Putting the Guild in Guild Wars.

January was a month of playing way to much Guild Wars, so much so that I went from addiction to burnt out in a couple of weeks and haven’t touched it since. In my last few days I was on the lookout for a guild, which involved standing in one of the main hub areas watching the local chat as people spammed requests every three seconds. After a while I started noticing trends in a lot of the ads I saw and guild leaders I talked to.

“No restrictions” seemed to be the main one, which just reeks of desperation. It struck me that most of these guilds were trying to get as many through the door as they possibly can just for the sake of numbers, with little care for quality control. Fleeting memberships in a couple of no restriction guilds revealed another problem; no restrictions also means no direction. Regardless of the amount of people in the guild, everyone was just doing their own thing. No groups being formed, just a band of separate players with a private chat channel. An "Anti-Guild". It’s like they made a guild for the sake of it, rather than thinking about what they wanted to do with it.

“New members made officers” is Chinese for “No Management”. Desperation again, but it means they’re prepared to give promotions without proof of ability. Having a bunch of randoms running the guild is a recipe for chaos.

There were a couple of good ones from players would actually thought things through first, though.

“18+” isn’t a sign of maturity, but you are clearing out a generally volatile demographic, and there is a market for players, like me, who are looking to player with older members. I even saw an ad for a 30+ guild, which is awesome to see; people who actually know what they want out of their guild and are willing to specialise regardless.

“Interviews” aren’t a necessity, but it‘s damn good quality control to actually have a conversation with prospective members, getting an idea of who you are letting in, as opposed to just firing of invites. Build an understanding with them first, rather than herding them in like sheep. It means slower induction, fewer members at a time, and sits at the other end of the spectrum to the “No Restriction” guilds, but it almost guarantees you’ll have players that fit in with your guild, and the direction it’s going in.