Sound Familiar?

I was just reading this post on swtor.com. Does any of this sound slightly familiar to you?:

"Background:
SOURCE: Sith Operatives Utilizing Reconnaissance & Covert Espionage, is an organization sanctioned by the Dark Council as a splinter faction of Imperial Intelligence. SOURCE was founded by Sai’nhil Ghent, the leader of the now disbanded Jen’Hassari. As the peace between the Sith Empire and The Republic crumbles beneath them, Agents of SOURCE work tirelessly to gather intel, sabotage, and disrupt the affairs of The Republic, playing a vital role in determining a Sith victory."

Seriously this has annoyed me a bit. There doesn't seem to be any creativity whatsover in the TOR community (aside from a few). People seem to just go around and steal other peoples ideas.

Many people have no fantasy when write background story

Still I suppose if you come up with a unique idea that seems to be working then you've got to expect this kinda thing I guess. I'm just shocked at the lack of imagination people have and more to the fact that they feel the need to plagiarize someone elses ideas to make up for it.

Grrr.

I can see the similarities but apart from their being Sith and wanting to cap at 20 members, I don't really see the 'plagiarism' myself, unless they saw our use of 'Agents' (which we can hardly lay claim to inventing the concept). To me they read more like a secret police or black ops outfit "our PVP or PVE events, called Missions or Ops" and have non of the mafia type elements which are the core of E.P.O.C.H.

With the Sith being underhanded and all that, I don't think we'll be seeing many Sith guilds who aren't secret organisations. It's logical that there'll be many more guilds out there with similar idea to ours.

Again though I don't really see this guild as much of a crime guild as I do a secret service guild. Ok, we have elements of crime but thats just the backstory of how the Agency came to be. I find the way they're calling themselves Agents/Operatives, they deal in covert operations/espionage all a bit too familiar if you ask me. It's almost like they've taken an idea but put a "Sith" spin on everything. I've got no problem with the whole secret organisation thing whatsover but I do feel we have something original here and when I see guilds pop up with a VERY similar theme it does make you wonder.

Ah, I see. Sorry, I thought we were an organised crime guild. See where you're coming from now.

Well if you have a good idea, its not often long before someone else jumps on the bandwagon and tries to copy it.

We're the original, we're the best. I have a blaster and a lightsaber willing to uphold that fact with any guild who wishes to test the theory.

I have to be honest here, I see little resemblance (after reading the main post). There are only a few points that make us similar:
1) Their name is an acronym, but we can't be expected to be the old guild with one
2) They gather intel and sabotage. But plenty of other guilds do this and SOURCE does it against the Republic, not for themselves.
3) They are shady, but as Redwatch said, many Sith guilds are and this doesn't have to correlate to a gang.
4) Missions or Ops. This isn't an original idea by far. The GTC do this and I'm sure many other guilds do as well, especially military ones.
5) 20 active members thing. This is by far the closest thing to us. I've never seen another guild with the idea, but it can just be coincidence.

Here are the points that made us different:
1) They are purely Sith, were as our backstory suggests that we are neutral in the conflict and have allies and clients from both factions.
2) They are Imperial Intelligence, we are a money-making gang of warriors, smugglers, etc. Completely different and we have alligence to no-one.
3) Serve a greater power than themselves - the Emperor. We obey the Falleen who is very much in the guild.
4) They go for Casual to Hardcore RP but we're mainly Hardcore (with some Medium).
5) They want a Sith victory. We want the war to continue to get more money!

Harlequin2 wrote:

5) They want a Sith victory. We want the war to continue to get more money!

Amen to that, Agent Skursir!

Sureshot wrote:

Again though I don't really see this guild as much of a crime guild as I do a secret service guild. Ok, we have elements of crime but thats just the backstory of how the Agency came to be. I find the way they're calling themselves Agents/Operatives, they deal in covert operations/espionage all a bit too familiar if you ask me. It's almost like they've taken an idea but put a "Sith" spin on everything. I've got no problem with the whole secret organisation thing whatsover but I do feel we have something original here and when I see guilds pop up with a VERY similar theme it does make you wonder.

Well, in a pure sense, a secret service guild that invites assasinations and other different plots does make it illegal operations thusly forming it into a crime guild, it depends on how you look on it but otherwise you're very much correct

See I see it like this Harly:

1.) They're using pretty much the same rank titles (Agents/Operatives).

2.) They used an acronym yeah but typing out "Agents of SOURCE" in a recruitment thread is a bit close to home.

3.) They're a secretive covert group of "Agents" that specialize in espionage. Too similar that.

4.) They're coming from an already disbanded guild which to me normally suggests that they don't have the staying power or originality to keep people interested.

5.) 20 active members limit (even though we shall be taking it up to 30). Why that number exactly? Bit of an odd number methinks considering thats what we've already mentioned.

6.) Casual to Hardcore also says to me that they don't really know what they're doing. Casual and Hardcore RP are worlds apart IMO.

I dunno to me it stinks of unprofessional and unoriginal. Personally when I started this guild it was a place for Bounty Hunters but since then we've developed and we're definitely the first guild to adapt to whole "Secret Service" idea. What I'm worried about is that we may have started a trend and I don't want the copycat guilds appearing on the same server as us 'cause it could cause us problems in the future. If it was rival Republic one with similar ideas I wouldn't be bothered because that could give us some competition.

Lunarwolf is right though, we're the original and the best and I think we've already made our statement known way before anyone else in this field.

Charada wrote:

Well, in a pure sense, a secret service guild that invites assasinations and other different plots does make it illegal operations thusly forming it into a crime guild, it depends on how you look on it but otherwise you're very much correct

True but as we'll be working pretty much exclusively for the Sith (& i'm assuming their evil government), would that be considered crime? Something tells me the Sith would have a different thoughts on the matter to that of the Republic, who I agree would consider us criminals.

So yeah, I suppose it's just about looking at it from different perspectives.

Sureshot wrote:

Lunarwolf is right though, we're the original and the best and I think we've already made our statement known way before anyone else in this field.

Very true. If anyone's that bothered about which guild came first they can always be pointed in the direction of our swtor thread which is dated before this and any other new one. And like you guys say; we're the best. Our quality outstrips the competition!

Sureshot wrote:

we'll be working pretty much exclusively for the Sith

If this is now the case then we need to ammend the "About Our Guild" Guild FAQ:

Guild FAQ wrote:

as it stands the guild will be a small and secretive agency, comprised of an elite group of Bounty Hunters, Assassins, Mercenaries and Spies that make their living from contract killings,, fugitive retrievel, espionage and protection for anyone that require their services.

Harewood wrote:

If this is now the case then we need to ammend the "About Our Guild" Guild FAQ:

Guild FAQ wrote:

as it stands the guild will be a small and secretive agency, comprised of an elite group of Bounty Hunters, Assassins, Mercenaries and Spies that make their living from contract killings,, fugitive retrievel, espionage and protection for anyone that require their services.

Aye maybe that'll need changing closer to the time. I don't want to go too much into that though without knowing what kinds of missions we'll be getting. For all I know there may well have the opportunity to play quests/missions where we'll have the chance to work for the Republic as well. It's doubtful but you never can tell with the 4th. Pillar! (Sorry L-Dubz). lol!

Does that mean that our relationship with the Praxeum is void if we're not going to be able to do Republic missions?

Harlequin2 wrote:

Does that mean that our relationship with the Praxeum is void if we're not going to be able to do Republic missions?

Nah, like HoD they'll probably just become allied enemies if you see what I mean?

So we collaborate with them so they can make staged assaults/traps on us (or visa versa). And why are the HoD allied enemies? They're Sith aren't they so they're potential customers...

Harlequin2 wrote:

So we collaborate with them so they can make staged assaults/traps on us (or visa versa). And why are the HoD allied enemies? They're Sith aren't they so they're potential customers...

Sorry I can see how that must've sounded mate. What I meant was the HofD and The Praxeum are 'allies' but purely for the fact that they're bitter rivals and yeah it's so we can co-ordinate large scale PvP battles and RP storylines. I think The Praxeum probably have a member base thats probably 2 or 3 times the size of ours and at a guess I'd say they have more members than the HofD, so if we come in as hired guns for the HofD then it should turn out nicely. From what I gather HofD don't have many Bounty Hunters at all either whilst the majority of people in this guild ARE Bounty Hunters. We 'should' compliment each other quite nicely seeing as they're nearly ALL Sith Warriors.

So you're saying that we'll be like the Imperium's Assassins to the Space Marines? (yeah, I read up on the fluff!)

Harlequin2 wrote:

So you're saying that we'll be like the Imperium's Assassins to the Space Marines? (yeah, I read up on the fluff!)

Haha something like that! I'd really quite like for us to become the hired guns for the HofD and have them as our permanent clients. If you think about it at the minute we're a bit low on Sith Warriors, with the exception of L-Dubz of course. I'm going to be a bit presumptious now and say that now we're Sith Nex might be changing to that class as we're not allowing any Republic classes. I could be wrong though. Either way we're limiting how many Sith we have in the guild so HofD might come in handy.

Sureshot wrote:

I'd really quite like for us to become the hired guns for the HofD and have them as our permanent clients.

HoD already has it's own military arm and plenty of Bounty Hunters in the ranks. I can't see them needing to out-source much...

Harewood wrote:

Sureshot wrote:

I'd really quite like for us to become the hired guns for the HofD and have them as our permanent clients.

HoD already has it's own military arm and plenty of Bounty Hunters in the ranks. I can't see them needing to out-source much...

Really?? How come they were asking for more Bounty Hunters to apply not long ago then?

Outsourcing for the HoD could be helpful for several reasons:
1) It saves them time having to recruit their own bounty hunters and going through all the training with them.
2) They may not want to leave their mark on an operation. Seeing an HoD player attack you is obvious, but you won't know who sent the EPOCH player.
3) We may well do things that their own branch will not do, for instance, some assassinations will be deemed too daring to risk their own troops so will call in us.
4) Their own bounty hunters may be away and/or offline, so having us will give them a much greater chance of having constant bounty hunter support.
5) Since we are specialised in Bounty Hunters and Spies, we will most probably be a lot better at completing tasks for those classes than the HoD who spread out a lot more.
6) RP-wise, it would simply be cooler to have another guild to interact with and have joint-RPs with, especially bringing in new and exotic characters into the mix.

So while trying to be self-sufficient is good, your can see by the above points that there are definately reasons to out-source...

I agree with all of the above points. We'd both get what we want this way.