No matter how much you might like to, you should never allow yourself to go off and tell an officer to take their dramatic pause and go fuck themselves. Because whether you realize it or not, they're usually pretty good about absorbing your own little dramas.
So when a guy needs to flake out and take a break, you let him do it. You let him do it without bullshit, without overmuch comment beyond what you know is acceptable in your relationship, and you just ride it out. If it's the sort of officer break that's going to affect the guild, start thinking about how to adjust to it. It's about all you can do.
In the end, it's just a game. The friendships, relationships, and emotional investments are real - value those. The rest of it? Eh, whatever.
2.26.2009
2.21.2009
Surviving your own guild/Getting others to put up their own runs
There are a few things you might think about for personal ground rules. Delegation is always a big thing; you should always be willing to take another step for the guild if someone is in need, but nor should you be always shouldering every damn thing when there's others that can help.
The other thing to remember and keep in mind is that you are not everyone's personal savior. You cannot fix every damn thing that comes up, and you cannot solve everyone's issue. If it's guild related, something you had damn well better be working on anyway, then you ought, but you're not running a finishing school, either.
Case in point: I have a few guild members who are very nice people, but who will not make their own efforts to find an instance run. Nor will they frequently speak up for runs when others make them available, and then these members fret at their inability to get badges for their gear upgrades. I'm sorry, I am not willing to help this beyond a reasonable point. Personal responsibility comes in at certain points, and you cannot hold everyone's hand. If it's a novice, someone very new to the game, you ought consider a little bit of Charm School on their behalf to help them out and get them acclimated, but sooner or later that little chick's gotta fly on its own.
To these, I say: Communicate. Want to get into an instance? Pick one, start with the daily if possible and have an alternate selection. Then check the guild roster - is there a known tank on if you are not one? A healer? Either ask on /g or whisper them politely to see if they're onboard. Take note if they're already in an instance; if they're finishing, which you can ask, again politely, if they're willing to team up for another now or in a while. Prepare to suffer LFG if it's a quiet hour. All guild runs are generally optimal (you can pick your poisons and usually know the team), but sooner or later, you're gonna get a pugger. Hope for the best, have a drink handy for the worst.
Be courageous, and if someone turns you down for the run you want to do, don't take it personally. That's best for ANYTHING WOW: never take anything personally. Especially on /trade.
But for heaven's sake, move your pugs. I'm not a Russian matchmaker. No guild leader is meant to be at all times. Thank you.
The other thing to remember and keep in mind is that you are not everyone's personal savior. You cannot fix every damn thing that comes up, and you cannot solve everyone's issue. If it's guild related, something you had damn well better be working on anyway, then you ought, but you're not running a finishing school, either.
Case in point: I have a few guild members who are very nice people, but who will not make their own efforts to find an instance run. Nor will they frequently speak up for runs when others make them available, and then these members fret at their inability to get badges for their gear upgrades. I'm sorry, I am not willing to help this beyond a reasonable point. Personal responsibility comes in at certain points, and you cannot hold everyone's hand. If it's a novice, someone very new to the game, you ought consider a little bit of Charm School on their behalf to help them out and get them acclimated, but sooner or later that little chick's gotta fly on its own.
To these, I say: Communicate. Want to get into an instance? Pick one, start with the daily if possible and have an alternate selection. Then check the guild roster - is there a known tank on if you are not one? A healer? Either ask on /g or whisper them politely to see if they're onboard. Take note if they're already in an instance; if they're finishing, which you can ask, again politely, if they're willing to team up for another now or in a while. Prepare to suffer LFG if it's a quiet hour. All guild runs are generally optimal (you can pick your poisons and usually know the team), but sooner or later, you're gonna get a pugger. Hope for the best, have a drink handy for the worst.
Be courageous, and if someone turns you down for the run you want to do, don't take it personally. That's best for ANYTHING WOW: never take anything personally. Especially on /trade.
But for heaven's sake, move your pugs. I'm not a Russian matchmaker. No guild leader is meant to be at all times. Thank you.
2.20.2009
I'm in a mood.
My how-to posts suck. I'm going to stop doing them. They vary between some good info and opinion and then into bare-bones suckage. Frankly, there are a billion how to blogs out there on the mechanics of how to put a guild together. The mechanics are not the issue.
The issue is how to build a guild and NOT SUCK. Work on that part, guys. It doesn't matter if you have the coolest or worst name on the server, it doesn't matter what your tabard looks like, or if your banner was just stolen off a random google image search - what matters is what YOU want from your guild and how you're going after it.
Reputation matters a lot. You cannot police everyone every moment of every day, and there will be things that slip by you. Maybe you're okay with people regarding your guild as made up of a bunch of flaming douches - that's you're prerogative. One of the top raiding guilds on my server is famed for being a bunch of cocks - but that's okay for them. They have a stable group, they get server firsts, and they appear to be having their brand of fun. Okay, then. *I* wouldn't piss on one of them if they were on fire at this point, but they have their scene and it works.
Your mileage will heavily vary. Put it another way: There are guilds formed every day and a great many of them will gain a reputation for being loaded with either noobs (acceptable, you were a noob once, too), or assholes. How will YOU attempt to avoid this?
First thing to accept: You will have to be involved. Hands on. An available presence. Being a good guild leader means, in my opinion, that while some think they spend too much time dealing with the game, you will be spending A LOT of time dealing with the game. Time management vs your real life will be critical, and you can do a lot simply checking emails, posts, and private messages, but fact is, this is a time consuming job.
Yes, job.
It is not always shits and giggles.
If you don't like responsibility, DITCH YOUR GUILD NOW. We already have two hundred of your kind per server. Eat the bullet.
The issue is how to build a guild and NOT SUCK. Work on that part, guys. It doesn't matter if you have the coolest or worst name on the server, it doesn't matter what your tabard looks like, or if your banner was just stolen off a random google image search - what matters is what YOU want from your guild and how you're going after it.
Reputation matters a lot. You cannot police everyone every moment of every day, and there will be things that slip by you. Maybe you're okay with people regarding your guild as made up of a bunch of flaming douches - that's you're prerogative. One of the top raiding guilds on my server is famed for being a bunch of cocks - but that's okay for them. They have a stable group, they get server firsts, and they appear to be having their brand of fun. Okay, then. *I* wouldn't piss on one of them if they were on fire at this point, but they have their scene and it works.
Your mileage will heavily vary. Put it another way: There are guilds formed every day and a great many of them will gain a reputation for being loaded with either noobs (acceptable, you were a noob once, too), or assholes. How will YOU attempt to avoid this?
First thing to accept: You will have to be involved. Hands on. An available presence. Being a good guild leader means, in my opinion, that while some think they spend too much time dealing with the game, you will be spending A LOT of time dealing with the game. Time management vs your real life will be critical, and you can do a lot simply checking emails, posts, and private messages, but fact is, this is a time consuming job.
Yes, job.
It is not always shits and giggles.
If you don't like responsibility, DITCH YOUR GUILD NOW. We already have two hundred of your kind per server. Eat the bullet.
2.17.2009
Web Sites - You Should Probably Consider One
One of the things you need to sort out in your head before you undertake guild creation is whether or not you need an external web presence. It isn't mandatory, it isn't crucial in all cases, but you do need to be aware of its uses.
If you are simply waking up in the morning going 'o hai I want a guild!' then you probably don't need to worry about a site for your impending fail.
If you are pulling together a bunch of family/close buddies/college dudes and have other forms of social networking, a site becomes a lot less critical.
If you plan to: Raid/run lots of instances/intend to do a lot of public recruiting/grow a mid to large size social guild for psychological experiments/are attempting any sort of bizarre social confluence - you probably want a site.
At first, you are best advised to go as el cheapo as possible. There are a large number of free and idiot-proof options available: Guildportal and Guildomatic, Guildhosting, etc (Note: I do not personally endorse any of these services, although my guild presently maintains an upgraded site via one of these services. YMMV) will all offer a basic free template service to get your feet wet. Ideally you want forums for people to chat in, a calendar to host your events, and down the line, you will probably want to consider springing for a Vent setup depending on guild needs. None of this is tricky or difficult to do. All of it can be set up via template addons through the big sites.
If you are more creative, have minimal coding, a buddy with a server, or some patience, you can, of course, really branch out. I have seen guild 'sites' that are simply a spider's web of interlinked forums and message threads. I have seen, much to my delight, Wiki-style guildsites that make members feel that much more involved with the thing. I have seen custom sites to beat the band. Even knowing a dude that can GIMP up a good banner for you can make a huge difference.
In any case, this gives you a presence - a thing you can point at when you trawl the official forums, when you hit up /trade to blurb your guild. A place you can properly store your FAQ and loot policies (YOU HAVE THOSE, RIGHT??) and put up guild achievements you can be proud of.
A place you can have drama, flamewars, photoshopped pics of your members in compromising positions, and shoutouts to jerkoffs you have known. C'mon, without a good site, where is WoWinsider going to get its best drama posts from?
If you are simply waking up in the morning going 'o hai I want a guild!' then you probably don't need to worry about a site for your impending fail.
If you are pulling together a bunch of family/close buddies/college dudes and have other forms of social networking, a site becomes a lot less critical.
If you plan to: Raid/run lots of instances/intend to do a lot of public recruiting/grow a mid to large size social guild for psychological experiments/are attempting any sort of bizarre social confluence - you probably want a site.
At first, you are best advised to go as el cheapo as possible. There are a large number of free and idiot-proof options available: Guildportal and Guildomatic, Guildhosting, etc (Note: I do not personally endorse any of these services, although my guild presently maintains an upgraded site via one of these services. YMMV) will all offer a basic free template service to get your feet wet. Ideally you want forums for people to chat in, a calendar to host your events, and down the line, you will probably want to consider springing for a Vent setup depending on guild needs. None of this is tricky or difficult to do. All of it can be set up via template addons through the big sites.
If you are more creative, have minimal coding, a buddy with a server, or some patience, you can, of course, really branch out. I have seen guild 'sites' that are simply a spider's web of interlinked forums and message threads. I have seen, much to my delight, Wiki-style guildsites that make members feel that much more involved with the thing. I have seen custom sites to beat the band. Even knowing a dude that can GIMP up a good banner for you can make a huge difference.
In any case, this gives you a presence - a thing you can point at when you trawl the official forums, when you hit up /trade to blurb your guild. A place you can properly store your FAQ and loot policies (YOU HAVE THOSE, RIGHT??) and put up guild achievements you can be proud of.
A place you can have drama, flamewars, photoshopped pics of your members in compromising positions, and shoutouts to jerkoffs you have known. C'mon, without a good site, where is WoWinsider going to get its best drama posts from?
1.29.2009
Where possible:
Think up rules and solutions to common guild issues before they come up. That way, you'll be praised for your forward planning, and people will give you more wiggle room when the more esoteric stuff comes up and you have to think fast.
Things you should have at least a rough idea of how to handle before you try to have your guild taken seriously:
1. What qualifies as troublemaking in your guild and how you will handle it. The common-sense Anti-Jerk Countermeasures are often a given, but you may want to outline it. (i.e., if someone is simply douchebaggy but breaks no listed rules, there will come a point where you ought to pitch him anyway. Your guild, frequently, will love you for this. So long as you are clear and open about the whys and hows of it.)
2. What roles your guild officers will have and the permissions they will need to accomplish it. (Your initial outline will almost never be the final one, adaptability is a strong point of many surviving guilds)
3. What your bank setup will be like and the permissions that will be made available. (See 2.) This includes how you will handle rare and glorious treasures that your bank may begin to hoard.
4. If you are a raiding guild:
a: LOOT POLICY, LOOT POLICY, LOOT POLICY. This will also adapt over time, but you need to have a program in place before you first set foot in MC, Kara, or Naxx. Be it DKP, SK, or a simply handled /roll system, you need to know what you're doing, and you need your officers to know what they're doing. Remember to send out this information to your raiders regularly, because if you don't, sooner or later, someone may miss out on something useful because they didn't catch the loot policy.
(I had this happen a couple weeks ago and I felt horrible about it - the player in question was not a case of 'READ THE FAQ!', it was a case of needing to post reminders at some point and I hadn't)
b: Raider requirements, and what happens if they are not meeting them. This, like 1., is where it will occasionally suck to be you or an officer. Nobody likes telling people that they have a problem, but if you wimp out on it too much, your team will suffer for it. Remember: Criticism is only useful if it is helpful and will guide your team member towards improvement. Simple 'Your DPS sucks' isn't going to fly. You need to be able to inform them why, ensure that it isn't simply a case of needing to toss more gear at them, and offer talent/rotation suggestions. This is where class officers and a good list of useful sites will help.
c: At least a rough idea as per raid scheduling. "O HAY GUYZ, CAN WE DO SUMTHIN ON SAT??" is less optimal. The game itself has calendar client available for use. I'll get to advanced options in a post about websites.
5. You know I'm forgetting things. Which leads to a handy suggestion for any guild leader: Keep a notepad open on your computer and tap down things/suggestions/to dos as they occur to you. (this is one of those BS common sense suggestions that crop up in every weak tutorial, btw)
Things you should have at least a rough idea of how to handle before you try to have your guild taken seriously:
1. What qualifies as troublemaking in your guild and how you will handle it. The common-sense Anti-Jerk Countermeasures are often a given, but you may want to outline it. (i.e., if someone is simply douchebaggy but breaks no listed rules, there will come a point where you ought to pitch him anyway. Your guild, frequently, will love you for this. So long as you are clear and open about the whys and hows of it.)
2. What roles your guild officers will have and the permissions they will need to accomplish it. (Your initial outline will almost never be the final one, adaptability is a strong point of many surviving guilds)
3. What your bank setup will be like and the permissions that will be made available. (See 2.) This includes how you will handle rare and glorious treasures that your bank may begin to hoard.
4. If you are a raiding guild:
a: LOOT POLICY, LOOT POLICY, LOOT POLICY. This will also adapt over time, but you need to have a program in place before you first set foot in MC, Kara, or Naxx. Be it DKP, SK, or a simply handled /roll system, you need to know what you're doing, and you need your officers to know what they're doing. Remember to send out this information to your raiders regularly, because if you don't, sooner or later, someone may miss out on something useful because they didn't catch the loot policy.
(I had this happen a couple weeks ago and I felt horrible about it - the player in question was not a case of 'READ THE FAQ!', it was a case of needing to post reminders at some point and I hadn't)
b: Raider requirements, and what happens if they are not meeting them. This, like 1., is where it will occasionally suck to be you or an officer. Nobody likes telling people that they have a problem, but if you wimp out on it too much, your team will suffer for it. Remember: Criticism is only useful if it is helpful and will guide your team member towards improvement. Simple 'Your DPS sucks' isn't going to fly. You need to be able to inform them why, ensure that it isn't simply a case of needing to toss more gear at them, and offer talent/rotation suggestions. This is where class officers and a good list of useful sites will help.
c: At least a rough idea as per raid scheduling. "O HAY GUYZ, CAN WE DO SUMTHIN ON SAT??" is less optimal. The game itself has calendar client available for use. I'll get to advanced options in a post about websites.
5. You know I'm forgetting things. Which leads to a handy suggestion for any guild leader: Keep a notepad open on your computer and tap down things/suggestions/to dos as they occur to you. (this is one of those BS common sense suggestions that crop up in every weak tutorial, btw)
1.24.2009
Management Tools No One Tells You About
So you've got a guild. And you're the boss. WHEE! You can do whatever you like! Except for that part where you have no idea what you're doing!
Turning in your guild charter provides you with no manual whatsoever. You may find yourself puttering with your guild roster with no discernible clue as to what you are trying to accomplish. Things the Guild Charter Guy does not tell you:
Ranks: You will start with a handful of pre-set ranks. You can rename them and you can expand them at your discretion. You can then also decrease them, but only back to the default numbers, and only if there is no guild member sitting on the rank you want to delete. You do NOT have to use all these ranks right away. Each rank will need its permissions set - but for your own, they will all have the barest minimum of privileges. I will discuss these further in an upcoming 'How to Build a Guild' post.
Guild Info: When you first examine your shiny new roster, you'll see a Message of the Day space that you and you alone (until permissions are changed) can set. You will also see three other tabs you can play with, including Guild Info. This is a notepad for you to place info in. I recommend a brief outline of your rules (You... do have rules, right?), website info, vent info where applicable, and other useful trivia.
Guild Info's window also links to another FASCINATING tab that you should utilize right from the start... assuming you know about it. That is the tab called 'LOG.'
LOG's purpose is not immediately clear - you may look at it and assume it does something useless, like log the guild info's useful trivia into a notepad doc or something (It's what I thought at first until it was pointed out to me by an officer... two months after guild creation. *shame*). Far from it - LOG is critical to guild management. This tab will track who is invited to the guild, who has been promoted/demoted, who has gquit, and who has been kicked. It is finite, so you have to peek at it regularly to keep up on the news, but it is extremely useful if you allow open recruitment privileges or permit your officers to handle any rankings or removals. I LOVE THIS TAB.
Officer notes: You will, as GM (and potentially any officers, should you set the permission) be given access to another tiny notepad for each member that joins. They will have their own note (and I suggest allowing them read/write access, so long as they behave), and now you have another one. This is great for tracking alts, marking who's being a potential problem, or who needs a chat on some varying topic.
As you expand your guild and its amenities, you will inevitably begin working with the Guild Bank. This also has its useful if obscure tabs, and there are settings for it that you access from your management button on the bottom right of the Roster window.
When you open up a bank or any bank tab - at first, you will likely have one - you will see a set of buttons along the bottom. One will show you the contents. Easy. Another will - I love this, and you will almost never get anyone to read it - allow you to write bank tab information. While you will be able to give each tab a title and distinct icon to help clarify what each tab is for, you can outline more information for each tab in the Info note.
The last tab is also critically useful to you, and that is another Log. Yay! This will tell you who's withdrawing or depositing and, roughly, when, with a limited amount of entries. There will also be a log available for the gold withdrawal option, again, with a limited amount of entries. These are wonderful tools when trying to track who may be overusing guild repair or who's snagging stuff they shouldn't (course, you have permissions set, right? RIGHT?).
There is YET ANOTHER magnificently useful aspect to this bank log that no one will tell you about - go to the Armory at Blizzard's site, log in, and find your guild. You will see tabs available to you that allow you to see bank contents and allows you to access the bank log without logging into the game. But hark! What's this? It's a FULLY FUNCTIONAL bank log that allows you to filter by tab, by date, by guild member, and it goes back weeks to months!
Got a guy you've been suspecting of overly sucking off the bank repair teat for longer than you've realized? Gotten frustrated because your bank log ingame has only gone back to Wednesday? Hop onto the site, filter him down, and tally it up. Holy crap, that's useful.
And of course, /officer chat, or /o. This will be more useful once you actually HAVE officers, but wow, it's nice to have your own little space to discuss management. Try to not overuse it, however, and separate yourself off from /gchat too much. Also, ALWAYS doublecheck to ensure that you are posting to /o when that is your intent. You will make a mistake at least once. Try to not make it a woeful one.
I will expand on how to use and set up some of these tools in the upcoming post about actual guild creation.
Turning in your guild charter provides you with no manual whatsoever. You may find yourself puttering with your guild roster with no discernible clue as to what you are trying to accomplish. Things the Guild Charter Guy does not tell you:
Ranks: You will start with a handful of pre-set ranks. You can rename them and you can expand them at your discretion. You can then also decrease them, but only back to the default numbers, and only if there is no guild member sitting on the rank you want to delete. You do NOT have to use all these ranks right away. Each rank will need its permissions set - but for your own, they will all have the barest minimum of privileges. I will discuss these further in an upcoming 'How to Build a Guild' post.
Guild Info: When you first examine your shiny new roster, you'll see a Message of the Day space that you and you alone (until permissions are changed) can set. You will also see three other tabs you can play with, including Guild Info. This is a notepad for you to place info in. I recommend a brief outline of your rules (You... do have rules, right?), website info, vent info where applicable, and other useful trivia.
Guild Info's window also links to another FASCINATING tab that you should utilize right from the start... assuming you know about it. That is the tab called 'LOG.'
LOG's purpose is not immediately clear - you may look at it and assume it does something useless, like log the guild info's useful trivia into a notepad doc or something (It's what I thought at first until it was pointed out to me by an officer... two months after guild creation. *shame*). Far from it - LOG is critical to guild management. This tab will track who is invited to the guild, who has been promoted/demoted, who has gquit, and who has been kicked. It is finite, so you have to peek at it regularly to keep up on the news, but it is extremely useful if you allow open recruitment privileges or permit your officers to handle any rankings or removals. I LOVE THIS TAB.
Officer notes: You will, as GM (and potentially any officers, should you set the permission) be given access to another tiny notepad for each member that joins. They will have their own note (and I suggest allowing them read/write access, so long as they behave), and now you have another one. This is great for tracking alts, marking who's being a potential problem, or who needs a chat on some varying topic.
As you expand your guild and its amenities, you will inevitably begin working with the Guild Bank. This also has its useful if obscure tabs, and there are settings for it that you access from your management button on the bottom right of the Roster window.
When you open up a bank or any bank tab - at first, you will likely have one - you will see a set of buttons along the bottom. One will show you the contents. Easy. Another will - I love this, and you will almost never get anyone to read it - allow you to write bank tab information. While you will be able to give each tab a title and distinct icon to help clarify what each tab is for, you can outline more information for each tab in the Info note.
The last tab is also critically useful to you, and that is another Log. Yay! This will tell you who's withdrawing or depositing and, roughly, when, with a limited amount of entries. There will also be a log available for the gold withdrawal option, again, with a limited amount of entries. These are wonderful tools when trying to track who may be overusing guild repair or who's snagging stuff they shouldn't (course, you have permissions set, right? RIGHT?).
There is YET ANOTHER magnificently useful aspect to this bank log that no one will tell you about - go to the Armory at Blizzard's site, log in, and find your guild. You will see tabs available to you that allow you to see bank contents and allows you to access the bank log without logging into the game. But hark! What's this? It's a FULLY FUNCTIONAL bank log that allows you to filter by tab, by date, by guild member, and it goes back weeks to months!
Got a guy you've been suspecting of overly sucking off the bank repair teat for longer than you've realized? Gotten frustrated because your bank log ingame has only gone back to Wednesday? Hop onto the site, filter him down, and tally it up. Holy crap, that's useful.
And of course, /officer chat, or /o. This will be more useful once you actually HAVE officers, but wow, it's nice to have your own little space to discuss management. Try to not overuse it, however, and separate yourself off from /gchat too much. Also, ALWAYS doublecheck to ensure that you are posting to /o when that is your intent. You will make a mistake at least once. Try to not make it a woeful one.
I will expand on how to use and set up some of these tools in the upcoming post about actual guild creation.
Always:
Doublecheck your posts to your guild's website.
Not just for spelling and grammar, but to ensure that you are posting with the correct tone in the correct place. Do not assume you are responding to something in the officer forums. If you don't, you'll end up dropping a backhanded compliment alongside with notes for further improvement into a thread connected to a front page news article.
Luckily, I caught it 2.5 seconds after clicking 'Post Comment' and deleted it in favor of the proper, simple congratulations. Further luckily, I appeared to be the only one on the website at the time.
As a side note: Officer forums are a wonderful tool to discuss who needs improvements and how and bringing up issues the team needs to work on. I heartily support them. That said, they are not your personal blog (I break this rule occasionally, but do it sparingly), and they are not a Festivus Pole. If you have to air grievances, do it constructively. More on this in another post.
Not just for spelling and grammar, but to ensure that you are posting with the correct tone in the correct place. Do not assume you are responding to something in the officer forums. If you don't, you'll end up dropping a backhanded compliment alongside with notes for further improvement into a thread connected to a front page news article.
Luckily, I caught it 2.5 seconds after clicking 'Post Comment' and deleted it in favor of the proper, simple congratulations. Further luckily, I appeared to be the only one on the website at the time.
As a side note: Officer forums are a wonderful tool to discuss who needs improvements and how and bringing up issues the team needs to work on. I heartily support them. That said, they are not your personal blog (I break this rule occasionally, but do it sparingly), and they are not a Festivus Pole. If you have to air grievances, do it constructively. More on this in another post.
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