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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I am always wary of guilds that take players with no application process. I mean, sure, if you throw enough crap at a wall, some of it might stick…but then you still have a giant pile of floor crap on your hands.

Whatever, I’m tired. It made sense in my head.

Your method of guild application is up to you. I personally interview all applicants via whispers. I find that easiest, as I’m a WIM devotee and it means I can interview while farming, doing heroics, running a raid, whatever.

But if you want in, here is what you have to do:

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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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Guild Merges are horrible. If you take anything at all away from this entire post, take that.

Two guilds, each unable to fulfill their goals on their own, combine in attempts to create something epic. More often than not, however, it falls apart in a heap of fail, leaving a terrible taste in the mouths of everyone involved. Oh guild merge, why must you tempt me with your sweet scent, yet taint my taste buds with your rotten secretions. We are just two guilds who want to raid and shower in the purple rain. It seems that due to leadership greed, selfishness, and power struggling, the members are the ones who truly suffer. Poor members, I shed a tear for you.

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Here is my most sage advice.  Don’t.

It’s easy to think that within the span of three days, you can find a core team of officers who will back you with what you need the most: a group of great, knowledgeable players.  At which point, of course, you will all hold hands and sing as bosses die and epics covered in cookies and twenty dollar bills rain from the sky.  It almost never works like that, which is why 99% of the guilds you see looking for charter signatures in the trade channel last, tops, a month.  The main mistake I see people making, is having a huge amount of false confidence in their abilities to run the show. Someone has to be the leader and it’s not a pretty job.

Running a guild takes an incredible amount of dedication, time, and money, in which every day a small piece of your sanity might die. There are no cookies, there are no twenty dollar bills, and you need to be the first one to step aside for loot and raid spots.  This is not to say that I think everyone else fails and I’m completely pro, but I’ve been around long enough to see what works and what doesn’t work.  So many places give the positive qualities which will make a guild succeed, so I’m going to be the negative nancy who will tell you why guilds fail (which is entirely more common).
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Part 3:  Annoying Assets

Hai guyz!1  U rly got 2 talk lik dis 2 inpres ur GM!  Dis rly showz dat u r srs bsns as a rayder.

• Spelling/Grammar mistake guy
• Drama queen guy
• Mr. WoW Hero guy
• Expert at the game guy
• Deserves all loot guy
• Intoxicated/Inebriated guy
• Derogatory guy
• Sexually explicit/vulgar guy

We all have had a combination of these players in our guild.  We’ve all hated them with a passion.  More often than not, we’ve all needed them at some point in our raids.  We’ll go over how to manage the annoying asset player, and help him shape up, or ship out…  Once and for all.
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