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I really want to know from the community, what makes a guild? Is it stability,structure,or both? or is it just random fun? and if neither, how would you describe your own personal guild experience! Please express your thoughts :x no judging, I really wanna know :x!
Comments
To me personally, as a current guild leader, I think it’s both stability and structure but throwing those two out the window, the most important things you must instill within a guild is a sense of engagement, purpose, motivation, and culture. Yes, stability and structure are indeed important but the sense of who you’re as a guild will formulate the most important asset there is in a guild, which is the people who are in it. Human capital is the most valuable asset in any company making up 70% of any organization, that goes the same for a guild. If you put the right type of people in for the culture scheme and fit your trying to create; then everything else will come. The right people create the right identity you want to be as a guild whether it’s a combat guild, social/casual, try-hard etc. It’s important to really nail that because building that human capital makes the difference between a successful guild and one that fades away within a couple weeks. Of course, I don’t think all guilds will last forever, hell; if my own guild lasts more then a year or two, I’ll be damn impressed. It’s not easy to build one over a game and I’m sure tons of guild leaders will say it’s quite the challenge to maintain one and to keep the human capital inside of it from turning over during some point and time. What’s important is that if you do have turnover is to make sure your top performers (I.E officers, senior members) and those that contribute to the organization stay or turnover much less then your average guild member because those folks are the ones to keep the train running. In reality; losing a valuable employee will cost an organization 2 times their salary, not including recruiting, training, and onboarding costs. The same can be applied to a guild because that person you trained to do certain tasks for you is no longer there and does the leader or others who trained that person to do a certain “skilled” task motivated enough to train folks again?
These are the types of things that really build stability and structure which all stems from engagement. If a guildie is engaged, then they’re motivated, and if they’re motivated, then they’re productive and with productivity comes efficiency (I.E the amount of enjoyment they’re having in a guild)If you can nail the engagement part right and delegate work efficiently, then you will 100% be in the right place when it comes to structure and stability. The folks who help you manage things know what they’re doing, can do it right, and are happy to do it for you and the guild are really the three keys to nailing structure. As for stability, if the structure is right then the stability will come to as long as your guildmates are engaged, motivated, and find purpose in what they do for the guild and what type of fun they’re having within the guild that correlates with them on an emotional level.
Are your guildies having fun? Awesome, that means they’re engaged.
Are your guildies happy to be in your guild and can really resonate with the other folks in it? Great, that means they’re engaged
Do your guildies log in to play the game or to play the game with your guild? If they log in to play the game, you’re more likely than not to lose them to another guild, become guildless, or just quit the game altogether. On the other hand, if they log in to play with your guild; then you know for sure they’re motivated to play with your folks.
Do your guild mates find purpose in being in your guild, do they have a place in your culture, do they fit the scheme, can they get along with everyone and what is their role? If a guildie can say yes to do all those things or most of those things, it’s more likely then not that they have a purpose for being in your guild.
Purpose, engagement, culture, and motivation are the foundation for structure and stability as I mentioned earlier but in terms of the inner workings and nailing down what that structure should be and what stability looks like really depends on the guild leader and the guild itself!
For instance, my guild is 100% social/casual, we enjoy just hanging out with each other, unlike a combat guild who has more fun doing things related to combat! It really depends on your purpose and what your sought-out end goal is as a guild. For my folks, talking to others and just having a good time being social fulfills one of their emotional needs and having events that are more social then combat, music, life skill related, and etc is more meaningful to them in the long run. Of course, finding the right people to fit the scheme is the key but if a guild knows who they’re, what they’re and their end-game purpose (A sense of identity) you will find the right folks who fit the culture scheme and everything else will come.
I would get into more on the recruiting side of this but that’s a story for another day! Hopefully, everything I wrote helps!
The management needs to be able to deal with things in a decent way and not just freak out if something happens. You're basically acting as a mini-mod, and the moment you are unsure, insecure, or not very confident with how things are going, is when the guild altogether will start cracking. At the same time you cannot be too stubborn and be able to take feedback on the guild. The need for a thick skin is also high.
Even more so you have to be social, being a leader from other games, the less social you are, the more likely the guild is to die, or not attract members. An approachable leader is always the best one, you should be able to clearly state what you want, and people should be able to feel like they can come to talk to you about problems they are having. You need to know what the group is like, and what they want. If you're just someone who ghosts, snaps at people, or would prefer staying behind the scenes, this is probably not something for you.
More or less the point I'm trying to make is it starts with the leader and their attitude and it should go from there. You should not worry about a group as a whole if you are not fully confident in being able to run it, and have clear goals that you are able to communicate, and take criticism about.
After you're confident, know what goals you want to achieve and whatever, you make your guild. Probably with a couple friends to be officers and such, and you should think together what type of group would be fun. Most likely, officers should be people you can find common ground with, but offer a different perspective sometimes.You want partners, not yes men. You set up your rules, and once you agree with that, can start your recruiting.
This is when being social also comes into play, don't be afraid to talk to randoms, it happened all the time in the past mabinogi. I'm not even in a guild and I do it all the time, met some great people doing it. You should also post in forums, and maybe discords for mabinogi. The members should not just be numbers to you.
Once you get members, the problem is keeping them. You have to talk to people, provide events for them to do, and organize stuff. This is also where your goal and time management skills should come into play. Don't act like you're higher than your members, cuz they don't need you, you need them. It should stay like that, after all what makes a great guild is the people, not just the figurehead.
On the note of goals by the way, I don't mean absurd goals like "We're gonna be the best in mabi" or ones that are too vague. I mean obtainable goals that can be monitored in a short amount of time like " I plant to get x members by the end of the month" or " I wanna be able to do x raids by the end of the week with the guild"
Having a time, clear destination, and a obtainable goal, will make progression easier. Also get your guildies involved, as I said criticism, and feedback. Hold guild meetings every now and then where you can talk and maybe do something fun afterwards as a reward from coming. Also you need to be doing stuff, so your members can interact.Don't get into the cycle of planning something for months while never following through. Random tip, try to get the new players involved too by occasionally doing something they can be helpful in too, or can progress with.
The toughest one is knowing when to remove a member, as you may have rules, but some of them aren't such big offenses. But keeping a toxic person can effect your members.
This was a quick/lazy guideline that is kind of vague. It's more to point out why I think management is so important in all aspects of running something. You need to do alot of work to make sure members are happy and enjoy themselves, and can talk to you.
TL/DR: I think management/structure is most important.