Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Making a Guild: Part 1: The Basics

"Wouldn't having our own guild be cool?!?"


It surely is, but you have to know what you are getting into before just leaping in the deep end. You wouldn't buy a new car without looking it over and making sure it was exactly what you wanted now would you?
Same goes for making a guild, or taking one over. You need to clearly define what you want to achieve as a Guild Master, what you want your Guild to achieve and how you are going to get to these goals. It is foolish to think that it will all just fall at your feet and go exactly how you want it to. So here is a little check list I believe is a good starting point before you even goto the Visitors Centre and create a guild.


"How experienced are you at WoW?"
This is really important, don't get ahead of yourself! You don't want to set out on making a Hardcore Raiding guild if you've never played End Game content before. I mean... you can, but you're going to hit a wall really, really quickly. I've seen time and time again, these 'flash in the pan' Raiding guilds fold as quickly as they sprung up and it's mainly because the people in charge had no idea of what Raiding actually was. The next question is a very good follow on, if not joiner to this one.


"What do you enjoy doing in WoW?"
So a good place to start is with the K.I.S.S. theory, Keep It Simple Stupid. If you're still levelling and you want to start a guild, start a Levelling Guild (by the way I really do not advise people who are levelling their first characters to start a guild). If you really just want to meet new people, start a Social Guild. If you're really into PvP start a PvP Guild. Are we starting to see a pattern here??? You need to clearly define what your personal goals are in WoW before you want to start worrying about defining the goals of others, and you will have to define the goals of others eventually! Basically you don't want to be running a guild that revolves around something you have either no interest in, or don't enjoy.


"How much time do you have, and do you mind spending some of it managing a guild instead of doing other things?"
This really can be a deal breaker. Running a guild can be time consuming from time to time. You are going to have times where you really want to be levelling an alt, or running a dungeon and you're going to have to put that aside to work on your guild. It can be frustrating, but also very rewarding.


"Do I have a group of like minded friends, or am I going this alone?"
This really is a lot more important than it seems, you are going to need help running your guild eventually, and probably sooner than you anticipate. Running a Raiding Guild is hard work, really at times it can feel like a full-time job, thats why you are going to need some Officers in charge of certain aspects of your guild. Even a Social/Levelling Guild needs things looked after, no one likes a disorganised Bank, no one likes trying to organise events by them self all the time.
A Group of friends can be good to have as Officers, but it can also lead to disharmony. You need to define if your guild will be an Autocracy or a Democracy and make sure that all your Officers understand this before they become Officers. On the same note, you also must adhere to that as well!




So now you should have a good outline of what type of guild you want to make, it's time to figure out the finer details. To be continued in Part 2: The Finer Details... (lol)



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