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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsOfficers' Quarters: Time for another rant
by Scott Andrews 
Mar 16th 2009 at 9:00AM
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.
In my first rant last year, I called out all the officers who, in the dark times before Wrath went live, resorted to rampant poaching -- rather than alliances -- to keep their raiding guilds afloat. Today I am going to rant about nonofficers. And specifically, against my better judgment as a contributor who would like to continue writing this column for WoW Insider, I'm going to rant about some of the people who obviously read this column and have written me to ask for advice.
I appreciate the fact that you think of me as someone to turn to for help. It's certainly flattering and I have tried to give you the best advice that I can.
However, I have been trying to answer a lot of e-mails over the past week and I see the same type of complaint over and over again. I won't use a real e-mail as an example, because I don't want to embarrass anyone, but the gist of these e-mails goes like this:
Hi, Scott.
I am not an officer in my guild. I am a member who attends raids and earns loot. But I don't like a decision the officers have made, or I disagree with the way they run the guild. How can I change the guild to be the way I want it to be?
Sincerely,
Concerned Player
Before anyone else writes me an e-mail like that, I'd like you to take a step back and reflect on your situation for a moment. You are able to attend raids. Your raids are successful and you have geared up your character. You seem to be having fun. The guild seems to be doing OK. Who is largely responsible for that?
If the answer is you, then by all means tell me about your guild. Tell me about how the officers have hindered your every move. Write about how, despite their short-sighted incompetence and contempt for your ideas, you've managed to take the guild on your shoulders and carry it toward a bright future. There are some really terrible officers out there, so I'm sure this has happened on several occasions. It would be a great example for members frustrated with bumbling leadership about how to turn a guild around, and I'd love to share it with my readers.
However, if the answer is not you, but rather the officers who are largely responsible for the guild's success, please think about that before you write to me. Think about the time and the energy they've devoted to making the guild what it is. Think about the real-life money they might be spending every month so the guild can have a Vent server and/or website. Think about the drama they have to deal with and the many players they struggle to keep happy day after day.
I'm sure these players are in the minority and most people are thankful for the officers they have. But I just needed to write about this topic, because I've started to get the feeling that too many officers aren't getting the credit they deserve. Yes, raiding in Wrath is easier than ever, but that doesn't mean it takes no effort to organize and lead raids. It doesn't mean it isn't a thorny and delicate situation every time you put a raid together, choosing who should go on which toon, trying to work in members who are new to the zone or someone's alt they've been wanting to gear up, while still having enough gear and experienced people to get through it. It doesn't mean there aren't arguments over loot that your officers have to resolve.
If they have stopped doing these things, then you certainly have a right to complain. If they haven't, then please be grateful for their efforts. It doesn't mean you have to approve of every decision they make. It's your guild, too, and you should be able to voice your opinions. The advice that I've given to these readers is always the same: Talk to the officers about it if you really have a problem with what they're doing. Either they will agree with you or they won't. If they don't agree with you, you can either live with it or quit the guild.
What I can't tell you is how to change your officers' minds or force them to see things your way. If your guild is having fun and meeting its goals, it's entirely possible that most of their opinions have been valid. It's entirely possible that most of their decisions have been sound. You are lucky. Many guilds have not had such officers, and most of those guilds have collapsed or disappeared.
So, hats off to all the good officers out there. And hats off to the members who appreciate them. Boo, everyone else.
/salute
Send Scott your guild-related questions, conundrums, ideas, and suggestions at scott.andrews@weblogsinc.com. You may find your question the subject of next week's Officers' Quarters! For more WoW Insider gameplay columns, click here.Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 6)
Joe Mar 16th 2009 5:57PM
Does anyone know where the topic image came from?
Looks like it would make an awesome desktop picture.
Neirin Mar 16th 2009 4:55PM
In general, if a guild is able to successfully raid, the officers who organize everything are clearly doing something right. The biggest problem I've seen in guilds is when 1-2 of the old guard officers start acting poorly, but the gm and other officers will stick with them because they're friends, have seniority, or what have you. Whenever I've had an issue with the way a guild is run it's been targeted at a select few officers who are acting with impunity. The real complaint going on here, which I think you pretty much ignored, is members who are concerned that if they had a problem with an officer (not the leadership in general) they might be gkicked just for brining the problem up if they did it in the wrong way. Obviously, common courtesy rules apply, but should you go the the GM? or go through one of the other officers first? is it appropriate to seek out a specific officer because you know they aren't close friends with the officer you have issues with? And don't just say you should gquit any guild where the officers aren't friends or where there isn't an officer designated as an ombudsman, that's hardly constructive input.
Kanuris Mar 16th 2009 7:23PM
I never truely valued a good raid leader until i'd done it a few times myself (i did value my favourite one, but doing it yourself really makes you appreciate a good one more) with some sub-par raiders. Good friends, but hooo boy.
Keep your officers and raid leaders stress-free, prepare for stuff in advance. Tis very discouraging to find out your the only bugger who read any tactics for Naxx :(
annoyingdan Mar 16th 2009 9:15PM
Kudos. This article is very insightful and I wish that everybody would read this and think about the issues it brings forth.
I was an officer in a semi-hardcore raiding guild for a little over a year. I started as a new recruit and through dedication and hard work, I worked my way to the top. As an officer we encouraged exchange of ideas and viewpoints at all times, and we were successful and it worked great. We were working on Sarth 2D when I left.
When we started raiding in wrath, there was one member, a raid veteran, and her family members who started nit-picking every single decision made by the officers. They went even as far as complaining that officers were "unprofessional" for a single spelling error in a forums. They questioned every single comment we made, regardless of the context.
Unfortunately we would have been unable to them go since we are a smaller guild, and they had amassed quite a bit of influence within the guild. In addition most of this nitpicking was done in private, away from other members of the guild.
Towards the end, we had a meeting with them for them to express what specific issues they had with guild policy. They they froze up and couldnt think of any issues. The officers were all tired of the issue and our hands were tied since we had to take into account that their departure would mean the guild would stop raiding, something we were trying to avoid at all costs.
In the end, the guild collapsed, after me and 2 other of the seniormost officers left the guild due to burnout from all the nitpicking. I really dont play much anymore, as all of the stress from dealing with this has destroyed my love of the game.
I guess in the end people see guild officers as vehicles to get their phat loots, and completly ingnore the fact that guild leaders are in fact people too who just want to have fun like everybody else.
Zanathos Mar 18th 2009 3:03AM
This comments section is certainly a testament to how few people read posts they feel qualified to offer an opinion about. It's hard to see how anyone's offended by this article unless they have severe reading comprehension problems, or are one of the chronic complainers it's aimed at. There's certainly been officers quarters before that dealt with the issue of bad leaders.
Landmark Mar 17th 2009 3:33AM
We have this one warrior in our guild who constantly dies and messes up, but is always the first to offer suggestions on how the leaders can do things better when things aren't going our way.
In other words, do things 'his way'.
A few wipes in a progression run and he's ALWAYS yawning and saying its getting late. Not only are guild members like this annoying as hell, they also destroy moral.
My two cents: if you don't like the way your guild is run, apply for an officer position or start your own, and see for yourself how hard it is.
Juniper Mar 22nd 2009 2:14AM
I'm a founding member (but not an officer due to a lack of Raid knowledge) of my guild, we're about 30 members strong and growing every week. We have 2 vent servers, a website and forums which the GM and 2 officers pay for.
And they remind us of this everytime we use them :P but anyway, The point I wanted to make was that we have a quite large and often used Feedback section of the Members only forum where we can shout out idea's or sometimes just down right complaints about everything and anything.
If it merits action then action is taken,
But the GM's word is final. He started the guild, he runs the show. If we don't like it we know were the door is.