/officerchat

(I’d like to start this out by apologizing for my silence. I’m in the middle of studying for a GRE subject test, so mostly I spend my days breathing into a paper bag. Once my tests are over, I should pick myself back up.)

Being tough is one of the best skills you can possibly learn as a GM and an officer. Some of my worst decisions came from my inability to say no. Check this for bad judgment.

-Allowing a player who stole from my guild bank back into the guild four times. To be fair, this was the preteen brother of one of the founding officers. I didn’t even throw him out after he cleaned the bank because his father, who is also a beloved member, grounded him. That’s got to suck enough, being grounded for your behavior on the internet. He rage quit a lot, after screaming that he hated us and I finally said no more. This took over two months. It was before I grew a spine.

-Allowing a player to blow up a drama bomb rather than just throw her out. This included her going absolutely ballistic in another guild’s vent. One my officers had benched her for no-showing six weeks of raids and she lost her mind.

Sometimes, you have to be a jerk.

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“A case of Alt-itis?”

Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 1:56 PM

I’m in a 25 man raiding guild. Lately, most of our members just log on to raid. There are people on our non-raiding nights, but it’s mostly the same people, and maybe half of those people are happily playing alts. We can barely field any 10 man group outside of scheduled 25 man raid times.

I have nothing against alts, in fact, I’m guilty of mostly playing my alt as well, as it’s the character I enjoy playing most at the moment (I would switch if I could, but there’s no spot for my desired role, currently). I pretty much just log on to raid, do daily heroics and try to pug VoA on my raiding main. The rest of the time I’m farming heroics to gear up my alt. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with this, as there’s nothing else I can do to improve my raiding main outside of guild raids.

The problem is that I’m not the only one doing this, but not  every body’s main is as geared as they should be. We have people leveling alts when their mains can still use Conquest badge upgrades, or not doing the daily heroic for Triumph badges. The guild leadership (as well as myself, personally) would like to see these members spend more time improving their raiding mains outside of raids.

So I need advice on two things:
How can we increase the level of activity outside of official raid times? And how can we push people to go after upgrades for their raiding mains that they can get outside of guild raids (5 man ToC, Conquest badges, etc) without being too Draconian and basically telling people how to play? I should mention that I’m a former officer, so I also wonder if I’m providing a bad example by being on my alt most times.

Thanks
A concerned member

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Guild Kicking our members is rarely something most leaders want to do.  We would all love a guild full of intellectual, skilled, and contributing players, but there are times when bad seeds get mixed into the bunch.  More often than not, these bad seeds have sewn friendships and/or loyalties with other members, thus creating a nightmare when it comes time for them to be removed.  How do we judge and carry out a justifiable guild kick?  How do we know when a kick is even warranted or in need?  No worries, all it takes is common sense, an iron fist, and a very large steel-toed boot.  So snuggle up, little grasshopper; We’re going to transform you into a guild kicking machine!

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As a GM, one benefit of having friendships with your members is that you have a strong, positive relationship with each of them. You understand what motivates your guild, because you’ve learned about their real life issues, their interests, and their goals in life.  Members with a strong connection to yourself and the officers are more likely to put up with more nonsense, raid longer hours, and be loyal to the guild.  However, in order to be a good leader, you must be careful to distinctly define the boundaries between yourself and your players.  By portraying the “friend” role to an extreme, you may lose the authority to command leadership at all.  Here are some points to remember:

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