/officerchat

Throughout the course of playing any online game, you’re bound to meet and create friends, acquaintances, and people who you truly enjoy socializing with as if they only lived next door.  As we all know, situations are destined to come about while you trek on through that journey of virtual entertainment.  What becomes of these e-relationships in which we have built?  Do we simply turn off the monitor and walk away from months, or even years spent laughing, teasing, and working with each other?  If things were to take a bad turn, is it acceptable to forget the other person as if they never existed?  These are strange times we live in, with even stranger circumstances revolving around the e-company we keep.  Some light that bridge to old friends afire, and some do everything in their power to retain a connection.  Do you light that match or blow it out?

Continue reading

(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.

Continue reading

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:

Continue reading

Saying that you get more flies with honey than with vinegar may be an awful, headache inducing cliche when it comes from Mom… but it’s also true. GLs and officers have to be adept at dealing with people, because they will have to do it on a large basis. Even my bank officer has members who come to him with raiding issues or personal issues, even though that’s not technically his “job.” You don’t get to decide that all your members must connect with and trust the “Personal Issues officer”, people are going to talk to the one in power who they feel the most comfortable with (and if everyone in your guild is only comfortable talking to one person, you need to first buy them a car for having the grace and patience to deal with that and then fix it, because that’s a bad sign).

I’ve found a few ways to make yourself significantly more attractive to the guild membership.

Continue reading

(Salt Grain Goes Here:  I know men have problems running guilds.  I know all of these things are not female specific.  However, I’m focusing on things that I see happening to female GMs in large numbers.  So if your dog’s former owner’s cousin’s girlfriend’s brother was totally talked dirty to by some girl on WoW, I believe you, but that’s not the focus on this post.  It’s for the ladies.)

Warning! There are two off color words ahead!  Don’t clicky if you don’t like strong language.

Girls run guilds.  We run them very well.  We are not playing because our partners made us play.  No one handed us our epics.  We don’t all want a bunny and a pink glitter armor set (though I totally ran around in the Bloodscale plate set on my pally shouting, “I’m pally Barbie!  Math is hard!”)  I have the distinct pleasure of being one of a trifecta of female run guilds on my server.  We are all at about the same level of progression and we are good friends.  However, on most other servers I have played on, this is not the case.  Girls are scarce, being a female gamer can be a very isolating experience and it’s to say, “Man, screw this!”  There are a lot of things a female GM has to deal with that only other female GMs will deal with on a regular basis.  Here’s how I get through it with at least a little grace.

Continue reading

I am going crazy this week.  I really am.  We all have those days, right?  The one where you log in and everyone leaps for you.  You can’t even see the screen because WIM has just opened 17 windows.  The second tank needs a necklace.  The first tank can’t make your Ulda run.  A healer and a DPS had a screaming fight six seconds ago but since you logged in they are talking like they went to high school together.  By the way, your raid leader is having brain surgery so you will be running every raid this week.  Vent isn’t working.  Did you forget to pay for it?  This other guild disbanded.   Forty-five people want to join your guild.  Five of them will fit in if you’re lucky.  Interview them all.  Your recruiting officer is working late.

It’s enough to make anyone just /gdisband and pretend it never happened.   I’m thinking in lists this week, so here’s another one for you.
Continue reading