We Have a Tabard: Gone but not forgotten
by Amanda Dean 
Sep 27th 2009 at 6:00PM
Over the last several weeks, we've talked about everything that guild leaders need to do to try to maintain peace, order, and progress amongst your ranks. I'm going to let the rest of your guild in on a little secret: it's like a job, except you don't get paid.
Theoretically it should be a job that your GMs and officers love. Your leadership has less flexibility when it comes to scheduling than rank and file members. When it comes to raiding or other activities, your leadership doesn't have the opportunity to slack off. They are working hard to make sure things run smoothly and to set a good example for their members.
Is it better to burn out than to fade away? I am currently on a wee bit of a leadership hiatus. After struggling to fill raids and going over the same fights countless times, I kind of snapped. I told my team I needed a break. I have to admit that while I feel a little bit guilty, it's been blissful. I've slept more, had fewer migraines, and generally enjoyed WoW more for the last couple of weeks than I have over the last several months. It won't last though.
Let me offer you a few suggestions to avoid getting to the place where I was:
Set firm boundaries
This is something that I always had trouble with. I'm too nice and I care too much. I want to make sure that my team is enjoying the game. I often found people bringing their personal problems to the me, and I'd work doubly hard to help them or make excuses for them. In my tenure as GM, I've referred people to substance abuse and suicide hotlines, as well as community resources for medical care and emergency services. You just can't take on everybody's issues. I'm GM -- not a therapist. The boundaries that people cross, or try to cross may be different for you. You have to decide for yourself where to draw the line.
Take time off
You work 40 hours a week for the job that you get paid for, why do we work more in WoW? I have weekends off work, but I spend a good good deal of them playing WoW. Make sure you take days off from leadership too. It's difficult because if you want to log in to pursue personal goals (like grinding Cenarian Circle rep for
the Guardian of Cenarius title) you'll probably find people asking you to do more of your leadership work. Politely explain that you're taking some time for yourself, and let them know who they can go to for assistance or when you'll be able to help them. Make it clear that you need some time for you. If you must, set a DND message, or take your personal time away from WoW.
Delegate responsibility
You want your guild to run a certain way. Once you've defined your goals and policies, find officers that you trust to help you move things along. My rule was that unless you're saying "Thanks mandy, this is fun" you should not whisper me during a raid -- take your issues to the loot master or another officer. I found this rule being violated frequently, and I should have stood more strongly. It got to the point where raids were a real drag, and eventually I wound up on medication to prevent migraines. Once you have folks in place to assist you, make sure you refer your members to the proper channels.
Make your expectations clear
Since I believe that WoW isn't really a job for me or for anyone else, I tend toward more casual players. I've been plagued by laissez-faire attitudes toward attendance and performance. I made a massive mistake by not clearly stating my expectations. I believe that you can be a casual raider. By casual I mean you don't have to dedicate every waking minute to WoW, but that doesn't mean you should be unreliable or unprepared. While things do come up, the schedule is posted. Be courteous in acknowledging the events that you can attend and do your best to view those as appointments worth keeping. Whatever your expectations are, when people aren't meeting them talk to them. Consistent offenders are just going to drive you and the rest of your team crazy, so you may need to remove them.
In short, WoW is a game. It should be fun for everyone, including the GM.
WoW.com offers a plethora of information on guild leadership and guild membership. Be sure to check out Scott Andrew's Weekly Column Officer's Quarters and keep an eye on the community with Mike Schramm's Guildwatch.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Guilds, Features, (Guild Leadership) We Have a Tabard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dialgana Sep 27th 2009 6:34PM
Ahh.... I understand this. I get burned out fast as an officer as everyone is always raring to go to 25ToC when we end up beating our heads on a wall for 4 hours instead. I remember our first KT kills in Naxx25, i missed our first one for being burned out from there and taking some personal time, but a couple trys later I managed to get in for my own KT kill. Also My guild's raid leaders have it hard to as do any other RL's with people who don't wanna sit down and listen and focus. It took us 3-4 days of trys to down Onyxia 25 just because we couldn't get Phase 2 running smooth. We finally got it though and ended the headaches for the RL.
variantground Sep 27th 2009 6:15PM
I made all of the mistakes you did in my recent attempt at guild leadering. In the end it was too much, and it ended both my guild and time in WoW. I don't think I could agree anymore with your tips, and wish it was around before I started my guild.
RetPallyJil Sep 27th 2009 6:22PM
I had to smile to myself when you were discussing this on the WoW Insider Show, since - not eight hours previously, I was in the same situation ... and came up with the same answer.
I put my four-year old guild over to an alt and just left.
It was a tough, tough decision, but sometimes you have to think of yourself; if you aren't having fun, then what's the point of logging in?
Clevins Sep 27th 2009 6:30PM
"over to an alt"?? Do you mean one of your alts that you aren't playing?
Here's the thing - it's fine for a GM to take a break, leave etc. It's NOT fine to just walk away one day. If you need an extended break or want to step down as GL find a replacement. Don't leave the guild in a lurch with an GL who's never on. Talk to one of your officers and see if they're willing to take over, then actually hand over the title and make them GM. At that point you've done what you need to and should take as long as you need away from the game... but just walking away is so not cool.
RetPallyJil Sep 27th 2009 7:34PM
I don't care what you think, frankly. I did what's right for me.
theboybailey Sep 27th 2009 9:24PM
You did what was right for you.
But you certainly didn't do right by the other PEOPLE that were in the guild. They deserved better then to just be left in the lurch. They are not just characters, there are real living people behind them that shared the good time and the bad time in the guild.
They deserved better then you just walking away from your responsibilities and leaving them in the crapper.
alliancerules Sep 27th 2009 9:59PM
ummm... guys who cares if he moved his guild to an alt it's not like he ruined the peoples lives, if the want the could just leave the guild.
brownyboi Sep 28th 2009 7:11AM
Can't say that that isn't the type of thing that I'd do. In game or irl.
It's a game. These people shouldn't be depending on you like little children. You don't owe them anything, they are in the guild because they want to be there. I don't recall a guild leader having to file for adoption of all of the members.
They'll cope and they'll get on fine without you - definately not worth messing your head up about
jbodar Sep 28th 2009 5:28AM
Wow, RetPallyJil defending a questionable move with the "Don't hate! You don't know me! I do what I want!" defense? Nice!
Raenz Sep 28th 2009 6:02AM
He may not have ruined anyones life, but the process of a guild falling apart can be pretty traumatic - in the way that you think your character is safe, and you will be raiding with these guys for ages, then poof it all falls apart. Even if he is burnt out beyond all recognition its worth at least finding someone who is willing to actually find a replacement, if not do the job themselves.
I've been on both ends of the stick here, I was the only raidleader in my old guild through all of BC, and after clearing naxx/sarth2d back in january/febuary time I just couldnt take it anymore. So I got one of the other tanks to take over as the RL, explained what was going on to the other officers and guildies, the /gquit a week later after it was obvious they were going to be fine. Fast forward to june, the guild I joined was doing fine, progressing in ulduar, killed yogg and starting work on HM's. Then for no reason as far as we could tell the GM /gquit and server xferred, didnt warn anyone just left. He was also the RL. Guild fell apart as he was really the driving force behind things, had he given some warning and spoken to the officers we probably could have recovered.
Anyway my point is - /gquiting without giving any kind of warning or reasoning at least to your officers when your in a posistion of responsibility is a very selfish thing to do, and I hope that most people have more respect for the (ex)guildies then that.
el ranchero Sep 28th 2009 10:04AM
Jerk move. There are ways to disentangle yourself from your guild while being considerate to others, presumably other people you were friends with. There's almost always at least one officer who'd be more than happy to take over, and if not, you could at least /gdisband and mail people their contributions to the guild bank, and let someone know what's going on.
Theyas Sep 27th 2009 6:34PM
Awesome Neil Young references!
VSUReaper Sep 27th 2009 6:42PM
I loved the last group of guildies that I lead to death! (wow... that didnt come out right...)
I was starting to get burned out, so I told them I'm taking the weekend off from being the GM. I wasnt going to help them with their problems, I pointed to the guild website I had set up when they had questions about 5 mans, gear, or raid strats, and basically acted like I was guildless for a weekend. :P
What was so great was once they realized what I was doing and why, they went and helped me get all the mats I needed to gather up for the rep I was working on! They referred to me as the loot monkey for the day and threatened to beat me with foam swords if I got more than 5 rage in my bar.
Best "vacation" ever!
rkaliski Sep 27th 2009 9:36PM
What also hurts you guys is when the guild officers are either one of the top healers or tanks. It seems that EVERYONE wants the MT or lead healer to run everything with them. Nevermind they might want to just farm herbs, gank Horde or simply run around places they haven't been.
Yeah you guys feel you should be there all the time, but it doesn't help when you have four other guildies with decent tank gear or 10 healers just dying to get asked to run an instance. Yup your guildies may wipe but at least they get that experience away from the 25 man raids. Your guild will be better in the long run because the people lower on the depth chart get real experience and the officers get to do what they want to do.
It is sad when you have to have an unguilded alt in order to enjoy what should be a game.
atlanna1 Sep 27th 2009 7:11PM
I know exactly what is being said here.. I'm second in command of our guild and i live with the GM. I know how the day to day agony aunt thing works and just this week we had to implement a major shake up of how things are run just to stop the GM from cracking and going off into the wild blue younder (and the then likely mass /gquit that would have occurred.)
It isn't easy by any means, and when you have a guild that is made uop of 10% dedicated people, 40% of those people's alts and the rest of people who just want a name under their own, it gets frustrating trying to organise any sort of progression.
While we like the relaxed atmosphere in our guild we are very aware that some are becoming discontented with the lack of progress and TBH my heart is with those people who have stuck with us through it all, turned down offers from TRUE raiding guilds for us and are still no further along due to lack of commitment from the also rans that seem to be clogging us up.
If it were down to me there would be a mass cull and the dead wood would be set adrift leaving just the dedicated few but alas it is not.
ivyleaves Sep 27th 2009 7:47PM
Keeping mediocre players and not culling the deadwood will end up killing the guild, at least for raiding. I was in one where all the top officers were longtime members but none were raiding with the guild - either they pugged or didn't even log on, including the GM who had major life/job changes and didn't have the time but didn't make a change. At the end, rather than wait for the GM to log and sign on to a fixit plan, we all just moved our raid to another more supportive guild. It worked out great - we have a late raid, they have 2-3 earlier ones, the teams mix up when circumstances change, and we do 25's on the weekends.
alliancerules Sep 27th 2009 9:31PM
i am currently a GM (Hellborn Heroes-Runetotem) and I was at a slow progression rate. It is true, only a few people are really determined I had the exact opposite problems than the ones in the article. My problem was that: it's hard to get determined players. My guild isn't raiding yet, in fact the character I have that is leading the guild isn't even close to hitting 80 yet. But even so, it's really hard to just go sit on the trade channel and keep saying is recruiting members! We have a tabard and we are currently working on getting a SECOND bank tab!!! PST!!!... it just doesn't work that way. In what I have learned in recruiting members (good ones anyway), is to run a few instances and raids with people. Most of my guild members are people I've lvled with therefore they know me and are loyal. So my advice is to create a guild in an earlier lvl, slowly progress, get new members, and one day you'll have a GOOD raiding guild, so be patient. Creating a guild at lvl 80 and jumping in to raiding right away gets to hectic. Think of it as lvling an alt you start at 1 and work to 80 that's the same way guilds are (or at least should be).
Hëx Sep 27th 2009 11:14PM
This is why we skipped the guild drama and went to straight raiding:
Looking for 80's for raiding 10/25 man content. Separate from any guild, not recruiting for our guild. Looking for feedback and people who would like to become "early adopters" of this system. If you have the maturity, teamwork, and attitude to get into raiding; but not the contacts, schedule, or top tier gear, running with us may be a good alternative. www.hex.ms
Seaborn Sep 29th 2009 8:47AM
I did similar when I got burned out. I knew it was time to back up a bit when people at my real job were telling me how tired and shitty i looked. I felt like a new person once the burden was lifted. I often explained the role as a second job. You are in-game 50 hours a week and 80% of that time you are dealing with drama, filling raids, recruiting, and explaining fights among many other issues.
I always see people flaming articles and discussions on this subject. Until you have led a real raiding guild for a good amount of time, you have no clue.
One of the things that makes it entertaining is to see that guildy that is whispering the other members saying how fail the leadership is and how he/she could do it so much better. So he forms his/her own guild and snipes the guild to fill their new guild. Then 2 weeks later they are all sending tells talking about how they want to come back.
tjdelost Sep 28th 2009 8:15AM
How many people can a guild hold? I know the counter stops at 500 but I know that there are more in my guild. Furthermore, what was the largest guild ever in WOW