How to Run a Successful Guild

Guilds are an integral part of MMORPGs and MMO games, bringing gamers together into like-minded groups, allowing them to more easily make friends, find questing partners, get help, and more. The majority of MMO gamers will join guilds, and most have thought about what it would be like to create and run their own guild.

Unfortunately, most gamers also don’t realize how difficult running a guild (or at least a successful one) can be. You have to be an active player, be skilled at and knowledgeable about the game, a great diplomat, social and personable, and most of all, a great leader. If you think you have the necessary qualities to lead your own guild, then read on to get all the details of how to do it.

Getting Started

Your first step will be to determine what the prerequisites are in order to create a guild, which will vary by game. Firstly, you’ll probably need to be at a minimum level to create a guild, which usually isn’t in the upper level tier, but somewhere around the middle (let’s say the level 20-40 range in most games).

You’ll also need a relatively healthy helping of gold pieces (or insert random game currency here), which will probably prove to be a greater headache than the level requirement. Lastly, you’ll probably need to have a minimum number of members or officers within a relatively short period for the guild to be officially formed (often 24 hours).

So before anything else, you’ll probably want to make sure you have all of these prerequisites in order, including friends ready to join your guild as officers, before you actually make one. When you’re ready, head to whomever oversees guild creation within the game, plunk down your hard-earned cash, choose your name (try to keep it sensible, as the name could affect the willingness of others to join your guild), and create your guild.

At this point you’ll probably need to write some sort of description for your guild that interested applicants will be able to view. This would be a good opportunity, if you haven’t done so already, to come up with a general guild philosophy. Is your guild going to be geared towards casual players who like to chat? Will it be focused on PvP? Trading? Roleplaying? How big do you plan on growing? By having a clear vision of your guild and expressing that in your description, you should be able to more easily attract like-minded players to your guild.

Growing Your Guild

Now that your guild is up and running, and your vision for the guild is in place, you can begin to actively recruit fellow players yourself (and set your officers loose as well, if you’ll be trusting them with recruitment duties). By being socially active in-game, following the chat rooms, and constantly checking the info of players you cross paths with in the game world to see whether or not they have guilds, you should be able to find plenty of great candidates to recruit into the fold.

At this point, you’ll also want to set up a guild website and forums where your members can hook up and stay in touch outside of the game. There are plenty of great options available, such as guildportal.com. You’ll also want to put some guild rules on your guild page. What rules you decide to enact is entirely up to you, but some good examples would be to ask that guild members stay relatively active, and treat everyone with respect (not only your own members, but everyone in the game, as your guild could develop a bad reputation if some of your members are running around acting stupid).

Keeping Everyone Engaged (and Civil)

Now that a lot of the early work is out of the way, you may be expecting things to settle down into a nice rhythm with relatively little upkeep necessary at this point. Well…think again chief. No, the fun is really only getting started I’m afraid.

You’re now in a constant battle to keep your members happy and engaged with each other, lest they jump ship to another guild (or even worse, be so put off by your guild that they would rather just play alone). You’ll need to be firm in enforcing your rules to root out any negative influences that could drag the whole guild down.

You may want to begin setting up guild events at this point to help get everyone acquainted and having fun together, which will build their loyalty to the guild. You’ll want to pay attention to how people get along during these events and in your guild chat so you can identify any potential trouble spots before they happen. You may also want to begin forming partnerships or alliances with other guilds, bringing yet more options and chances for excitement to your guild members.

Conclusion

Guild leadership really can be a rewarding experience, but it’s a constant juggling act, and there’s always drama galore. If you can handle that, or especially if you thrive in that kind of environment, then there are plenty of players just waiting for the opportunity to serve under a great leader like you.