Just a reminder, be sure to take a look at a parallel series running over at Destructive Reach entitled Casual Guilds Are Not Easy!.

In my previous post I created an example guild that was comprised of the following ranking structure:

1. Captain
2. XO
3. Quartermaster
4. Officer (Raid Leader) | Chief (PVP Leader)
5. Raiders | PVPers | Members
6. Inititates

This brings us to what is perhaps the most important decision one can make as a guild leader: who to help develop and run the guild itself.

I want to emphasize, once again, that no one should attempt to tackle the responsibility of running a guild entirely on their own. Yes, it is quite possible to do. No, it should not be done. No. Remember that, repeat it. When you start to think “oh, this isn’t bad, I can do this,” I want you to slap yourself a few times and recite the following mantra:

“I am fooling myself. I should never, ever, ever, ever try to do this completely solo.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, there are some very basic things that should be considered when choosing officers. The following criteria are my suggestions:

• Objectivity.
• Should be looked to for leadership naturally.
• Willing to help guildmates develop their characters, skills, and abilities.
• Adaptive to situations and able to think quickly.
• Politically savvy¹.
• Trustworthy.

Some of these are very tough to gauge, especially when it is a person you have never actually met in the real world. Most likely you will make a mistake, which will eventually lead to drama. Go ahead and accept this as inevitable, and be prepared to handle it in a way that mitigates any possible damage to the guild. When you go into the situation expecting problems, or at least having an idea of how to handle a problem, it is much easier to overcome when it does happen.

There are many ways to determine who you are going to fill these positions with, or what process you’ll use. My preference is to get to know someone a little. Have some casual conversations. Talk about thoughts on how they would handle this situation or that situation. Watch their interactions with others. If they seem to personify the example you want to set, and especially if they seem to be willing to help others even if it takes away from their time to play, see what they think of being an officer.

When everything is said and done you’ll get to start the “fun” part of starting a guild: establishing a code of conduct and any policies that you expect members to abide by. The following code of conduct is the one we use in <devnull>:

<devnull> strives to create a strong family of members who truly enjoy playing World of Warcraft together, who present a strong, unified front to the entire player-base, and who will do everything possible to help each other grow both in-game and out. To that end these basic guidelines have been set forth:

• Be courteous to each other.
• Resolve differences privately or by enlisting the aid of the guild leadership. Do not use public channels to create drama.
• “Asshattery” and “douchebaggery,” although not technical terms, should be obvious to all guild members. Do not participate in any activity that would give <devnull> such a reputation.
• Follow proper raid and group etiquette, both in guild runs and in “PUGs.”
• Enjoy the game.

We also have an assortment of policies based upon whether a member chooses to be more casual or more hardcore, as we do what we can to cater to both groups (and quite successfully I might add!). For a typical guild, especially a casual one, the code of conduct is probably the only piece you’ll really need to have written and available for reference.

As you can tell, there is a lot involved in actually running a successful guild. Sure, a group of people can get together and form a guild on a whim, but that guild will (typically) eventually flounder and disband. At this point, however, you should have a solid framework to build your guild upon. The key to making it successful lies in the members now, and your ability to lead effectively. The next post will start to delve more into leadership than these have, and should prove insightful to some (I hope).

¹ Politically savvy, in this case, refers to someone’s ability to understand when to keep quiet versus stating what comes to mind, how to handle situations when tempers are flaring, and generally speaking how to be diplomatic until a resolution is reached.