guide-to-officers
Latest
Officers' Quarters: The constant complainers
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. Just about every guild has its complainers. The bigger your community, the more you'll have to deal with members who think you're single-handedly out to drive the guild into the ground, and they are the only ones standing between you and wholesale destruction. Perhaps I'm overdramatizing, but sometimes it can certainly feel that way. Some complainers can be positively relentless. This week's email comes from an officer who's afraid the complaints are about to force his guild leader to take drastic action. Hey, I'm an officer of a medium-sized raiding guild that currently has two 10-mans and working on getting a third. During ICC we had three 10-mans, which we will call A, B, C and a 25-man [...] When we began raiding, we only had enough raiders to form one 10-man Raid A. Two months later, we got enough people to form another raid B, and a few weeks after that we form the last one Raid C. Everything was going good, all the raids where progressing [at] a similar pace, we down Lich King a few times, did a few heroic modes, than decided to close down our 25-man raid a few weeks before Cataclysm because of attendance issues. Than a bombshell dropped, one of our raiders (we shall call him Jon[...]) posted that he was concerned with our move to 10-man raiding in Cataclysm (basically not having a raid). We quickly addressed this issue saying that there would be two 10-mans at least with the possibility of a third, Problem solved, at least we thought. Then one of our [raiders] (who we will call Bob) posted a very long post on forums. He stated that while the GL [...] and I were excellent guild leaders [...] the other officers were effectually a joke. He went on to say that the Guild does not come together on anything, stating the last guild event he considered significant was our last ICC 25-man raid. Stated that during most days there is maybe five people online, "A WoW guild that does not raid, dies." (Despite us saying that we are done raiding until Cataclysm.) [...]
Officers' Quarters: Firelands will not save your guild
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. I try to be a glass-half-full sort of guy, especially when I write these columns. (I don't always succeed, but I try.) In my opinion, leaders should be optimists who prepare for the worst. Today, however, I have a rather pessimistic message for you: Firelands will not save your raiding guild. What I'm seeing with my own guild and what I'm hearing from all of you, week after week, is that guilds are struggling right now. With Cataclysm offering no new way to advance characters, long-time players are tiring of WoW's endless gear treadmill. Slots are becoming tougher and tougher to fill as players grow bored or frustrated with tier 11. Officers are burning out at a blistering pace. The playerbase, in general, is poised for something truly new -- not just a rehash of old raids. Firelands is our best hope -- but I'm sorry to say, it won't be enough.
Officers' Quarters: Wrath of the orange stick
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. WoW has had a fairly limited number of legendary items over the years. Some took a monumental effort (and a bit of luck) to put together; others just fell into our hands. Either way, obtaining one has always been a big deal. Patch 4.2 is rectifying a longstanding omission by offering caster DPSers their own, exclusive legendary weapon: Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest. Sure, you could count Atiesh, but only a handful of guilds around the world ever assembled one, and it could be used by healers as well. Needless to say, casters are hyped, and every caster wants one. Cue the drama: Hi Scott, I just wanted to suggest a topic for the next Officers' Quarters: How to choose who gets Dragonwrath. The casters in our group all want and think they deserve the staff, but we're having trouble agreeing on how to decide. Raw DPS, seniority, voting amongst the group, and even chance have been suggested. Thanks for any help! Unfortunately, only one caster in your guild will have the thrill of being the first to complete the quest line. Your guild might be able to assemble more than one down the road, but that's irrelevant right now. Everyone wants to be first. How can we single out one player for this amazing reward?
Officers' Quarters: When raiders hold your guild hostage
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. In these lean times, guilds need to put up with quite a bit in order to keep a viable raiding roster. Sometimes officers will overlook repeated absences and put aside some of their policies because benching a player means canceling a raid. This situation tends to spiral, as players figure out that they can flaunt the rules without consequence. Sometimes it even reaches the point that players make demands. I've heard of many such situations, but none as ridiculous as this one. Hi, I raid lead a progression 10 man team, raiding nine hours a week since Cataclysm has been released. So far we are doing quite well for progression, but due to two weeks last month where we had one dps team member quit the game without notice we were left trying to find PuGs. We got so many whispers and in game mail complaining about PuGing that we recruited two dps, a pair of friends. One has become the guild's best dps. Since one of them had only seen the first few bosses, we asked one of our dps if he could sit out for two weeks as a favor to us to let her get some gear and experience. Where we started having problems was when we asked her to sit, with 24 hour notice, out Heroic Halfus and Cho'gall in the second week so the other player could get a chance at his Tier shoulders and chest upgrade since he was the only one who could use them if they dropped. Her friend was not happy that she was sitting out and argued she could use the loot from those two bosses, too.
Officers' Quarters: Making the most of the guild finder
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. A helpful feature for guild officers was added with patch 4.1, but I haven't seen many people talking about it yet. The guild finder isn't going to replace other recruiting techniques, but it can be a solid addition to your toolkit. For WoW, it represents a milestone: Players now have a viable method of searching for guilds within the game. In the past, looking for a guild usually meant whispering players you didn't know, combing through forums that often lack good search features, or -- worst of all -- asking in trade chat. (Yes, there is also a specific guild recruitment chat channel, but I've never heard of anyone using it.) With the addition of the guild finder, players have a far better option, but only if guild leaders use it -- and use it wisely. I did a quick search for guilds on my own realm (Khadgar US). With apologies to the guild leaders there, I didn't see a single ad that took full advantage of what the finder can provide. Let's talk about how we can make the most of this new UI feature.
Officers' Quarters: Wait-listing is the hardest part
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. As interest in WoW declines and guilds finds themselves once again facing six months or more of raiding the same content, player retention is going to become a huge issue for officers. For raiding guilds, the hardest players to retain are those on the fringes of your team, the extra three to five people who are most often asked to sit out and be "waitlisted" or put on "standby." These terms are really just euphemisms for the same thing: sitting on the bench. This week, one officer asks how to keep these players from moving on to other guilds. Hi Scott, I'm an officer in a well established 25 man guild. Throughout the 2+ years we've been raiding, we've always had issues with recruiting beyond that 25th player. Whenever we pick someone up, it always seems that someone else drops out, and we're back to relying on every last player in our raid to show up, or else we're running with a man down or scrambling to get a new recruit or a casual guild member in. There have been several times where we did have 29 or 30 people online for raid nights, usually after another guild has collapsed and we pick up a few extra recruits at the same time. However, it always seems to never last.
Officers' Quarters: That other guild reputation
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. These days, when you say "guild reputation," most people think of the guild rep grind that's required to buy items like the Armadillo Pup and the Dark Phoenix. Cataclysm didn't invent this concept -- the expansion simply turned what already exists into a specific number with some fun rewards attached. As long as there have been guilds, there have been players with an opinion about them, and vice versa. This kind of reputation plays a huge role in a guild's success or failure, particularly when it comes to recruiting. This week, an officer with a rep problem asks how to deal with a handful of former members who are sabotaging the guild's recruiting efforts. Hey Scott, So my guild is fairly new (about 3-4 months) we started at the beginning of cataclysm as a guild of friends who wanted to raid on the weekends together. We slowly built up and developed a raider base however it was very difficult to get new players as every other guild on the server was looking for people. We had around 6-7 devoted raiders but those last 3 or so raiding slots left it difficult for us to pug and find members in general who were willing to raid. We went through a variety of members in these slots but most of these people didn't understand the concept of a "raiding guild." Some misunderstandings occurred and over the course of our guilds existence we developed about 4-5 "haters."
Officers' Quarters: How to replace an absentee 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, available now from No Starch Press. A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about the high rate of burnout among officers and guild leaders in particular. Lately I've been hearing about a lot of situations where guild leaders have stepped down or outright vanished. Not all such decisions are the result of burnout, of course. Sometimes, real-life obligations get in the way. Regardless of the reason, losing a guild leader can be absolutely devastating to a guild. If the community was already on the rocks, the disappearance of a guild leader can be the last straw. How can the remaining officers make the transition to new leadership with their guild intact?
Officers' Quarters: The perils of guild mergers
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. With many guilds struggling to keep viable rosters, officers are left with few solutions. The first is of course recruiting players. However, finding those quality members can be a long, difficult road, fraught with setbacks and frustration. For some guilds, a better option can be forming an alliance or outright merging with another like-minded community. This week, one officer wants to know how to manage it -- and how to keep a few negative nancies from spoiling the endeavor. Another similar guild on the server is about to merge into our guild. [. . .]Short background: both guilds have two 10 man teams: A progression and casual/alt team. We're going to keep the same teams intact for the most part (with minor shuffling for integration) [. . .]. Moreover, the alt/casual C Team will have a bigger pool to draw from for the easy/entry level stuff. Officer structure will largely stay the same – we have a GM, raid leader & heal officer (me) / they have mostly the same but with an extra pair of officers. So, aside from those details we grouped the officers from both sides into Vent last night and had a chat about the above and general future. Personally, I'm excited. I think new blood will refresh the guild and the personalities are already so similar that I don't foresee any problems. That was until we hit our guild forums.
Officers' Quarters: 5 tips for guild recruiting in a post-Cataclysm world
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. Last week, we talked about why officers are burning out so early in the expansion. Many of the same factors have burned out average raiders and PvPers, also, leaving gaping holes in our rosters. In the current environment, recruiting can be extremely difficult. I've received quite a few emails lately asking for tips. Here's my best advice. 1. Don't be intimidated by guild level and achievements. So you just started a guild, or your guild hasn't kept pace with leveling since the expansion went live. Those perks are awesome, and no one will join unless you have them, right? Wrong -- players care a lot more about the type of community they're joining and the sorts of members that inhabit your roster. They care more about whether or not your schedule meshes with theirs. And they care more about having fun than 10% more justice points or faster mount speed. Well, maybe I'm generalizing a bit and not everyone feels that way, but honestly, do you even want a player on your roster who cares more about those things than the quality of the guild? Don't fill your roster with random players just to level faster. You'll only hurt the community in the long run.
Officers' Quarters: Burnout already?
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. In the emails that I've been receiving lately, I've noticed a disturbing trend: Many guild leaders are finding themselves burned out right now. On the surface, it doesn't make much sense. After all, the expansion is only a few months old. Many guilds are still progressing through tier 11, earning new perks every week, and looking forward to all the great new content that future patches will bring. How can so many guild leaders already be burned out? A few factors are feeding this trend. The first is the insanely long gap between the release of Icecrown Citadel in patch 3.3 and Cataclysm. The Ruby Sanctum was hardly any help to keep raiders interested during this time. Most of the guild leaders who survived that period did so by constant recruiting, merging with other guilds, or working diligently to keep players interested in raiding; all of these are high-stress situations. Then Cataclysm released, and rather than breathing a sigh of relief, these guild leaders now had a whole new ball game to contend with. They have had to ensure their raiders or PvPers were prepared for endgame content in which the gear curve was suddenly much steeper than it had been since the early days of The Burning Crusade. Raiding guilds have had to make tough choices about the size of the raids they would coordinate and how they would deal with gear in the new loot paradigm. Once those guilds made it into raid zones, they found themselves up against bosses much tougher than those in Wrath's first tier and completely unfamiliar to most players -- unlike those in the endless Icecrown runs we knew by heart.
Officers' Quarters: A RIFT in leadership
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. Ah, RIFT -- if you keep up with MMO news outside this blog (or even if you don't), you've likely heard of this new title from Trion Worlds that has recently launched with much fanfare and success. Whenever a new triple-A MMO title releases, a portion of WoW subscribers are always curious enough about the new game to give it a try. Some decide that WoW is better and return. Some fall in love with the new game and never come back. For guild leaders, the issue of other games is particularly tricky. This week, one leader asks for advice on making a graceful exit from his guild so he can try his luck in Telara. Scott, I'm in my second stint as guild leader for what was a huge 40 man raiding guild in Vanilla and is now a small friends and family 10 man guild. [. . .]Wrath was great for us with the accessibility of the content and we all had fun doing most of the 10 man content available. That lasted until this summer when many of us got busy with kids, gardens, vacations, etc and we ended up taking a de facto break while waiting for Cata. With the release of Cata, most players returned to the game and we set out on getting into the new content and trying to fill the gaps that had been left by players who didn't return or moved to other guilds. However, with a raiding model more similar to TBC or Vanilla and the seemingly larger time commitments to get into what is, frankly, not-very-interesting content, things have kind of stalled before even beginning raiding; it's gotten to the point where about half the active membership (myself included) just isn't interested in playing WoW anymore.
Officers' Quarters: Based on true 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, available now from No Starch Press. This week's Officers' Quarters is going to be a little bit different than the norm. Usually I choose an email and do my best to offer advice and guidance to solve a guild-related problem. In this case of the email below, I didn't think it was worth using for a column. There are many emails that I respond to privately that I don't plan to feature on the site, usually either because they deal with a topic similar to one I've covered in the past or because the answer is relatively straightforward. Then, about a week ago, I received a followup message from the player that made this situation worth a second look. Below, I'll post the email, my response, and the player's inspiring followup. Cata has hit and with it, we saw a few server transfers. Our guild ranks have been bursting with new and returning players. As a tank, I've been doing a lot of work to run heroics and rotate players with me so that they can benefit from guild groups but I've noticed most of the other officers are staying in their officer-cliques. I've tried socializing with them and they've become more friendly in the last few months, but I still don't feel comfortable with them, mostly. A lot of time they will [. . .] go back and forth with banter about incest, rape, genital mutilation, bestiality and other shock-value crap. These people are all my age (25-35) and while separately they can be pleasant, together they are gross and after months of hearing it I decided to ask them to cool the talk in public areas.
Officers' Quarters: Directing your cash flow
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. Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote a column about guild bank gold and the proper use of it. The game has changed quite a bit since then. Most guilds now have a steady income from the Cash Flow perk. With the consolidation of loot tables for both raid sizes, even smaller raiding guilds can loot and sell some pretty impressive BoEs. Guilds are no longer dependent on the generosity of their own members to stay in the black. In this new "business model," two officers are having a debate about how to use this income to the guild's best advantage. This week's email spells out their arguments: Hey Scott, I recently got into an argument with my friend, and we are both officers of the same guild. We were discussing how the guild bank is to function. Specifically, I wanted to use the guild money which we got from BoE epics to make flasks for the raid at a much lower cost than AH. He didn't approve of the idea that [the] guild bank is losing money for something that should be mandatory for the raid. My points for this are: guild epic BoEs are earned collectively as a group, so the gold we get are technically "shared" towards the whole raid guild bank money wont be used for anything else He responds by saying that: guild bank money should only be used for emergencies a considerable amount of gbank money would make our guild look less "scratchy" (ie having 0 gold will make us look bad) we should not be giving free gold to members because we are already doing so much (ie leading raids, recruiting) he stresses that its not "necessary" to help them out, as they should be self-sufficient in preparing for raids anyways
Officers' Quarters: Be careful what you promise
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. Promises, promises. Politicians make them all the time. In fact, many of them get elected based on those promises. No one seems surprised anymore when a politician fails to deliver on a campaign promise, yet our guild members usually expect us to do what we say we will. Could it be that guild officers are actually held to a higher standard? Let's look at this week's email to find out! Hello I am an officer (well one of 2) in a medium sized semi raiding guild We also have a large number of "casual" players in our guild. During LK era, we had 2 different 10 man raiding teams going on. Both groups I took the time to rotate different players out each given week so everyone had a chance to raid.The second group was also made up of some of the first group's alts. This was very stressful on me due to I would take all week to get the groups ready only to have someone say at the last minute would say oh I can't make it 5 minutes before raid started, then I would have to rework the "group composition" in a flurry to be able to start the raid on time. Well during Cata we all agreed we did not want to do rotations and only wanted to do 10 man raids and wanted two solid 10 man groups with the same people every week ( with a stand by if needed), so we could work as a "family" unit and mesh well together.
Officers' Quarters: When a sense of obligation covers up burnout
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. Officer burnout takes many forms. Sometimes it manifests as a subtle, creeping bitterness. Sometimes it shows up suddenly, as unexpected rage. Sometimes, it's a feeling of emptiness, like the one described in this week's email. This week, I'll look at this particular form of burnout and talk about what this officer can do to cure it. Dear Officer's Quarters, I am an officer in a fairly successful 25-man raiding guild (currently #2 on our server). I've been part of the guild leadership for over a year at this point, and my tenure has been characterized by my dedication and hard work. My guildmaster has privately told me on several occasions that he feels that I'm the person in the guild that "tries the hardest." However, of late, I feel that my hard work is no longer rewarding me with anything, not even a feeling of accomplishment.
Officers' Quarters: Mailbox roundup 3 -- guild leadership
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. Here at Officers' Quarters, I receive a number of emails every week that don't get featured in the column for various reasons (which I explained the first time I did a roundup). Once again, it's time to examine some of these shorter -- but no less interesting! -- topics. This roundup's theme is guild leaders. High rank, low numbers Dear Officers' Quarters, I'm a relatively new member to an active 10-man raiding guild. Our guild is slowly pushing through Cataclysm raid content, and we are taking a slow and steady approach to progression raiding. We've downed Omnotron Defense System and Magmaw both times during our first two weeks of Blackwing Descent raiding, but now that we're considering switching gears and trying some Bastion of Twilight, we're running in to a bit of a problem: very low DPS out of some core raiders. When we first began stepping into Cataclysm raiding, I assumed it was gear related and that, after time, our DPS would go up, making the fights much easier. However, with an almost identical core group tackling these encounters, some of the raiders' gear has improved tremendously, while I'm still seeing similar DPS on the meters. This problem is also compounded by the fact that one of the biggest culprits of low DPS is our guild leader.
Officers' Quarters: Choice and consequence
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. Guild officers are faced with difficult choices all too frequently. Not every choice seems momentous at the time, but occasionally time and consequences prove that it was so. That's why it's helpful to look back at the decisions we made and consider how those choices determined the state of our guild today. Now that we have all fully embarked into the Cataclysm expansion, it's an interesting time to look back. Did a good decision during the lead-up to Tier 11 help to ensure a fun and successful content progression? Or, as one guild member is wondering, did a pivotal choice during Wrath doom a guild to mediocrity? Dear Officers' Quarters, This is neither a current issue nor one I had real influence on, but it concerned me and a tough decision by our officers. During Wrath, sometime shortly after patch 3.3, our guild was among the better casual guilds on the server. I was a relative newcomer. Due to my insistence in playing a Beast Mastery hunter, and my abysmal luck in getting new gear drops, I was not among our best DPSers, but I held my own and was usually the last to die in a wipe. The problem came up when a new guild member, a Marksman hunter well beyond me in gear, was showing off Zod's Repeating Longbow, which he'd just obtained in our guild's secondary 25-man run. At the time, I felt rather miffed that this new hunter had obtained the bow before me, especially since that hunter was an alt.
Officers' Quarters: Guild wars
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. Guild splits can be traumatizing for all involved, often ending in bruised egos, stabbed backs, and rancor all around. (Yes, rancor isn't just that monster in the pit under Jabba's throne room.) In the best outcomes, the two factions can ignore each other and go about their own business. Unfortunately, it doesn't always turn out that way. Sometimes, as you'll see in this week's email, one faction isn't content to live and let live. Sometimes, it's war ... I'm an officer in a smallish casual raiding guild. We just recently got enough of our players geared enough to start raiding and are starting the process of continuously wiping on early bosses to learn the encounters. The officers aren't freaking out about our difficulty in completing the encounters or the fact that some of our members still aren't raid-ready yet, because we understand that the game has barely been out a month and some people didn't get it until Christmas or later. Our problem has been that a couple of the more hardcore members have been causing quite a fuss and complaining that the guild is going nowhere and in some cases, openly attacking officers and general members in guild chat. This has gone far beyond the occasional good-natured ribbing and has become a major source of tension in the guild.
Officers' Quarters: Speechless
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. A few weeks ago, I ventured the opinion that raiding addons aren't optional. They are an essential tool for raiding well, and even if you think you're pro enough to go without them, it's a matter of courtesy to your fellow raiders to use them. This week, we have a similar scenario, but instead of an addon, the raider in question refuses to use a microphone and claims that it is a medical issue -- despite some evidence to the contrary. Dear Officers' Quarters, I was tasked with creating a healer roster for scheduled 10-man raids. As expected, some members did not make the cut. I told the backup healers that three things must improve before they could be pulled in for non-farm content. Gear (with gems/enchants) Raid awareness Encounter knowledge One of the backup/benched healers had an issue last raid. She fixed #1 after much prodding ("but this is only blue gear -- it doesn't need gems/enchants"). She still has issues with #2 (compounded by the lack of microphone). She still hasn't fixed #3 on new kills. The x-factor is her lack of microphone.
