Officers' Quarters: Cataclysm guild roundup

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press.

This is it, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight at midnight PST, Blizzard will knock down the velvet ropes around the expansion's leveling zones and usher in a new era of World of Warcraft. At the same time, Cataclysm will provide new guild features, including leveling, achievements, and reputation.

Certainly this is one of the most exciting times in WoW's history to be a guild officer. This expansion provides new tools, new goals, and new opportunities for guilds and those who lead them. The question remains: Is your guild ready for it?

After the break, I've linked to every Cataclysm-related Officers' Quarters column, as well as some other columns that may help you with issues related to the increased level cap, the redesign of WoW's raid system, and other expansion matters. Our members are counting on us to provide a stable and effective guild community before and after we all hit 85. Let's not disappoint them!

Leadership

• the impact of the patch 4.0.1 changes

• managing the flood of new alts

• keeping your guild working together through the leveling process, part 1 and part 2

• updating guild policies to suit a new expansion
  

New guild systems

• methods for earning guild achievements faster

• more achievements I'd like to see implemented -- and some I never want to see the light of day

• a review of guild perks, part 1 and part 2

• a reaction to the guild reputation announcement

• a defense of the scrapped guild talent trees

• comments about the guild leveling and talents announcements from BlizzCon 2009

• predictions about guilds in Cataclysm based on the original BlizzCon 2009 guild system announcements

Raiding

• why I believe the new raiding paradigm will benefit officers

• the right raid size for your guild, part 1, part 2, and part 3

• the best method for filling raid slots

• the ideal number of raiders for your guild

• managing your raid lockouts

• solving scheduling headaches

• convincing (or coercing) your raiders to tackle hard modes

Drama

• learning how not to be a freeloader when you join a guild for the perks

• preventing guild-perk freeloaders from taking over your guild

• advice for a guild leader returning to his guild after an absence

• navigating the A team/B team conundrum

• deciding who gets a guild-first legendary

• surviving waiting for the rest of your guild after you hit max level

• resolvinge group-quest conflict

On a final, unrelated note, if anyone has sent me an email over the past few weeks, there seems to have been a glitch with our system, and I may not have received it. Please give us a few more days to resolve the problem and then resend it. Thanks for your patience!

/salute

Learn how to survive the leveling process, deal with guild perk freeloaders, and discuss the guild talent controversy or the guild reputation system. Send Scott your guild-related questions and suggestions at scott@wow.com; you may find your question the subject of next week's Officers' Quarters!