Leadership is an important part of a guild. Be it a small family-oriented guild (non-raiding), a medium sized guild (casual raids), or a large/hardcore guild (regular raid schedule), leadership is one of the most important aspects of a guild. Without leadership, having a guild is trivial, each member not really adding to the whole.
I’ve been in several guilds in my year and a half of playing Everquest II. When I rolled my first toon on Nagafen, I joined a guild called “The Rat Pack”, consisting of all ratonga. The appeal here was a themed guild, and they were pretty good about grouping, though they didn’t raid yet. The same happened with another guild, “Elite Evil”, which was themed and family-oriented.
When I came back to PvE, and rolled my now main, I joined a guild my Dad was in, and the name escapes me now. The leadership was present, but it was misguided. The GL was somewhat pushy when it came to earning status for the guild, and lacked tact when trying to direct guildies. He was also very ignorant of the game, and was asking newer players for help all the time. This is not a strong leadership type, and was his failing flaw. My Dad and I earned some status, and also recruited a few of our friends into the guild, and the work was not appreciated. Nor was it appreciated when I created a guild forum, and eventually we got sick of it and wanted to start our own guild.
My Dad ended up opting out of making the guild, and joined another “Supreme”. I remained unguilded for some time, and eventually my Dad came around again, and we finally got our guild off the ground.
“Loreseekers of Norrath” was born in the fall of 2006. Its founding members included me, my Dad, my woman, and three of our online friends. My Dad and I took leadership positions, and the other members were promoted to officers. This was our core. Around this time I got my friend and roommate at the time to come back from an extended hiatus to join up. One of our core members also got her husband addicted to the game. And my roommate’s brothers started playing and joined as well. A couple members came and went and came back again. There were many changes, some members became officers etc.
The great thing about our guild is we all knew each other, either personally, or damn near. We all could talk shit to each other and about things in guild chat. We had our writ grinders and we grouped frequently. Me and my roommate took on the task of finishing damn near all the HQs in the game to earn status. Overall, it was a welcoming feeling, and it was a great guild.
But with all good things there’s a bad side, and it’s sad that these things have to happen. Drama is present in anyplace where people group together. Even with a common bond, lines can be drawn and crossed. There were problems with our guild, and some members left because they felt their requests/opinions weren’t heard. I tried my best to keep things pleasant for everyone, and we tried to recruit more to start up a raid force. I was guilty of not wanting to help out some of the lowbies, and my Dad was nominated with this job. He did it, but it ended up irritating him. Soon enough the guild began to fall apart. A shame, since we had just hit guild level 30.
My Dad stepped down from his leadership position, and I took over. I promoted one of my officers to leader to help when I wasn’t around. We continued the good fight for a short time, but I longed to raid. Eventually, I left altogether, and joined another guild, “Shadow of Sun Tzu”.
SoST was a cool guild, in that it had a lot more members and they did a lot of fun things. They had different events than I had seen in other guilds (like mentor a guildie day which was a nifty idea that lotto’ed off coin to mentors), and they did have a raid schedule. Unfortunately for me, their raid schedule landed on days I had to work, so I could not attend. I did however believe that they had stronger leadership, and direction, though guild raids were some of the less successful points of the guild. I eventually left this guild as well, in favor of a guild I started raiding with on the side, that my Dad also belonged to.
I find my home now with “Stormbringers”. This guild has been very successful raiding, and I’ve gotten some decent loot. My only complaint is that we haven’t moved onto EOF raids, which contain some uber gear.
I’ve learned that leadership is a very important aspect of a guild, because without them, nothing would ever get done. On a smaller basis, I am a great leader. I could direct small groups of people, and my knowledge of the game is great, thusly I can help along people with questions (do this in channel chat all the time). The leaders of SB had a large pull in my joining the guild. The raid leader especially knew his shit, and his directions were impeccable in raid zones. Unfortunately, he left the guild for another, and we now have a new RL, and I have yet to raid with him. From what I hear he’s more experienced than the last.
To me, a good leader is friendly, funny, and knowledgeable. I believe I have these qualities, yet I couldn’t keep my guild together. I’m trying to find the weak spot. If I knew then what I know now, I would have never let my guild fall apart. We could have easily raided, provided that we did partial pickups. I’m sure our success rate would be crap, but we’d be farther along now if we would have tried.
Perhaps one day I will try it out again. I only hope that if I do, it will be more successful than last time.
Me Vs. Myself and I 