So Here We Are…Now Where Are We Going?

So, you want to create and run a guild. Good for you! You have realized the time it takes and you have the dedication….and now what do you do? Start planning! That’s right, get out the pencil and paper or a nice clean Word document and get ready to plan your guild. I can hear you now “Wait isn’t the first thing I do is go to get a guild charter?” and I say no! Let’s use this example:

You ran out, got your guild charter. You head into the center of town and proclaim that you are a new guild and looking for members. When people ask about your guild you state that you are a mature guild who is looking for players that are interested in have fun and helping each other. You have had some people drop and some people join up and, just for the example; you are still at 10 members. And you think you are doing pretty well on the recruiting. Then one of your members says he has to go because his mother is telling him it is dinner time. Another member messages you and says “I thought you said this was a mature guild. Why is this kid in here with us?” At the same time your new rogue pops up in guild chat and asks if anyone would like to join him in an arena team. The few responses he gets is that everyone is in an instance or already on arena teams and can’t join him. But he is invited to join the hunter and shaman in an instance. Another member pops up and asked why you are not running Karazhan since we do have enough people online at the moment. People start going back and forth. One guy will only speak in some crazy form of Shakespearian jargon. A couple of people leave over the debate of Raiding vs. Casual and your numbers already start to dwindle and the rest that stay just go to do their own thing.

Not a good start for a guild.

Little did you know that all 10 people liked your idea of a mature fun guild of helpful people, but no one stopped to think about what that means.

Is raiding fun? Is PvP fun? Are carebear instance crawls fun? And are we saying that the person has to act mature or be of a certain age?

Little did you know that while all 10 of you really wanted a mature fun guild this is how it really broke down:

• 1 Role Player wanted a good group of friends that would have fun with him talking in character and exploring the world in linen armor because his character had a poor family growing up.
• 2 PvPers were looking for a guild to form pre-mades and tear up the battle groups.
• 1 PvPer, who is a 14 year old girl, was looking for arena teams to get new gear
• 4 Raiders have fun in raids and wanted an adults only group so they could get on a voice chat server and cuss up a storm while seeing the WoW endgame
• 2 people, a husband and wife team, wanted to run 5- man instances after work for a couple of hours after the kids went to sleep and before bed.

You have 10 people who are looking for completely different things that they call “fun” in World of Warcraft as well as a maturity issue thrown in.

Planning is the key to success to a guild and, it all starts with the reason you are here. You are creating a new guild so, what do you want to accomplish with it? Do you want it to be a big raiding guild and slowly work its way to the last boss of the last dungeon? Do you want to be the leader of the guild that is the very first to down a new boss? Do you want to PvP together? Do you just want to gather a group of friends to run instances? Do you want to role play?

This is a guild’s mission. This is what we are going to do! Many people know how to write a mission statement, but few know how to write an effective one. In the example above “To be a mature, friendly guild that helps each other” is a complete mission statement. However, does it really say anything at all? Is mature a set age or the way a person carries themselves online? What is the guild members helping each other do? Who are you friendly to? Before you say everyone, are you sure? If the horde is attacking Stormwind, do you just let them go because it is the friendly thing to do? If you do let him go, are you being friendly to the rest of the Alliance that can’t turn in quests because he killed the questgiver?

I am considering playing Age of Conan and am very interested in a Clan in the game. I am thinking about making a guild of barbarian lead by a bear shaman. The way I envision it is a group of very friendly players on TeamSpeak and in the forums, but in game all outsiders to our clan are viewed with mistrust and borderline hatred. Yes we will kill you when you turn your back, we will raid your city, and we will destroy you in any way possible for both our own safety and the continuing growth of our purses.

With that, how do you say we are friendly…but not really if you are not one of us? You would have to explain, in your mission, exactly what you are going, what you are trying to do and how you are going to do it. Think about the terms you use and how they could be misinterpreted. This will not only save you the headache of explaining the guild mission to people but also will bring likeminded people to you at the same time it is a shield for those that do not want the same thing.

With your goal firmly in place, you need to also include how you are going to get there. Say you want to do a lot of world firsts, you might include something in the area of “Our goal is to be the first in the world to accomplish the challenges that the developers have placed in front of us. To do this we will be raiding 4 nights a week and assisting each other 2 nights a week to farm ingredients for our consumables and to pay for repairs. Through this we will become a close team, knowing each other’s play styles and personalities that is able to accomplish what no one else yet has!”

This statement tells people where you are going and if they sign on the dotted line, what they are in for. A casual sees this and says “I don’t have time for all that; this is not the guild for me”. That not only saves her time from applying, but also saves you time to do what you love instead of reading an application you know will not cut the mustard anyhow.

So in conclusion, think about what you want and how you want to get it. Put that down in a very concise mission with not only your goal, but the way you will accomplish it. This will bring the right people to apply and make your guild much more stable that just filling it with warm bodies that have completely different ideas.

Till then, guild strong!