Guild Experiences

It seems to me that a good number of people on these forums have been guild leaders and/or officers. I'm just interested to hear about everyone's guild experiences. What kind of guilds have you all been in? What positions have you held in guilds, and how were the guilds organized?

wow....Long story.

Short version:

I've been a guild leader for about 8 years now, transversing over 3 games. The guild is still going in EQ2, but a friend of mine does the actual decision making now. She does call to ask my opinion and advice, tho, now and then.

It was a fantastic experience all thru the EQ days, until someone seemingly decided they wanted to take over and the only way to do that was start spreading rumors and then taking players to their new guild. Lots happened that I won't go into, but this is always possible. It killed the game exp as well as the guild for many people. The group in EQ2 is still great and they're doing very well!

Bigger is not always better! We wound up with about 400 members in EQ but are keeping it small now. And yes, we're very strict with our code of ethics! If your 8 yr old wants to watch or play, then fine! It's a safe environment for them!

Been in a few guilds in my MMO career, starting in EQ. I started out with mainly family oriented tight-knit guilds and kind of kept that tradition throughout EQ even though the guild I spent the most time with was also a "casual raiding" guild as well. I believe I was an officer in it, but I didn't really have any responsibility worth noting.

My big jump was finding Ascension during the EQ2 beta. By the time the beta was close to finished I was an officer and when the leader decided that EQ2 wasn't for him, a few other officers and I started up a hardcore raiding guild. We started out great, but unfortunately for me I had RL issues and had to take a couple month break right after the game went live. Since I missed such an important time in the forming of the guild I stepped down as a co-leader and eventually stopped playing EQ2 as well. The guild itself went on to complete many world-firsts though, so it was a smashing success in that respect. I then rejoined with the leader of Ascension for the Vanguard beta, back in an officer position, and we started building another hardcore raiding guild. After building up a good presence in game, history repeated itself and we left Vanguard before release when we saw it was essentially a lost cause at that point. After that, we had a relatively short stint in the LoTRO beta/live that ended up floundering due to lack of raid content and member disinterest/frustration. The guild also met some guy named Blackguard in LoTRO, he was a bit of a carebear though.

At this point the guild still has a small core group of members that floats around from game to game until the "Next Big Thing" hits. I think a lot of us are ready to just settle down into a game and play with friends, whatever game that is doesn't matter a whole lot. As a guild we're looking forward to both WAR and AoC (although I have serious doubts about the latter), and of course, in the future, the 38 Studios game.

Originally Posted by Woad

After that, we had a relatively short stint in the LoTRO beta/live that ended up floundering due to lack of raid content and member disinterest/frustration. The guild also met some guy named Blackguard in LoTRO, he was a bit of a carebear though.

I checked out you guys (Ascension) on the Silverlode server, but your "no idiots" requirement knocked me out of contention so I never contacted you.

I've been a (small) guild leader that was just a hangout for friends in WoW. That was tons of fun. I was forever changing the names of the different ranks and promoting/demoting people based on whether they agreed with whatever point I was making on vent at the time.

I was also member of a fairly serious ~60 person guild pre-BC but when it became clear we weren't going to get enough lvl 60s on our own to raid consistently, we merged into a large guild that raided 6 days/week. That was a mixed experience. It was pretty clique-y because you had distinct groups of people who had developed their own friendships independently in their original guilds. The officer core was all from the original raiding guild, and they seemed to take care of their own when it came to the points system. Merging is a mixed bag...definitely something of a risk but in our case we felt it was either merge or disband.

Originally Posted by Horder

I checked out you guys (Ascension) on the Silverlode server, but your "no idiots" requirement knocked me out of contention so I never contacted you.

That shouldn't have stopped you, we had plenty of idiots! Either way, you didn't miss much. Lots of frustration and apathy near the end, so count yourself lucky.

in the past 5 years I've held many MANY leadership roles through some of the guilds I've been in.

My first guild in SWG I was co-leader of the guild for awhile before I quit and went to eq2. After awhile of just being a regular member, the leadership started quitting and I and a friend ended up taking over as guild leaders. On top of that the guild was part of a much much bigger multi clan that participated in FPS, RTS, and MMO games and I was one of the higher ups in the clan. I was in charge of all the personel type stuff. (Anyone that was kicked out of the clan or any disputes that popped up that were bigger then just 1 games leadership could handle I helped with).

In my experience and opinion smaller is better. The clan worked out fairly well as each game had it's own leadership that was part of the clan's leadership, so it was like 1 huge small happy family (if you understand what I mean). When you start getting too big you start losing that closeness and family type atmosphere that I enjoy about the games. For me the games are only 1/2 the fun, the other half is the social aspect of being in a guild.

In my personal experience I can say one thing about being in guild leadership...YOU HAVE TO BE FAIR.....No matter what. Even if you have to reprimand your best friend, you have to be fair. If you aren't you will lose control of the guild and it will go into chaos. (though never reprimand infront of others, always keep it private).

Originally Posted by spicie

In my personal experience I can say one thing about being in guild leadership...YOU HAVE TO BE FAIR.....No matter what. Even if you have to reprimand your best friend, you have to be fair. If you aren't you will lose control of the guild and it will go into chaos. (though never reprimand infront of others, always keep it private).

Let me add...never make snap decisions! Unless it's a blatant NO WAY situation, make sure you find out all the facts before you open mouth and insert both feet. It's so much easier to explain dragging your heels to be fair than explaining why you messed up and booted the best tank cuz of a stupid misunderstanding and lies.

There is no shame in saying you don't know and less in saying you were wrong. It's easier, tho, to find out what you don't know than to make a huge blunder and finally swallowing your pride and admitting you were wrong - after half the guild walks out. And it's happened! But make those judgments on smaller issues. It's a lot easier to get down!

Well I might as well talk of my experience.

I will begin with my most recent in WoW. My cousin started a guild with a friend of his and I was the first member they inviteded into the guild. This guild of course came from a group of members from another guild led by my cousin and his friend. Well, as it turns out I became an officer of the guild and ran connections with new members on my character. I ran work helping them level, find gear, and complete quest. My latter work turned into recruiting as well as helping them as they leveled. Unfortunatly the guild lost its feeling of being an outcast band of freedom fighters to becoming what they had left( and I had joined) to escape. Thus, as the guild fell apart and more things changed I got appointed to making the official site for the guild. As I had worked on it I people began leaving and I fully gave up on the site since the Armory came out for WoW. The guild eventually would push me to the breaking point combined with WoWs already breaking quality for me. Thus I left the game. I haven't gone back for 4 months and I quite happy for it. The guild left me a bit bitter with in-game made guilds.

My best experience has to be as an officer in a guild on Guild Wars playing in a guild with a friend of mine from SC. It became tight knit and remains tightly knit although, the guild is down to me, him, his mom and her boyfriend and a friend of ours from SC. It was essentially the best guild I have ever been in. Sadly, its now inactive.. Close knit guilds would be the best I say. If the people can have fun together then I feel it really works well. Comparitivly my experience in WoW became what I expected it would. In GW it was totally unexpected and a great relief. I also still play GW unlike WoW.... imagine that...

I can't even remember my password in GW, and I really did have fun there.

Alot of folks got ticked at me because I ran the guild like I run the forums. With a swift and definitive hand of justice. I have no patience for people who do not wish to follow the rules. And if you do not participate in a positive manner, both in game, AND on the forums, neither I, nor the guild, have time for you.