As you may recall, I proposed a hypothetical discussion revolving around guild management (back on July 6, located here). This is the first part of the continuation of that post, and I’ll add a listing of all sections at the end of each post in the series to find them easier.

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(Hypothetical) Small Guilds and Progression: Part One

The First “Assignment:”
Present an idea for guild structure, specifying officer roles and reasons for needing those roles (includes responsibilities, how to pick officers, etc.).

Guild Structure (Chart)

Guild Structure (Explained)

Guild Master
The GM role can be filled a number of different ways, but more often than not it all starts with someone who decides to form a guild and see what happens. On some occasions it is the decision of a group of players together, and one emerges as a “natural” organizer and gets things moving. Regardless of the initial reasoning, very few guilds last long unless the GM (and by extension the way officers are chosen and utilized) is good at keeping a group together.

Assistant Guild Master
Arguably the most difficult position to fill, an Assistant GM helps in a number of ways: first, the GM is not always accessible, and having someone else available that has most of the same abilities means decision on controversial matters can be handled quicker than waiting for a single person to be online. In addition, and Assistant GM should be looked to by other guild members as someone capable of “taking the reins” in the event the GM needs to take a break or moves on to another game.

Treasurer
While not necessarily a vital position for a smaller guild, it helps immensely to have someone responsible for keeping guild resources organized (i.e. the guild bank). Further, a dedicated treasurer can also handle loot master duties, freeing up the other members of the guild administration to keep things moving in raids.

PvE Leader and PvP Leader
For guilds whose members enjoy diverse activities that span across all of World of Warcraft‘s offerings, providing dedicated leaders for PvE and PvP content should not be underestimated. These officers will normally be responsible for scheduling events and ensuring fair participation by all who want to be involved, as well as serving to lead the events unless otherwise delegated to someone else.

Officer(s)
Officers are used for a variety of reasons, ranging from assuming the same responsibilities as the PvE and PvP leaders with regards to leading activities to becoming designated as “class officers” in guilds where such roles are needed. Generally speaking, officers most often are looked to when the guild administration desires to make some sort of change and wants to discuss options without taking the issue to the entire guild. Further, officers are widely used to provide resolution to relatively small conflicts that arise in guild, acting on behalf of the GM/Assistant GM when they are not available.

Raider(s)
Using a separate designation for raiders, at first glance, seems to elevate those players’ status within the guild over other members. This should not be the case. Using a separate rank allows the guild administration to provide a resource (by way of a designated bank tab) that is shared among raiders in an effort to foster aiding each other in the acquisition of consumables, materials for professions, or even gold donations. While all of these things are the raiders’ responsibility alone, creating an environment designed to promote each of the members’ helping each other creates a closer “family” of players embarking upon raids. The same could be done for a PvP-centric group using another designation. The rank can also be used as a way to reward players who contribute more than necessary, going above and beyond expectations. In such a case, the additional bank tab may be used to provide resources not provided to other members as such a reward.

Member(s)
Fairly self-explanatory, a guild cannot exist (beyond name only) without members.

Initiate(s)
Any guild that opens itself up to accepting players beyond a small, close-knit group should provide some way to protect itself against malicious intent. Typically this is done by providing limited or no access to the guild bank to newcomers, which is where an Initiate rank is a tremendous help. There should also be a clear path for transition to a fully recognized member of the guild, be it time-based or upon completion of some other task is entirely up to the guild administration.

Probation
A controversial rank for certain, but there should be some penalty for guild members who violate guild policies. Typically this type of rank would serve as a temporary tool, used until resolution of whatever incident transpired has occurred.

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Series Contents:

1. (Hypothetical) Small Guilds and Progression
2. (Hypothetical) Guild Framework

Posted by Byaghro on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 3:07 pm 
Filed under Byaghro · Tagged with Design, Guild, Guild Management, Hypothetical, Implementation, Leadership, Learning