How to Run a Successful Guild
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Cliches
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.
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.
"Do not ask what your guild can do for you, but ask what you can do for your guild."
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
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
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.
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.
My <a href="http://www.quicklevelingguides.com">WoW Guide Reviews</a> site.
re your guide
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
silken