Hello! Thanks for spending the time to interview with me today. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers who may be unfamiliar with you?

My name is Zeroden, I'm the founding member of the Kinsworn Hunters, and the Guild Master. I am also a content creator, and a pearl abyss partner. You can find me on Twitch as ZerodenHunter, or search youtube or tiktok for Zeroden and I'll come up. I am a loyal warrior main, and play Awakened Warrior exclusively. I'm a first generation American of Lebanese descent, proudly serving in the Active Duty Military. I'm a husband to Krisydra, who is also a content creator in BDO, and together we have two children. I am a PvP enjoyer, and am a firm believer that Buffalo sauce is the greatest culinary contribution to mankind since the creation of bread.

My name is Cassfere. I've been a Hunter for almost 5 years and I'm the second in command of the Kinsworn Hunters. I'm Zeroden's right hand and best friend. I am a content creator on Twitch under Cassferehunter, and I was the second place finalist for the Sorceress best in class in 2025. I am a loyal Sorceress main, but i have played many classes and love to PvP. I am a proud Black and Filipino gamer girl that loves music. I'm currently engaged to Mazestus, with our wedding planned only a few months away!

True MMO veterans! Tell us a bit about your guild and what the guild’s core values are. What's the moment you realized your guild had actually become something real and not just another group that would fall apart in a few months?

▲ Members of Kinsworn Hunters wearing their signature red uniforms.

I founded the Kinsworn Hunters on another game. It had an online component, and it was dominated by clans. I was pretty young and didn't know much about the internet, or what guilds or clans were, but the concept and idea of it fascinated me. 

I decided to start up my own clan, and created a unique theme around that clan. Though we  have been consistent with our theming, and have thematically stuck to the roots of where the Hunters came from, which was the universe of that game, we have evolved over time. We've adapted our theming into unique lore and used that root the traditions which our guild follows today.

I knew that the guild became something real to me when I moved overseas for the first time. I left everyone I had ever known in my home town, and moved to a country where english was not common. I had to learn a new culture, and find a new way of life. It was very jarring for a kid!

The first time I logged onto my computer after the move, I went to my guild's website and immediately felt a sense of a peace. I was feeling really sad about the move, but my guildmates were there for me, to cheer me up and support me. To push me, and us, forward. I discovered in short order that what I had actually built was a home, decentralized from a phyical location. Somewhere I could get to from anywhere, and see the friends I've made and share experiences with them from anywhere.

The guild's core values are built on Loyalty, Respect, Honesty, Love, and Camaraderie. 

Do you think those values work in the context of Black Desert when you started the guild, and do you find them easy to adhere to now?

Loyalty: that easy. We don’t guild hop or merc out usually. We support each other in all respects.

Trustworthiness: We don’t take guild conversations out of guild, this includes things about us as humans and our lives outside the game.

Camaraderie: We back each other up, whether it’s PvP or otherwise. We run activities together, and engage in more than just in-game events on BDO, but we play side games together and do real life ones as well. 

Respect: We all respect each other, even during arguments. The intent is always to understand the other person's perspective, and discuss ideas intelligently.

Love: We are all like family here. I know a lot of people say that, but when you've seen the love and support members of this guild provide one another, it's very difficult to put into words. It would take hours.

Interesting. I'll circle back to that in a few with a different question!

So... walk us through a typical day in the life of leadership at Kinsworn Hunters.

As the second in leadership things are usually pretty chill on a typical day. A member may have questions about a ingame mechanic for a boss, or i'm providing gear advice to Hunters who are working on their gear. Socially i'm normally chatting up a storm either ingame or in Discord, responding to DMs and handling various issues that may come up. Our guys depend on us, and I do my best to be there for them when they need me. If it is something that is out of my wheelhouse than that issue is brought to Zeroden's attention. There are days when things are not so chill. That's when my full scope of responsibility may come into play. I have to be the listening ear for a members issues, a mediator when members have interpersonal strife, correct someone when they are violating a rule or just plain misinforming each other, and interview any new recruits that are interested in joining.

I usually handle the largest issues. Guild structure, crash-outs, real life or personal emergencies. Generally I focus on the direction of the guild. Mazestus does a fantastic job of helping our guys with their day-to-day stresses, and Cassfere checks in on members regarding all sorts of things. We keep up with our guys like a real leader should. We treat them as humans, not players on a game. Outside of that, if they violate the rules, we correct it. If they refuse correction, we just have to dismiss them. That's pretty rare, though. 

A lot of guilds collapse when officers burn out or the GM steps away. From a leadership perspective, what keeps you bonded and going for so long despite the challenges of running a guild?

In the event that Zeroden steps away (for travel, for example), Mazestus and I step in to manage things while he is gone. If all three of us are gone, then this responsibility falls to the next in command, our Xelors (Sort of like junior officers). We have had officers burn out and step down before. It sucks, but we take care of each other. When this happens, Zeroden will cover down until their position is filled with another qualified member ready to handle that role, or we will cover more responsibilities to help share the weight of leadership. 

The position remains vacant until a qualified person is fully trained. This is to ensure that there is no disruption in how the guild runs, and to manage the expectations of our members. We do not rush to promote anyone based on need alone. The guild has thrived for 28 years. There has been situations maybe once or twice where all of our officers had to step away, and when that happened Zeroden has covered down for the entire roster.

There have been many leadership teams over the years, and many of them are still members of the guild. We work together. That's what makes it a team.

Circling back to your values, describe your ideal recruit. Have you found it difficult to find players who embody what you believe in?

To me, the ideal recruit is someone that demonstrates that they not only wish to be a part of the guild on BDO, but that they wish to be a part of the Hunters as a whole. We want people who want to be part of a community, not just players on a video game. When we recruit somebody, we aren't just recruiting a character in a game, we are recruiting the player behind that character and extending an invitation to them to join our family. In that sense, gearscore and skill are largely irrelevant; these are all things that can be gained or taught over time. What is far more important is the content of their character.. Someone who is loyal, trustworthy, and enjoyable to be around. Their presence alone adds to the guild as a whole.

As far as finding players who embody what we believe in, we make our expectations very clear from the get go. Our Riot phase does wonders for weeding out those who may not be a good fit and with no hard feelings. But we have managed to find quite a few who do fit in and each one of those is a valued member of the family.

As for how difficult it is to find these players....this is an interesting question, because we operate very differently than any other guild I know of in Black Desert Online.

We do not openly recruit. We genuinely don't have to. If we project who we are, and what we stand for, the people who want that sort of environment will just come to us. We put them through the trial phase, and if they make it to the other side, then the effort was well spent. If they don't pass the trial phase, there's no hard feelings. I'd rather preserve that energy into something positive for the next guy. 

So if a player wanted to join, it's more of a process than just sending a basic whisper?

Definitely. Our process is pretty involved. 

When someone first reaches out with the intent to join, we go over what we call the "big three", which are the three biggest rules we think will scare away a recruit. Our job is not to convince them to apply. It's to convince them why they shouldn't. If we fail to scare them away, then the first real step to joining the Hunters is applying on our website.

Let's say I'm the next Hunter in BDO. What does my first month look like? How quickly am I integrated into the fold?

This is the kicker, how quickly a new Hunter (or Riot as we call them) is integrated into the fold is almost entirely up to them. Our Riot-phase is designed to give these new Hunters a chance to get to know us while we get to know them. For quieter types that have a lot of obligations that keep their activity low, it may take time to get fully integrated. For those that dive in head first and really take the time to connect, it can feel like they've been with us all along within weeks. In the Hunters, what you put into the guild is what you get out of it. For most Riots, that first month is really spent getting to know everyone, perhaps joining a Boss Rush group and slowly coming out of their shell.

How do you handle the person who's been with you forever but has clearly checked out and is just logging in out of obligation?

As a guild that's been around for literally decades, this is something we deal with quite a bit. We have many long-time Hunters that haven't logged into BDO in years. The key is to reach out and to meet them where they're at. It could be changes in work or family obligations, perhaps they're just burnt out on the game. We do our best to rekindle interest and make sure that they know that the door is still open to return to activity. We've learned that chasing people down is not only frustrating, it's usually a waste of time. It also burns out officers to chase people into activity as fast as it burns the member out of it. The most effective way we've found to return inactive members to activity is to remain active ourselves, to have fun, and show them that we're doing it. Fun is infectious, if non-active Hunters see that we're having a good time and enjoying the new content, they usually want to check it out themselves.

Alright I got some lighthearted questions I'm sure other guild leaders would love to hear. What's one guild rule or decision you made that everyone hated at first but you stuck with anyway?

Pffft. All of them. Everyone hates any changes I make, and then if I wait 2 weeks and change it back they hate that too. I'm not even kidding. I've learned that the one thing my members hate more than anything else is change, EVEN IF THE CHANGE IS TO IMPROVE THEIR QUALITY OF LIFE. smh. As long as I introduce a rule and stick to it, Hunters get behind it. I think the C-word might actually be an ancient curse. The C-word being "change", not whatever four letter word you were thinking.

Change is scary haha! What's one thing you've learned about running a guild that you wish you'd known from day one?

Listen twice, speak once. When a member comes to you with a problem, they don't want to hear stories about your life, they don't want to hear about how their problem relates to something you've dealt with. They're usually not looking for answers, they're looking for someone to listen to them. More often than not, by allowing someone to speak their mind and lay out their problems without interruption, they're able to come up with a solution on their own. This one thing would have saved me hours of conflict resolution.

Honestly... actually some solid life advice. How many times have you almost quit being a guild leader, and what made you stay?

I know Z's answer and that would be "never." But for myself, several times. As a leader in a guild as closeknit as the Hunters, you really put a lot of yourself into it. You get very invested into the guild and more importantly into the Hunters in the guild.  It's a draining, thankless job and it's burnt out so many officers in the past. What's kept me here is that I love this guild and so I want to do my small part in helping it to remain healthy and growing. As an experienced officer, you learn to give of yourself, but not to give ALL of yourself, that's what leads to burnout.

Never. Haha, kidding. In truth, once. It was very early on, right after I had moved overseas. I was deeply depressed and ready to give up, but it was the Hunters then that showed me what this guild really was. The guild was young then, maybe a year or two old at best, but they showed me the depth of the relationships built here, what it meant to them, and that they needed me at the forefront. The doubts I experienced then retreated and never returned. 28 years later, those words still motivate me.

This close to submitting an application if I could 🤏 Any words to the guildless who believe Black Desert is a single player game?

It can be if you want it to be. If you want to be solo you will be, but you will be missing out on a major part of what makes Black Desert great. The community. There is so much to do together, from Boss Rushes, to dungeons, to Node Wars or just hanging out. The world of Black Desert Online is filled with players who have a vast wealth of knowledge to share with you. Don't miss out on this opportunity to make potentially life long relationships. I know I'm glad I took a chance; I met my fiancé' and the Hunters thanks to BDO.

Thank you for taking the time out to speak with me! Anything else you want to say or shout out to our readers?

Shout out our Hunters. The three of us are the ones here answering questions, but without them we wouldn't have a guild to come home to.

Kinsworn Hunters have been around for almost 3 decades, there is a very good reason for that. We are loyal to each other, and the only requirement to join is to be a good person.

Honestly, I just want to thank both you, and the BDO Community as a whole. You, for reaching out and doing this to begin with. This was a nice way to highlight folks within the community, and I really hope you guys keep doing it! The BDO Community for supporting me over the years, playing with me and with my guildmates, and just overall being great people. I know it's really easy to spotlight the negative spots of our community, but by and large there are just so many great people in this game and if you see me or the Hunters in the world, I encourage you to reach out and just say "Hello!". 

I firmly believe you can always tell the quality of a person by how they treat those that they do not have treat well. We're nice folks, and we love those positive interactions! No matter what anyone has told you about us, just be real, be cool, and be kind. We'll always reciprocate with kindness!