Running a casual guild - Part 2
Following up the first about of how to run a casual guild where i just exposed some of the related problems, here goes some ideas i took from my own experience while running Contempt of EU-Burning Steppes.
Everyone knows that guild happiness comes from diferent aspects, but the most important one, is progress. Even for a casual guild! If you don't have any progress you guildies will become frustrated in time and tend to look for another guild. It makes even more sense if you are casual, you want to make the most of the small amount of time you have available to play. So progress is needed! ;) Nowadays is easier to accomplish progress as the game has been break down into normal and hard modes. Normal modes in 10 man raids are very much possible to accomplish to almost all the casual guilds out there. ICC 10 man, or Hardmodes on ulduar, ToC are not so much.
Anyway there a couple of rules we follow in order to keep the guild happy.
1. Promoting the community! Casual and mature people have jobs. They have access to internet on the work most of the time, so having an active forum, is a must in order to create a more united raiding community. Recording the fights, making funny videos, polls, posting pictures, achievments, etc. it all adds to the same feeling that you are part of something special and unique!
2. Not enforcing guild attendance in any way! Everyone must know that if raid ends ad 00h, it must end no matter what, even if the last try on the last boss of some dungeon was a wipe at 1%. If there is a guy that needs to wake up early, make it a raid over and dont even think about extending it! ;) In addition, no one should need to raid any % of the weekly raids. Anyone can come then they can. Period.
3. Enforcing a fair rotation on players and make early selection of players. Its obvious that the player pool is allways larger then the raid spots. How to choose who attends a raid and who is left out? Priority goes to having a good setup for the raid's objectives, but next in line is assuring that no one is raiding more then anyone else on the guild! If a guy is left out, he must have a spot on the next raid and so on. And when leaving people out on any raid, they should be warned about it (using ingame calendar confimations is a good option).
4. Although the guild is casual the raids must not be! This doesn't mean that players will be stressed on raids, it just means that the fights / strategies / consumables must be prepared in the same way (or almost) as a hardcore guild ;) Casuals raid less time then hardcores, so we need to make the most of the limited time we have! This also means that you will be progressing more, and therefore, more hapiness overall ;D
5. Make sure you are continously recruiting new people with the exact profile that you need (most guys looking for a guild dont know exactly what casual 10 man raiding means, and some dont even know what they want). So make sure the inviting process has an interview and/or an application form where you can make sure the player you are inviting, is really casual, mature, only intends to raid 10 man, understands the concept of fair rotation on raids, and the possibility of being left out on some! In alternative, casuals can also be invited if they are simply casual and want to be part of the community. Mature, friendly and casual people are allways welcome and the are an added value to the guild, so they should never be left out!
So that all makes for a happy 10 man casual raiding guild. I still have questions if a casual guild with two different 10 man teams would work. Or if these rules would apply to a 25 man casual guild. 10 man casual is easier to manage in the sense that you can easily spot problems/issues/underperformances and fix them, aswell as lack of attendency. 25 man adds a lot of complexity to those factores. Maybe i will figure that out one day ;)
Everyone knows that guild happiness comes from diferent aspects, but the most important one, is progress. Even for a casual guild! If you don't have any progress you guildies will become frustrated in time and tend to look for another guild. It makes even more sense if you are casual, you want to make the most of the small amount of time you have available to play. So progress is needed! ;) Nowadays is easier to accomplish progress as the game has been break down into normal and hard modes. Normal modes in 10 man raids are very much possible to accomplish to almost all the casual guilds out there. ICC 10 man, or Hardmodes on ulduar, ToC are not so much.
Anyway there a couple of rules we follow in order to keep the guild happy.
1. Promoting the community! Casual and mature people have jobs. They have access to internet on the work most of the time, so having an active forum, is a must in order to create a more united raiding community. Recording the fights, making funny videos, polls, posting pictures, achievments, etc. it all adds to the same feeling that you are part of something special and unique!
2. Not enforcing guild attendance in any way! Everyone must know that if raid ends ad 00h, it must end no matter what, even if the last try on the last boss of some dungeon was a wipe at 1%. If there is a guy that needs to wake up early, make it a raid over and dont even think about extending it! ;) In addition, no one should need to raid any % of the weekly raids. Anyone can come then they can. Period.
3. Enforcing a fair rotation on players and make early selection of players. Its obvious that the player pool is allways larger then the raid spots. How to choose who attends a raid and who is left out? Priority goes to having a good setup for the raid's objectives, but next in line is assuring that no one is raiding more then anyone else on the guild! If a guy is left out, he must have a spot on the next raid and so on. And when leaving people out on any raid, they should be warned about it (using ingame calendar confimations is a good option).
4. Although the guild is casual the raids must not be! This doesn't mean that players will be stressed on raids, it just means that the fights / strategies / consumables must be prepared in the same way (or almost) as a hardcore guild ;) Casuals raid less time then hardcores, so we need to make the most of the limited time we have! This also means that you will be progressing more, and therefore, more hapiness overall ;D
5. Make sure you are continously recruiting new people with the exact profile that you need (most guys looking for a guild dont know exactly what casual 10 man raiding means, and some dont even know what they want). So make sure the inviting process has an interview and/or an application form where you can make sure the player you are inviting, is really casual, mature, only intends to raid 10 man, understands the concept of fair rotation on raids, and the possibility of being left out on some! In alternative, casuals can also be invited if they are simply casual and want to be part of the community. Mature, friendly and casual people are allways welcome and the are an added value to the guild, so they should never be left out!
So that all makes for a happy 10 man casual raiding guild. I still have questions if a casual guild with two different 10 man teams would work. Or if these rules would apply to a 25 man casual guild. 10 man casual is easier to manage in the sense that you can easily spot problems/issues/underperformances and fix them, aswell as lack of attendency. 25 man adds a lot of complexity to those factores. Maybe i will figure that out one day ;)