Cold Comfort

Guild Management and Leadership in WoW

Archive for June, 2009

Loot Collusion in Raids after 3.2

Jun 29

Posted by Karatheya in Best Practices, Guild Management, Raiding | 4 Comments

shake hands Loot Collusion in Raids after 3.2The patch notes for the 3.2 PTR don’t mention it yet, but one of the changes discovered by PTR players is that you can now trade BoP items won to other members who were also eligible to receive that loot for a short period of time after receiving the item.

This change is obviously designed to reduce the number of GM petitions asking for mis-looted items to be sent to another member of the raid.  I guess I didn’t realize just how many of these must be requested every day.  I’ve only ever filled them out when there was a legitimate mistake in looting – an incorrect click by a master looter for example.  In my last guild, they were filing them all the time.  It wasn’t that the master looter was bad, it was that people would pipe up after loot had been distributed saying things like “well, that was more of an upgrade for me”.  The ML would concur, and file a ticket.  Personally, I don’t like this practice, as it makes people less responsible for their actions.  If you want loot, you should declare on it immediately.  If there’s a discussion to be had about who deserves the loot more, have that in /raid once all the interested parties have been identified.  Yet I digress.

While this change sounds great from the outset, I’m a bit concerned that it may lead to loot collusion, regardless of the loot system a guild uses.

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The Underdog Guild

Jun 25

Posted by Karatheya in Guild Management | No Comments

underdog The Underdog GuildTime and time again, I seem to find myself joining up with the underdog guild on a realm.  When I reach 80 or server transfer onto a realm, I try to stay unguilded for a while, running instances to the best of my ability to get a feel for the various guilds who are raiding.  By inspecting party members and watching how they play, you can get a pretty good feel for who knows what they’re doing and who doesn’t, regardless of what a guild may put in their recruitment message or on their website.

It doesn’t take long to figure out who the “top” guild on the server is.  There’s always one per faction, sometimes two.  And then there’s the underdog.  The guild made up of solid players who for various reasons aren’t at the bleeding edge of progression on the realm, but who have all the right qualities to be the top guild.

And for some reason, I prefer to run with guilds of this sort, even though my experience and schedule more than qualify me to app to one of the “top” guilds.

Why?

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FFS, You’ve Been Trained for This!

Jun 22

Posted by Karatheya in Raiding, Ranting | No Comments

I’ve only had the opportunity to do General Vezax once, and only a few attempts at that.  Most of those attempts consisted of yelling at ranged members of the raid to avoid shadow crash.

This wasn’t overzealous DPS trying to jump into the resultant puddles.  It was people not paying attention to the world around them.  Having raided extensively as a healer, I know how easy it is to fall into the trap of “playing the UI” – focusing on a small section of raid frames to the exclusion of all else.  I can’t quite grok what was occupying the attention of the ranged DPS, but that’s not really the point I’m trying to make.

FFS, you’ve been trained for this!

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Guild Ranks and Controls

Jun 18

Posted by Karatheya in Best Practices, Guild Management | 2 Comments

rank_graphicIn a few recent posts, I’ve suggested ways in which guild ranks and controls can be set up to help ease the day-to-day operation of a guild.

Today, I’d like to offer some practical advice for new guild leaders on how to set up your ranks and controls before you start inviting members. But I've already invited members to my guild!

To Officer or Not To Officer?

Jun 15

Posted by Karatheya in Best Practices, Cold Comfort, Guild Management | 3 Comments

officer_goofyDo you need officers to effectively run a guild?  I’m not so sure.

Before trying to answer that question, you first have to ask yourself what the job of officer entails for you.  An officer can be anything from an assistant who handles invites when you’re not around to a co-guild leader in all but name to a useless sycophant on a power trip.

I’ll not address the last variant for obvious reasons, so let’s take a look at what an officer might be responsible for.  This is by definition a subset of the guild leader’s job:

  • guild invites, and if necessary kicks*
  • guild rank promotion / demotion*
  • recording loot distribution.  If you use a loot system like EP/GP, this may require permission to edit guild roster info*
  • managing guild bank contents*
  • organizing raids or other guild events**
  • leading raids
  • participating in guild policy decisions**
  • taking on a specific “people person” role within the guild – e.g. the recruitment officer or “guild mom”
  • responsible for managing members of a specific class, if you don’t have dedicated class leads

In the list above, I’ve marked with a * the jobs that require extra permissions in-game, and with a ** the jobs that require extra permissions out-of-game (like access to an additional forum on the guild’s message board).

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Abusing the Armory

Jun 12

Posted by Karatheya in Off-Topic, Ranting | No Comments

armory Abusing the ArmoryWhen Blizzard first announced the armory, there was a segment of the WoW community that cried out that their privacy was being invaded.  Blizzard even stoked the flames a bit with their 2007 April Fool’s post.

Over time these cries died down and the armory became a part of everyday WoW life.  Numerous sites use the armory for data (like WowJutsu and Wow Heroes).  Even the simple task of asking for feedback on your gear and spec choices is made simple through the site.  I can’t imagine not having access to this kind of info when I PUG difficult instances, nor could I imagine trying to recruit for a guild without it.

But recently, the armory has begun to be used for evil.

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Putting your Guild Leader on a Pedestal

Jun 11

Posted by Karatheya in Guild Management, Ranting | No Comments

Being a guild leader isn’t an easy job.  It’s often a thankless dance trying to keep the peace between warring individuals or factions, and the best result you can hope for at the end of the day is that nobody’s ready to quit, at least until morning.

It takes a special breed of person to do this job day in and day out.  Often, a guild leader ends up taking on more than they should for various reasons – perhaps they can’t find active officers, or they don’t trust anyone else to do the job the way they want it done.

Given the amount of work that such people do, it’s not surprising that members of the guild look up to them.  But when this goes too far, guild leaders can be elevated to a dangerous position in the guild.  When the guild leader is the only one who can solve a problem, and when the officers aren’t willing to solve a problem without the guild leader’s blessing, then you’re headed for danger.

No matter how dedicated a guild leader someone is, eventually life is going to call you back.  This might be a family emergency, accident, falling into or out of love, or just plain old burnout.

What happens to a guild in the absence of the guild leader is a great measure of just how high the pedestal was.

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