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Guilds, Events, Trends and You! How to keep something alive!
#1
Well it is beginning to near the first year of my time on CotH and I have grown to love the community, its mature roleplayers, and the people in it. CotH is unstoppable! However...there has always been this certain little flaw that has failed me, and many others in the past. Gentlemen...I speak of making a guild/event!

What choo talkin' about Tarne!?: I'm glad you asked CotHer! So here is the basic point I want to try to make in this rant guide, I want to educate the adventurous, creative community of CotH about how to truely keep something alive and burning with a fiery passion!

You have my slight interest you chicken riding, tuxedo wearing troll...but just what exactly do you speak of?: I speak of course of maintaining a functional, active guild!

OK! So let us say you made a guild on the forum and everyone adores it! So what did you do? Well you picked up the charter, skipped the signature process (because that is for noobs on retail, lulz) and made you and your fellow CotHers a guild! Could have been anything! PIRATES, MERCENARIES, CULTISTS, A SCHOOL IN A FIELD OF MAGIC MAYHAPS.

So you have made your guild, and maybe even had your initial event, and everyone digs it, you are loving this...but a week goes by and you start to drift away...then before you know it your guild is dead unless you make some huge event...what happened?


I may be able to shed some light on your sticky situation, here are some reasons why what I call "Trends" die as fast as they grew in popularity.

COMMITMENT: YES COMMITMENT! Running a guild is like a job! With the job of running a guild is hard work and dedication. What tends to happen to many guilds on CotH (heck, even retail for that matter) is that the leader had no idea how much work had to be put in to DMing events, recruitment, keeping track of things OOCly, and even just finding the time in your busy life to do it all! You see, I'm sure I am not speaking only for myself here. When I made Soldiers of Fortune on my character, Daedrin, I saw this epic, ever expanding guild of adventurers going on many missions and having a bunch of epic adventures. But then I realized something, it happened about a week after forming the guild...RUNNING A GUILD ISN'T EASY!!! Like being a leader for most things, it requires careful, timed out planning, commitment, hard work, and respect toward your fellow players.

You've all been in a CotH event (or you will be in one soon enough!). They are usually lead by a single person, possibly with the help of a GM. This leader must plan out all the scenes that will happen in the event, emote them with the raid...keep track of enemy health, possibly keep track of the entire roll order for combat, and know exactly what is going on at any given moment...THAT IS NO EASY TASK. Personally, this is why I believe many guilds tend to fail, because the guild master gets overworked by making events, which could lead to the guild leader never logging on to their character...and if they never log on to their character, then there is no social RP in the guild...and if there is no social RP or events happening because it is too time consuming to coordinate...you have yourself what I call a "Dead Trend."

SO TARNE. What is a "Dead Trend?": Well CotHer here is the basics of what it is. Every now and then someone comes up with a huge idea that everyone loves...as an example lets just say it is a themed guild. Now, here is what I have noticed about these themed guilds (hardcore cultists, die hard pirates, ect). These guilds are based around a central theme and idea, and nothing else...in other words the plot of the guild, while it could be an interesting read will become repetitive.

In my point of view, it is this repetition that likely kills most guilds. When the social RP of a guild is all about the same thing every time, the members of the RP will love it at first, but as they do it more and more it gets old...and in a short amount of time it will die. That is a "Dead Trend" in a nutshell.

Ok know it all, just how can someone prevent repetition?: First of all, it will require planning ahead. When you make a guild you aim for it to be unique in its own way, but that may end up in boring repetition, so what you want to do in modify your ideas in order to make them more expansive. What I'm trying to say is, if you want to sucessfully keep the interest of the public, the RP needs to shift from time to time...whether that be moving HQ to a new location, dropping the more common events for a huge event that seems different for the guild, or maybe even change the guilds entire motives and direction through RP from time to time! However in the end the decision comes down to you...but be sure to think when you are making your guild, will it keep your interest, and will it keep everyone elses interest?

So wrap this up for me boyo...

COMMITMENT. A lasting guild or event requires the full participation and dedication of not only the public, but even more importantly the creator! Without the guidance of leadership a guild falls...and all it could take is a few days of absense...so be careful.

Ok, so I think I understand that now, mr. troll. What else should I know if I want a guild or event?:

Annnnnd next on the list is...

A STRONG LEADERSHIP. Now you may be thinking...Tarne, we have already gone over this, isn't that commitment? Well the anwser is yes, but commitment only plays one role in leadership as a whole.

A strong guild or event is maintained by good leadership, but just what is good leadership? Well let me share something with you, before I had become an Eagle Scout in the BSA I honestly though a good leader was a man with a plan, but there is more to it than that. I learned much about leadership over the past few years, and a key role I will bring with me for the rest of my life, is that leadership is nothing without a team, and good cooperation.

Here are the basics that you should know. Everyone who has ever tried maintaining a guild knows that it is not an easy task; it requires a lot of hard work, perhaps too much than you can handle...so you stop logging on to avoid it. Here is the solution, what you need to do is get somebody (or a few people even) you can absolutely rely on, and give them tasks in the guild.

The following can be a possible build for a good leadership staff in a guild.

The Dungeon Master. It is in the name...you need someone that can throw events together well, and possibly even create them. The more events you have in a guild, the better you maintain public interest. Now, lables are merely only labels, and this person shouldn't be the only one doing events...DMing is a very hard, and well, frankly unrewarding task, these guys will want to RP as well...so give them a break from time to time, and you run an event for once! It's a boring job, but someone's gotta do it.

Guild Recruiter. When you make a popular guild, you will find that many people are mailing you, or PMing you asking you to join the guild! With the process of maintaining a guild, this can be a very time-consuming task, and it could be another cause of a Gleader suddenly fading away to avoid all the mail. So what you need is someone responsible to take care of these people willing to join for you! You can have this person create advertisments for events, recieve mail to join the guild, or anything else that can be done to get more members. Remember, a strong, active member base is the foundation for a strong guild.

The leader...of course. So what is your job as the guild leader exactly? Well despite what you may think, it is not to necessarily boss people around. True leadership can be displayed in organization, control, and demonstration. To have organization you must have some kind of order...this means not having people run rampant doing whatever they wish 24/7...this is why I suggest making guild office positions. So now let's say you finally decide to have officer positions...you need to keep up to date with the officers on what they are doing and when...maintain control of them and have a good general idea of the hip-haps of the guild. Demonstration. Ah yes, there is nothing worse than a hypocritical leader amirite? To display leadership you must demonstrate not only to your officers how to control, but also to your members. You must show the utmost maturity and respect for higher ups, such as the GMs and admit your faults...only then will you not be a tyrant of sorts.

Keep in mind all these officer positions are merely suggestions by me, and you have the complete and utmost freedom to run your guild as you wish. Moving on!

Now I will speak of something we all just absolutely adore!

PLANNING: I cannot -stress- how important this stage is to making a guild. Here's the basic rundown of what I want to get across yer noggin'. Let's say you come up with an idea for a guild and two days later without thinking you decide to post a advertisement for it and make it. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I cannot tell you how many guilds I have seen fall to the gutter because of hasty creation. So here is a step by step process of what you can do to really see if you want to go through with a guild.

Step 1: The idea.
It's very common to be running around in circles in WSG and come up with an amazing idea for a guild you really want to do. But just where will that really get you? Here's what you should do. First, write your idea down on some paper, sketch out some activities the guild would do as a whole...where you would go on a daily basis, ect. Next, decide who or what you would really like to impact the most, and question yourself constantly...with every idea there is a "why" and you must be able to anwser them or else you don't know your own idea well enough!

Step 2: Patience.

Here's what you do next...it's very easy...but also very hard. Wait. Just wait. Give yourself 1-2 weeks and do not do anything with the guild...keep the idea in your head. Two weeks have passed...now ask yourself...do you still dig the idea and are you ready to commit?

Step 3: Display your idea.

You decide to commit after a week or two of the idea in your head and drawn out...so advertise. Go to the roleplay ideas section and suggest your guild as as deep detail as you wish...and see what your feedback looks like. Depending on the amount and quality of your feedback you will know when the next step can begin. If you get little to no feedback maybe it's time to retrace your steps and replan the guild...make it a little more appealing to the public. If you get a lot of feedback...be careful, you do not want to make another "Dead Trend."

Step 4: Event planning.

Alright you have some interested folks and they are ancy for your guild to get started. Do not rush this next step. What you need to do is create some elaborate events for your guild to start out with...mainly so you can keep your guildies entertained for a bit while things are setting up. Once you actually start the guild you will need to be online quite a lot running these starting events to really hook your guildies.

Step 5: Maintainence.

Your guild is up and running and you've had some events, time to pick some credible people you met from those events and make some guild officer positions...without them your guild will most likely crumble. Here's a fact everyone here needs to face, a guild cannot be run alone...a single leader is usually a lost and overworked leader...and he will log off his character and start going on others to avoid the work. Maintainence of the guild requires outstanding leadership, control, and help!



That is all I have to say about running a successful guild...I know it's short and not the prettiest thing in the world but read through this information and I guarentee you you will learn something about commitment and leadership to a guild on CotH. Also, these opinions and ideas are my own and if you disagree, please do so quietly...this is my advice to my fellow CotHers...take it or leave it. Tarne out.
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#2
Tarne, your unending wisdom inspires me. I know of the challenges you speak and I, the almighty Valingash, run the dark arts school of the Felweaver Accord. It is so very hard to keep my guild up and running, and one week the unfortunate thing occured.... I became absent! I had to focus more time then usual on my studies, and well.... my guild drifted away from me.... But fear not! I am slowly drawing back my members like flies to honey. And the honey is oh so sweet....


/standing ovation to Tarne for the post.
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#3
Uh, uh, I totally lost m'guild like this.

Good idea.

Commitment to the guild is a horrible thing, gah, when you realize people start being offline way too much, that's the phase you can't do anything anymore, really.

So. I'd say, what you need, is a huge amount of members (See: Coalition and the others), and a lot of recruiters to keep it alive.

Also, a good idea. Which arises social activity, (Do not see: The thieves guild, but do see: Gurubashi Grindfest or so.)

I'm not posting this -in- the guide, these are suggestions.

If y'say something I can delete anything I ever said!

Anyhow, a good start to a guide I see here.
Azheron's back in business. For reals.
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#4
Hehe right now in the guide I'm just ranting, after the ranting portion is out of the way I will be stating numerous amount of solutions to these issues!
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#5
Going to get around doing more of this tonight, stay tuned!
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#6
Updated, let me know what you think of what I've added...these are my ideas and my ideas alone so I would gladly accept some critisism.
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#7
Quote: it requires a lot of hard work, perhaps too much than you can handle...so you stop logging on to avoid it. Here is the solution, what you need to do is get somebody (or a few people even) you can absolutely rely on, and give them tasks in the guild.

This is so true.

But you know, you shouldn't keep a guild unless you can be online for about 5 minutes -everyday-. And you need to advertise for the events, IN-GAME. I have seen this, there are loads of people who don't commit at all, and stop playing their characters, and most don't even read the forum post.

Sorry for posting again, I am seriously annoyed by this thing happening to guilds.
Azheron's back in business. For reals.
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#8
I am as well, hence why I write it. By the way, you my friend have a nice signature.
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#9
I know I do.

I'm the master of advertising.

It just shows I like the guide D:
Azheron's back in business. For reals.
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#10
Hm, is this finished?
All makt åt Tengil, vår befriare!

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#11
Quote:(Dinner time...taking a break. To be continued.)

I would say... Not?
Azheron's back in business. For reals.
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#12
That is one damn long dinner I must say.

Anywhoo, this is still in General Discussion? Why? :o
Azheron's back in business. For reals.
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#13
Probably 'cause it's not done yet, heh.
"I am more afraid of one hundred sheep led by a lion than one hundred lions led by a sheep."
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#14
Hehe... This is just what I need right now! I'm always concerned about guild deaths. When they happen to a guild I'm running I feel like I've failed at doing my job (which, really I did because it died. LOL ). I'm going to be making a new guild, and with this in mind, move my plans for weekly events to bi or tri-weekly...

Hope other people take this into consideration as well...
"Every gun..."

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#15
Hawk Wrote:Probably 'cause it's not done yet, heh.

Wait a second....

Why did I ask that? XD

I had answered to it before... Wow I fail! Anyhow, this was off-topic.
Azheron's back in business. For reals.
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