Flux

Are you in a guild that can’t seem to get past the next boss or raid? Or it can’t find enough of the right people? What it needs is more Pocky.

All raiding guilds should have a full course of Pocky. Without it they will likely suffer from loot drama, bump qq, personalities woe, unprepared players, and lack of progression. This can lead to /gquit, guild hopping, splits, merges, or just plain collapse.

A successful raiding guild has three keys that mirror the player stages. With two they may get lucky. With only one they will collapse. Let’s take look at the P.O.C. keys you need.

Progress

Players in raiding guilds want to see the highest level raids and the end game content. These raids are extraordinarily difficult and can be frustrating if everything is not going well. Every guild will get hung up on a raid from time to time but there are some things you can do to help ease the frustration.

• Reasonable Expectations - The raid leader should set a reasonable expectation of progress and time for each session. They should conservatively outline which bosses are expected to be cleared and how long the raid will last.
• Know When to Stop - Sometimes you will wipe several times in a row on the same encounter. If it’s not getting better and there are no new ideas, it’s time to stop. Take some time to rethink the encounter.
• Positive Criticism - Everyone makes mistakes they do not notice or need to be reminded what not to do. It’s essential this is done positively or you will lose players. It is a game. However it’s also important that these mistakes are pointed out and corrected or the raid will not progress.

Organization

Players need others to run instances with, class mentors, scheduled group runs, and leaders for raids. They also need to learn tactics for threat management, pulling, tank types, crowd control, buffs, loot rules, and marking. If you guild isn’t organized to help players do these things it will collapse, split, or fall back to non-raiding guild. Getting organized is difficult because it requires people to do it and not everyone enjoys spending their free time organizing others. How do you get organized?

• Forums - If you don’t have someone that can host one for you there are many free ones which you can setup yourself.
• Schedule - Setup a calendar of events and a way to sign up for raids. Use either your forums, a calendar service, the built in scheduling from raid loot software, or a mod like group calendar.
• Voice - Voice chat during complex and difficult encounters is important. You can use the built in voice chat but it has limitations. Most guilds use either a ventrilo or teamspeak server.
• Delegate - Have separate players maintain the forums, organizing runs, lead raids, and recruit. This helps guard against burnout and people with control issues. It also helps build a sense of community.
• Policies - Have a policy about loot, raid selection, behavior, and expectations before you ever step into a raid. Everyone has their own idea about what is fair or right, get everyone on the same page.

Community

The game is no fun when you dislike the people you play with. Who wants to listen to them for hours during a raid? Especially when you wiped four times on a new boss? Community builds friends and keeps drama down. Without it members see the guild as nothing more than a way to gear up or progress. And if the guild isn’t doing it for them, they leave. It’s difficult to maintain community during growth or to create it from scratch. How do you develop it?

• Trial Membership - Regardless of your standards for new members, having them play well with others is essential. They can be the best player in the world but if personalities don’t match your whole guild will suffer. Trial membership gives everyone a chance to decide.
• Slow Growth - It takes time for people to meet each other and get to know each other. Invite new members slowly. If there are too many new faces people will start to form their own cliques.
• Fun Events - Have fun events that are not for leveling, gearing, or achievement. This could be anything like a hogger raid of gnomes, guild clucking for a chicken, or doing an older raid like Onyxia.

Whether chocolate, strawberry, or almond is your favorite Pocky, the three keys to a balanced guild are Progress, Organization, and Community.

Tags: raid, tip
Author: aos

This entry was posted by aos on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Games, WoW. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.