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re your guide

silken — Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:26 am

Author: silken

Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:26 am

I think you did a good job on your guide. In my case I became a GM without having the advantage of a guide to refer to for help but I can certainly see a lot of what I've had to deal with in what you're saying and luckily I think I made pretty good decisions for the most part on my own. However I wish I had had something like this to start with.

silken

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

cow194234 — Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:18 pm

Author: cow194234

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 3:18 pm

Guilds can be a tricky thing to run, it's a lot more easier to just be involved and go with the flow then trying to not only organize raids, but organize your members to do much of anything.

Luckily for me, my guild has a core of about 10 people who are all real life friends or knows someone who knows another person in real life. This makes the new 10 man content easy to plow through, but when it comes to 25 mans, we still suffer from what we suffered from in B.C. Just not being able to find good world of warcraft players who want to raid, and can understand to stay out of the fire.

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

Rollie — Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:28 am

Author: Rollie

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:28 am

Not a problem at all!

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

judgethor — Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:33 pm

Author: judgethor

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:33 pm

Very good article. Ive been running Team Judge with my wife Nephratari for some time now.

And you touched on alot of good things.

We are very upfront with folks that we are laid back, play for fun, and raid casually. That way they know we arent uber elite about anything we do..

As a general rule of thumb we get some great folks added to the guild, but it takes 20 to get 4, ya know... But we have a ton of fun in ventrilo and on the forums.

I allow all levels and classes in, and give everyone a chance. The bank ninjas find their way out quickly, because they dont have immediate access. The folks that are just hoping our 80's will powerlevel them all the time, also go bye bye quickly. So then we are left with some good solid folks that are fun to game with.

Again good article. Would you be adverse to that being reprinted on my site, with created given to you and link back to your site?

http://www.judgeguild.com

Lemme know.

Thor

Cliches

Aquaris — Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:20 am

Author: Aquaris

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:20 am

I obsoletely agree with you Rollie, and that is how my guild Keystone Masons, on Blade's Edge server is run. We are a casual guild that put respect beyond everything else. I do everything you have said, so I must be doing something right considering I created our guild system just from experience and problems in the past. At our max we have had over 400 toons, and just recently decided to start kicking inactive toons, but also have a forum for players to post if they are gonna be gone, to keep from either being demoted or kicked out for inactivity.

Not to long ago, there was a big exodus from our guild, and was a deeply embedded conspiracy, that had about maybe 1/3 of the active players leave. It was for the reason of not having enough transparency in the guild, and many were despoilers behind my back even though my door was always open for suggestions, complaints and problems, and I was quick to address all of them. It comes down to that this group behind the scenes formed their own cliche, and started excluding other players in the guild. I saw it coming, but was afraid to say or do anything, that I might be seen as over controlling. So I did nothing. It seemed the main person who instigated this waited for the right time to leave so she could have a bunch of other players and officers leave with her and start her own guild, without doing all the hard work of doing it from scratch. It is one thing for a member to be unhappy and wants to leave, and I always ask for them to talk to me, to not burn their bridges and remain allied friends for pugging. We have had people leave, and that is ok, that is their choice. But for someone to so selfishly, and meanly take almost half the guild with her, is just downright evil.

Due this big problem, some rules were changed, such as there will be no private conversations in Ventrilo, unless there is an officer in that room doing official guild business, and I am to be advised of all those conversations, because it is guild business and I need to know. Also people are only allowed to be in other rooms if they are currently questing, doing an instance, or raid, and once they are done, they have to come back up to general chat room, so as not to exclude anyone.

This had happened before with many people having private conversations leaving other people out, and would become quiet if someone they did not want in to hear what they were talking about. Out of respect I would not go into the rooms. Now I put in the rules that Officers are allowed to at any time without permission to visit rooms to check up, without being a disturbance if they are doing questing, an instance or raiding. So far it has worked well.

It is a hard thing being a GM of a large guild, and many times it seems people either hate you or love you. I take all the blame for what the guild and Officers decide, and have to be the bad guy and enforce these rules. Many times I am reluctant to be a GM because as they say, it can be lonely at the top and not all that fun. I did it, cause I have been in other guilds, and that was just so much nonsense going on, that I felt forced in forming my own guild, and keep all the kiddie stuff out, the swearing, sexual harassment, etc. I felt at the time, if it needed to be done right I had to do it, so I did. We have a clean guild, no swearing period, and put respect as our number one rule that all other rules go under.

If you have any advice on my hurt feelings specially of that mass exodus and how they have gone out of their way to put our guild down and its members, how is the best way to handle it. I ignore them, and tell my guildies to ignore them, but some of them they harass, and some of those have left our guild thinking I was a bad GM because of disgruntled ex-members, or they said. "I have nothing against you, but I do not want to be harassed anymore just for being in this guild."

This is a lot longer than I planned on writing and was supposed to be just on cliches lol. And I know, and make sure that our members go out of their way to quest, help, do instances with everyone, wether they are a friend or not.

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

Babs — Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:33 pm

Author: Babs

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:33 pm

I could make my siggy as my avatar too

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

Kibazu — Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:26 am

Author: Kibazu

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 8:26 am

chunk6969, nerf your avatar please. It's abusively wide

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

chunk6969 — Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:37 am

Author: chunk6969

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:37 am

looks pretty good to me

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

oiseaux — Sun Sep 17, 2006 1:13 am

Author: oiseaux

Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2006 1:13 am

Oh don't get me wrong. I invite people's friends and stuff into the guild, but giving them all a lot of power in the guild is usually not a good thing. If 1 gets upset then you have lost some of your most valuable people (perhaps even officers) in the guild. I have also seen some people's friends not in line with the guilds attitude. They just join the guild "Because so and so is here and I am his friend". Bringing in people who don't even know or understand what the guild is about is bad. Then if you bring attention to the fact that his friend is causing trouble or whatnot, you have now lost 2 members and not just 1. Do you see where I am getting at?

The guild I was just in would invite ANYone and EVERYone despite their past, which is horrible horrible. Someone would 'sponsor' them in saying that they knew them, but that was never the case. There would be about 10-15 new people in a few days. UGH...I hate guilds that do that.

Friends can really add to a guild, but they can also drag one down too especially if they are in a clique. Just have to pick and choose who you invite.

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

xpolockx — Sat Sep 16, 2006 3:55 pm

Author: xpolockx

Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 3:55 pm

In order for a guild to work well it takes a LOT of dedication out of the officer team. There's nothing wrong with having RL friends and family in the guild as long as everyone respects the opinions of each other when disagreements happen. My guild recently had 5-6 members of our raiding team leave because they were all RL friends and it was sad, but we just filled their spots and moved on (good thing about having a large guild, haha.) I can see how that would be pretty devastating to a small core guild though. I wouldn't say don't invite RL friends though, as I wouldn't play this game without them. It's what keeps me playing.

It's true that it can definitely cause a LOT of unneeded stress when people play favorites - hence why that dkp/loot system has to be set in stone when you start, with more than just one person in charge of the dkp so if anything looks fishy someone will notice. With only one person in charge of the loot system and no one watching him/her, it's sort of like being the banker in monopoly - a lot of temptation to cheat or be bribed and no one really watching you. Not to say that all loot masters or dkp recorders are corrupt, just that it is prudent to be careful. A lot of it comes down to the GM and officer team; if the core of the guild is solid, the rest will fall in line.

It's also good to have a guild charter that states exactly what the guild is about, including all rules and raid/loot policies. This charter of course is not easily changed. My guild requires all applicants to read and sign the guild rules - breaking the rules is grounds for dismissal from the guild (not that we have an itchy /gkick trigger finger, except when it comes to ninja looting... but it's so they cant use the excuse "well I didn't know.")

Raiding is what makes or breaks most guilds, and in most cases it's ultimately what breaks them. It can be a stressful activity, trying to coordinate 40+ people in a fair way. I've said it before - if you can raid with people that you trust who are out for the good of the guild and not just how much epic loot they can get, you'll have a much better time raiding, and it can be fun and exhilarating when you get bosses down for the first time. On the other hand, if everyone is just out to get all the loot first, raiding will be miserable.

On a totally different note, I just realized I'm past 100 posts too. Weird, I didn't even notice

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

Skyfire — Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:40 pm

Author: Skyfire

Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:40 pm

Lern2troll.

That is all.

And he passes Hybuir for 2nd all-time poster! Down with the impostor!

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

oiseaux — Fri Sep 15, 2006 10:56 pm

Author: oiseaux

Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 10:56 pm

I just started my own guild with my husband after being in several guilds over a few characters. All of the things in your article are great. I decided to start my own guild because I have not been in a guild that can figure out how to run a guild properly. haha

At this point, my guild is tiny and only have a handful of people who play actively. I think most guild leaders and officers need to understand and acknowledge what they want out of the guild. SOOO many times I have been in a guild where they 'say' they want one thing, but then end up doing another completely different. That is a very bad weakness where they cannot even stick to their word or are swayed by 1-2 members. Changing the direction of a guild is fine, but it should not be without the consent of the majority or even 80% of the guild members agreeing.

Having a guild full of real life friends is also a cause for concern. If one of the real life friends get upset and leave, you can almost guarantee all of the friends will leave the guild. I have seen this in every guild I have been in. Sure it is great to invite people's friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc but most of those group applications tend to cause drama in the end. Having more than 1 or 2 real life friends as officers also causes problems. This gives the friends a lot of power in the guild and can cause favoritism. If you join a guild where all of your officers are real life friends, WATCH OUT. This is a situation you should just stand clear from in my experience.

If your guild is going to do raiding, state that in the beginning. DO NOT pretend that you aren't a raiding guild if in the end that is what you want. Once again, I have been in guilds who state over and over that "we aren't a raiding guild". haha Then a few epics drop and they begin raiding 6 days a week and wonder why members are leaving and morale is low. Set up a DKP, loot system at the beginning. Don't even step foot into MC without one because that way people know what to expect and understand the commitment in order to get an epic.

That's just a little bit of a rant from me haha. Can you tell I have been in some really horrible guilds....

EDIT: I broke 100 posts! WOO. (That is truly an accomplishment for me-I guess I am a mini-troll)

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

Rollie — Fri Sep 15, 2006 1:40 pm

Author: Rollie

Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 1:40 pm

In my particular circumstance, raid leaders were nearly always officers. Officers have pulled double duty as CL's from time to time, but it is encouraged that CL's be separate from officers. Also, for larger classes, it is not uncommon to have 2 CL's instead of only 1.

As for typical number of officers, usually between 5 - 8 active players, active being very important for that position.

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

Bomani — Fri Sep 15, 2006 1:05 pm

Author: Bomani

Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 1:05 pm

Thnx Rollie. "Mid-size" was referring to 80-100 active members.

Curious, in regards to WoW, there'd be 8 class leaders. How many officers typically? Do the officers do "double duty" as class leaders (where needed) and raid leaders? Does your raid leader corp come from Officer ranks, the Class leaders, is seperate from both or a combination of both?

Thank you again for commenting.

Re: How to Run a Successful Guild

Rollie — Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:57 am

Author: Rollie

Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:57 am

I guess the question is, what do you mean by mid-size? It's a relative term that could mean totally different things depending on who you talk to.

In my experiences, I have been most happy with a figurehead guild leader, an elected council of officers who actually run things, appointed (by the officers) class leaders who help with inter class issues and who are first point of contact for typical issues fielded. They then can also escalate things to the officers as needed.

That has been the set up in a fairly smooth running guild that I've been a part of for going on 6 years now. Guild size is typically around 100 active members.