LFG: PUG or Guild?

Having finally returned from my hiatus to discover a few hundred unread posts from various places I tended to browse rather than read.  However, one forum post tag caught my eye over at Plusheal “What good is a guild anymore?“  I’m gonna be honest and say I didn’t read the entire post, just the initial question, but I thought I’d take a stab at a response here, where my detractors will quietly smirk and wander away.

With the new Looking for Group tools and the ability to quickly gear up a toon, I am beginning to wonder why somone would need to be in a Guild anymore. Add in the increased availibility of Enchanting mats and the ability to buy pretty much any Enchant on a scroll in the Auction House and well, what are Guilds for nowadays?

The reason I am asking is that I am in a Guild that I am just not happy with anymore. It was a social Guild that ran good Raids (which is what I was interested in) and is now (thanks to some of the newer members) attempting to transform into a “hardcore raiding” Guild. Almost all of my friends have left and I keep finding excuses not to run with them. I am thinking of leaving and running without a Guild since right now I do not want the drama and see few reasons for belonging to one at all.

This is partly venting and partly an attempt to provide some discussion on what a Guild is for.

Thanks in advance!

Talexei – Bladefist

Do You Need a Guild?

Short answer: No.  Being guilded has never been a requirement to enjoy a whole bevy of activities within World of Warcraft.  Want to craft–buy your own mats.  Want to hang out and RP–start your own conversations in inns and around the city.  Want to kill baddies–whatcha waiting for?  There’s hundreds of them to choose from.  A guild is in no way shape or form a requirement.  While harder, it was possible to be pugged into guild raids in vanilla WoW, and it is so much easier now.

Long answer: It depends.  People join for a guild for a combination of factors, but the biggest two are

Companionship

While definitely possible without a tag, having a ready made group of companions makes guilding for social reasons very appealing.  You don’t have to be guilded to form bonds and friendships, but it often makes the process much easier.  Guilds have firm goals or niches that they cover in order to attract like-minded people, so instead of searching the entire realm for your type of people, you can have them pre-packaged and ready to consume *ahem* as it were.  Must be hungry, don’t know where that food analogy came from.

Progression

There are honestly two types of progression: personal (gear) progression, and boss kill (group) progression.  The first you can achieve on your own to a certain extent with badge gear and the like.  However, if you seek to have the very best gear in every slot, it becomes more and more difficult to accomplish this without a group of people helping you.  While you may luck into a few pieces in random groups, regular raiding schedules and times, that is part and parcel of many guild structures, will help you realize those goals faster.  The same applies for boss kill progression.  Heroics can be done with any number of random people with limited difficulty.  Some raids can be accomplished with minimal fuss; however, the longer the dungeon (Naxxramas, Ulduar) the less likely that you will be able to see the content as a PUG member.  This doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.  Some very high-end guilds charge non-members for slots in order to fill their repair coffers, meaning a diligent and dedicated non-guilded person could conceivably see all the content without finding a guild.

Do You Want a Guild?

On this portion of the exam, I’m going to say, again, it depends.  Personally, I wouldn’t run around Azeroth without some kind of tag, but what type of guild I’m in may change from month to month or year to year.

I think the biggest detractor to joining and staying with a guild will always remain Drama! 

However, the obvious question that follows this one is, “Do you experience less drama when non-guilded?”  In my experience that is simply not the case.  Yes, it is easier to just *sigh* and drop group, but that also means you are more likely to be spending time looking to do the things you want instead of actually doing them.

Let’s take heroics for an example. The new LFG system takes the burden off guilds to provide regular groups to field these often mal-aligned smaller dungeons.  While forming and joining groups is easier than ever, even in a heroic, the synergy between you and 4 friends (guildies or not) and 4 randomly pooled players is very different.  I often find myself doing a single dungeon just for my frost badges; however, when I’m partied with friends, we experience more — we work on achievements, we chain several instances together, and we get to chat, because, well, we know each other. 

Why do I limit myself to a single dungeon?  Most nights its just not worth the aggravation of “fitting” in with a group, even for a short 15-25 minute run.  Will the tank go squish?  Will the dps stand in the fire?  Am I on auto-pilot and can chat with friends while running, or am I forced to ignore my /tells because I’m having to work my butt off?

Raids are infinitely worse.  Some random person is placed as your “leader.”  Yes, they clicked the little *Willing to Lead* option, but you don’t know them from the NPC who starts the quest.  Are they a good leader?  Do you trust their raid instructions?  Even worse, does everyone else?  For every successful awesome PUG raid I’ve had the pleasure to be the part of, their have been at least 10 that failed to form, or dissolved within 30 minutes.  Trying to coordinate follow-up raids to complete the dungeon are a logistical nightmare that most pug raid leaders are not willing to coordinate.

To Guild or Not to Guild

Why do you play Warcraft?  If it’s for progression, you’ll still want a good guild beside you.  If it’s for purely social reasons, a guild can be a boon, but is not a requirement.  If it’s for exploration, leveling (alting) or holiday achievements, it is irrelevant.  If you want to be a lone wolf with a few carefully selected people on your friends list that you keep in contact with–that’s your Warcraft, and enjoy! 

For most, however, I think the guild experience helps shape their view and enjoyment of the game world–everything is better with friends after all.

Lower Spire: A Screenshot Story

Lord Morrowgar

Lady Deathwhisper

Spire Support

Bear Butt Rocket

Airship Battle

Atop the Spire

Deathbringer Saurfang

The Lower Spire Conquered

The Hero Is Returned

The Spire is Claimed

P.S. Sorry for the repeat on Morrowgar, but it wouldn’t have been complete otherwise.  And btw, I had a beautiful slideshow but WordPress apparently hates embedding.

Update

I know I tend to be a hypermanic updater so I didn’t want anyone to worry that I went on a mad drinking binge at the company party and didn’t make it back I will be out of town through Sunday visiting family so posting may or may not be at my normal rate We’ll just see how much “break-time” I need!

~Cheers

Saved Just for You

Somehow I’ve gotten in the habit of starring all those little articles that make me go hmmmm, and when I’m at a lack for words, I can kindly recycle them to you

So, in no particular order, some interesting reads from around the blog-o-sphere!

The only 3.3 article that I have brought myself to save (I’m still in “No!  I refuse spoilers!” mode atm) is this beautiful montage about a new quest line off the lusted for battered hilt.  The other interesting read about new changes, were anticipated changes to the armory.

As always, we like our surveys and questionnaries here’s a new one about… well… gamers.  Poor Death Goddess also caught syphilis =/  Tam really gets around!

Another great guide, this one on vanity pets.  And if you’ve ever been frustrated at a raider who doesn’t know what a combat log is or confused about how to set one up, look no further.  The last caught my interest–being one-half of a gaming couple, it was interesting to see someone else discuss how they felt about it.

Go say hello, and happy reading!

Where Tam Infects Me With Blogging Syphilis and I’m Forced Answer His Question

So I was reading about Tam’s case of syphilis (ewww, right?) and he kindly decided to share the bug =/  My assignment

I shall not let you escape me with a mere cow montage. So, given how much I enjoy the random adventures of your alts (even if they do involve condoning cow-slavery) – what’s your favourite zone to quest in, and why, and which zone(s) would you rather produce a cow montage than visit, and why?

And I thought–oh right… alts.  Ya, I used to write about those!

Let’s go to….

Dragonblight

I first ventured into Dragonblight as a young paladin, following the directions of my Tankua guide, I fought against the corruption that had overtaken a small village, and gradually worked my way to Wyrmrest Temple.  What can I say, I love dragons, and Dragonblight is all about it.  The Wrathgate cinematic had my jaw dropping and my little heart fluttering with nerdy excitement.  If you can’t find something you like–killing scourge, insane villagers, diseased animals, the Scarlet Onslaught or fishing up tasty dragonfish–I don’t even know where to tell you to go from here.

Eversong Woods

The Blood Elf starting area is just… perfect.  Before you travel to the Ghostlands or the Undercity, young adventurers have a firm grasp of their people’s struggle and purpose in the the world.  The Dead Scar is visible daily outside the still ravishingly beautiful home of Silvermoon, a portent reminder of the power of the Scourge.  The starter quests here are really exceptional, and the resources are plentiful for all those burgeoning traders to be!

The Plaguelands

All that I love is not beautiful, and the plaguelands is a perfect example.  Overrun, and dominated by the scourge, small resistance forces, most notably the Argent Dawn, can be found trying valiantly to reclaim the land.  Stratholme and Scholomance, one-time 10-man raids, can be found here, and for your book-readers, many of them are to be found in the massive library of Scholomance.  While the plaguelands can easily be a grind, it’s a satisfying one–killing undead in droves can be a fun and profitable experience–and wandering the destroyed city of Andor’hal is a flashback for older Warcraft fans.

Un’Goro Crater

At one time, Un’Goro was an important part of the post-60 gaming scene.  Devilsaur leather was a profitable business for a leatherworker, and all those crystal buffs were desirable for raid nights.  I spent many a night roaming the crater with my faithful lion Dusk talking to friends, and duoing the elites for valuable cash turning items.  Despite the many trips to and from Winterspring, not to mention a unfavorable death drinking a potion, the Linken quest was a great find for a major fan-girl of Zelda.

Netherstorm

Magical domes of awesome!  Seeing the land being gradually retaken and returned to a lush and vibrant world was just a remarkable feast for the eyes.  The fight to shut down the Manaforges, and the rank animosity to be found among the Scryers and Aldors was a wonderful interjection of the story into the daily grind of life.  Not to mention Tempest Keep, the best of the heroic dungeons in Northrend (at least I thought so )

I don’t have to go there do I?

Stranglethorn Vale

STV instantly brings to mind death–lots, and lots of death.  My very first character was rolled on a PvP server, and the constant ganking of Paks, my 36 paladin, caused me to abandon both her, and PvP servers forever.  When next I traveled to Stranglethorn, all I can remember is the constant running back and forth between the northern human base and the port of Booty Bay… on foot… past mobs 5 levels above me as I got closer to my destination.  Not to mention the unremitable grind of finding the last page of The Green Hills of Stranglethorn.  Drudgery from start to finish this zone.

Desolace

It’s desolate!  Quest poor, mob heavy, Desolace is a large zone map that requires more time than it deserves.  Another pre-mount area which I hated to step my little toe into, other than to get the flightpoint perhaps.  Maradoun does not improve the equation, being one of the most involved and complicated of the 5-man dungeons.  Oh, and did I mention the centaur grind?????

Silithus

I had high hopes for Silithus.  This is not a detractor for the opening of the AQ gates, which was just an awesome, awesome WoW moment.  It is about the zone itself–which is nothing but a desert with no quests, no purpose, and lots of poisonious mobs.  While the quest repertoire has improved, upon opening, Silithus had less than five quests, and was just another reputation grind.  For many, the only reason to even venture to this zone was for the infamous Sand Worm cooking recipe so they could reach 300 cooking skill and skedaddle to more beneficial and fun zones.  Not in my travel plans anytime soon.

Nagrand

Better known as Na-grind.  The only purpose of this zone seems to be to kill as many fuzzy animals as possible–oh, and some ogres too.  We need you to kill lots of ogres.  The chipper, healthy forest look of this zone is so incogruous with the rest of the Outlands, I felt like I had been dropped into a warp dimension.  Perhaps the floating islands were supposed to alleviate me of that fear?

Scholozar Basin

Oh look!  More fuzzy animal killing!  It seems the farther you travel, the more insane Nesingwary and his troop of animal killing enthusiasts become, with the Great Hunter’s Challenge being at least blatantly obvious that, why yes, we want you to grind fuzzy animals.  While the Oracle and Frenzyheart questlines are amusing to some, I found them tedious and annoying.  Gorlocs?  Seriously?

The Wide, Wide World

Now that I’ve gotten started, it’s actually hard to cut myself off.  Some zones I go to because I love a certain questline, and will put up with all kinds of hassle to be involved in it.  Others, despite one fatal flaw, are otherwise an enjoyable area.  I’m sure in my haste to have some kind of concrete, definitive answer I’ve forgotten some lovely or despised zone from the list.

And because I understand Tam’s righteous indignation over cow slavery–the dangers for those poor cow lasses….

Random: Icecrown Citadel

New Content, Old Friends

New content brings all the skeletons out of the closet–the tank who didn’t want to tank anymore, switched his main to dps and then took a break from the game, the healer who just stopped showing up, your favorite dps who logs on to do his dailies, but really would rather be put on the “call me” list for the raid–and now you have to find a place for them while working with your new people!

Keeping Things Friendly

The first thing to make sure you do is welcome back all those sometimes, maybe, I don’t really have time to play right now guys and gals.  You might feel like you got left holding the bag of complaints, and they got a nice break, but honestly, you gotta remember it’s a game, and if it’s not fun or interesting anymore, people are going to scoot for awhile.

Catch up your old-timers–Let them know who’s stepped up, who else stepped out, and what you accomplished while they were having that break.

Find out what their goals are–sometimes you’ll get players back for a patch that just want to check things out, see the new content, and then will be right back out the door.  Be aware of this before you start raid invites or passing out raid gear.  While you want to not alienate any members, sometimes its a good idea to treat old timers as new recruits when it comes to invites–when your new guys can’t make it, or bringing them to the 10-man, not the 25-man raid.  This way they get to see the new content without boinking your progression

Expect some losses–Like any new member, old members just coming back may find that the guild isn’t what they need any more.  Perhaps they don’t want to play as much, or they want to raid every day before taking another sabbatical.  Either way, you should anticipate some of your old-timers finding pastures that fit their current goals better and don’t take it personally!

Don’t over-plan!–When you start seeing old friends logging in, don’t assume that they’ll be upset about warming the bench, and don’t try to figure out how to fit them in or “OMG we’ll lose the best tank we ever had!”  Talking to your guildmates is the best way to find out what they need and want out of the game.

What About the New Guy?

If you’ve made a firm plan about the scope of your guild, having old friends come back should not overly disturb your guild team.  Is attendance important, documented, and an indicator of raid invites?  Is longevity in the guild more important?  Is real-life over in-game friends?  These should be things you have thought about and addressed in some way shape or form (preferably a guild charter) before you see any come and go with your guild mates.

New guy is as vital as old guy–In most raiding guilds, you will find that new guy, who has filled in while old guy has been taking a break, has become an important part of your regular raid performance.  You don’t want to perma-bench him everytime old guy comes back, and frankly, in a couple weeks or months, your new guy MIGHT be your old guy — you want to send a consistent message!

For you casual guilds–when I was in most of my casual guilds, raiding wasn’t on the schedule, it was just something that happened if someone felt like putting something together.  In these cases, replacing your new raider with your old one likely won’t cause massive backlash.

Keep open communication–Just like you talked to your old guy about goals in-game, you should be keeping abreast of your new guy too.  Chances are, he’ll be happy to rotate (hey, Friday’s are always a pita for me) but only if you ask first.

Own Your Guild

Bottom line is: it’s your guild, and you need to make the best decision for the survival of your guild.  If having old guy come back in, replacing new guy entirely (and perhaps losing him) will make for better progression overall for your guild — and that’s a high priority — then it might be worth the hassle.  However, if you DO do something like this, you need to make sure that you’re talking to both the old and new guy and making sure your team is really getting what it needs.  If you lose the new raider to find the old guy only sticking around a couple of weeks, you’ve endured a lot of drama for no reason.

Same scenario on the flip side: If you say no to the old guy, chances are, you’re not really missing out.  Your guild has, I hope, managed to survive and thrive without one raider holding everyone else hostage!  If you lose him, it might be sad, but it probably will not change your guilds success one way or the other.  I think, more often than the guy who comes back and expects everything to be the same, most players expect that they’ve fallen on the roster, and are willing to earn their spot back.

The most important things you can do to preserve a relationship with new and old raiders: communicate!

3.3 Day One

So I managed to get in a couple of hours post-patch.

Random LFG System

Assessment: It rocks

While I had one instance that didn’t form (UK from the queue art) my next queue and group was awesome.  The process took less than five minutes (with a partner) and the dungeon was a quick run through, including the <2 min achieve on the guy at the end of OK.  Loved it.

Icecrown — Forge of Souls

Assessment: Fine tuned.

I, like many I’m sure, am at the point that you just riptide/renew/rejuv and move on.  I actually had to HEAL!  After spending an hour trying to get into instances, incapable of spawning, I got a group that was 1/2 into the dungeon.  The final boss for the Forge is the Devourer of Souls, I multi-faced monstrosity that will eat your party alive.  Not only does he/she/it summon a horde of lost souls from time to time, but can reflect dps onto a random party member, or do a rotating beam of icky.

I experienced the boss as a one-shot, but I did have to reincarnate due to bad positioning on the rotating beam of icky.  And I think the mage spent the last part of the fight in an iceblock.  However, I was happy with the work I was having to produce — riptides, chain heals, lesser AND healing waves — fun stuff!

I hope your first day of the patch was as fun as mine While there were some aggravations, I was thrilled with my dungeons, and am looking forward to more!

And a Side of Fail

My family was enjoying a nice Christmas (for us!) weekend, so my playtime was limited to an hour or so before bed this weekend.  Nonetheless, Saturday night, I got an invite to 10-man ToC from a guild-mate looking to complete the dungeon on his alt.  He had kindly put together a group already, and all I had to do was put on my game face and accept a summon — woot-eh!

I arrive to find myself and a druid are the healing team, and two paladin tanks will be protecting us from the baddies.  People immediately spaz about two healers — I have two-healed it with a paladin before, but no worries — the ret pally offers to switch to heals if its needed.

Round 1

We engage the boss, I’m on tank 1 and raid, and the tree has tank 2 and raid.  I do my normal: riptide, earth shield, chain heal the melee.  Everything seems to be going ok until tank 2 has to taunt.  Immediately I’m noticing a sizeable *squish*  Not knowing whether it’s a lack of concentrated heals from the druid, or a lack of skill on the part of the tank, I keep my mouth shut, switch over, and start spamming tank 2 like he’s mine.

Beast 1 dies, and on come the worms.  Tank 1 takes the stationary target (yes, I really don’t feel like looking up the names) while tank 2 takes the kite job.  Immediately on grabbing aggro, tank 2 turns the worm face first into the raid and proceeds to sit there… and sit there.  Raid leader yells at him to turn it away from the raid (raiding 101 — mobs do not face the raid) and he shows he can follow instructions *yay*

Then the bad news occurs — my tree friend gets the poison debuff.  Tank 2, now endowed with fire, is standing in a giant puddle of concentric green rings, and the druid is trying to decide whether to chance green death eating him alive, or green death on the floor.  His indecision is costly, and he summarily dies, leaving my solo healing for about oh…. 10 seconds.  During that time the cry begins “WTF, where are my heals!!!”  My blood pressure promptly goes up 5k points.  We die, I’m a jerk about the whole “telling healers to heal” thing, and we go back in for….

Round 2

Our ret pally takes the plunge and switches to holy.  Resto tree is relegated to raid, while I remain on Tank 1, and the now-christened holy pally is on tank 2.  No problem, this will be great!  Beast #1 goes down fairly well, although I’m still having to switch to tank 2 on his taunt.

Worms arrive.  Tank 2 picks up his target — I’m stationed to heal tank 1, and as tank 2 kites around I lose him a bit.  “No problem,” I think…. oh, but it is.  Tank 2 is squishing so hard I think he doesn’t have a healer — maybe that paladin confused his assignments.  I gradually center myself up, and get the fire buff/debuff.  Tank 2 is poisoned.  I’m about halfway to him, so I throw a tide on myself and jog over to de-poison him.  I’m promptly yelled at to de-poison him *facepalm*

Poison death to the tank averted AND… I die.  Apparently I don’t need any healing while I run, and riptide was just not quite enough to keep me up.  Tree dies, and holy pally keeps up two tanks for longer than I expected.

Round 3

At this point I’m talking to the raid leader going, “I honestly don’t know what the problem is but I’m running out of mana faster than I should be for 3 healers on this fight — what are the other healers doing?”  He sends me the recount data (just raw hps) and I’m looking at:

1. Pally: 3.0 hps

2. Windsoar: 3.2 hps

3. Resto: 2.7 hps

Ok, I’m looking at enough raw healing power to get us through even an idiot stick moment, right?

Engage, kill beast #1, worms again — tank 2 forgets to kite again.  Resto and I get the poison debuff, look at the 4 green rings on the floor that the tank is standing in *shrug, deathwish, run*  I’m asking the tank in vent to kite as we’re jogging over, but he’s obviously on disconnect as he loops the worm in a circle–towards the raid–and remains in the green circle of death.  *Garrrrr*

Death, 5 raid members leave, and hey, look, we’ve got a group for 5-man ToC!

Knowing that at least one of my guildies probably needs gear from there, and I have a good 20 minutes till bedtime still, we soldier on over to ToC with tank #2, a melee and two ranged dps and little ol’ me.

Heroic ToC

Mounted combat breezes by to be followed by the 3 champion fight.  Things are O.K. but the tank is awfully squishy for someone geared for ToC-raid.  The warrior dps has hate for over half the fight, and while I think I did a heroic job of keeping him up, when he got all three bosses at one point–he kinda squished.  Knowing the warrior dps is a tank as his main I’m starting to slowly categorize tank #2 as possibly undergeared.

3-champs die, adds come out, and we engage two, yes, two groups.  There are enemy light-wells giving a hell of a fireworks display, and I crater trying to kite a monk back to the tank.  I am now beyond annoyed.  We get back to the dungeon, and I inspect tank #2…. and I see why he’s #2, and really should be “do not tank ever, ever, ever.”  His gear is itemized between mitigation, stamina, and AP… not threat, not strength, but attack power.  He chose to take mana saving talents over, oh I don’t know, 5% parry.

The hilarity continues as we get the Confessor, who promptly halos me in flames of holy fire for most of the fight, as tank #2 tries to keep aggro on the shade.  For the most part he fails, and my healing efforts are wholly dedicated to keeping myself alive and the warrior dps (tank, who is not a tank, oh yes) alive.

I would like to say that we lived.  However, we had at least one more wipe before the night was over.  However, if you have a geared enough plate wearer with occasional help from an actual tank, then it is possible to faceroll ToC… for future reference.

Oh Ye of Little Faith

I’m just gonna finish up this night of fail by saying–now I understand why PuG leaders want gearscores and achievement linkage.  It honestly won’t tell you if someone is a flaming idiot who doesn’t understand how to spec, gem or move a raid boss when necessary–but it does seem to lend some credence and reliability to the “total stranger may cost me 100g in repairs tonight–how can I minimize that?”

I have always been one of those people who is almost mortally offended when I find people inspecting my gear or talents, and then sending me messages about how I did or did not do a good job with said things.  I almost never inspect another players unless invited to–unless there is some problem.  Saturday also gave me that confidence that, yes, I can tell whether a tank is squishing due to healers or because they suck.  I had niggling doubts about his viability on Round 1, but it wasn’t until ToC inspect that I really allowed myself to believe that a tank that squishy would have volunteered to tank content he/she is not viable for.

You can always learn something new from a pug–whether it’s worth 100g or not… well… we’ll save that one for another day.

Having a Plan — How Guilds Stay Together

For some reason, I thought I’d be helpful and suggest another topic over at Blog Azeroth.  Turns out, it was the only one this week, and I also chose to ask a question that was a *tad* bit too big (not like I’m verbose, nu uh, not me).  Make sure to check other submissions and support your blogging community!

Guilds come and go — this is pretty much an accepted fact of WoW life; however, some guilds… don’t go.  They survive, thrive, and keep on doing what the love best — from casual to hardcore.

How do they do it?

Vision

Every guild needs 10 signatures to get started.  However, there’s one guy and gal who goes and buys the charter and wrangles up all those signatures.  Sometimes it’s a base of friends that gets you started, sometimes, its a slow process of talking to folks in starter zones, trade chat, whispers and everyone in between.

It really doesn’t matter how you get your start — what IS important is what direction you’ve decided to take your guild.  There are a multitude of options between leveling, instances, raids, casual and hardcore, and only you can know what kind of guild you want to manage.  The important thing is to know what type of guild you want, and make sure that happens.

In any size guild, a guild charter is an important way to convey your guild message.  While rules may not be your thing, having a firm framework of what your guild is, what it stands for, and what you plan to do with it make sure that you attract and screen the proper applicants for your guild.

Leadership

Once you’ve gotten those sigs and you have the all-important tag over your head, it’s time to recruit… or is it?  If you have a vision, you’ll already know the answer to this question.  Either way, you will need some kind of leadership plan — even if you have only 10 members.  What if you go on vacation?  Need a break from the game?  Hell, have a weekend party when someone decides to go all crazy with the withdrawals from the bank!  You need a backup even if you are running a very small guild.

If you plan on running a larger guild, it is important to screen early applicants for leadership qualities and get them installed.  Personally, I believe 3-5 officers is the magic number — some guilds have less or more depending on the number of members, and the lenience on absences.  If your guild goal is to raid, but not require attendance, you will need more members (and likely more officers!).

Recruit

Unless you are and plan to remain a small friends and family guild, then recruiting will be a part of life.  Everyone likes seeing more than 1 online — there is a venue for everything, so don’t think you won’t find like-minded people to enjoy the game with!

The single best way to recruit people to your guild is word of mouth.  You cannot, ever, ever beat this.  Whether running dungeons or roleplaying at your favorite inn, it never hurts to speak about how much you love your guild!  Whether people are looking or not, they will remember.

It is also a good idea to have a guild website (even casual guilds — applicants like to see what the guild is about).  Getting listed on the Realm Forum is also a good idea — most servers have a stickied thread listing the guilds on the server, progression, roleplaying bent (on RP servers) and its a good place to pick up some extra people.  Services like Lookingforguild can also keep your guild on people’s radar when they are in the process of seeking a new home.

Unless you are seeking quantity over quality, Trade channel is probably not going to be your friend.  Some guilds are successful recruiting in this manner.  If you do use it, do so sparingly, and with great caution.  Sometimes it is possible to find a diamond in the rough.

There are times where you will want or need to slow recruitment down to a crawl.  When you do so, make sure that you still treat applicants with dignity and respect — they will remember, and when you really need to fill some gaps it may be possible to pick up a good applicant that you didn’t have room for at the time.

Keeping the Dream Alive

Accept that you are going to lose members.  Chances are, it is not a personal decision, and comes down to players having changing needs and wants in game and out.  Be prepared!  For the most part, steady recruitment will help fill in the holes.

However, whatever you do — do not change the focus of your guild to please your members.  Repeat that.  And again.

Guilds that make it for the long-haul have a vision, a dream, and stick to it. Changing the overall philosophy or goals of your guild will eventually lead it downhill.  You may lose members because you are not willing to change, but you will lose many more if you try to meet the ever-changing needs of every member of your guild.  It is not possible!

I have a need, you have a guild

I honestly believe that there is a guild for everyone.  Maybe not all the time, maybe not on the same server or faction; however, if you can dream up a reason for a group of people to spend their evenings and weekends together, be it a raid group, a roleplaying group, or just people who like zany and fun guild names, then there is a reason for a guild!

Make your guild last for the long haul — make a plan, find people to support you, and don’t change a thing!

Post-note: I apologize for the long delay from my intended post time.  Special thanks to Ophelie and Jaedia who tackled my too-big post before I did!  Guild week has been more successful than I thought it would be — if anyone is interested in case-studies and/or a more focused look at anything I covered this week, drop me a line by comment or e-mail.