Guild Hex

Every World of Warcraft player knows that raiding at higher levels is almost impossible without being in a guild. Not that you will not be able to group up with some random people, but such pick up groups (known as PuGs) can easily end as a complete disaster. Solo playing in the end-game content is not an option either, this is why most people choose to join a guild and play with people they know and talk to often. Here is how you can find a suitable guild to match your interests and goals.

Assuming you already know your own goals (PvP, casual raiding, hard core raiding, friendly leveling etc) you should look for a guild that shares the same focus. One excellent place to find information about various guilds and their recruitment status are the realm forums. Almost every realm has a sticky post about guilds, guilds progression and recruitment. Take your time and check which guilds are currently in need of players if your goal is raiding guild. For PvP and casual raiding, you can either check the advertisements in the Guild Recruitment Channel or have a word with your friends (you probably have made some friends already) about their guilds and see if they have space for you as well.

From my personal experience, the most advanced guilds on a given realm are usually full and are rarely looking for more players to join their ranks. Even if they do look for one or two more players, their requirements are very high and you might not have a chance to join such a guild just yet. Gearing up is not as slow process as it used to be, however you still need a pretty decent kit to be able to stand a chance in joining such guild. This does not mean that you should give up – instead, see if you can make friends with some people from such a guild – join them for some heroics, see if you can get into one of their pug 10 man raids (most of the times on their alts) and try to make a good impression. Sometimes, advanced guilds do recruit players with poor gear if the player in question has proven to be a nice person and a skilled player. Do not overdo it though – just be yourself and do not act like someone you are not only because you are trying to make them like you. Fake is never good, so just stick to who you are – after all, people should like you for the person you are, and not for the person you are pretending to be.

The most important thing for me is to never give up. At the start, you might have to become a member of a smaller guild and slowly start gaining popularity and make new friends. There is nothing wrong with this. You will get a chance to join more active guilds as you become better geared and a more skilled player, and eventually you can even join the number one guild on your realm. No one said the path is easy or quick though, but it is definitely possible – you should just work towards your goals and eventually you will get there.

I’ve been playing WoW for more than four years. You can tell whenever I’m offline because I’m writing articles instead to stay in the zone. Support my habit (and yours) at http://www.getfreewowtips.com.

After writing my first WoW guide, “World of Warcraft- 10 tips to maximizing your game play,” I decided that one guide for a game of this size just wouldn’t be enough. While a few tips on how to play the game and understand your character is a valuable resource there are many more aspects of the game that you will be able to utilize. The feature of choice today is how to build your own guild and not let it go to waste.

A lot of people start guilds on a daily basis in WoW without ever really considering what it takes to start, and run a successful guild. I’m sure at some point in your play time; you’ve been assaulted by random people trying to get you to sign their guild charter, or seen in chat while sitting in a city, people offering gold for signatures. 9 out of 10 times these guilds won’t last very long. Running a guild, even a casual one, takes a level of commitment to the game and your members. Below is what you can consider starting points or a checklist if you want, of what to look for and do while starting your own guild.

1. Choosing a guild name- This will be the foundation of your guild. When first obtaining your charter you have to come up with a unique name for your guild. This may seem like an easy task, as you most likely have one in mind already, but really consider what you’ll be naming it. Remember, this is the name you and everyone in your guild will carry on your server and in the WoW community. Pick something that best suits your preference, whether it’s role play oriented, humorous, or even a clever use of gaming terms. Just remember to keep it appropriate, sexual references, vulgar, or offensive terms and names will be quickly removed by Blizzard GM’s.

2. Purchasing your guild bank- Assuming you have already gotten your signatures, the next step to forming your guild is the purchase of a guild bank. After you formed your guild you can head to any city bank and at the guild bank location select it and purchase your first tab and bank for 100 gold. I would advise purchasing one more tab in the case of having a new guild (though if you have the gold for it you can always purchase a third). After you have them, set their descriptions and what types of items they hold, maybe put some money in for repairs for other guild members or purchasing more items for the bank, and get your desired rank restrictions in place. A guild bank is a good way to get guild members to help contribute to the success of your guild as well as add another incentive for others to join.

3. Guild Website- A guild website is a reflection of who you are as a guild to the rest of the community and the world. Your website will be one of the many factors that will separate your guild from those that don’t make it. It also provides a place for people who might be interested in joining, to get a feel for who you are and what you represent in the game before they make any decision. To that extent, you’re more likely to get new recruits when needed and during the roster filling process, with a guild website rather than guilds that don’t utilize this option. While it may seem like a lot of work to start your own website, alot of sites on the internet already offer both free and paid guild hosting. Offering features like customizable templates, integrated DKP systems, and forums these sites are probably your best bet.

List of free and paid guild hosting services:
o guildomatic.com
o guildlaunch.com
o guilduniverse.com

4. Setting up a Vent server- One of the most common and sought out means of chat in both PvP and PvE, is the use of a voice chat hosting service provided by Ventrilo. It’s a third party program and doesn’t integrate itself into the World of Warcraft UI, but it’s easily setup and runs smoothly in the background. Now having vent is one thing, but if you’re gonna run a guild, you may want to consider actually purchasing on a monthly basis, a Ventrilo server from its website. They are fairly cheap to run, offer customizable channels, moderator privileges, password protection, and the server can be left running in the background without interfering with your other running programs. I highly, highly recommend getting a Ventrilo server for guild use, as not only does it provide a nice outlet for people to chat, knowing a guild has its own vent server can entice them to join.

5. What your guild focuses on- One of the mistakes people make in starting up a guild, is they fail to actively pursue one aspect of the game. While it is important to immerse yourself in all the features and aspects, your guild should represent, or focus primarily on one aspect of the game. There are 3 main areas of the game in which you can focus your guild on, PvP, PvE (raiding), and casual leveling. Though casual leveling is generally a guild for those who haven’t reached endgame, it’s potential lies in the dedicated members having spent so many gaming hours leveling with each other, and the option later on to become a guild focused on one of the more advanced areas of the game.

Choosing what you’ll be focusing on will ultimately determine who joins your guild and their chance of staying. Just make sure that whatever you choose, you have experience in. Guild members want a guild leader and officers who know what they are doing when it comes to their preferred aspect of WoW. You wouldn’t want to join a PvP guild with a leader who’s never officially stepped into the arena now would you?

6. Advertising your guild and getting new members- Now that you have an established website, a vent server open to your guild members, a guild bank (hopefully you have a few things and some gold in there by now), and have decided which area of the game you’ll be progressing in, you are now ready to push for new members. Hopefully you’ve already determined or have gotten your guild officers by now (you should always try to have trusted friends or players join to help you in running the guild), but may not have the amount of players, or the right classes to really get going in your guild progression.

Take the time to utilize things like trade chat, guild recruitment chat, pugs (pick up groups used in raiding, dungeons, and even pvp), and your battlegroup or server forums to find the classes and people you need to get your progression rolling. Clarify who you are, what your guild is about (raid or premade times, progression feats, etc), and what you are exactly looking for. Make sure to provide all resources of communication, guild website or forum recruitment page, in game characters to message, or even to clarify to leave a post describing who they are and what they are looking for in a guild right in your post comments.

Now that you’ve accomplished these goals all that is left is to dive into the game and run your guild! With features like scheduling on the in-game calendar, you can setup raid and premade times, or even meetings and fun events with your guild. Running a guild can be a very rewarding experience if done correctly, and will give you a group of trusted and reliable players. But as stated above, do not take this lightly, running a guild properly requires a high level of commitment to the game and to your members, and will push you to monitor requests, disputes, and the guild bank, along with any expense you may have for guild websites or Ventrilo servers. Regardless of things like that, remember to have fun and enjoy this experience.

Author: Dustin Casano (Zaiaku) 2009

Blog: http://www.whatthereviews.blogspot.com

The state of your world of Warcraft Guild should be a major concern for all players involved, Officers and members alike. When you have a problem with the direction that your guild is going you need to come up with some ideas regarding what needs to be done. Our guild is presently going through a very trying time and I though I would share our solutions with you.

In this article I am going to outline some ideas that I see as solutions to when a guild is on the rocks. Many may not like the things that I am going to suggest, others will.

We are a casual guild that has been raiding of late but we suffer from lack of participation from many of our members. The lack of participation stems from many different things including real life issues and the game becoming stale.

If you want a guild to survive then here are a few solutions that may help.

1.) Leave it as it is

In this scenario the guild stays just as it is. This solution is usually the death blow to any guild that has become stagnant. If your World of Warcraft guild stagnates it will become simply a glorified chat room for some players and a stepping stone to a better guild for others.

A guild that has degenerated into a family or chat guild will remain for quite awhile. Take it from me I have been involved in many of them over the years and most of them are still part of the gaming universe that they were created in.

Leaving your guild as it is means that you as a player have to get used to the fact that raiding is going to be a hit or miss thing and unfortunately mostly miss. New players will come over time and others will leave. Some will be content with their life in the guild and will be there forever.

2.) Dig in and make a go of it

Choosing this option means that you may have to take a look at completely revamping the guild including its structure and the players you have in place as officers. Will everyone be happy? No. Will you lose players? Yes. That is the price that you going to have to pay if you want to dig in and make your guild the one that you want it to be.

There are those who are going to say you don’t need change and those are the players that are content with life as it is. It is time to take a look at what you as a whole want and then make it happen.

Your officers are going to have to be ready to commit to more raid time, and need to be at as many raids as possible. If they cannot do this then they need to be replaced by players who can. I know everyone has a real life and time is precious but it is something that must be done if you want to create an atmosphere where raiding is the norm.

You should take a survey to determine which days are the best for your guild to raid. If the majority can be online Friday, Saturday, and Sunday…then those are the raid days. Other nights you should be doing heroics for those interested. Those who are not interested in participating in some guild activity are honestly dead weight and need to be left behind.

If your guild is anything like ours everyone says that they want to raid and get the best items available. However, your guild like ours has to do more than just talk about it. Purples do not fall out of the sky or arrive in our mail box in brightly colored gift wrap. If you want it then you have to earn it. If earning it means devoting more real life time to the game then we each need to make a decision. The $64 question is are we willing to trade real life time for game time to get them? If you are not willing then step aside and let others lead who can do it.

3.) Move to another Guild

You could do this but I suggest that you do some real research first. You must be very careful when looking for a guild to join. Real raid guilds want players that can be dedicated and be at the raids. If your own performance is lacking in that area then why would you jump to a fully raid based guild? Chances are that when a raid guild learns that you cannot or will not make a certain percentage of their raids you will be asked to leave or not be accepted in the first place.

If you decide to choose another casual guild you need to be sure that they are actually raiding and that you can commit to their raid schedule. You do not want to jump ship only to find that the ship that you jumped to is named the Titanic.

4.) Server Move

This is another area that requires some thorough research. Perhaps you could discover the name of the newest server that fits your game style (PvE or PvP) and move there. Before you jump you need to find out what guilds are on the new server and decide if you can take a bite out of the player base and create a new guild there.

The key here is that you want a server with a fairly sparse guild population. Once you decide which server then you need to move as a group and start a new guild immediately and recruit hard. However this gets right back to our commitment and play time problem.

Why jump to a new server and start an exact replica of what you already have. If you are going to suffer in misery you might as well do it where you are.

4.) Guild Merger

Take a look at some of the smaller guilds on your server and see if they are looking toward raid content. Once you find a suitable guild you can either ask them to merge with you or merge with them. Personally I don’t like the idea of losing my guild’s identity but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Many guilds will want you to merge with them and perhaps rightly so. Your roster may say that you have 200+ members when in actuality you only have about 30 active members. The rest are alts from other guilds, alts of our own, or people who have not played in months. Should the guild that you have chosen have more active players and is going in the direction that you want to go, then merge with them.

When your guild is experiencing real problems these are the options that you have as I see them. Remember that you need to do something to ensure that you are satisfied with your gaming experience. If you are happy with most of your guild mates I suggest that you should do something as a group. Trickling off the main characters to other guilds until your guild is nothing but an alt, family, or chat guild is NOT my idea of doing something.

Lee Ruleman