Introduction
This week I've gotten a lot of responses for our Featured Guild column, so I'd like the time to present one of the guilds who agreed to an interview. In our second guild feature, we would like to showcase CORAL, better known as The Council of Republicans and Lightsabers. CORAL is set to be a hardcore EU RP-PvP guild dedicated to the Republic and representing the light side of the force. While CORAL is new, some of their ideals have promise and I can only anticipate hearing news of their success.

CORAL
Hi deanogee, we've found your guild on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic | COMMUNITY and have taken a keen interest in your guild. Let's get started with a few basic questions to formally recognize your guild, and then move to the more in-depth stuff.

Some of us prefer to be the good guy, while others prefer to be on the darker side of things. What alignment are you looking to present this guild as?
Our guild is definitely fighting for the good guys (the Galactic Republic). Despite the temptation to do evil, the Council of Republicans and Lightsabers (CORAL) will play our way through SWTOR with a clear conscious. After all it’s what separates us from the Sith, seeking peace and beauty rather than war and rage.

Why did you choose to be Republic?
I choose the Republic as my alignment after much deliberation. What won me over were my past experiences from watching the Star War films as a kid. I always wanted to be a Jedi Knight so here’s my chance to achieve that dream.

When looking for a guild as a raw recruit, one of the things I personally look for is a guild that fits my needs in terms of play style. For example, I would prefer a guild that is flashpoint oriented, but also enjoys a lot of heavy PvP outside of scheduled raid times. How would you say your guild functions on a day to day basis in terms of this?
First of all our guild will be operating on a PVP server which I feel is important in generating healthy competition whilst playing the game. As the saying goes; to become the best you have to beat the best! Nevertheless we will aim to participate in regular questing, flash-points, raids and role-play considering our hardcore expectations (20+ hours per week) of immersing ourselves in everything SWTOR has to offer.

Some games I've played have had good RP elements, while other suffered in this department. Considering the spectacular back story and following that Star Wars has to offer, I can heavily anticipate a lot of role play servers and guilds out there. What is your guilds take on RP?
Our approach will be slightly casual towards role-play due to our fundamental aims of working towards Endgame content. However we expect once we achieve the majority of endgame content our guild would experience more role-play and dip our toes into other areas of gameplay.

All types of organizations have to have some form of branding or just a place to...well...organize. Do you have a website that we can look at? Does this website have any function other than guild recruitment?
Alongside the Guild Headquarters recently provided by the official SWTOR website, we possess an external website (The Council of Republicans and Lightsabers (CORAL)) and twitter page (Twitter). The website was planned to be used for guild organisation etc., however the recent guild headquarters update (courteously of the official website) obsoleted the need for this and currently exists solely as a recruitment page. It’s likely however once the game is released the external website will host a greater amount of guild content such as members blogs, interviews etc.

Some guilds I've seen have a rather militant structure in terms of their officers and members and how they correlate. What kind of structure does your guild have in effect? What are the terms of promotions?
I’m proud to announce our guild utilises a council system in which all members are of equal power. As far as I know our guild is the only one to my knowledge that operates by such as system which makes us very unique and attractive to players. As a consequence, all decisions regarding the CORAL are formulated collectively by the guilds members within and outside the game. Of course problems have existed in the past with other guilds using this system, but all the members of the CORAL are extremely mature, helpful and friendly so I can’t see any problems arising as of yet.

I've seen restrictions when applying to guilds, and for the most part I agree with them. When looking for recruits, do you have any restrictions such as age, availability, other games played, etc.?
I’m quite disappointed in guilds publishing plenty of restrictions particularly associated with applicant’s experience. Although it’s desirable our applicants and members have experience, it’s not essential considering applicants have other skills to fall back on such as their drive. The only restrictions the CORAL currently employ are that the applicant is; mature, speaks fluent English and is available to play in accordance with European Servers (GMT) for on average 20+ hours per week.

I would think that recruiting for a guild effectively in a game that isn't to be released for several months would be difficult. How have you been advertising for recruitment?
Without doubt it isn’t as easy as you think, especially considering the influx of guilds recently and the competition born out of it. But the guild has been managing especially well considering it was founded a few days ago. I think my experience and skills in administrating popular video gaming websites has benefitted the guild. The long wait for a release will nevertheless give us the necessary time for us to recruit quality members up to the quantity we want; of roughly 20 highly active members. Recruitment I’m sure we become much easier closer to release with new players joining the official SWTOR community and buying the game.

Guild policies vary from guild to guild. Could you enlighten us with how strict you would say your guild is and what kind of policies you have in place?
Our guild is very relaxed about polices considering our maturity and friendliness. Being a council naturally we currently have very limited policies in order to encourage freedom being part of our guild. However as more is learnt about the game particularly during release a few strict polices will no doubt be introduced voted for by a council. Obviously, I cannot speculate on the specific policies but I can imagine one being relevant to playing hours being pushed through the council.

Here at JediTank.com, we encourage guild leaders to be as strong as they can be in terms of leadership skills and offer private forums for the leaders and officers of TOR guilds to be able to discuss interpersonal issues and bounce ideas. Is this the kind of thing you'd be interested in participating in?
I would always be interested in participating in community ideas and bonding.

Guild Recap
Name: The Council of Republicans and Lightsabers (CORAL)
Members: 4 (as of March 11th 2011)
Alignment: The Galactic Republic
Roleplay: Light Role-play
PvP/PvE Orientation: PVP
Website URL: The Council of Republicans and Lightsabers (CORAL)