General
Pirate Penguins is a World of Warcraft guild located on the PvE server Cenarius. We are a small, casual raiding community currently working on Zul'Aman, though our next goal is to explore 25-penguin raid content. We are primarily based on the Pacific coast and Hawaii, so we have members online from around 7 PM to 2 AM Pacific Time.

Community
Our community consists of working professionals, in or past their late 20's, many of whom work in the tech industry. We love talking about gearing, game mechanics, why gnomes are so hot, programming, Daler Mehndi's kickass dancing, gadgets, childhood cartoons of the 80's, games, comics, fun videos from YouTube, and of course, endless discussion about why Linus is the greatest band ever.

Raiding and Progression

Though we are casual and can get silly often, we do take raids seriously. We have a few members actively rising in the arena ranks, as well as pursuing end game content. In terms of progression, the first 3 bosses in ZA are reliable kills, and Kara can be farmed for badges in 2-3 hours. A few of us have been tagging along with our friend-guilds to get a glimpse of Magtheridon, Gruul, and SSC, though we would like to do so on a larger scale and on a more regular basis. See the raiding section in our Code of Conduct, and our fearless raid leader's guide, for more about raiding with us.

Time
We prefer to have quality raid time rather than quantity, so we cap our raids at 3-4 hours. Right now, Zul'Aman raids are held on Saturday nights starting at 7 PM PDT. Kara runs are scheduled randomly for badges, and generally take around 3 hours if not less. Future large raids will probably fall on Saturday evenings.

Specs for Raiding
Our primary goal for our raiders is for them to excel at whatever role they've chosen. Be it tanking, dps, or healing, we want everyone to rock. As such, we expect some level of understanding in regards to each person's role and class, and appropriate research into gearing and spec. We are more than willing to help with both, and (on infrequent occasion) may suggest some constructive criticism to increase a player's performance.

Membership Ranks and Duties

Our guild leader rank is Quartermaster, held by Esa, and the officer rank is Scurvy Dog, held by Farmaair, Idunna, and Kras. These consist of the officer core. Jobs include making short and long term goals for the guild, organizing raids, tracking progress, maintaining the web site and vent server, and generally maintaining the guild community. Veteran rank is Peg Leg, who participate in officer discussion, help with raids, and can add members to the guild. The general full membership rank is Swashbuckler, while Parrot-lovers are our alternate characters. Bilge Rats are initiates, and the Sleepeng rank is for inactive players. Initiates and inactive players do not have permissions to interact with the guild bank. Also a point of note, the current primary Raid Leader is Farmaair, though you can also refer to him as "Cap'n".

Legal System
Rules are posted on the Code of Conduct page.

Breaking a rule will result in a warning, demotion, or removal from the guild. The exact action will vary according to the severity of the situation. Being kicked out only happens with gross misconduct or multiple warnings. At minimum two officers must agree and no single officer may disagree to remove a member from the guild.

Warnings and Disciplinary Action
We give a maximum of 3 warnings. On the third warning, the officers will hold a vote for removal from the guild. If a vote needs to be called more than once, it's an automatic kick. It is very rare for our officers to give out warnings, so take heed if they do.

MIA Policy
The guild has developed from a social arena into a raiding guild. Therefore, we have members who we may know or have met at some point come by to say hello. However, we like to keep track of our members, both to protect the guild bank as well as for sanity's sake. So if you haven't logged in for over 6 weeks, we will demote you to non-active status. If your alts have been MIA for over 3 months, we may keep your main in the guild but remove your alts. Recruited initiates who have not logged in for over 3 months will be removed. We are happy to reinstate your main or your alts if you intend to play them, so please message an officer to be promoted or added into the guild.

Personal Disputes
If you have a dispute with someone in the guild, please keep it in /tells and not in public chat or the forums. If you would like a mediator, ask an officer to join you in a separate chat channel to discuss the issue. If you have a complaint, please see below.

Complaints
We'd love to never need this section at all, however we've found from past experience it is occasionally necessary. If anyone has a complaint about a member of this guild, please send e-mail to badpenguin at piratepenguins dot org. If you have screenshots, please link or send them as evidence of the complaint, along with a description of what the person was doing.

Recruiting
We are looking for a little bit of everything for raids, though melee dps, ranged dps, and healing are what is most needed. That said, we probably wouldn't turn tanks away either.

Criteria

1. Though full epics and great skills are not required, we do expect your willingness to put thought and effort into your character--and be able to take good-natured advice. We are happy to help you gear up, and we expect you to do your part in said gearing.
2. Have a somewhat reliable schedule. We have a pretty small crew, so it's important to show up to raids regularly and on time.
3. Maturity. We're all adults in the guild and would prefer potential members to behave as such.
4. A sense of humor. We spend a lot of time hanging out in-game, and we want it to be fun time.
5. No gold buyers, gold sellers, or asshats.
6. You must abide by our Code of Conduct.

We also welcome players under level 70, or at 70 but not geared for raiding. Just understand that though we probably have alts at your level, we will probably not be as focused on them as on our main characters. In general, we do not believe in twinking, because leveling and grouping with a character is the best way to learn its class well.

Applying
First read our Code of Conduct, then send e-mail to join2008 at piratepenguins dot org with answers to the following questions. Full sentences, details, and correctly spelled words will always be more impressive than not.

1. Character name(s), class, level and server.
2. Why are you interested in joining us?
3. About you: Where you're from, what you do or like to do, what your other commitments might be, what other games you've played and liked, that sort of thing. We like to put a personality to the player, and dislike anonymity.
4. Normal play times: when are you free for groups?
5. Guild/raid history: what have your previous guild and raid experiences been?
6. Mention any members you know, from this or other allied guilds.
7. Questions you have for us.

Important point of note: If your application is accepted, you will need to provide a contact method outside the game (e-mail, IM, phone if you want, etc.). This info doesn't go past the officers, if even that. It is used for contacting you if you DC, don't show up, or corresponding about any issues that arise. We will avoid using it unless necessary, though we do need a way of asking you if we should hold your spot or move on after a DC or no show.