Creating Your Own Guild

[Crim]

I thought it would be kind of neat for Guildmasters to post their experiences and tips for running and making a successful guild to those who'd like or need advice. Members who often make guilds out of the blue may sometimes fail because either the members aren't cooperating or it's hard to guild people.

Any Guildmaster, Co-GM, Officer, or Member is welcome to come and post their tips, tricks, and hints for making a successful guild. I hope the information posted here is helpful and useful to those who wish to make one of their very own. But be warned, this be advice ye taking from a pirate, not all of them can be trusted.

[The Commodore]

I posted this previously in my blog on here.

Well, the title means I need no first sentence. So, i'll jump right into this.

How do you judge a guild? Is it by size, guildmaster, age of members, or even member quality. The answer in my opinion, lies in none of these, but a combination of all. All of these play a part, but then again, none of them do. Not to be philosophical, but it's true.

A guild can be 500 members strong and be weak. It's easy to guild 499 people, just stand on Abassa for a few days. But, most of them, won't ever log on again, or they'll log on and sit there. But, you can have 500 members, and be the strongest guild in the game. So, size can be important or nonexistent in making a good guild.

The guildmaster you'd think would be the most important, eh? They have to click the create guild button, make people officers, run the guild. Yea, they do, and most of us a great job. But, on the flip side, if you have good officers, like the did in the TEC, the guild can run without a guildmaster, though for a finite time. Again, both sides show you can be a good guild with or without.

Age is a very very tricky subject. You need adults to run a guild, cause adults are mature and fair. Um... NO. My guild, myself included, is run by almost all teens. And, with 364 members as of 6/26/09, we're doing great. Though, I know guilds with all adults who run great.

Finally, member quality. I could cite reasons why this doesn't matter, but I think all of you who will read this are done hearing my contradictions. Member quality is similar to size. They need to be good people who will get active.

So, think about it. A good guild can meet all of these, none of them, or a few. Guild Quality, much like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

[Bella]

When I started the War Wenches it wasn't to build a huge guild. I was a lowly level 5 or 6. I had only been playing the game for less than a few days and wanted to make some friends. This was my first MMO and I had no clue what I was doing.

Well as I made a couple of friends who had no guild and were low levels as my self we played together for a long time and eventually those foew friends became The OW's. I still remember many details about them and one is today still my RL friend.

Well the 5 of us became 10 and before we knew it we were a sucessful yet small guild of 50. That was is. The infamous War Wenches only had 50 or so members. Yet even with the small numbers we hit the leaderboards a few times. 90% of our members were eventually officers.

With that said we all were less of a guils and more of a group of friends that played together. Remember people will come and go. It seemed as one of us left the game someone would join and become "one of us" As GM I felt that whom ever was active and fit in well should have the privy of officership.

Another Point, know when to step down. Being a GM takes A LOT of time and dedication. Just ask Basil of the DW.

[Davy Gunflint]

This will sound... well ... Stupid but it seems to me, especially when I was without a Guild, That the name of the guild matters alot. You could come across 20 people in one day and no one would join, justt because the name was not "cool" enough. And that was not just my reasoning, Other people do that too. Also, there are what I call Guild hoppers, Who will Join any guild offered to them, check the numbers... and leave. So, some of the Most Usless things add up to Who Joins your Guild and Why. My tip: Give it a good name, that fits many people. Also If your planning on Joining a guild, Numbers don't matter, it will come with time. And the most annoying thing is guilding people that do not come on.

[Crim]

In my point of view, the key to a successful guild is officers. Officers should be able to stand in your place and speak on your behalf when not online. Officers should: enforce your guild rules, keep drama out of the guild, recruiting new members, and be kind and courteous [this also applies to the GM]

Any Guildmaster who tries to say "Do what I say or I'll kick out you" won't get anywhere except for giving him/herself a bad name. If you're a Lv40 Mastered, try to help them out. You were in their [the members] shoes at one point too.

[Stephen O'Malley]

For me, I have always been a responsible officer. I am a quiet person, I don't talk that much in-game. I started out in Sinful Pirates, and I simply got up to Officer because I was Lv. 30+, and she (my GM) wanted more members. I personally thought that it isn't a good thing just to recruit for new members at random, though I am not surprised with POTC dying down. We guilded a few bad members, and ended up merging with another guild from that and a few bad members recruited by other officers. Don't get me wrong, the GM was wonderful, as well as several of the officers though. When we merged with another guild (Coastal Pirates), the GM of that guild allowed me to be an officer as well. I myself don't go out recruiting, even when the GM says so. A good guild is one based off of active and friendly members, and if I have a friend, or I meet someone I think could benefit the guild (as well as want to join first of all), then I will recruit. I am not much of a talker though, which does put me at a disadvantage. To this day, I have only recruited 3 members, and all of them were up to my expectation; happy, friendly, social, and active. I actually am saddened though, because my second pirate joined BBK as a new member, and because of that, I have not been with my guild much, seeing how my main pirate is a fully mastered Lv. 40, and there's nothing to do on him besides help out on BBs, and SVS.

But for now, it would be nice if my internet troubles would be so kind as to let me online! lol

[Li_Wild]

Hello, I created a guild for my son and close friends. After reading the posts here I am wondering how you can have a CO-GM or have a luetenant... I was told that making someone a luetenant used to be an option. Another qeuston I have is if I quit playing the game or drop my membership to basic does my guild disolve/ no longer exsist... or can one of my officers take the guild over? Any advice or help I would be very grateful for... thank you

[Sarah]

The titles of Co-GM, Leutenant, et al are made by the guild itself (out game), they are not recognized by Disney (in game). Most GM's feel something other than just "Officer" is deserved by long time members or extremely active members.

As far as handing the guild over to an officer if you chose to leave, that's a no-can-do. I tried several times to reason with disney when the GM of our old guild went AWOL, see if there was any way to transfer the GM title to someone else in the guild. NOPE. They flat out told me the only way to make that happen was to have the GM give me their account information and take over the account. Not a very smart move IMO. We ended up packing off to Dueces, as after three months, a GM-less guild wasn't working anymore.

Best of Luck!

[Sven Osymthe]

Hello, I created a guild for my son and close friends. After reading the posts here I am wondering how you can have a CO-GM or have a luetenant... I was told that making someone a luetenant used to be an option. Another qeuston I have is if I quit playing the game or drop my membership to basic does my guild disolve/ no longer exsist... or can one of my officers take the guild over? Any advice or help I would be very grateful for... thank you

As Sarah said, the ranks of Co-GM, etc.. those are all given by the GM, but not recognized by Disney. In future updates, I hope they do implement some newer ranks.. or something other than, GM, Officer, Member.

As for the GM transferring, it IS possible. Anyone that wants to can transfer one pirate of their choosing to another account (given that both are unlimited), that pirate can only be transferred once every 90 days. If someone were to transfer their GM pirate over to another account, that pirate would still have the GM abilities. Plenty of people have done that, and I remember seeing a thread about it before. I just haven't seen people do this to save a guild (they've done it to play multiple pirates again), but you have to email Disney with the info for both accounts, a reason, etc... thats about all there is to that.

Good luck

[Basil Dreadflint]

It really doesn't matter. If you let the account go to basic, the GM is still the GM. You could build an entire guild with the requirement that no one has unlimited access, if you wanted to. The Guild name belongs to the pirate who creates it.

If you wanted to let your son's account go to basic, he will still be the GM.

[Li_Wild]

I am the GM of the guild, my son is a member of the guild... I made it for him so that he would have a safer enviornment online. My question was in regards to my membership status... Also how do I make it so that no one in the guild has to have membership... Thanks for the help so far!!!

[Basil Dreadflint]

You don't have to "Make it" so that no one has membership. You just guild who you want. What I was trying to say is, you could have aguild that way, just because of your own choosing. Guilds can set any rules that they want in regards to who they recruit. I've heard of a guild where, to join, you must live in Southern California, and I' ve also heard of a guild where every member owns horses.

It all depends on the GM and the goals of the guild.

Again, if you are the GM, and you go to basic status, you are still GM of the guild.

[Kat Five Knives]

I have another question - if it is answered elsewhere, please direct me. As a GM I know you can check the numbers of a guild member ( number of ships sunk, number of enemies defeated, etc) on Dxd. My question is, where do you go on the player page to check these numbers? Do you just look them up using the leader board gadget or is it somewhere else?

[Basil Dreadflint]

Right now, and for the last 2 + weeks, DxD has been sporadic at best. Most days it doesn't show anything new. I checked it today, and it is still showing data from last Wednesday. Before then, there was a 10 day gap in the reporting.

Here's how I check it:

I log into the account that I know there is a pirate who was active yesterday. (I have 2 accounts.)

Once everything is loaded up, go to the leaderboards.

Select the "My Standings" tab.
It says "Compare __blank__ with __Blank__"
Select a pirate who you know was "active" yesterday, and compare with "guild".
Now, as you choose form the various lists, Notoriety, Enemies defeated, ships sunk, etc., you can see your standings, and those of your entire guild from the previous day. You can also toggle to the "Top Pirates" and "Top Guilds" lists, and also from "Daily Results" to "Overall Results".
If your pirate did not do a task yesterday, say they did not play poker, then you will not be able to get the compare stats for that task. On days when I know that I am going to want to check all stats the next day, I make sure that my pirate does at least one of eveything. I.E., defeat an enemy, sink a ship, win at Black Jack, Poker, etc.
Remember, today's DxD report should be results from yesterday, for individuals.
But for guilds, today's postings will be from 2 days ago.

Again, DxD hasn't worked properly for over 2+ weeks. It kicked out one days worth of info last Wednesday, but has essentially been down since the11th of August. I also believe that anything anyone has done during that time period has been lost. The one day it did update, the overall 100 rankings didn't compensate for the previous 10 days.


Lastly, you don't have to be a GM to do this, anyone can go to DxD. This is the direct link that I use: http://disney.go.com/dxd/index.html?...onlineplayers/

[Bartholomew Foulsteel]

My tips for making and running a successful guild:

Define success. If success means lots of members, then recruit recruit recruit. If success means something else to you, then you need to figure that out.

Be organized. You cant just "BE" a GM. You have to work at it. The more organized you are, the better your guild will run.

Select only good, active players who can help your guild be successful to be your officers.

Be selective in who you recruit. Even if numbers are your measure of success, having 400 basic access members who are never on is actually the same as having NO members. Try out your prospects and if they fit, bring them in.

Lead, don't lord. What I mean is, some people want to be in charge, so they create a guild. Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about being in the front and demonstrating the right way to do things.