So Ye Want to Start a Guild, Huh?

[Bartholomew Foulsteel]

I've seen a couple of posts recently which bring up this topic:

French Assassins
a hard decision...



These posts have a couple of things in common:

1) The poster blames "Big Guilds" for "stealing" all their members, and
2) The poster's guild seems to exist for the poster's benefit, not the members'.

Well mates, I've got bad news for you: THOSE are the resons your guilds are not successful. So how about we look at what the issues are and how to fix them, shall we?

Guilds are like small businesses. New ones start everyday, and fail everyday too. And like a business, you can't expect people to want to be hired to your business if this is your ad in the paper's want ads section:

New business called Wowzy Wowzy starting in Lakewood!

Rules:
1) You must call the boss "El Jefe" everytime you see him.
2) If you're late to work you get a warning.
3) Second time you're late you get docked a week's pay.
4) Third time you're late you're FIRED!
5) Don't ask me for help because you're not gonna get it!

Let's face it--NOBODY would even consider checking that place out. But why?

1) Nobody has any idea what kind of business it is.
2) There's no mention of what it offers its employees.
3) There's nothing but penalties for messing up.

Now, if that business fails, it's not Microsoft's fault. It's the small business owner for not giving any valid reason for being a member of the team.

So what should you do? Easy:

1) Ask yourself WHY you want to start a guild. If it's so you can be the boss of a bunch of people, you'll fail. If it's so you can be called Exalted Poobah, you'll fail.
2) Ask what your guild's mission is going to be. If you expect people to join so they can NOT ask for help, you'll fail.
3) Don't start with the penalties, that will just scare everybody away. Should there be some order? Probably, unless your guild is based on anarchy. Otherwise, not the thing to blast first thing on these forums or a website.
4) Write a code, or a plan, or guidelines to help your prospective guildmembers know what it is you're about. This should go into more detail than your basic mission statement.
5) What's in it for them? If you have nothing to offer, you'll get nothing in return.
6) Don't expect your prospects to magically understand everything you want your guild to be. EXPLAIN IT.
7) ADVERTISE! You need to post the above info on these forums, make a webpage or ten, and explain what you're doing to people in the game. Too much work? Then you probably shouldn't be trying to run a guild.


People join guilds for the same reasons they join any other club or organization--not because they have some sick need to be laden with more rules, but because there's a common thread holding everybody together. YOU decide what that thread is and the people that are interested in that will join. Almost every pirate I run into that is in a guild (and sitting sad and lonely looking for help) that asks for help, my first question is, "where are your guild-mates?" Strangely enough, when guild-mates aren't around and I or my guildies help out, that pirate wants to leave their guild and join mine.

Why? Because their guild won't do anything for them and is boring.

So, you want to have a successful guild--think about this post. Take it as help, not criticism.