The Guild Counsel: No one helps me!
There's a certain type of loot that everyone wants, and it's not gear or a fancy sword or an epic. It's help. The whole notion of a guild, alliance, corporation, or clan is based on the idea that members will come together to help each other out in accomplishing both individual goals and larger guild achievements. On raid nights, it's easy to quantify the help -- everyone on the raid is performing his role for the team, and everyone is after the same goal, which is to down a big boss and reap the rewards. On off-nights, it's much harder to gauge "help." One member might need help on a dungeon crawl for a quest update. Another might need help with a crafting combine with catching up on levels and gear. The problem is that not everyone is on the same page, and for several reasons, those calls for help can go unanswered, leading to frustration, venting, and much guild drama. In the end, it's the guild leader who's crying for help.
In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll answer that cry for help and look at ways for guild leaders to take on the difficult issue of whom and when to help.
Help is like a bank: You have to put in what you want to take out. I haven't had to use this analogy in a while, but early on, I was saying this constantly. Being tagged does not mean that the guild is here for your bidding. If you want help, you need to be available to help others as well. What amazes me is that you find this self-centered attitude as much in adults as in younger players. A member who logs in and spams guild chat with calls for help is toxic to a guild's atmosphere. Other members avoid that person like the plague, and you'll inevitably have to deal with that demanding player when he vents his frustration, either publicly or privately to you.
Communication is key: Be a doer. It's amazing to me how often you'll see five people in guild all casually mentioning how they'd like to do a group or something, and they never make the move to set one up. Too often, it will rest on a guild leader's shoulders to be that doer, so expect that as part of the title. If you're willing to be the glue, your guild will flourish in the long run.
Schedule, schedule, schedule. If you know you have four people in guild who need an update from a dungeon run, why would you want to run it four separate times? When you hear someone ask in guild, coordinate with others, see who needs something, and if you can't do it that night, plan a time in the immediate future to get it done. That's perfectly reasonable for any member, and if someone in your guild can't wait a day or two to get it done, he isn't worth having on the roster in the long run. It doesn't seem like it sometimes, but members do appreciate your effort to include them in things, and the less time you spend running updates or grinding questlines, the better off everyone in the guild will be.
Balance the needs of members with needs for help. You can't prod people into helping all the time; they need time to let their hair down, play with friends, and do what they enjoy. After all, it's a game. At the same time, you want to try to reduce the feeling that there are cliques in the guild, so try to set up nights when people mix it up a bit. A mix of the two tends to work well for everyone.
Not all help is equal. If, as a guild leader, I decided to answer every call for help, not only would I never play the game for myself, but I'd never sleep again. Early on, I was probably guilty of helping too much, because I thought that if I didn't, I'd lose members. Over time, I realized that help is like a snowflake -- no two pleas are alike. I choose to weigh the call for help based on several factors. First, how does this individual need help the guild overall? Sitting in a dungeon for 10 days to camp a Cleric epic seems insane, but in the end it was worth it because it gave the guild a game-changing tool. Ok, looking back, it was insane, no matter what. The point is, if someone is spamming guild chat asking for help to get his purple sparklie glitter mount, that isn't a priority item. On the other hand, someone who is asking for help getting upgrades that make him a stronger member on raids is worth helping.
Don't expect a thank-you. It's harsh, but if you go into guild leading expecting praise and thank-you notes for your efforts, you're going to get disillusioned pretty quickly. Every now and then, you will see a post of thanks, and it's satisfying, but don't expect it all the time. The thanks comes in the form of loyal members who end up subscribing to a team attitude without constant prodding from you. Your decision on what help to offer sets the tone that others will quickly pick up on. If you strike the right balance, you'll have members who are eager to answer the call and who won't abuse the privilege of being able to ask for help in the first place. MMOs certainly don't make it easy for guild leaders -- the notion that you need dozens of players to acquire an individual reward certainly isn't very team-friendly. But because of that fact, the better you can find the happy medium between taking time to help others and taking time for individual goals, the happier your guild will be.
Now help me out! I'm on the hunt for your guild questions or discussion topics. If there's something your guild is experiencing right now that you'd like to discuss or an issue that you just can't seem to resolve, please send it to me at karen@massively.com. With all of the new games that have just launched or are soon to be released, there are lots of topics to cover. I'm looking to you for what you'd put at the top of the list!
Do you have a guild problem that you just can't seem to resolve? Have a guild issue that you'd like to discuss? Every week, Karen Bryan takes on reader questions about guild management right here in The Guild Counsel column. She'll offer advice, give practical tips, and even provide a shoulder to lean on for those who are taking up the challenging task of running a guild.
