrong.

The guild has a flat rank structure that is almost never used in other guilds. All who join are immediately ranked up to “sledge” and, other than the Guild Council or not logging into your character for three months, that is where you remain. The Council for the guild takes a very hands-off approach to supervising the guild, and mainly serves as a point of contact for guild invites, maintaining the guild vault, and working through issues when all other options have been exhausted.  The vision that is our Code of Conduct (CoC) and Chat Etiquette (CE) is supported by all guild members to create an environment where we are polite, considerate and respectful of all others both in and out of the guild.

Along with the flat rank structure all guild members have the freedom and are, in fact, encouraged to schedule, organize and lead any kind of guild event.  These can and often do vary from social events like Nekked Races into Stormwind, PvP arena teams, and full-on 10 or 25 person raids.  The membership feels this has a huge impact on the openness of the guild and really contributes to the feeling of active participation.

As a new person in the guild one never need feel that they cannot participate or request help just because they are “teh new kid”.  Upon entering the guild and agreeing to the CoC and the CE you are granted full privileges of everything it is to be part of the guild. One's level of happiness is often directly related to their ability to get in there and either join up with a group, start their own, ask questions, answer questions and just generally be involved.

When the guild made that often scary transition and added raiding to its docket of things to do it was decided it might be a good idea to have some form of guildlines in place for participation and loot distribution.  This came about because, as those who were running heroics discovered, there were members who would give up all loot so that their fellow guidies could have it.  So, together, the members and not just the Council hammered out a framework for raiding that everyone felt would be fair and just.  As is typical for the guild, they are not your standard loot rules.  As we have progressed from being a straight casual guild to having those members who would like to see endgame content more readily it has been divided into the “Casual” and the “JackHammer” framework.  In reality the only real differences between the two is the attendance requirements.

It's said that the success of our guild is based on the fact that we were born here in the www.tentonhammer.com forums and got to know each other first before playing together.  One might say it's like any successful relationship where you get to know the person before you room together.  To this day, we still receive applicants who will find the forums first, fall in love with the community and then want to join up.  The Ten Ton Hammer guild on Hydraxis also receives a fair amount of people from their very own server who like whatwe are all about and ask to join. 

Sounds crazy, doesn't it? To have a guild that fits no accepted structure and yet has grown and prospered to around 400 members over the last 3 years without any serious drama or guild meltdowns.

Will this work for everybody?  Probably not.  Our guild accepts that not everybody will enjoy and understand everything they are doing.  It is truly nothing revolutionary; it's really just a bunch of friends from all walks of life getting together and playing a game they love.  Over the years we have acquired some of the very best in leadership to take the vision of this guild and guide it without overpowering it.  The members who stay are unique in that they can talk out issues and remain supportive no matter what is presented.

The guild membership was asked to create their own personal guild story in six words. No more. No less.  Below are some of their responses.

Ddhar (member of guild council)  - “We came, We played, We're Ten Ton Hammer.”

evilabadayos - “Did it all for the epics!”

ShadowCinder - “Ten Ton Hammer the guild that has pie”

ragingbully - “Ten Ton Hammer – the guild that has noggenfogger”

Soulreaveras - “The Four Horseman's demise, Featuring Pineapple”

Ztormy (member of guild council) - “Ten Ton Hammer – friends and family for life”

WolfchildWOW - “Ten Ton Hammer – Home of big damn heroes”