I admit it, I have
been kind of stuck on what I would like to write about regarding guilds. After several days of reflection, it occurs
to me that I have some pretty concrete views (some may say odd) on guild
leadership and group dynamics. I have
always felt that guild leadership carries obligations and responsibilities just
as real world leadership does. Just as
real world leadership often seems to fail, so too does guild leadership.
Let’s start with a
post from my own guild. The names have
been changed to protect the innocent, so from here on out I will call my guild
‘The Evolution’, this was actually the name of an old guild my wife spent time
in. Likewise when I refer to specific
players I will be using aliases. So, I
am trolling my realm’s forums and stumble across a recruitment post for The
Evolution. The post is written by the
guild leader and one quote in particular strikes me right away. He writes, “You should expect a chance to
raid. Either in one of the normal groups (Though Group 1 is filled, to my
knowledge), doing LFRs with others, or the upcoming Flex Raiding that we plan
to hit as soon as we can”. Two things
strike me right away here.
First is the whole
to my knowledge thing. I mean this guy
is the freaking guild leader, you would think he might have a handle on whether
a particular raid group is filled. If it
isn’t filled you would expect him to have exact and specific knowledge on what
was needed, such as “we have a high need for healers of any type, a medium need
for ranged DPS, particularly an affliction lock…..” What I read from the recruitment post is the
guild leader doesn’t have a terribly firm grip on what roles are needed or the
current compositions of the raid groups.
This can only lead to bad things, like recruiting a potential raider,
only to give them a bench spot, an ultimately resulting in them leaving. Bad for the player who wasted his time, bad
for the guild that is squandering a potential resource.
Second is the whole
expectations thing. He launches off with
a fairly strong promise, “You should expect a chance to raid.” So far, so good. Then he goes on to say that this so-called
chance to raid might mean, “doing LFRs with others.” Not to be a dick, but do I really need to be
guilded to run LFR? No. My whole point
in joining a guild is to raid, real raiding.
I can remain solo and run LFRs just fine. Guilds can and should have expectations of
their members. Likewise members can and
should have expectations from their guild.
The whole thing is a two-way street, or should be.
This comes into the
responsibility and obligation part. Just
as guilds and their leaders have expectations of their members, members also
have expectations from the guild. I
don’t think too many people commit themselves to a guild for the mere sake of
committing themselves to a guild. When I
approached The Evolution I was pretty clear about my expectations, I wanted to
raid. I was given a trial run and told I
had a spot in raid groups two at the conclusion of the run, so I know I made my
expectations clear. Things is group two
is down to, like four members, so needless to say we don’t currently raid. All of the guild leadership is in group one,
which raids current content three nights a week. The whole thing I take away from this current
state of affairs is that the guild leadership is doing well and having fun and
that is all that matters, those outside of group one can fend for
themselves. Well, friends and neighbors,
if I wanted to fend for myself, I would not have taken the time to join a
guild. I paid money to server transfer
to be in ‘The Evolution’. I come to raids
prepared with flasks and food, I read strats and watch videos for the content
we are doing. I play to the best of my
ability. I contribute feasts to the
guild bank. When the guild wanted guild
credit for killing the celestials and needed bodies, I came and helped in two
kills, despite the fact I had already done my celestial kill for the week. Nobody had to tell, ask, beg or order me to
do any of these things, I regarded them as my duty and obligation as a good
guild member.
I hardly think I
am being unreasonable when I expect that guild leadership will have the same sense
of obligation to its rank and file and do right by them. How can they fix raid group two? There may be no easy answer, but it would be
nice to see they were at least trying.
They could for example try to cross-level folks from the first raid
group into our suffering group. They
certainly had no problems grabbing the top DPS out of our group to augment
themselves. God forbid they could even
recruit. At the very least they could be
honest and issue a proclamation that might read, “we the leadership are doing
well and raiding three nights a week, we don’t really feel like devoting any
time and energy to group two, if you have any expectations to the contrary, you
may as well go looking for a new home, because you won’t be doing regular raids
here”.
I also looked through some of the recruitment
posts from other guilds, to get a sense of what guilds seem to be asking for
versus what they feel they are obligated to provide to their rank and file. One thing that struck me, was some guilds
were very one-sided in the loyalty department.
I am speaking of guilds boasting that their raid spots are ‘competitive’. There is certainly a baseline of skill, gear
and performance that a guild should expect from an individual, but once that is
met, that individual should be treated as a valued team member. Competitive raid spots mean that as soon as
something better comes along, that player loses their spot. Guilds certainly don’t want to gear up
individuals only to have them move on down the line to bigger and better
things, so why would an individual want to work through content only to be
bumped off the team when a better player comes along?
This post has
become something of a rant, on top of being delayed far longer than I would
have liked. Time to bring this to some
kind of conclusion. If anyone is
actually reading this, I would love to hear your opinions on how long I should
ride out things in my current guild (a week? a month?? Head for the hills
now???). Long term commitment and
stability are big things to me. I have
been in guild leadership positions before and HATE it when people use the guild
to grab gear and experience and then pack up.
No guild wants to gear people to leave.
By the same token, I see little point in remaining in a guild where my
desires are going unmet. If I wasn’t
clear earlier, my desires are pretty reasonable. I want to raid regularly, two or three nights
a week. I want to raid current and
relevant content, it doesn’t have to be heroic.
I want to see progression, steady progress is all I want, I am not
looking for server firsts. Pretty middle
of the line reasonable expectations.
Yeah, this is
coming to a close, I promise. Just a
little update first. Last night’s guild
flex raid did not take place. Unless
something develops tonight or tomorrow, this means an entire week of NO raiding
outside LFR. Good times, good times.
Okay, for real,
rant button to off. Next post, no
promises, whatever I feel like writing about.
I’ll try to avoid another rant.
Peace.
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