Category Archives: officers-quarters

Officers’ Quarters: When your guild won’t recruit

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closed sign
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.

While WoW continues to bleed subs, guild leaders and officers everywhere are having a tough time recruiting quality players. In this environment, guilds sometimes find themselves in a permanent state of open recruitment. This week, however, we're looking at the opposite problem: a guild that is permanently closed to new players. A concerned officer wants to know what he can do to change this mentality.
Hello Scott,

I hope you had a great holiday season. I am an officer in a small guild of around sixty people... Of the sixty members many are alts or inactive with only a handful of active people (around ten). I came to the guild looking for an escape from the sheer number of people I had to deal with in my last two guilds that had 400+ members.

For a while everything worked just fine, but in the last few weeks some members have began making requests for recruitment. With the small amount of active players being on at odd hours some new members feel a bit alone and put off and end up leaving. We have a strong desire to make a 10 man raid team but don't have enough geared/leveled/interested people. We are just short of the perfect storm needed to raid with our current members so recruitment seems to be the only answer. The issue is that while I may be all for it, the other active players have issues with recruitment.

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Officers' Quarters: When your guild won't recruit originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Officers’ Quarters: Merry Kickmas!

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the rockettes perform a kick line
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.

Now that we've gotten all this peace on Earth, goodwill toward men nonsense out of the way, we can get back to business. Today, that business is kicking players out of your guild. It's a drastic step and never one that should be carried out lightly. In this week's email, a new guild leader wants to know what actions are worthy of a gkick.

Hi Scott:

When Starwars: The Old Republic launches I will be jumping in with both feet, and plan on forming a guild within a week.

I currently have a couple friends on board, a good name that is not taken, and most of a guild charter written up. Officers' Quarters has been an invaluable assent over the past weeks in pulling everything together, but a sticking point is hammering out the fine details of the Unacceptable Behavior section. What actions do you think warrant a guild kick, supposing the full story is known?

Thank you,

Prepared for Everything

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Officers' Quarters: Merry Kickmas! originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Officers’ Quarters: Tier transition trouble

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parachuting onto deathwing's back
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.

For many guilds, the release of a new raiding tier isn't as cut and dry as simply moving on to the new bosses and leaving the previous tier behind. These days, there are a number of reasons to continue with older content: finishing legendary grinds, completing achievements, and downing unkilled bosses on either difficulty. This week, a guild leader feels conflicted about how to approach the raiding schedule with so much unfinished business in Firelands.
Hi Scott:

I'm the guild leader for a medium sized guild. The guild is about 9 months old at this point, and we've had our share of raid member turnaround. Through each generation though, we've gotten stronger. Now that the team is pretty solid and showing up on schedule weekly, a problem has reared its ugly head, and its name is Dragon Soul.

You see, because of the constant turnaround, we were stuck in tier 11 longer than we should have been, and are only now at the point that going 6/7 in Firelands can be done in a couple of hours. We still don't have a Rag kill under our belts. Compounded with that, our Legendary recipient is only in the second collection phase.

But with the new dungeons dropping 378's and Deathwing taunting us, some members of the raid group have voiced in interest in raiding Dragon Soul. One member (who got a Rag kill with another team a couple weeks ago) said he can't wait to kill Rag so we "never have to go to Firelands again." That really REALLY aggravated me, but I kept my cool in Guild Chat.

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Officers' Quarters: Tier transition trouble originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Officers’ Quarters: Members turned poachers

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a sign reading
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.

It's bad enough for an officer when you start losing core raiders. As any long-time officer can tell you, though, things can always go from bad to worse. This week, a guild leader falls victim to a member's alt guild that suddenly turns into anything but.

Hey Scott--

We lost three of our core raiders yesterday, and may be losing more.

The girlfriend of the Raider Leader/MT in our casual 10m decided to start an "alt" guild. Not a big deal in its own right, myself and the other GM were a bit concerned about her underlying intentions; she'd been a core raider up until about three weeks prior to her founding this new guild. Myself and the other GM are not sure why the girlfriend stopped raiding with us; it was a choice of hers, and when we inquired as to whether everything was all right, we were always assured it was.

Co-GM and I noticed that to start her alt-guild, she'd recruited several members from our guild: mostly alts, but what concerned us was the handful of mains that left us to join the alt guild. Slightly annoyed that we, the leadership, hadn't been notified of her intentions, we spoke amongst ourselves with how to best handle this; if it's truly an alt guild, we should not have to worry about our ranks thinning. We weren't going to reprimand her, demote her, or remove her remaining character from the guild. We're not like that. She, along with her boyfriend, had been kind and helpful in the past.

Late the other night, I saw that the boyfriend, along with the another core raid dps who I'd been particularly close with, had left the guild to join up with the girlfriend's alt guild. I was crushed.

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Officers' Quarters: Members turned poachers originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Officers’ Quarters: Friends and family

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family of dwarves
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.

Many raiding guilds have a rank called Friends and Family that indicates someone who is just that, rather than an active raider. Having such members not only broadens the community, it also improves the social aspect of a guild. But as we all know, friends and family can also be a headache sometimes. This week, I'm featuring two emails: one about friend drama, another about family drama.

Scott,

Recently I transferred servers and joined a new guild to get a fresh start after a 3 month break from the game. My goal upon arriving at my new server was to find the right guild, I spent weeks searching for the perfect guild (it would be only my 3rd guild in 6 years) a place that had a little of everything. After much searching I found that guild. It was a community, a family that does tons of things together, a place that isn't only about the progression but about doing things together. It's an atmosphere I love.

Shortly after joining the guild, two long time friends from my previous guild returned to the game. I have become very close with these two people and enjoy playing with them, so I convinced them to server transfer. These friends had been hardcore raiders since vanilla and GM and officer of our previous guild before taking break. I had some reservations about them joining my new home because I knew their reactions from lack of power (due to a failed guild merger) but they are really nice people and I really wanted to play with them again.

A week or so after they joined the complaining started.

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Officers' Quarters: Friends and family originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Officers’ Quarters: Solutions to scheduling conflicts

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raid calendar
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 doesn't enjoy the same high drama compared to, say, the story from a few weeks ago of a guild leader who took back his guild using a secret alt. However, it's a common issue that often crops up for both officers and non-officers alike: What can you do when your personal schedule suddenly conflicts with your guild's raid times? It may seem hopeless, but it doesn't always have to be! First, the email:
So I am at a crossroads. The guild I am currently in as an officer is 6/7 on FL norm. The raid schedule we currently have is a friday/saturday night. Unfortunately though due to real life scheduling soon I will not be able to raid on friday nights. I do not wish to leave this guild that I am currently in. I have 4 level 85s in the guild and I have developed a lot of friendships. I know if my guild leader finds out that i have left the guild she will understand but not be happy. I would like to find a guild who has a more flexible raid schedule, but I don't want to leave the guild I am in and loose my position of officer. I have no idea how to go about this situation.

Please help,

Much Confusion

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Officers' Quarters: Solutions to scheduling conflicts originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Officers’ Quarters: Trouble with a demoted raid leader

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Majordomo Executus with his cronies in Molten Core
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.

The only thing worse than being asked by your guild to lead raids is being asked to lead raids in which the previous raid leader still participates. This week, that's exactly what one unfortunate player is facing.

Hi Scott,

I've been reading your blog for a little while because I'm a Cata baby and I want to make sure I'm able to navigate the sticky culture of guilds. I've gone through several guilds on my hunter main, trying to find a consistent raid group with real progression. After leaving a couple of guilds because progression just wasn't happening, I was recruited as a DPS for my current guild's Group Two.

The first few weeks of raiding were rocky, because the raid leader is not very articulate and is bad at explaining fights. He also takes criticism very personally and for the first couple weeks his DPS was (no other way to put it) terribad. One of the group's healers basically overrode him in voice chat and effectively took over management of the raid group, although the original raid lead was still party leader and loot master. However, several of the group members had a problem with the way the healer ran the group and the way he spoke to other party members. Despite the fact that Group 2 was now getting real progression and players were earning great gear, tension still mounted.

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Officers' Quarters: Trouble with a demoted raid leader originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Officers’ Quarters: Return of an X guild leader

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A tauren on a dragonhawk
Patch 4.3 will be upon us very soon. All large content patches bring with them the possibility of guild members returning to the game or to the guilds they left behind. This patch, with its huge amount of content, should bring back more than most. Such returns can often cause controversy, especially if the players left under questionable circumstances. No return is more likely to cause drama, however, than that of a former guild leader -- and in this case, our weekly email contains an added twist . . .
This is sort of long and rather complicated. I'm currently in a guild that I like but has had a leadership problem. In late Wrath/early Cata, we had a medium-sized, friendly guild who aspired to be a casual raiding guild. It was run by a guy we'll call X. X was a pretty good guild leader -- he sponsored events and would sometimes run dungeons. We were, for the most part, a great little guild with potential to be a great little raiding guild.

This all changed when X went to another server. At first he left leadership to Y, but Y soon left and leadership ended up all of a sudden in the hands of Z. Z was not a level 85 and rarely participated in the guild. He would not log on for weeks and this made it difficult to have a functional guild. As a result, people left in droves, many of whom had been important parts of the guild before the leadership change.

Two of the most active players who logged on regularly were myself and my sister, B. We tried to do things as a guild but we didn't have enough active players to regularly form a guild group, even with just 3 people. Sometimes Z would log on after 29 days, just in time to prevent us from kicking him. After a few months, we finally did take back leadership and B became GM.

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Officers' Quarters: Return of an X guild leader originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Officers’ Quarters: In the wake of drama, tragedy

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funeral for a player
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.

Drama happens in guilds. As officers, we do everything we can to avoid it. Sometimes we make mistakes that set us up for it. At other times, it's simply inevitable. Much of it is stupid and pointless. However, nothing puts it all in perspective like a sudden, shared tragedy. This week, a guild leader wonders how he can deal with this terrible circumstance in the aftermath of a guild-shattering argument.

Scott,

I have a really difficult problem that I would like your advice, or at least your opinion. This problem is two fold and I will start with the short but serious series of events that have transpired the last few days. I (basically) started the guild a week before Cataclysm. We took off quick and became extremely successful. One of the first guilds to hit 25 on the server (which made me a really proud guild leader).

Early in the guilds history, we had a member join our guild, lets call him Eddie. Eddie has an abrasive personality and he tends to insult people. The thing is, hes not and never is being serious. He jokes and unless you spend more than 5 minutes talking to him, you just assume he's insulting you, which he's not. Well Eddie, being new to the guild (that had relatively little officers), hit the ground running and showed qualities of a true leader. He built our raid team, geared people, taught people, and did his job in a way that I've not seen done even as I raided through Wrath. Eddie however joined the military and had to leave for Basic Training. When he left, it was agreed upon that the raid leader spot would be temporarily given to another officer and would be given back when Eddie returned.

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Officers' Quarters: In the wake of drama, tragedy originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Officers’ Quarters: Walking away

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a woman walks toward a distant skyline
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.

Marriage or ... your guild -- it's a fairly straightforward decision! However, it's not an easy thing to walk away from a community you've spent so much time leading and developing, even when you're feeling burned out on the game. This week's email features a guild leader who is simply torn up about the prospect of leaving the guild to another officer.
Scott,

I've been putting off writing this for a long time, but I don't think I can any more ...

During the days of Vanilla I came across a player (we'll call him "Dan") who helped direct me to a great guild ... The guild was small, close-knit, extremely helpful and the most at home I've felt in a gaming community in ages.

Through the years I worked my way up the ranks, eventually earning a spot as one of Dan's officers. Several years later, when Real Life go the best of Dan, I was chosen as his successor. There were other officers there longer, but Dan felt I understood his vision for the guild better than anyone else. I was honored, and have done my best to carry on the guild in the foot steps he left behind.

We're not the biggest guild on our server, or the most advanced raiders, or the best PvPers, but we're good, and we're well known. Our guild name has always been synonymous with quality people, and we let our members know that we value quality of character above all else. When guilds on our server fold, their members clamor to join us, and we're careful about who we let in. We've been around for over five years now, and I am damned proud of everything we've accomplished.

Don't let my glowing self appraisal fool you.

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Officers' Quarters: Walking away originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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