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Officers' Quarters: 3 resolutions to improve your guild in 2013
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. If your guild has been struggling during the last weeks of 2012, now is the time to take steps that ensure a better 2013. Here are three ways you could get the New Year started off right. 1. Add fresh blood to the officer ranks. Are your current officers pushing themselves too hard? Or are they doing barely anything at all? If so, then it's high time you took a look at what needs to be done around the guild and who's actually doing it. You may have some lame-duck officers who shouldn't be officers anymore, and some hard-working regular members who deserve a promotion. Adding new officers -- and/or culling useless ones -- can energize your leadership corps. Having more hands to man the ship can spread the work around and ease burnout symptoms. New officers also means new ideas that can spark new guild activities or better approaches to old ones. New officers can also inject some much-needed enthusiasm as they seek to make their mark and prove to the vets that they are worthy of the rank. If your guild has been stagnating lately, a new officer or two can liven things up.
Officers' Quarters: Three questions from a raid leader
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. Today's email comes from a raid leader with three different questions regarding raid comps, bank mats, and problem raiders. Let's jump right into it! Hello Scott, I am currently a high officer in a a new 25 raiding guild, MT and fairly new raid leader. ... Recently, after a pug for MV, 4 new raiders decided to join our roster, enabling for us to have a full raid group. The issue comes then, in to parts: Since the problems we've had finding raiders, we were "forced" to take those 4 new guild mates, making a core group not as efficient due to lack of variety, therefore buffs, abilities, cooldowns, etc. How inconvenient truely is this composition with repeated classes? Furthermore, I would ask you for advice on how to encourage members to contribute with mats, Golden Lotus for example, to the gbank such as other raiding comodities? Nevertheless, the main reason I was willing to write to you, is the fact that we have two of those new raiders too close-minded.
Officers' Quarters: Too much Stormstout ale
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. Adult raiders are free to enjoy a few adult beverages while they raid. This week, a guild leader wonders what to do when a raider has a few too many and ruins a night of raiding. (He also asks about raid scheduling, which isn't nearly as interesting, but we'll talk about it anyway.) Hi Scott, Yes, it's me again, Apocalyptic GM, sorry to be bothering you again, but you did such a good job last time of giving advice, that i felt the need to come to you again, especially now that two further large problems have arisen within my guild. Firstly, the issue of raiding days. Currently i work shifts of 4 on 4 off at night time, which means i am only available for every 4 out of 8 days. We raided fine with this for the last 6 months ... but recently there has been some descent among the ranks, and complaints that people aren't happy with the current raiding days set up, and this hampering our time raiding. Now I could easily change to a fixed raiding days, but that would leave me frequently absent from raids, which is not something i would prefer. And this leaves me in a pickle as to what to do. As guild master and raid leader I feel I should be able to set up raids to suit me, but then I also feel I should better accomodate my guild.
Officers' Quarters: My rant about raid roles
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. It's been a long time since my last rant, but I read something today that really irked me, and now I feel compelled to write this column. I don't want to quote the email because the person involved asked a question that had nothing to do with this topic, and he was really just an innocent bystander getting hit with the shrapnel of a raid team willfully blowing itself up. The part of his email that set me off was essentially this: "Our realm has very few healers, and we haven't been able to recruit one for months. As a result, our raid team is disbanding, and the raiders are going their separate ways. Our guild might lose every single officer except me." To this I respond: What a bunch of selfish jerks.
Officers' Quarters: When the old guard returns
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. Officers come and go. Real life intervenes, burnout sets in, interest wanes -- these things happen, and officers disappear for months or even years. But sometimes they come back. This week, one officer asks, what then? Hi Scott, I'm officer and raid leader of an intense 2/week 10-man raiding guild that's been running in one shape or another since TBC. Due to some old timers coming back we're now in a situation where our raid consists of 50% officers – and only 3 of them by function. We've always steered closer to adhocracy than bureaucracy, so the title is secondary to most of us – my main concern is that so much communication is now happening within the officer-circle that we're alienating our crucial core raiders for no apparent reason.
Officers' Quarters: 10 tips for successful guild events
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. Guild events outside of the usual raiding and PvP activities can help break up the monotony and get people excited about their guild. This week's email comes from an "event officer" who wants to know, how do you get people to show up? I am an officer in my guild, and we have been re-evaluating our roles. I am considering becoming the Social Event Coordinator, and I am looking for some advice to get things started. ... My ideas include scheduling nights to do scenarios/dungeons for achievements, old school raids, and probably a pet battle league once people aren't as focused on gearing up for raids. My questions are: Do you have any suggestions on how to communicate to guildies that aren't around much that these events are being planned? Do you have suggestions on how to determine interest before scheduling? Do you have suggestions on how to encourage participation? Do you have other event ideas that have worked for you?
Officers' Quarters: Elegon, the Raidslayer
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. Oh, Elegon, you magnificently annoying Titan-created celestial Internet dragon. You are far from the hardest boss Blizzard has ever designed, but you require precision in all phases in order to win. One mistake by any member can botch the whole attempt. You are part of the tradition of unforgiving first-tier bosses such as Magtheridon and Blackwing Descent's Nefarian. It's no surprise to me, then, that some guilds are struggling with you. This week, one raid leader is questioning what he can do to improve his chances before his entire team falls apart. hello Scott, i really need some advice here. i am a officer and raid leader in a progression guild. i run two raid teams - the second and third for our guild. when i joined here, i came to be with friends, and with the understanding that there was no raid spot for me in the primary team, so to raid i would have to start my own progression group. that was almost a year ago. I already had a group that i raid my primary alt with, a casual fun group that i love, and now this progression group for my main. Both groups joined the guild with me. so, in a nutshell, here's the problem: I'm not much good at raid leading.
Officers' Quarters: Leading as a teen
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. How young is too young to lead a guild? What do you do when your guild doesn't even know your true age? This week, a teen guild leader wonders how long he can keep things going. Hi Scott. I'm a fifteen year old teenager who loved Wow. A couple of months ago I joined this guild, it was a level three guild full of nice,social players. I loved the guild as it had a brilliant atmosphere. I joined there raid team and rose through the ranks to become an officer. In August, I took two weeks off and when I returned the two guild leaders were absent. Neither of them had been online in a few days and members were leaving the guild. So, I took over the guild and have begun rebuilding it. It is now a level 10 guild with nearly a full raid team. But, I am worried about a few things surrounding my leadership.
Officers' Quarters: DPS the vote
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. As some of the insane political tactics in recent weeks remind us, we're less than a month away from election day in America. On. Nov. 6, nearly all Americans will have the opportunity to vote. Guilds don't often work that way, but should they? This week, one officer wonders whether his new guild leader is giving too much voting power to the masses. Dear Scott, I recently stepped down from being the leader of my guild due to obligations outside of World of Warcraft. Before I stepped down, I placed a new system in effect that is very similar to a city council at the request of the existing members. I selected our five current officers and myself as councilmen. I appointed a trusted friend of mine as the new guild leader/council chairman, and he has some pretty colorful ideas as to how our guild's structure should work. My friend feels that our guild should allow members who have been active to become councilmen, like us, giving them an equal vote on all issues. Quite frankly this scares the heck out of me.
Officers' Quarters: 9 suggestions for a new guild leader
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. This week's email is short and to the point. A player who wants to take the plunge into guild leadership is nervous about the prospect. I have some suggestions for him that I think can also apply to just about any officer, but first, the email: Hello Scott, I've been playing WoW for an extremely long time, a shameful amount of time to be fair... but I've never been happy with the guilds I've been in, so I'm thinking about starting my own guild. I'm willing to put the effort and money into making it work. I mean, I've got a crazy amount of ideas I'd like to implement to create a sense of community and loyality into the guild but I'm absolutely petrified about starting off. The recruitment for example just seems so damn daunting! I'm scared Scott :( but I'm afraid I won't be able to see the content the way I like to see it if I don't do this though. From Craig of Azjol-Nerub EU Hi, Craig. I'm always thrilled to hear about players who are ready and willing to lead. I'm happy to help you. Also, I love your lists. Here's mine. 1. Have a vision. Hundreds of people a week, I'm betting, say to themselves, I want to start a guild and do things my way. But what they really mean is, I want to start a guild exactly like all the other guilds out there, but I want to be in charge this time. When you say you want to see content "your way," that sends up a red flag to me.
Officers' Quarters: Leaks in the ship
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. You know things are bad in your guild when a newly appointed officer decides to leak private officer information to nonofficers. This week, an officer/raid leader seeks advice for a guild that feels like its sinking. Hi Scott I belong to a small social guild with less than 400 on the roster. Given that a lot of people have alts the number of players is going to be a lot less than that, though I'm not sure of the actual figure. Recently the GM posted on the MotD that the guild needed new officers and could people please send him recommendations. The next day I logged on and saw 4 people being congratulated on their promotion. I'm a senior officer in this guild and I had thought that it would go to a vote before anyone was promoted. . . . I asked the GM why we needed more officers and what their responsibilities would be. His response was "we're down to 16 and need more for advisor's and to help the guild". None of the officers currently have specific duties and everything falls to three of the senior officers, myself and two others. Most of the officers don't even attend the meetings he promoted them to advise at. This morning I logged on to drama as the new promotion (that I'd had reservations about) had leaked some officer notes to their friends in the guild. These notes I admit weren't flattering but they were accurate of their behaviour which is why there were there.
Officers' Quarters: 4 radical ways to help your guild stand out in Mists
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. Today we stand at the precipice of a new era. In less than 24 hours, Mists of Pandaria will usher in what could be called the Fifth Age of WoW. The long wait through 2012 has been hard on guilds, but that time is now over. If your guild has made it this far, you should be proud of that, but this is not a time to rest. This is a time to ensure that your guild will thrive. In this new era, the best method to recruit players will not change: finding ways to set your guild apart from the dozens of others on your server. Here are four ways to do just that -- but be warned! These are not for the faint of heart. 1. Offer tutorial runs of the new dungeons. Blizzard's new guild mentoring program is a great idea, but just because your guild wasn't selected doesn't mean you can't be a force for good on your server. This strategy requires patient guild members who have run the dungeons in beta or who get a lot of practice in the early weeks of the expansion. Start an initiative on your server in which, one night a week, you offer to run players through dungeons while teaching them the boss mechanics. Players will very much appreciate the chance to learn the runs in a low-stress and constructive environment rather than the merciless meat-grinder boot camp of the dungeon finder.
Officers' Quarters: Five ways to spot scam guilds
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. Internet scams are nothing new. They're as old as the Web itself. MMOs have opened up new channels for scammers to operate, and WoW is no exception. As we approach the launch of Mists, unscrupulous players may try to take advantage of the influx of players by setting up fake guilds. This week, one reader wants to share a scam story from her server in the hope that it won't happen to others. Let's take a look, and then examine how you can spot one of these scam guilds before it's too late. Greetings, The following was posted to our server forums. I was hoping that maybe, with names redacted, you might address this in a future officer's quarters: Edited by [name] on 9/6/12 4:22 PM (PDT) [Player 1], [Player 2] and how to scam Guildies and Maximize Profit. We all know by now the sad story of what happened to . According to legend, [Player 2], booted everyone from the guild, took everything out of the guild bank, leaving a lot of members confused and wondering about what happened to their guild and their friends. Blizzard did nothing. Fast forward to the present day, we have [Player 2] bragging about his exploits and his mount in general chat / trade, flaunting the results of his ill gotten wealth and guess what? Blizzard still does nothing. was a guild created by [Player 1], promising members fast progression and offering PVP, raiding and a stable community. Recruiting was fast and furious, with [Player 1] and his alts spamming general/trade all hours of the day, and baiting players of all levels to join what would be a huge guild with progression in every aspect of the game. Under that promise, the guild expanded fast, never quite achieving the kind of raiding success that would make it noteworthy in that category (3/8 HDS), but still sucessful enough to garner a sizable amount of members. All seemed well for a while.
Officers' Quarters: Are you Napoleon?
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. Napoleon once said, "I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up." It's not a reassuring sentiment, but I respect the guy for being honest about it. The launch of Mists approaches in just a few short weeks. Many guilds are in a holding pattern right now, waiting for new content, new raids, new battlegrounds, and new achievements. It's the calm before the storm, and in that calm I would like every officer reading this to ask themselves, honestly, whether or not they should still be an officer when the expansion goes live. Would Illidan fire you? Think about your role in the guild from a business management perspective. Imagine you had a WoW boss. For no specific reason, I like to imagine Illidan as my WoW boss: wearing a suit, reading glasses delicately perched over his blindfold, reviewing Black Temple budget reports. If Illidan were paying you to be an officer, would he be satisfied with your contributions? Are you doing enough to earn a paycheck? If Illidan had reports of all the work that you've done on the guild's behalf lately, would he give you a raise, or would he fire you?
Officers' Quarters: 5 ways to retain members in Mists
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. Mists of Pandaria represents a unique and unprecedented era for guilds. It will be the first time in WoW's long history that a player can see all of the game's instanced raiding content without a guild, by simply queuing up in the raid finder. Many people mock the raid finder experience. It's easy to make light of it, but to underestimate its impact on the game could cost your guild dearly. Guilds are no longer the gatekeepers to content. To keep those members who are on the fence about staying, you need to offer more. You need to add value to their WoW experience and make sure that members have confidence in the guild's leadership. Let's look at five ways to help you do that.
Officers' Quarters: Guild raiding identity
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 from No Starch Press. In past columns, I've talked about how most drama is the result of expectations that differ from reality. In this week's email, we have a perfect example of that. Good morning, afternoon, evening Scott, We've recently run into a unique problem in our guild. I've previously been a guild leader and officer elsewhere, and have taken up the chief raid leader position in my current guild, and this problem is unlike anything I've encountered before. We're a relatively new startup guild (only 5 months old), comprised mostly of people who are just returning to the game after trying out a few other failed "WoW killers." I met most of the current leadership in these other games, so when they asked me to be the raid leader for them in WoW, I jumped at the chance to return. The structure was set up so that I would lead a progressive-minded raiding core of 25 raiders, while more casual raiders would have both a weekend and weekday 10-man option. We even built in a casual officer who organizes other games, old-school raiding, fishing contests, etc. The idea was for everyone to have something to do if they wanted, while all contributing in some way to each others' successes.
Officers' Quarters: A closed guild opens its gates
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 from No Starch Press. This week's email presents an interesting case: The leaders of a guild that hasn't recruited anyone in four years want to open up its roster again. And one of them just might have stumbled on a brilliant recruiting pitch! Dear Scott: Recently I was promoted to a pseudo-Guild Lead (I have all the power but not the title). Not a Co-GL, a pseudo-GL. The founders of the guild are still keeping all of their power and titles of GL and Co-GL, but they aren't as active anymore and want the guild to go in a different direction. So below them and slightly to the left is me, the pseudo leader, trying to take the guild in this new direction while at the same time bring back a lot of our current members. Now to explain. About mid Wrath a lot of the guild members transferred their mains to a different guild in hopes of getting better gear ... Things got worse early Cata. I'm not sure what it was like on other servers, but on my server and in randoms there was a lot of bullying and people just being mean. And I'm not talking about the everyday mean you can encounter online, I mean guild members were brought to tears because of the harassment and haven't played since. About 80% of the guild dropped off. I'll be honest, because of the harassment I faced, I haven't done a heroic or raid since.
Officers' Quarters: PvP guild on a PvE realm
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 from No Starch Press. Can a strictly PvP guild work on a PvE server? According to the email below, the trolls in trade chat say that it's doomed to fail. Are they right? Dear Scott, I have a problem and would like some advice. Ive been RBG leader for the past month or so for my guild. We are a pvp-only guild that plays on Elune, and thats kind of my problem. We kind of have a constant recruiting, though we have at least 10 players on all the times Im on, and about 30 at prime times. I post on tradechat a guild advertisement or two, just cause we do need decent pvpers still. Some of the people on tradechat said that our guild is bad, and that we stink at pvp. I tried to show a couple people making these remarks some ratings, but in vein. They stated that since we were on a pve server, why would we be good? I know personally that we have some VERY good players in our guild, but I dont know how to make them believe that.
Officers' Quarters: Culture shock
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 from No Starch Press. This week's email presents an interesting situation about recruiting, loot, raiding, and drama. I'll let it speak for itself. Help Me Guild Master Guru - You're My Only Hope!!! I've written in the past and you've been helpful. I have a doosie for you. My guild has been around for almost 3 years and I've been a guild leader and officer for about 4 years. We're your average run of the mill raiding guild with a little more than half of the heroic bosses down in DS. We're more than just a guild, we're a family. Our focus is on raiding and killing bosses. Our policies and mission reflect that focus. We recently had a discussion among our leadership about possibly absorbing the core members of another guild that's falling apart. They raid with a little more intensity than we do, but we have members that want to raid at that intensity. So there was discussion about having one group raid at that intensity and our other 2-3 groups just mosey along like we've always done. The problem was, the officer from the other guild that I was discussing this with had his own ideas for this raid team that didn't quite jive with us (especially regarding the loot policy). One of our officers was extremely vocal and emotional against this happening. The discussion derailed and that's no longer an option.
Officers' Quarters: Meter padding mayhem
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 from No Starch Press. Ah, meter padding. It's an age-old tradition dating back to Molten Core. Vanilla raiders will remember the Core Hound packs between Lucifron and Magmadar. You had to kill them all within a certain amount of time or they would begin to rez each other. That meant the hounds that were "dead" could still take damage. Rather than finishing off the last few, some DPSers would simply spam AoE on the pile of dead bodies -- meter padding at its finest! This week, a raid leader asks how he can get his DPSers to stop causing wipes by padding the meters in Dragon Soul. Hi Scott, I was recently promoted to raid leader in my guild and while I consider my guild to be fairly good, we do have one fairly serious problem. The good old meter padding. We initially managed to kill madness and spine at the 5% nerf, but since then blizzard has increased the nerf to 30% and when we have to ask our dps to simply stand around and not attack, they simply choose not to listen which sometimes leads to a wipe.
