/officerchat

Tue, Oct 13, 2009

Hey Sedge,

Here’s one for you.  Recently my guild had a member return to the game after a few months on break.  He was a good member typically, helpful if not too talkative or generous.  Here’s where it went bad.  Apparently after a few BG’s (not guild pre-mades) where he had a losing streak, he felt it necessary to exclaim the deficiencies of the Alliance within /Trade chat.  Complete with profanities.  One of our officers happened to be in /Trade at the time and asked him to stop. Response was to the effect of, “You cant tell me how to behave.”  Discussion became heated and led to guild member removal.  Said member then logged on to an alt, told us all that he hoped we failed and how basically we were all chicken excrement.

For a little background, we are a mostly casual guild that does some raiding 1-2 nights a week as a guild, maybe every other week or so.  But many of our members raid much more frequently as PUGs.  We try to make sure that members of our guild are not “those” pugs, so that if someone needs a fill in they have no doubt that if they pick one of our members they will not be sorry.  (Skills may vary, but the attitude won’t).  We have a list of guild rules that prohibit flame wars within Guild Chat, but never thought to extend it to General or Trade.

Is it too much to ask of members to not troll in public channels as well?

Whateva!  I do what I want!

Isn’t it always a lovely day when you wake up or get home from work and have to play the evil dictator?  All of a sudden, you do nothing more than tell people how to act, what to say, how to play their character, what they can and can not raid, what to eat for dinner, who to date, etc etc.  It seems that when a player decides to act out and do what he/she wishes, any and all guild rules are now constraints upon their freedom.  No longer are the guild rules about order, respect, and civility, but instead are part of an evil scheme to keep the player down and prohibit them from progressing.  Ever.

To easily answer your question:  No, it is not too much to ask of members to refrain from

• -spamming
• -trolling
• -crying
• -whining
• -bitching
• -complaining
• -flaming

in trade or global game chat.  Not only are you providing a favor to everyone else on your server by saving garbage from being strewn about the channel, but you’re securing your guild’s image as well.  We all make the assumption at some point while playing:  If this guy is an idiot in chat, I bet he’s an idiot in the raid.  No body wants to take additional chances that they might not have to.  If two players are available, and one does nothing all day but piss everyone off in the chat channel, most likely the opposing character will be invited.  It’s not a surprise, we all make those evaluations on a daily basis.

In your situation, you decided to confront the member about their actions in order to correct the behavior.  Great job!  The member became irate that you were too controlling, and further decided to carry on with his antics within your guild.  Removing this player was a wise choice, as I would only foresee further problems forming due to this, whether inter-guild or server-wide.  Always keep an eye on your chat, and as you unfortunately found out, always keep the other eye on global chat.

It’s not easy wearing so many hats to all the roles you play, so be sure you  have a well-establised group of officers to support your rules and policies.  You will have a wide spectrum of members, some great and some horrible.  Hold your ground, explain your reasoning, and keep your members accountable for their actions.  Those who are worth keeping around will abide by your guild’s mantra, and those who aren’t will soon find the door themselves.  Such is all part of rolling GM in the first place, enjoy it.  ; )