Guild Leader's Handbook - random ramblings from years ago
This is somewhat in response to Theophilus’ threat on What makes an effective city/council leader, but I did not want to overwhelm his threat with a book, 2,000 word essay. Literally.
I wrote this three years ago when I was GM of the Frostbringers, back when they were the lowest guild in the land with a guild health below 100, with only three active players logging in every day. From there, we got the guild revitalized, brought in new players, and things continue to be flourishing. It's amazing what some decent leadership can do.
The last modified date on this was Jan 28th, 2012. Parts of it are blunt to the point of being harsh, but that's ok. I've filtered out most of the cuss words (I think/hope).
Take it for what it’s worth, and lot has changed in the game since then. I never put this online, and this is the first time anyone other than myself and one other individual have seen it. I remember it being fun to write, and after re-reading it after three years I still think it has some very excellent points. It's long, but I think it's worth the read.
Thank you for your post, Theophilus, which reminded me of this.
In adventure,
Zoph
Introduction
We all play games for fun. That is the bottom line. For some, the sense of reward that comes from working on a problem or a situation and resolving it, provides the fun. For others, being the best basher or the premier Player Killer is what brings the most fun to them.
Guild Leadership
When someone steps up for guild leadership, they take on responsibility. This responsibility is to help further the enjoyment of the game for others and to facilitate the game’s administration by resolving conflicts that would otherwise be left to the administration to handle. This is often challenging and can be rewarding.
Communication
Imperian provides many different means to communicate, not only to your guildmates, but to the world at large. Post. All. Of. The. Time. You don’t have to do an ‘annual’ update but let folks know what’s going on. Nothing going on? Make something happen.
When posting on news boards, be concise and to the point. Long rambling posts lose the reader’s interest and often do not get the message across.
Drama
It is hard to judge history based solely on the writings of others. The best history is written by the historian who was there, and who can provide all the details from an objective view. However, words are what we must utilize when those who wrote them are long gone.
With that being said I cannot help but wonder what went through the heads of earlier leaders as they struggled with guild health and the perils of running a guild with few members. Was their leadership not strong enough? Were they too selfish, having not put the guilds needs first before their own? Perhaps they were just ill informed, or even worse lazy, to determine what would be needed to bring things above water. I have little doubt that it was a combination of all of these things.
On selfishness, as this is a harsh term to use toward a former leader. More than once did one of our prior leaders cite personal reasons for leaving their position. All of us have our goals, be it to have a family, hunt, explore, or simply enjoy life. But a great leader ALWAYS puts the needs of others before their own when running a guild. A great leader ALWAYS sacrifices what he has for the benefit of his guild. City does not come first, nor family. You are to be devoted to your guild and do everything in your power to ensure they prosper. They deserve nothing less. Your city can bugger off, as it has enough ‘leaders’ to ensure its proper day to day life.
These things you do not do behind the scenes. Never have I heard more of a crap excuse for someone to keep their position of Guildmaster as, “But I’ve been working on a lot of things behind the scenes.” What a disgusting cop out. If you are working on things behind the scenes you do those AND things your members can see at the same time. You reward them and they will reward the guild. You should seek no personal reward. The reward you get is seeing your guild and its members prosper. If this is not sufficient then you do not deserve to hold the title of Guildmaster or any leader for that matter. You would do good to bugger off and leave the running of guilds to the real leaders.
Post after post of guild leaders pleading with their members to do something, anything, to raise guild health. “Please, donate. Please do something listed in GHELP JOBS so we can reward you.” Seriously? Perhaps you should get off of your lazy bum and harvest so that others don’t have to donate. As Guildmaster you do what you have to do to get guild health up. Do not rely on your members, as you hold the power to contribute significantly to your members. Demote some secretaries to members. If they are truly in it to help the cause they will understand why you need their activity contributing to guild health.
Additionally, this constant plea of “We must get more novices” confuses me. Yes, novices are important but they are not the foundation for guild health. Over 80% of novices quit. Not quit the guild, simply quit, because things are too fast/complicated/whatever and often they feel overwhelmed. You cannot rely on novices to keep your guild alive. It starts with you, Guildmaster, then your members who are on the most. Take care of those folks and your guild will start to flourish once again. Let those members know what is going on and what needs to be done to fix it. Tell them that just a simple 30 minutes of hunting per day will do wonders for the guild. If they can get in an hour even better. It is amazing what they will do if they know its helping and how much it is helping. People need direction, not suggestions. “I need you to hunt for 45 minutes today if you can,” means so much more than, “When you have the time could you bash a little?” Hey, start a hunting group with guild and city members, and go hit up Demon’s Pass or Nagiri Caverns or wherever turns you on. Do one or two runs. With a group, it won’t take long to clear out and your guild health will improve for the day because of it.
Contests. Are. Stupid. Most folks don’t like them. Plus, when you start a contest and most people ignore it and don’t submit ideas don’t get all upset and heartbroken. If you want a new item to put in the guild shop you design it and put it in there. Then if someone comes to you and says “Hey, I think a blab la bla would be cool,” you tell them to write it up and you’ll see what you can do. You can always post that you’re accepting ideas, but don’t have a contest. Make this a standing order, or post it in a help file. Let folks know you are ALWAYS looking for new ideas and be gone with your stupid little contest.
Plus, offering 5 credits for a prize for ANYTHING is bush league. Get a grip, nobody gives a crap about 5 credits. Offer 100, or 50. Don’t have that many? Get them.
No doubt people work hard to organize contests for the guild and then get all sad face when nobody participates. This does a couple of things, mostly that the person who organized it doesn't think what they are doing matters.
On Apprentice Programs/Paths
I've gotten use to calling things guild members do right out of novice hood apprentice programs. I have a mixed feeling about them. NEVER should they be made mandatory. People who come to Imperian want to have a good time. Period. They don’t want to work their butt off on an endless list of crap because you think it’s important for ROLE PLAYING. Ugh. Yes, role playing is an important part to a MUD, but many players come here just to have a good time. They come from World of Warcraft, or GuildWars, or Lord of the Rings Online. They want to kill crap and have fun with their friends. Sure, novice programs help them get a grip on what’s going on in a MUD, but once they finish that leave them alone. If they want to learn more about the guild’s history, combat, magick, whatever, they will come to you. Have options available for them, and allow them to dabble if they see fit. NEVER outguild someone for not doing an Apprentice Program. Why punish a contributing, active member of your guild simply because they rather hunt than write an essay on the trees in the Fuzzy Forest? Don’t put them on probation for this, either. After finishing Novicehood a whole new world opens up to them. They are stronger, have more skills, and will want to see more. If you shove a bunch of crap down their throat right when they are starting to get a firm grasp on how to play the game they’re going to either find another guild or quit all together. You don’t ever want a player leaving because being in your guild was too much work. With high school, work, college, and who knows what else we have enough of this whole checklist of crap to do. Let gamers come here to do what they do, game. If they truly like what you represent as a Guild they will be more than willing to help the Guild as a whole when they are ready, and you will be greatly rewarded for it.
On Unsures
Unsures are individuals who you’re really not sure if they’re going to stick around. Now, even these people fall into two categories: The ones you care about and the ones you don’t. The latter ones can bugger off. They probably won’t contribute a whole lot to what you’re trying to accomplish as a guild so they probably aren't worth wasting your time and effort on. This section will concentrate on the former, the ones you do care about.
Sometimes individuals just try out a guild to see what it’s like. Maybe they’re entirely new to the game and your guild description sounded appealing or perhaps one of their friends convinced them to join up and now they’re not too sure. Sometimes you even have quiet members who might enjoy the game but isn’t doing a whole lot with their time from what you can tell.
That brings us to another point: Go to people with stuff. If you have an idea, want something done, one of the most impersonal things you can do is put up a post asking for volunteers. It’s one thing if you’re looking for novice aides or want some items designed for your guild shop person. But if you’re looking for an idea for an event, or perhaps an addition to the guild hall, don’t go straight to your friends or your most trusted secretaries. Try seeking out a new member and see what they have to offer. The most effective persons for this is often newly inguilded older members. Especially if they are new to the realm you are playing (say anti-magick to magick) they might feel a bit out of place and their transition to getting to knowing folks might be a bit slow. They might be quiet, and you don’t see them doing a whole lot. Offering them the opportunity to interact like this says a lot of things not only about you, but it also tells them that you’re looking forward to what they can bring to the guild and you’re eager to see it.
Comments
Contests aren't stupid. Some people enjoy them. Some people don't. You are never going to get a ton of people involved in -absolutely anything- you plan in Imperian. There are too many divergent interests. Some people are going to really like contests (I happen to enjoy them when there is actual competition). Some people don't. That's cool. Provide different avenues of engagement for different play styles.
The importance of novices comes from the need for new ideas and new perspectives. Novices provide that, old-hands usually don't. In addition, people tend to overlook novices and assume they are alts. It doesn't -matter- if they are alts, go find that person and interact with them and show them why your guild is worth being in. Alts become mains and guilds need bodies to stay interesting and relevant.
AFAIK, there hasn't been any outguilding/punishing in Imperian for not doing post-novicehood work that I can recall in ten years of playing. There's been a lot of non-pkers busting tail and getting no recognition, however, in cities and guilds, so most of the 'do stuff' programs have two purposes. The first being to recognize and reward effort that often goes unseen (particularly things like donations/hunting drives/behind the scenes work) and the second is to mold the culture of your organization. Saboteurs were focused on espionage, assassinatin', and collecting intelligence. So our pathwork was 'flavored' to encourage that vibe, while (hopefully) being flexible enough to let anyone advance in the guild who wanted to by doing stuff they mostly enjoyed.
The last bit is the only bit I strongly agree with here.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
1.) If you absolutely must have advancement paths in a guild, split them in two ways: Have one path for your combatants and another for your scholarly/non-combatant folks. When it boils down to it, the game has those two groups. Some engage in both, and they can be your overachievers if they decide to do both.
2.) You don't need to post all of the time. Just do something minor here and there. Credit sales, PK competition, maybe do an orgrequest for an admin so you can have a prog where a newbie undergoes some kind of oath and there are some room emotes and mystical mumbo-jumbo involved. Giving the guild flavor like that means that the guild isn't reliant on its leader in order to have substance, roleplay, or otherwise.
3.) Just ask people if they want something to do. More often than not, you have people who'd be willing and want to do something if you just ask them.
4.) Some people just don't want to do tasks, so make any kind of advancement plan optional. However, something that a game like Achaea suffers with is that a lot of players don't feel like treating the game like a second job. Don't make your requirements outright ridiculous. Case in point: the Dread Legates in Achaea have some obscene requirements just to be considered a full member and only a small handful of people (despite the guild being huge) actually have full membership.
Honestly, that's it. Just make your guild folks feel involved, talk with them, maybe do an orgrequest for a prog or two in the guildhall. Expand your guildhall maybe, offer a contest for people to design the rooms.
Edit: And when all else fails and you're a fighter, just remember: Asskicking Equals Authority.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."