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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Have you tried your hand at running a guild?
by Aiden James Kosciesza 
Dec 5th 2010 at 8:00AM
It happens to all of us at one point or another. You're riding into Stormwind, perhaps admiring the dragon head that someone has strung up on the gates, and you're headed to the auction house when your eyes light upon the Visitor's Center. Inside, a bright-eyed young hero, very much like yourself, is speaking to Aldwin Laughlin, the Guild Master. Suddenly, you think, "That could be me. I could be in there, buying a guild charter and designing a tabard. I could found my own guild."
You dismount, take the first two steps at a bound -- but suddenly, you stop in your tracks. All at once, you stagger under the weight of responsibility. The trouble with starting a guild, you realize, is that once you do it, you actually have to run a guild.
Of course for some, this isn't a drawback -- it's a perk! There are plenty of aspiring guild masters out there who have a vision, execute it, and become great leaders. Then there are those of us who consider starting a guild but balk at the particulars; others who create small, friends-only or alt guilds just to have a fun guild name or a guild bank; and many more who are happy to leave the burden of leadership to someone else.
Have you thought about starting your own guild? If you went through with it, how did it turn out? Is the guild still around today? If you thought better of it, what stopped you? Or are you still making up your mind?
| Yes, I've been a GM. | |
|---|---|
| Yes, I've been a guild officer. | |
| No, but I'd like to get more involved some time. | |
| No way! I'd rather just play and have fun. |
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Mommah Dec 5th 2010 8:36AM
I have been the GM of the same guild for 5+ years. The experience has been more than I could have hoped and the stuff of nightmares. One day I'll retire and see what the game is like as just a player. Then again, maybe I won't. =)
shettis94 Dec 5th 2010 8:37AM
I've somehow ended up as an officer in every guild I've been in. It's probably because I just like making people feel comfortable by socializing and explaining things such as raid tactics. Doing volunteer work for the guild outside of the game is also one of my passions. In my current guild, I'm in charge of our web site and recruitment on other forms of online communication, such as social media.
Burning Mage Dec 5th 2010 8:16PM
I haven't been a GM, but I'm an officer in a guild that has been active for over four years. For most of the time its all fun and happy faces, but when it comes to drama I'm always the one sorting it out or kicks out the rule breakers.. which makes me the grumpy old officer who gets all the complaints. Not an easy task, but if you have a clear vision of what your guild is suppose to be, and have all members read the guild rules on how to behave, it makes your life very easy. And, with that, make sure you have all officers on the same page, and keep update each other on what's happening, even if its just small things.
And, remember that its just a game although its a big part me your life - the main purpose is to have fun.
Alphasim Dec 5th 2010 8:45AM
I've been a officer before, but my shining moment was when my guild master handed over the reigns of our 100+ toon guild to me. I gladly took them... and then he logged off, hopped on his alt and I gave it back. I may have only been a temporary fill-in, but still I was guild master (even if for just a minute or so).
Superstone Dec 5th 2010 1:16PM
Ditto. I was great at delegating that guild right back to the guy who handed it to me.
Also, I am glad I did because I almost thought it would be funny to disband it in the few minutes I had it... Sometimes I can be an a-hole >
tinyred3 Dec 5th 2010 8:50AM
First started playing wow me and my boyfriend made a guild it was definitely a social guild. We had quite a few characters we would help out people but we got a few ninjas and people who were rather rude to others and we dealt with it as best we could. The final screw in the coffin was when 2 of our guild officers just left for almost a year without notice, so it wasn't fun and pretty much empty so we disbanded. It was stressful at times, but I think I would like to do it again at some point.
That is if I'm allowed to play again. I've got boyfriend aggro :( Even going on this site is a no no!!!
Tayacan Dec 5th 2010 8:56AM
I'm currently the officer of a social/casual raiding guild. I'm new at the post, and still enjoying it - we'll see how long that lasts! No, really, they're a nice lot, and we're a lot of officers compared to what most guilds have, so there's not a lot of trouble that I have to deal with. I like to solve the occasional squabble :-)
Hiwa Dec 5th 2010 8:59AM
Proud founder, GM, chief petty officer and only member of a 3-tab bank guild on Arygos. We have a tabard!
Xantenise Dec 5th 2010 9:02AM
I joined a guild on my level 12 hunter when I was fourteen years old and had just started WoW. I loved it, but thought I could do better.
So, having two months of WoW under my belt and only 14 years of life experience, I went and got a charter with my level 8 druid.
And somehow, I pulled it off. I have no idea how. Looking back I realise the guild must've lasted only a few months, though it felt more like... maybe 6? Before I stepped down from leadership and let someone else take over and they managed to drive off most of the members. But it was an active levelling guild which attracted other newbies with their first characters, family friendly, we had a few kids. I realise now I was probably a horrible guild leader or something (I mean, at fourteen years old with only so much experience in WoW, what else could I be?) but people genuinely seemed pretty happy in the guild. Whoa.
I've been an officer since in a big RPing guild on Moon Guard when I was fifteen or sixteen and had no idea what to do with it and subsequently passed leadership on.
I'm eighteen now. One day, I might run a guild again. I've got enough experience to know what kind of dedication it takes. One thing that frustrated me about being a GM was when there was a spat between members, it was very much a "he said she said" thing at which point I'd be at an utter loss of what to do and I'd really hate to run into that kind of situation again. Also, I'll probably suck way less next time.
It was really nice shaping a guild into what *I* wanted in a guild, though, rather than depending on chance and shopping around for another one, and if I wanted a specific experience, building from the ground up is definitely the way to go. (But I can't speak for raiding guilds, I've only been a part of levelling/RP/social guilds.)
Norai Dec 5th 2010 10:04AM
@ Xantenise (in case the reply system breaks)
What guild on MG? I've got some toons on there for the lore-nerd in me, and my main on MG is an officer in a guild as well- in charge of our diplomatic relations with other groups. Maybe she could make a connection :)
Xantenise Dec 5th 2010 6:12PM
@Norai I am no longer in the guild, but I was gleader and officer of Veldbarad Bornevalesh for a time. :) I've since quit the guild and it went inactive for a while, before the current gleader Celeania resurrected it. From the sounds of things, she's doing pretty well with it!
Right now I'm guildless and enjoying the solitude. Maybe that'll change in Cata, maybe it won't.
Darias.Perenolde Dec 5th 2010 9:08AM
Found Sleeper Cartel after a horrible guild shattering of the first guild I was a lowbie member in. Fell in love with the family feel of it from day one. Was an officer by that fall. Two years after initially joining, I was asked to take over the leadership.
It's been hell. It's been agonizing. It's caused me sleepless nights.
My guildies are family...no "like" about, just "are". Family goes through that kind of stuff too. I would accept leadership of this guild again in a heartbeat if given the chance.
Rai Dec 5th 2010 9:13AM
I made an RP guild and it was a huge amount of fun. Unfortunatly the move to uni left me without WoW for three weeks, so naturally people disappeared and it crashed.
BlazingSky Dec 5th 2010 9:13AM
I've been in several guilds where I butted heads with the guild leads over behaviors that paint them as assholes, and this most recent one saw my friends and I jump ship from the group. Now we've formed our own guild, but we all seem to be unwilling to expand from just ourselves, afraid that if the guild grows we'll become like the people we hate. We might though, since the Guild rep deal screws us over on raids.
Gregory Clayton Dec 5th 2010 9:22AM
I have tried once and it all went tits up haha :)
btw hope you all can have a read of my world of warcraft site :) wowultima.net
thanks ^_______^
Imnick Dec 5th 2010 9:14AM
Not SURE I believe these results, if 40% of WoW Insider readers are GMs they must lead some pretty tiny guilds
Tayacan Dec 5th 2010 9:28AM
That would be because this article looks more interesting to guild leaders ;)
Vladeon Dec 5th 2010 11:14AM
You've misunderstood what the question said. It doesn't say "Yes, I AM a GM." it says, "Yes, I've been a GM," meaning that at one point in the past 6 possible years, I was a GM at some point even if for a few minutes.
Straz Dec 5th 2010 1:34PM
There are way too many GMs on my realm. Seems like out of every guild I've been in over the course of my time on Ghostlands has had at least 3 or 4 members ragequit and form their own guilds, only to have the same thing happen to their new guilds. Couple that with our realm having about a 1:1 faction balance, it's no wonder our realm has such a hard time with progression.
I've been a GM of my own small guild of IRL friends for about 4 years. It's nothing big, there's never drama, so I don't really consider it a "real" GM gig. I have, however, been an officer in quite a few of the raiding guilds I've been in over the course of the past 6 years. I was priest class officer for a majority of classic and BC, and have been an officer in one respect or another over the course of Wrath.
Honestly, I'd rather be a regular member than an officer. Sure, I like having a little bit of clout in a guild for when I decide to get some events rolling. I like being a motivational force, but I hate dealing with drama. I'm currently an officer in the guild I'm in now, but it's already been a whirlwind of drama, and I'm not really sure how well it's going to fair with the ramp-up in difficulty that we expect with Cataclysm. Some of the raiders are not really wanting to be the best they can be, but rather just good enough to get bosses down.
Donhorn Dec 5th 2010 9:44AM
I've been in all of... 3 1/2 guilds in my time on my main.
My first guild was okay, had some people I enjoyed playing with. They left to start a new guild so I figured I'd join em, but then it turned out they never did, they just went to other guilds.
Through this I found my second guild. It was actually older than I am, hailing back to the early 80's with DnD. It was a great group, but some health issues came up with the GL and... just about everyone left. I stuck around until I was the last one standing, then I remembered a sister guild that the GL had spoken fondly of. I went and found them, joined up, and am now the Druid Class Leader (Or more like co-leader, someone else does Resto while I do Balance) and in the best family I've ever been part of in WoW.