Breakfast Topic: Guild remotivation
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 4th 2007 at 8:00AM
![[Lady Vashj]](http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2007/10/vashj_wow_225.jpg)
Today's topic comes from Nicole over on the WoW LJ -- she asks how you "remotivate" a guild that has lost its way in raid progression. Seems like exactly the kind of thing you might see in one of Scott's great Officers' Quarters columns, but we can tackle it here, too.So what do you do when Nightbane is giving your guild a nightmare? My personal preference is to tackle some content you can handle, whether that be running through the old world raids just for fun, or, more likely, trying to take down some of the overworld bosses. Of course, if you're stuck on Midnight and Attumen, there's not much more raid content to go back to seriously. But if you're having trouble on a boss that early, odds are you need better gear anyway -- wipe on Attumen a few times, and then split the raid into groups and go run some heroics. Always have an extra option planned for your raids, too, because there's no need to bang your head on a boss you can't beat -- even if you just wipe on Gruul once, you've gotten that experience. Then take your raid back to Karazhan for more practice and more gear. Eventually you'll hit a point where people want to keep trying (because you'll be so close), and then guild progression is on.
But while that's a solid tactic, it's not the only one -- I've seen guild leaders run social activities, declare "bounties" on bosses or instances, and even offer to pay repairs just to try a raid boss out for a night. How do you bring a guild that's lost its game back into the raiding gauntlet?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Features, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
nekkiddo Oct 4th 2007 9:12AM
We used to take our frustration on Ony after getting burnt by Nef.
Razhlok Oct 4th 2007 9:18AM
We try to end progression nights by smacking a around a boss we have on farm status after a couple of hours of wiping. 1) Leaves everyone feeling good you accomplished something and people got loot and 2) insures people show up and stick around for the whole night of attempts.
Nelson Oct 4th 2007 9:53AM
but theres a line when doing bosses on farm status. People might get used to just coming to raids when its a farm night and not on a learning night.
Michael Thorsen Oct 4th 2007 10:42AM
I am curious what you do when you have finally killed a boss, after weeks, but it turns out to be like the last wish of a dying man. Case in point, after a few weeks of wiping on Vashj, my guild finally downs her, but rather than celebrate by learning the back half of TK, people were too burned out to go on and th eguild has since totally broken up with many members quitting WoW altogether. Oh well, such is life. Let this be a cautionary tale too, I guess.
DavidC Oct 4th 2007 11:34AM
"How to Remotivate" a guild is the ENTIRELY wrong question and is really an indicator of the true problem.
Re-Motivation is a by-product of change. You have to change the things that un-motivate a guild in the first place.
So ... what un-motivates most guilds in the first place? You ready for this?
Poor Leadership
When Leadership take guilds into encounters they really have no business doing, that is poor leadership and un-motivates players.
When Leadership let "bad players" stay in the guild/raid, yet try to do "hard content", that is poor leadership and un-motivates players.
When Leadership plays "favorites" on raid invites causing the raid "balance" to be unfavorable to hard encounters, that is poor leadership and un-motivates people. (ie: Do any of your Leadership sit on the side of hard encounters cause they are not needed due to class balance, or sit because other players out perform them?).
So ... there is no sense in trying to RE-MOTIVATE a guild if Leadership is just going to immediately UN-MOTIVATE them again?
The right question is: How do I become a better leader.
Once you start to take personal responsibility for the problems in the guild, then you can start to make changes that will ultimately re-motivate a guild.
How to become a better leaders is a topic for an article itself.
J Oct 4th 2007 1:21PM
You can't put all the blame on leadership. I've seen many guilds go down because of its lazy members, not the leadership. You know the people; they feel entitled to raid invites just because they are 70. They're wearing crappy greens. They don't see the point of getting keyed for heroics because they can just upgrade their gear in Kara. They don't have potions, food with well fed buffs, a completely horrible raid spec. Then they throw a hissy fit when they don't get a raid invite after being 70 for 5 days. These are the same people that refuse to show up on "wipe nights" to learn a new boss and only show up for farm content.
A lot of it basically boils down to people being lazy, self entitled, whiney crybabies that want everything handed to them on a silver platter. A lot of people just seem to not want to work for anything themselves.
Wolfstalker Oct 4th 2007 1:25PM
"So what do you do when Nightbane is giving your guild a nightmare? "
Wait for the devs to give your faction Fear Ward?
Oh, Wait!
Nicole Oct 12th 2007 2:40PM
Holy shit. I'm e-noticed.
A lot of these suggestions in both the article and the comments are usefull. I'm definatly going to try to employ these techniques in the future.
MakeMeSammich Oct 4th 2007 2:27PM
Some very good points brought up here, that I think are worth commenting on. DavidC is on the right track for investigating the de-motivations of the guild.
As for "blame," a leader has a lot to think about in terms of the guild and progression. It takes a lot of research into strategy, gear progression, skill of the raid, motivation and availability.
Questions to think about:
-How much time can we spend learning an encounter before we become jaded/frustrated?
-How much time can we give each raid night before becoming fatigued and lose focus?
-Are we bored with the content we're plowing through, or are we content having "farm nights"?
-Who do we need to gear up for bigger challenges?
-What backup plans do we have for a brutal night?
-Who is being left out of the raid that wants to participate?
-Who is included in the raid that really isn't participating much?
In response to J, who states that some of the unrest is coming from lazy raid members in greens with a sense of entitlement; they may feel entitled, but that doesn't warrant an invite. If having an undergeared, undermotivated character in your raid is going to slow down your progression, or cause distress among others, carefully consider whether or not they should be getting an invite just because they want it. To me, handing out invites like candy to people who aren't willing to gear themselves up, or turn down 5-mans and heroics (and you should invite them to these to prove skill and build teamwork and improve gear) is poor leadership.