At Dragon*Con I had the opportunity to sit in on a guild leadership advice panel that was hosted by my new friends over at Guild Launch and Massively. It really made me happy to see just how many new leaders and officers that were in attendance and had questions. Long ago I started MMOlogy (before Epic Slant ever existed) just to address these concerns and the panel has put me back in that mind set. I’ve decided I want to resurrect an old practice of mine: “Ask a Guild Leader.”
Ask a Guild Leader is a pretty simple concept. If you have a question about guild leadership and would like some advice you send me an email (Ferrel [at] EpicSlant.com), Tweet or drop a comment here and I will answer some each week to the best of my ability. In addition to my answer you’ll also get the answer of other guild leaders who read Epic Slant. Some might disagree or offer different insight. With any luck we’ll be able to at least help your solve your issue!
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I have a question! I love advice columns. I got one myself. My question is:
I am in a guild in WoW and it seems once people get to level 80 they leave for greener pasturers. The guild is an awesome guild with great people, but the end game coodination is not there. The GL is a high school student and sometimes doesn’t get to play much. How can this guild leader keep people with his limited time to play? What simple tips can you give to help a guild leader with a small amount of time to play?
There are a few approaches that your guild leader can take for this issue. Which one he uses really just depends on how comfortable he is with his position.
The first and easiest method is to identify one or two solid and committed members who would make good officers or staff. Ideally these individuals will have play schedules that compliment the guild leader’s. They will fill in when he cannot be there and coordinate activities during those times. This, of course, will diminish his power some (of course so does not being around) but it is better than attrition.
Another option, depending on guild resources, is to use in or out of game schedules. If he can convince his membership to use them and is consistent with activities during the times he is available they will feel more attached to the guild. If he is engaging every time he is around, even if that isn’t much, it will leave good impressions and hold members attention.
Ultimately members want to see their guild leader around (more on this in tomorrows article). If they feel he isn’t active they will look for a guild that is. Empowering members can go a long way to solving this problem but at some point management must be involved.
It is also important to recognize that some people will “trade up” regardless of what he does. Some players join one guild to level and a different one to raid. They then might move to a more professional raid guild. It just depends on their goals. Knowing what your members are into is important to retention and he should also look into that.
What kind of n-tuple is best for designing an algorithm that would determine the ideal number of F-bombs to use when addressing your guild after the 7th time wiping because F-ING PEOPLE WON’T F-ING SWIM TO THE F-ING TANK WHEN THEY F-ING GET F-ING AGGRO!
Tarinax anyone?
How do you two keep finding your way back here?
The scent of gummy bears and unwashed man is a powerful allure.
3-tuple.
Just never stop dropping them.
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