Breakfast Topic: Have you tried your hand at running a guild?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

It happens to all of us at one point or another. You're riding into Stormwind, perhaps admiring the dragon head that someone has strung up on the gates, and you're headed to the auction house when your eyes light upon the Visitor's Center. Inside, a bright-eyed young hero, very much like yourself, is speaking to Aldwin Laughlin, the Guild Master. Suddenly, you think, "That could be me. I could be in there, buying a guild charter and designing a tabard. I could found my own guild."

You dismount, take the first two steps at a bound -- but suddenly, you stop in your tracks. All at once, you stagger under the weight of responsibility. The trouble with starting a guild, you realize, is that once you do it, you actually have to run a guild.

Of course for some, this isn't a drawback -- it's a perk! There are plenty of aspiring guild masters out there who have a vision, execute it, and become great leaders. Then there are those of us who consider starting a guild but balk at the particulars; others who create small, friends-only or alt guilds just to have a fun guild name or a guild bank; and many more who are happy to leave the burden of leadership to someone else.

Have you thought about starting your own guild? If you went through with it, how did it turn out? Is the guild still around today? If you thought better of it, what stopped you? Or are you still making up your mind?

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Breakfast Topic: Have you tried your hand at running a guild? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Breakfast Topic: Have you tried your hand at running a guild?

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

It happens to all of us at one point or another. You're riding into Stormwind, perhaps admiring the dragon head that someone has strung up on the gates, and you're headed to the auction house when your eyes light upon the Visitor's Center. Inside, a bright-eyed young hero, very much like yourself, is speaking to Aldwin Laughlin, the Guild Master. Suddenly, you think, "That could be me. I could be in there, buying a guild charter and designing a tabard. I could found my own guild."

You dismount, take the first two steps at a bound -- but suddenly, you stop in your tracks. All at once, you stagger under the weight of responsibility. The trouble with starting a guild, you realize, is that once you do it, you actually have to run a guild.

Of course for some, this isn't a drawback -- it's a perk! There are plenty of aspiring guild masters out there who have a vision, execute it, and become great leaders. Then there are those of us who consider starting a guild but balk at the particulars; others who create small, friends-only or alt guilds just to have a fun guild name or a guild bank; and many more who are happy to leave the burden of leadership to someone else.

Have you thought about starting your own guild? If you went through with it, how did it turn out? Is the guild still around today? If you thought better of it, what stopped you? Or are you still making up your mind?

View Poll

Filed under: ,

Breakfast Topic: Have you tried your hand at running a guild? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Raid Rx: A rock and a hard place


Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand pooh-bah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI-, macro- and addon-related. If you're looking for more healing advice, check out the Plus Heal community.

Stop me if you've heard this one. You're taking on some dragon. Some really powerful spell is about to hit you and the rest of the raid. You don't have any cooldowns to use because you had to pop them earlier. The tank who is busy yelling obscenities at said dragon just took a massive fireball to the face and is down in the red. You know for a fact that the next blow is going to be lethal and you have maybe 2 seconds to react.

If you move, you may well have condemned your tank to death. If you stay and heal, you'll end up taking some damage which could be lethal.

Normally, this isn't that big of a deal, but we're in an age where we have so many informative addons that tell us which attacks successfully hit a player and when it happened. What's worse is that this data means the difference between staying and getting cut from a raid (or a guild).

This is a topic of one of the emails that I received from a healing shaman.

So what is a healer to do? Is he wrong for making the decision to take avoidable damage to keep the raid or the tank alive? Is he better off just taking the damage so that he doesn't look bad? Either way, you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. Lots of players don't understand that these are some of the decisions that have to be made.

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Raid Rx: A rock and a hard place originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Drama Mamas: Invasion of privacy

Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com.

Captain Obvious says that communication within guilds is a very good thing. But as we've seen before, sometimes too much communication can cause more drama than keeping quiet. It is smart to anticipate problems and make preparations in case they occur. But is thinking the worst of people the same as proactive problem-solving? When thinking ahead to avoid trouble, it is usually a good idea to examine your own motives and see if any prejudices are lurking that color your viewpoint. If it's possible that envy or disapproval are clouding your judgment, it is usually best to keep your mouth closed and your eyes open. I assume the best about this week's letter writer's motives for wanting to prevent drama in his guild. But in this case, motives are irrelevant to the possible drama bomb that would explode from an invasion of privacy.

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Drama Mamas: Invasion of privacy originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We Have a Tabard: Gone but not forgotten


Looking for a guild? Well, you can join ours! We have a tabard and everything! Check back for Amanda Dean talking about guilds and guild leadership in We Have a Tabard.

Over the last several weeks, we've talked about everything that guild leaders need to do to try to maintain peace, order, and progress amongst your ranks. I'm going to let the rest of your guild in on a little secret: it's like a job, except you don't get paid.

Theoretically it should be a job that your GMs and officers love. Your leadership has less flexibility when it comes to scheduling than rank and file members. When it comes to raiding or other activities, your leadership doesn't have the opportunity to slack off. They are working hard to make sure things run smoothly and to set a good example for their members.

Is it better to burn out than to fade away? I am currently on a wee bit of a leadership hiatus. After struggling to fill raids and going over the same fights countless times, I kind of snapped. I told my team I needed a break. I have to admit that while I feel a little bit guilty, it's been blissful. I've slept more, had fewer migraines, and generally enjoyed WoW more for the last couple of weeks than I have over the last several months. It won't last though.

Let me offer you a few suggestions to avoid getting to the place where I was:

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We Have a Tabard: Gone but not forgotten originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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