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Thread: So You Want to be a Guild Leader

  1. #1

    Default So You Want to be a Guild Leader

    Some thoughts and suggestions for new players who want to be guild leaders.

    Link: http://bearshamanproblems.blogspot.c...ld-leader.html


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    There's much more to being a guild leader than been the head of a bunch of merry men (and women). Even if you've been a guild leader in other games, you may be better off learning a little bit about AoC before starting up a new guild or taking over an older guild. This guide (on the native blog site) has a lot of links back to the forums, resource sites, and other blogs, hopefully providing a useful resource for new guild leaders.

    Here's some things to think about as you ponder starting a guild.

    What is the goal of your guild?

    Are you going to be a leveling guild that can offer advice to newer players?
    Do you want to raid?
    Is it a cooperative of individuals who get together to build a city for it's benefits?
    Do you want friendly pvp groups?
    Do you want to RP?
    Do you accept F2P players?

    Additionally, are you raiding during US prime time, Europe peak hours, or some other time? Knowing what time you want to do in game activities can help you recruit people who will have a similar playing schedule.

    Do you know enough about the game to help/lead people?

    If you're not familiar with how crafting works, what being an architect entails, the basic progression of areas you can visit at rough level ranges, and the basics of the game's interface such as understanding how the game breaks the game up into different instances of the same area, maybe being a Guild Leader isn't something you should do yet.

    A player on Crom was having trouble getting through his level 30 destiny quest. While I was offering some advice, he mentioned he was the leader of a guild. I joined to help him out and quickly realized he was more interested in being a leader in title than actually what it took to build a city. Part of this was because he kept asking for members to donate the structural elements instead of materials (even after I explained how it worked). I ended up building 90% of the T1 city (using materials I gathered and bought using gold from several of my 80's). One day, I saw the bank was empty of all the blue items, crafting materials, and money I had deposited (secretly hoping some other players would chip in). Seeing the Guild Leader had changed an alt to the Lord and had left the guild. I followed his leadership example and did the same.

    Building a City and Battlekeep
    You want to build a city? It's not cheap nor easy (see above). Here's the approximate list of materials you need to build a city:

    600 Copper (or 60 Braces)
    2140 Sandstone (or 214 Bricks)
    1350 Ash (135 Joints)
    210 Silver (21 Plain Facades)
    118 Parchment (at 37.5 silver each)
    59 Ink (at 25 silver each)

    So, in addition to farming for hours and having an architect to make plans, the Guild needs 59 gold. Age of Conan is a game where most level 80 characters can earn about 1 gold per hour, with efficient grinding. 59 gold for a level 40 is a fortune. And that's just for a T1 city. (I've never done the T2 or T3 architect, so I'm not sure how much it costs, but my guess is quite a bit).

    Additionally, there's a hierarchy of building items, which means that even if all you want is a Trade Post, you still need to build a lot of things before you can get one.

    Stage 1: Keep
    Stage 2: Armor-smith, Weapon-smith, Alchemist, Thieves Guild, Walls*, Towers*, and Gates*
    Stage 3: Barracks, Library
    Stage 4: Temple
    Stage 5: Trade Post
    Stage 6: Architect Workshop

    * - Walls, Towers, and Gates don't need to be completed to go on to Stage 3.


    And if you want to have a Battlekeep. You need to be able to defend it. While sieges are rare these days, a new guild consisting of mostly new players, and most under level 80, will have no chance of winning against seasoned 80's.


    Bank Management
    As illustrated above, being too generous with Guild ranking can have huge repercussions. Every online game has suffered from someone raiding a Guild bank and quitting the guild, leaving everyone else angry (and poor).

    Another item to consider is what do you want to store? In general, I've seen most guilds stack valuable resources, rare items to pass out to members, and health, stamina, and mana food. Since space is limited, don't use the Guild Bank as your own personal storage locker for social items/junk.

    Learning the Ropes
    There's some big guilds still in the game which are a great place to get learn the ropes of raids, 6-mans, and general guild management. Join one and spend some time raiding with your guild and doing pickup groups to learn how certain battles work.

    Here's some things you may want to learn about before and while you're starting your own guild (depending on your goals):

    Set up and learn how to use a Guild Bot. This provides access to AA Timers, and other useful tools.
    Setup a guild webpage using sites like GuildPortal or GuildLaunch.
    Learn how to use basic macros and scripts to advertise and provide information to members.
    Learn how to use parsers (Burnstats) (GuildStats)
    Learn the where to get the quests and the mechanics of the fights for T1 and T2 raids (if you want to Raid)
    Learn the fights for some of the 6-mans (if you want to do 6-mans)
    Have at least a basic understanding of the different arch-types and their key T2 AA abilities (Resolve, Tainted Weapons, etc.)
    Understand what you want the guild to be and advertise appropriately
    Be prepared to have to spend a lot of time recruiting and then helping recruits
    Set up a TeamSpeak3 or Ventrilo account to use for voice chat
    Get familiar with the AoC forums and understand the game's schedule for the World Bosses and PvP events.

    Human Issues
    Scaevacas, the Guild Leader of Requiem Nex, posted on the forums some other things that Guild Leaders have to address:
    * Dealing with drama
    * Dealing with stalkers
    * Dealing with loot arguments
    * Dealing with loot whores
    * Promoting / demoting / kicking players, when, how, and why
    *How often to have officer meetings
    * When to change the rules, and how to deal with minorities
    * How to handle terrible players
    * How to handle elitist jerks
    * How to handle multi-guilded players, especially when they PVP against players in your guild
    * DKP? open roll? other?
    * Dealing with people's psychological needs
    * Dealing with conflicting personalities
    * Aligning groups goals with your own
    * Reacting to competing guilds
    Note: I assumed DKP was Dragon Kill Points and linked the Wikipedia page for reference. If I'm way off base, I'll update this later.

    As someone who hasn't had to deal with things like this in a game I had originally left out this human interaction as part of being a guild leader. This takes time, patience, and is a lot of work. This work load is why a lot of players would rather be in a guild than running their own.

    Conclusion
    In my opinion and experience, most good Guild Leaders are knowledgeable and experienced players. Even though I've been playing basically since launch, I've never wanted to start a Guild since I don't always have the time to play enough to be a good leader as well as experienced enough to lead a raid, despite knowing the basics of the T1 and most T2 fights.

    While T3 is often accomplished with pickup groups these days, it may be safer to presume that you'll have to work up to it, especially if you're approaching new players. But as Scaevacas concluded his post, "I've seen my fair share of [the list above] over the last 5-6 years, and being a guild leader is stressful, demanding, and time consuming, but also has its rewards when everyone is happy."
    Last edited by puckstop98; 9th September 2014 at 01:26. Reason: Updating for human issues and quote from real GL
    ----
    Kalur - 80 Bear Shaman, Brunstol - 80 Dark Templar, Tallas - 80 Assassin, Gilben - 80 Conquerer, Pangert - 80 Barbarian, Xoltal - 80 Necromancer, Matzui - 80 Herald of Xolti, and a bunch of lower level alts.
    Wiccana -> Set -> Crom

  2. #2

    Default

    You forgot

    • dealing with drama
    • dealing with stalkers
    • dealing with loot arguments
    • dealing with loot whores
    • promoting / demoting / kicking players, when, how, and why
    • how often to have officer meetings
    • when to change the rules, and how to deal with minorities
    • how to handle terrible players
    • how to handle elitist jerks
    • how to handle multi-guilded players, especially when they PVP against players in your guild
    • DKP? open roll? other?
    • dealing with peoples psychological needs
    • dealing with conflicting personalities
    • aligning groups goals with your own
    • reacting to competing guilds


    I've seen my fair share of all of the above over the last 5-6 years, and being a guild leader is stressful, demanding, and time consuming, but also has its rewards when everyone is happy.

    Good luck!
    Last edited by Scaevacas; 8th September 2014 at 16:18.
    Requiem Nex Combat Monitor | Options not Saving temporary Fix
    Can Devs please fix:
    • new ressurections resetting the currently selected ressurect position
    • loot timeout windows disappearing before progress bar completes when box hasn't been opened quickly

  3. #3

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Scaevacas View Post
    You forgot

    • dealing with drama
    • dealing with stalkers
    • dealing with loot arguments
    • dealing with loot whores
    • promoting / demoting / kicking players, when, how, and why
    • how often to have officer meetings
    • when to change the rules, and how to deal with minorities
    • how to handle terrible players
    • how to handle elitist jerks
    • how to handle multi-guilded players, especially when they PVP against players in your guild
    • DKP? open roll? other?
    • dealing with peoples psychological needs
    • dealing with conflicting personalities
    • aligning groups goals with your own
    • reacting to competing guilds


    I've seen my fair share of all of the above over the last 5-6 years, and being a guild leader is stressful, demanding, and time consuming, but also has its rewards when everyone is happy.

    Good luck!
    Haha, all this is true!

  4. #4

    Default

    All guild leaders need to have their salaries quadrupled, at the very least.

  5. #5

    Default

    Thank you for the comments, I updated the post with the human issues list and quoted you as being work and rewarding.

    There should be a Guild Officer appreciation week. You guys deserve a real life beer or six for what you do for this (and other) games.
    ----
    Kalur - 80 Bear Shaman, Brunstol - 80 Dark Templar, Tallas - 80 Assassin, Gilben - 80 Conquerer, Pangert - 80 Barbarian, Xoltal - 80 Necromancer, Matzui - 80 Herald of Xolti, and a bunch of lower level alts.
    Wiccana -> Set -> Crom

  6. #6

    Default

    A good guild leader / raid leader makes all the difference.

    Respect to all who try, and thank you to all who succeed.
    Pontuz - HoX
    Ponthus - Demo
    Pondtus - DT
    + plenty of alts like everyone else

  7. #7

    Default

    If you want to be a succesfull Guild leader you most of all need some good people in your team. A few officers you know you can trust, build a good team, get some good raid leaders. And you will have a much easier life. Dont try do everything yourself.
    But you still have to be prepared for all the points listed by Scaevacas, sometimes you work as a bloody shrink.
    But treat everyone fair and be ruthless when needed ;-) never panic, the wolfs can smell you panicking hehe


    T

  8. #8

    Default

    RAWR!
    /10 char
    Rogue Angels Guild Leader and Progression Raid Leader
    http://rogueangels.guildlaunch.com

    Tmanku 80 Guard | Tmanil 80 ToS | Tmanosu 80 DT | Tmanbank 80 BS | Tmanfu 80 Demo | Tmanwu 80 Ranger | Tmanpope 80 PoM | Tmanpointy 80 Sin | Tmanbarb 80 Barb | Tmanfire 80 HoX | Tmannecro 80 Necro | Tmanblade 80 Conq | Tmanlite 80 Guard | Tmantosjr 80 Tos | Tmandemojr 80 Demo | Tmanthethird Saga Guard

  9. #9

    Default

    Adding my 2 coppers: When/if you advertise in game for new recruits, be prepared to answer this question - What makes your guild any different than any of the others that are recruiting? Why should I choose your guild instead of one of the many other options?

    Many times the answer is because we need members to grow or because it is MY guild. These are not good answers. You need to have a plan and a scope that differentiates you from the others. You need to be able to communicate that to prospects.

  10. #10

    Default Humble Thanks

    I learn from the best and my humble thanks goes out to you all.
    Keep up the good work !
    "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."— Dwight D. Eisenhower
    Lordshred crom;Leader of the praetorian guard http://thepraetorianguard.guildlaunch.com .Now after 5 years i have changed my view on guild leading.A guild leader is only as good as his members,and I don't mean who has the most either, quality is fine.And if your not measuring success with number of members or level of guild then it becomes clear.Ill take 10 serious people over 150 clowns anyday.
    Last edited by terryjohnson; 26th March 2016 at 23:22. Reason: re-update
    Lordshred

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