Week Breakdown and Rant: Guild Leadership
This week has been an exciting news week for geeky stuff, at least for me. Star Wars Celebration V is taking place in Orlando over the next few days, and the tweets and pics are very exciting to me! Not as much the official stuff, but the enthusiasm and creativity of the fans is truly astounding! Might start reading my Star Wars books again!!
The ongoing Duke Nukem Forever may be back! Hopefully, it never dies. Kinda like John’s wishing for UltimaX He’ll never stop wishing for it, no matter how much it’s not going to happen. OSI is dead Weezy, let it go.
GenCon was a few days ago and lots of good news from there! Rumors are floating around about the Neverwinter Nights MMO we’ve all heard so much about (really? Just me?). I would really enjoy seeing how they’d turn that into an MMO! I haven’t read too much about the other stuff that came out of GenCon (been a rough week), but I plan on catching up this weekend! Next year? I’m dragging Monique to GenCon! Everyone should go at least once!!!!
Since Tina has turned 80 I haven’t played much, since there hasn’t been a day off since! This weekend though I intend to do some heroic runs and Monique wants to run some lower level stuff that I’m excited to get the chance to see.
This weekend I have to work a bit on my Pogo.com badges for the week, and of course I want to get in to Puzzle Pirates a bit. But I also need to work on Tina’s rep for Timbermaw and Sporeggar. She’s SO close on both! That’s what happens when you get the Ambassador title at 45! ;p
Also, fishing! I’m only up to 321 fishing, and my cooking is even lower! So much to do, how do people have alts?! Maybe they play more….*glances at her friends*
So the rant of the week? My usual issue with MMOs. Community leadership and lack thereof. I’m not talking about game companies and their representatives, I’m talking guild and party leaders.
I have a problem with games that do not encourage community, or provide tools (Raiding/PVP alliance options in WoW anyone?) for communications, player organization, and discussions.
I also have a problem with guilds that do not promote officers who understand the duties of officership. Or maybe the idea of officers has changed since I was one or decided on promotions. Obviously each guild decides on the responsibilities of their officers differently. But the guild I’m currently in doesn’t have those responsibilities listed anywhere, and the only list of officers is on the guild roster from Wowstead….and the forums are rarely used.
I am confused by this. Because what I expect from officers is different than what most folks in this guild expect. So I’m not sure the operating rules. And ASKING a guild officer what they’re supposed to be doing is like the kiss of death. Why not just /gkick yourself?
So what are guild officers and leaders supposed to do IMO?
• Guild officers must communicate the guilds goals and lead players towards it actively and with the minimum of drama possible.
• Help recruit and mentor new members to the guild. Explain the rules of everything from loot, guild groups, expectations in PUGs, guild bank usage, who to go to for help, the difference between asking for help and begging
• Being an authority on basic game mechanics and hopefully have a specialization to assist folks with.
• Enforce rules, regulations, rewards, and work with the guild towards an awesome tomorrow!
Running a guild is hard work. When the guild leaders and officers are friends, or when the guild dynamic changes you must be willing as leaders of a community to adapt and learn. Sometimes you have to demote (or if you’re sneaky re-org the officership) and un-promote or over-promote those most capable of handling the day to day goings on of the guild.
Guild officers must run groups with folks in the guild who are not necessarily the best at what they’re doing. They must build a rapport with the lesser awesome folks and try to teach them, if those folks are open to learning. They must not create cliques with their friends and cause rifts between the “friends” and the “non-friends”.
If things are running as always but you got in to a fight with your husband/wife and co-leader, you can’t demote them and expect the guild not to feel the rift of power. You can’t expect to not have posted rules and expect everyone to understand what’s going on or what behavior is appropriate when.
You must follow the rules of the guild, and when circumventing rules it must not be detrimental to others in the guild.
You must not have the attitude of “If you don’t like it leave” right away. Explaining the rules, hearing the other side of the situation and considering if the rules apply is a necessity.
Just as being a boss IRL requires people, listening, conflict resolution and putting up with a WHOLE lotta BS, guild leadership and officership is not a walk in the Mage Park. It’s a lot of hard work.
How does one do this perfectly? Create a one person guild. Otherwise, one can only do the best they can and continue to learn and be a better leader every chance you login, communicate with others
The ongoing Duke Nukem Forever may be back! Hopefully, it never dies. Kinda like John’s wishing for UltimaX He’ll never stop wishing for it, no matter how much it’s not going to happen. OSI is dead Weezy, let it go.
GenCon was a few days ago and lots of good news from there! Rumors are floating around about the Neverwinter Nights MMO we’ve all heard so much about (really? Just me?). I would really enjoy seeing how they’d turn that into an MMO! I haven’t read too much about the other stuff that came out of GenCon (been a rough week), but I plan on catching up this weekend! Next year? I’m dragging Monique to GenCon! Everyone should go at least once!!!!
Since Tina has turned 80 I haven’t played much, since there hasn’t been a day off since! This weekend though I intend to do some heroic runs and Monique wants to run some lower level stuff that I’m excited to get the chance to see.
This weekend I have to work a bit on my Pogo.com badges for the week, and of course I want to get in to Puzzle Pirates a bit. But I also need to work on Tina’s rep for Timbermaw and Sporeggar. She’s SO close on both! That’s what happens when you get the Ambassador title at 45! ;p
Also, fishing! I’m only up to 321 fishing, and my cooking is even lower! So much to do, how do people have alts?! Maybe they play more….*glances at her friends*
So the rant of the week? My usual issue with MMOs. Community leadership and lack thereof. I’m not talking about game companies and their representatives, I’m talking guild and party leaders.
I have a problem with games that do not encourage community, or provide tools (Raiding/PVP alliance options in WoW anyone?) for communications, player organization, and discussions.
I also have a problem with guilds that do not promote officers who understand the duties of officership. Or maybe the idea of officers has changed since I was one or decided on promotions. Obviously each guild decides on the responsibilities of their officers differently. But the guild I’m currently in doesn’t have those responsibilities listed anywhere, and the only list of officers is on the guild roster from Wowstead….and the forums are rarely used.
I am confused by this. Because what I expect from officers is different than what most folks in this guild expect. So I’m not sure the operating rules. And ASKING a guild officer what they’re supposed to be doing is like the kiss of death. Why not just /gkick yourself?
So what are guild officers and leaders supposed to do IMO?
• Guild officers must communicate the guilds goals and lead players towards it actively and with the minimum of drama possible.
• Help recruit and mentor new members to the guild. Explain the rules of everything from loot, guild groups, expectations in PUGs, guild bank usage, who to go to for help, the difference between asking for help and begging
• Being an authority on basic game mechanics and hopefully have a specialization to assist folks with.
• Enforce rules, regulations, rewards, and work with the guild towards an awesome tomorrow!
Running a guild is hard work. When the guild leaders and officers are friends, or when the guild dynamic changes you must be willing as leaders of a community to adapt and learn. Sometimes you have to demote (or if you’re sneaky re-org the officership) and un-promote or over-promote those most capable of handling the day to day goings on of the guild.
Guild officers must run groups with folks in the guild who are not necessarily the best at what they’re doing. They must build a rapport with the lesser awesome folks and try to teach them, if those folks are open to learning. They must not create cliques with their friends and cause rifts between the “friends” and the “non-friends”.
If things are running as always but you got in to a fight with your husband/wife and co-leader, you can’t demote them and expect the guild not to feel the rift of power. You can’t expect to not have posted rules and expect everyone to understand what’s going on or what behavior is appropriate when.
You must follow the rules of the guild, and when circumventing rules it must not be detrimental to others in the guild.
You must not have the attitude of “If you don’t like it leave” right away. Explaining the rules, hearing the other side of the situation and considering if the rules apply is a necessity.
Just as being a boss IRL requires people, listening, conflict resolution and putting up with a WHOLE lotta BS, guild leadership and officership is not a walk in the Mage Park. It’s a lot of hard work.
How does one do this perfectly? Create a one person guild. Otherwise, one can only do the best they can and continue to learn and be a better leader every chance you login, communicate with others
Labels: MMO
posted by Tovin | 10:53 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home