Part 4:  Leapfroggers

One of the few joys of leading a guild is feeling that “rush” when everything goes right and you meet one of your goals.  The enthusiasm exuberated from your members provides a euphoria which surpasses just about anything else the game has to offer.  Whether it be downing that boss after weeks of attempts, finally stabalizing a core group of solid players, taking that PvP zone once and for all, obtaining that long sought after piece of gear, or simply reaching a certain member cap, meeting set goals greatly improves guild morale around the board.

What happens when during the midst of your celebration and rejoice, things take a huge step backward?  Unforseen events will always happen; You can’t predict them.  Let’s say that this event was conspired and planned beforehand?  A player swooped in, took advantage of your guild’s current needs to suit their own, and took off for greener pastures.  Say hello the the “Leapfrogger”, also occassionally known as a ‘Guild Jumper’.

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We’ve been focusing quite a lot on the ‘raiding guild’ for some time now.  How could we forget about those still holding the prideful flag of ‘leveling guild’?  With as many hardships as we’ve discussed with coordinating raids, distributing loot, and scheduling instances, it’s very easy to overlook the problems that you have (or had) when your main focus was retaining quality, loyal members and motivating them to keep leveling up.  Guild leadership is still leadership, whether you have 25+ players in Ulduar, or 100 players in Tanaris.

How do you find worthwhile members, and more importantly, what can you offer them to join your guild and stay loyal when your biggest achievement has been hitting level 60 and gaining your epic mount?  Leveling guilds carry just as many headaches as raiding guilds, all the while being extremely crucial to a guild’s future development.  Make sure you get it right the first time!

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I don’t have a level requirement for my guild. If you fit in with the family (and can stand our particular level of nonsense), welcome aboard! This does mean, however, that guild chat occasionally becomes overrun with, “Can you help me with this?”

Assuming you don’t have an “80s only” guild, you are going to see this a lot. The greatest day of my life was the day all mount quests became optional.

The urge to ask for help is strong for many players, but I find often times that max level members are loathe to float out of Dalaran and give it. Some of it is Old Folks Syndrome. In my day, I didn’t have a level 80 to come cart me around on a mammoth! In my actual day, I had four friends to run instances with and we somehow managed to start an empire. So it’s am empire made of cheese, zombies, and failure. It’s still our empire. Some of it can be just plain old annoyance, especially when when the officers or GM are being pounded with requests. One of the things non-officers don’t see is just how much we really do and if you put one more request on our pile, it just makes it more likely that we’re not getting any of it done.
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