Posts with tag guild-officers

Officers' Quarters: Rolling like jerks

by Scott Andrews Mar 15th 2010 at 11:00AM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available this spring from No Starch Press.

Ah, the good, old-fashioned /random command -- where would WoW be without it? It fixes so many problems. It's utterly impartial. It can't be bribed, cajoled, or reasoned with. The /random command is the friend of every PUG raid leader.

In a guild setting, however, using /random for loot distribution only works when you're sensible about using it. When you're not, you open up your guild to some terrible situations. I present Exhibit A:

Hi Scott,

I'm a semi officer in my guild (I get to be in officer chat, but I can't invite people or make policy changes, though I'm asked for my opinion quite a bit). Lately, our guild is just managing to kill the first four bosses of Icecrown in both 10 man, and the 25 man that we have to pug. (We're not a huge guild.) But lately, we've been having some problems with loot distribution. I know I know, that's always the case isn't it?

Well over the past few weeks, we've been noticing some problems with the /rolls we've been doing. In one 25 man ICC, 3 pieces of tank loot dropped, were rolled on, and went to 1 single tank(not even the MT). Problem is, Tanking isn't the role he likes to do. He enjoys healing or DPSing... but because he's gotten the loot, our Guild leader and MT wants him to be the offtank...

If that was the end of it, it'd be easy enough to fix. Get a loot council and be done with it. But, since we PUG our 25 mans, those rules don't apply, and they got worse when one of our healers rolled on a healing weapon, then immediately posted in guild, "Anyone in the raid want this thing for 6K? I need my epic flyer."

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Drama Mamas: Wake-up call to guild officers

by Lisa Poisso Mar 12th 2010 at 9:00AM

The Drama Mamas are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. How to handle that sticky situation? Ask the Drama Mamas at DramaMamas@wow.com.

That's it! I've had it. There's a nasty little problem gnawing its way through guilds across Azeroth, and the people who can fix the situation aren't even listening. One simple change would solve probably half of the questions the Drama Mamas receive every week. Even worse, we've covered this matter multiple times before, but certain people (ahem) don't seem to have their listening caps on.

So allow me apologize in advance to our letter-writer this week, because I'm not going to answer his question. (And let me apologize to Robin in advance, too, since she'll be left picking up the actual question.) Instead, I'm going to lay out the underlying situation clearly enough that perhaps a few of the guilty parties will wake up and take notice.

Guild officers: listen up.

Hey Mamas: With my current guild we've been hitting ICC-25 regularly since its release, but I've noticed we've been hitting a wall lately. Sadly, "the wall" isn't Putricide or Blood Queen or any of the bosses, for that matter. The wall is the guild itself. We've cleared all non-gated bosses up to Dreamwalker, but now all of a sudden people seem to have cold feet. Our healers are pretty crummy, except for one or two of them (if they show), which has meant that certain fights have been disproportionately harder than others. Festergut is one those. But our guild's failure on Blood Queen, due to the healers' inability to stay on top of the damage, is now preventing us from moving on to Dreamwalker. The rationale here is that if the Queen is impossible for us to get down, then we shouldn't even "waste" time on Dreamwalker.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guilds, Drama Mamas

Officers' Quarters: The A team question

by Scott Andrews Mar 8th 2010 at 5:00PM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available this spring from No Starch Press.

The "A Team" -- in WoW, it's not a bunch of guys in a van who help people by . . . shooting other people. Rather, it's your best players grouped together to the exclusion of other guild members. Most guilds don't have the numbers to fill two 25-player teams, so this issue usually relates to 10-player runs. The forming of a 10-player A team can be riddled with drama. This week's e-mail asks whether allowing an A team is the right choice.

I enjoy reading your perspective on guild leadership. I'm hoping you can give us some ideas on balancing progression versus inclusion.

We are an established raiding guild that works on the top tier of content. While we are not a guild that makes server first kills, we steadily progress through the content and see hard/heroic modes on 25 man difficulty. Our raiding core is pretty solid, although there are levels of skill, from very high to adequate. We typically complete the ten man content, and use the ten mans as a base to gain experience on the twenty five mans.

Our problem mainly rests on the makeup of our ten man groups. One school wants to have the maximum number of people get in the ten man groups. This school spreads our best players among multiple groups. All of the groups have some success, but because there are weaker players included, these groups usually hit a wall on harder fights (Heroic Anub or the Wing Bosses of ICC). There is a lot of frustration on the part of our best players when this happens.

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers' Quarters: Verge of collapse

by Scott Andrews Mar 1st 2010 at 1:58PM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available this spring from No Starch Press.

If ever there were a time for guild-leader or raid-leader burnout to set in, we are living in it. We are at the end of perhaps the most challenging six months of raiding content in WoW's history -- not in terms of its difficulty, but in its sheer potential for drama and member loss.

First we had the half-hearted tier that consisted entirely of Trial of the Crusader, a one-room raid that took all of an hour to clear, and Onyxia, a well-loved but well-worn raid boss that was also a quick, and often boring, clear. Keeping raiders motivated during what felt like an endless four months wasn't easy. Many raid leaders were pulling out their hair trying to fill slots.

For the most serious guilds, ToC was an absolute nightmare. Not because the content was itself difficult, but because of the rewards offered for clearing the zone without a single wipe, or even a single player death. Some very good players cracked under this kind of pressure. In a situation where one person's mistake -- not to mention disconnects, lag, or other external factors -- can quickly cause a death or a wipe and cost the entire raid access to loot, offering these achievements seemed to me like Blizzard was going out of their way to cause drama.

Icecrown Citadel was supposed to be our savior, but instead it brought new and unanticipated problems.

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers' Quarters: PvPvRaid

by Scott Andrews Feb 22nd 2010 at 1:00PM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

I have to admit that I was surprised when I read this week's e-mail. This is an issue that has never really come up in my guild. We have players who only PvP, and we have players who do both PvP and raiding. I can't ever recall a time when someone who PvP's and raids has chosen PvP over raiding. After all, you can PvP anytime, while raiding is a limited, scheduled activity. Let's take a look:

Dear Wise and Veteran Scott,

I need your assistance with an issue that I see will soon hurt the guild I am in. I am the Raid Leader/Officer of a casual raiding guild and we recruited some people (some DPS and a Healer) that at first we would raid with and it would work great but, when Season 8 of arena hit, we couldn't get them to answer us in guild chat regardless of the topic.

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers' Quarters: Super PUG showdown

by Scott Andrews Feb 15th 2010 at 11:00AM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

These days, even smaller guilds want to -- and can! -- run 25-player raids through guild alliances and PUGs. ToC was easily puggable, particularly since it was a short, simple run that could be completed in about 90 minutes or less for most groups.

ICC is proving to be more difficult. And, of course, it's far longer and more intricate than ToC. Even so, the early bosses can all be mastered by a competent PUG. This week's e-mail deals with an extremely successful and long-standing PUG whose leader suddenly wants to change the way it works.

Hi Scott,

Some real life friends and I are a part of what I think of as a "Super PUG." We're in a group of about 30 people spread among six guilds who raid together every week. Raiding only once a week for four hours maximum, our PUG downs bosses that real guilds sometimes never see. If we were a guild, we would be one of the top 5 horde guilds on our server.

Most of our success can be attributed to our main tank and raid leader. He's extremely patient and very effective at getting the group organized and rolling. He's the one who collected the names of the best players he pugged with and got us all together. We all have a lot of respect and gratitude for him and for the opportunities that he's given the group as a whole.

He's also the leader of the biggest guild in the raid at about half the members. Lately he has been making noise about wanting all of the raiders to join his guild. The reasons why aren't really clear to us, but for some reason he feels it's important. Cataclysm maybe? He's always tried to recruit us, but lately he's started getting... aggressive.

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers' Quarters: Multiple personalities

by Scott Andrews Feb 8th 2010 at 1:00PM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

Sharing accounts is an issue that I've talked about in the past (and I'm sure, in some people's opinions, beaten to death). Previously I've covered a few different situations. First there was a general question about the issue, which I answered back in 2007. Then there was an officer who shared his account with his girlfriend (which is still a terrible idea in my opinion). Finally, a guild leader's account was banned because he bought it from another player, and his guild's progression subsequently skidded to a halt. As if those examples weren't enough to convince you that account sharing can cause a lot of problems, here's another one:

Recently, my fellow guild officers and I decided to kick a member from our guild, which also caused three other members to leave. The person who we initially kicked from the guild had asked our guild leader for a BoE Epic item in the "Ask an Officer" tab of the bank. Our guild leader responded by saying he'd ask the officers about it before handing the axe out.

Not less than an hour later he asked another guild member to take it out of the guild bank for him. Being a good guild member, they asked the guild leader if it was okay. It was instantly perceived as being an attempt to ninja the item from the bank by trying to avoid the guild leader.

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers' Quarters: How to fill slots

by Scott Andrews Feb 1st 2010 at 1:00PM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

This week's e-mail is straight and to the point:

Dear Mr. Andrews:

In your latest Officer's Quarters article you mention filling raid slots by seniority is not a good system. What is a good system for filling raid slots? What would you recommend?

Michael

Great question, Michael! When you have too many raiders, it's supposed to be easy to put together a raid, right? It's often harder than it seems, and you can really stir up drama by making ill-considered choices.

Let's examine the various systems for filling raid slots.

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers' Quarters: The fourth tank's lament

by Scott Andrews Jan 25th 2010 at 2:00PM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

It's no secret that tanks are generally in short supply. Blizzard has admitted as much and even designed the Death Knight class specifically to entice more people to taking up the tanking role. They've gone away from fights like the notorious, original implementation of the Four Horsemen encounter that required 8 fully geared tanks and given us more fights like Rotface that only require 2. But for a 25-player raid, you generally need 3.

So what about those fourth tanks? They find themselves riding the pine:

Dear Scott,

I have been playing WoW for just under four months and have worked my butt off to make my Warrior the best tank that I possibly can. I get numerous compliments about my ability and pride myself on being liked by all. I have joined one of the top raiding guilds on my server, but I am finding problems getting selected for raids.

Currently we raid 3 nights a week, and on average, we have 35-40 people showing up EVERY raid night. Obviously, you cannot take 40 people into ICC25 and therein lies the problem. The current state of raids encourages guilds to take 3 tanks at most, and at times, the third tank is running in an offspec, most likely dps. I am one of five tanks in the guild, and the newest of the bunch. All gear is about equal. The other four get selected for raids on a nightly basis based on seniority. I have remained diligent and have shown up for raids every night without fail, only to be told there is no need for me tonight.

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers' Quarters: Ultimatum

by Scott Andrews Jan 18th 2010 at 1:00PM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

I see this happen all too often when Blizzard releases a new tier of raiding: People get terribly impatient with loot. They want the new loot, and they want it now. They somehow forget that, eventually, if they keep attending raids, they'll get everything they want and then some. This week showcases a prime example of this, but also a set of loot rules that perhaps aren't working very well.

Dear Scott,

I'm in a relatively small horde guild consisting of about 15 core members. One of my best real life friends is in the guild, and they've all been together since WoW classic. I came on the scene in march, and have been very active ever since. I help put together raids, all that jazz. We've been progressing quite well through ICC 10 (what blizzard will allow us to currently at least).

The other night, we downed Marrowgar, and Citadel Enforcer's Claymore drops. I was currently using Tyrannical Beheader from POS, and rolled a 61. A fellow pally rolled a 79. He was using Orca Hunter's Harpoon from HOR. I was the Master Looter. After much begging and pleading, I looted the sword to the pally.

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers' Quarters: Courtesy counts

by Scott Andrews Jan 11th 2010 at 1:00PM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

The community of WoW is not best known for its courtesy. The bar for what constitutes civil behavior has been set pretty low. We as officers don't expect much from random people, but we'd like to think our members and counterparts are better than the average player. That's why it's always so disappointing when we discover we are wrong.

Dear Scott,

I have been an officer in my guild for quite a while but one thing I am noticing more and more is the lack of courtesy between members. I along with several of the other officers and members think of our guild as a family and it kind of cuts us when we have members leave without any word, explanation, or a simple "goodbye". Just today we had a member (we will call him Bob for simplicity) just up and leave without any word and one of the officers made a hasty remark in the trade channel. Probably 4 hours later Bob gets on an alt still in the guild and starts smarting off which gets others responding likewise (including officers) so much so that I have to step in and stop it.

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers' Quarters: Oil and water

by Scott Andrews Jan 4th 2010 at 2:00PM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

Is it possible to turn a roleplaying guild into a casual raiding guild? Can the two groups mingle in the same community, or is it like mixing oil and water? This week, one guild leader has tried to do just that. Read on to find out how it has worked so far!

Hey Scott,

My boyfriend, and I recently made a guild. He's more into the RP aspect of the game, and mainly focuses on recruiting RPers. Most of these individuals are nice people, but are usually under level 40, and don't play or care enough to do anything serious end game when they get there. I was set on making it more of a raiding guild. Nothing too hardcore, but enough progression to be able to down most bosses in current raids. Before it was all put into practice it seemed like a good idea.

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers' Quarters: How to persuade your guild leader

by Scott Andrews Dec 28th 2009 at 11:00AM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

Every so often I write a post purely for my own convenience, and this is one of them. I get a lot of e-mails week to week all asking the same question: How can I try to change my guild leader's mind? The topics can vary greatly, from loot systems to promotions to guild bank rules to the level of roleplaying the guild enforces.

I want to point all those people in one direction. Now that this column is live, I'll be able to send them here, as a starting point, and offer to answer any follow-up questions they might have.

So without further ado, here is, from my point of view as a guild leader, the best way to persuade yours.

1. Spend time thinking about why he or she instituted the rule or the policy.

Try to put yourself in your guild leader's place and imagine what motivated him or her to do things that way. Is it a matter of convenience or fairness? Is it meant to quell drama? You'll have a much better chance to get your guild leader's attention if you can begin your argument with a statement showing that you understand why they made the original decision. The first thing your GL is going to assume is that you don't understand why, so if you can get past that point, you'll be in better shape to persuade!

2. Spend time thinking about the consequences of changing the policy.

Notice that you have taken no action yet. This is intentional. Many players approach me with knee-jerk reactions to a guild situation they don't like. They try to talk me out of it before even thinking too deeply about why that policy is in place or what would happen if it were changed.

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers' Quarters: LF guild leader PST

by Scott Andrews Dec 21st 2009 at 1:00PM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

Some guild leaders think we are irreplaceable, but few of us actually are. Who will carry on the Torch of the Damned if we can't fulfill our duties? I know exactly who would if I ever had to stop playing. But some guild leaders aren't that lucky. Caasi is one of them. She wrote me this week to ask what she should do.

Erro thar.

I've been playing WoW since 2006 and started my own guild in July 2007 and, at times when RL does not allow enough time, I have handed the guild over to a friend. As it stands there is currently two 2ic's and various raid and class leaders. It has generally gone smoothly, starting off as a leveling guild and then moving on to (very) casual raiding. We didn't get to do much of TBC raiding due to most members leveling slowly and only starting to play the game in TBC. We are up to TotC standards but have encountered a raid and guild breaking issue.

When the Australian DST changes kicked over our raiding teams were pretty much split. This has meant that raiding stopped for around 6 weeks causing quite a few of our main raiding team to leave. During that time I took over main guild leadership to try and kick people back into gear. Things were working well enough until I realised that I had over committed myself both IRL and in game. I was fast heading to "SCREW THIS GAME AND YOUR STUPID BLOODY ATTITUDES" before I realised that something needed to be done.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers' Quarters: Policy and practice

by Scott Andrews Dec 14th 2009 at 1:00PM

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

With the release of Icecrown Citadel in Patch 3.3 on Tuesday, it seemed like a good time to talk about loot policy. Everyone's going to be drooling over the upgrades in there, especially some of the unique items like Deathbringer's Will, and loot assignments may become heated affairs. This week's e-mail highlights an issue that could come up in your guild -- and why you should think twice before you let it happen. (FYI, to explain why he's talking about Ulduar loot, the e-mail was sent to me in October, and I responded to it then.)

I am an officer in a guild where our loot rules until recently seemed fair to me but now I am not so sure. I have been raiding with my guild for almost a year as part of the first team and the way our loot rules work is main spec then off spec NEED rolls, if no one needs, it gets D/E. You get 1 epic and 1 tier per run unless there is no one else who can use the item or every 1 that qualifies for the item has already won something in which case you get to roll again.

This system has always seemed fair to me even though I don't always win the item I want. In fact I haven't won a single upgrade since July. Where as other team members seem to keep getting better and better geared and I am getting left behind. There is a DK in our team who has out-rolled me 4 times for weapon upgrades. His weapon keeps getting better and better and mine just stays where it is.

Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

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