It is no secret that running a guild is hard work. There are so many moving parts to guild leadership and so many personalities that can either make or break the experience. As someone who is co-leading a guild for New World, a new MMORPG launching on September 28th, I find myself asking what makes a good guild leader in 2021? This blog post aims to give my perspective on the subject.
My prior experience running a guild takes me back to the early beta days of Albion Online. During beta 2, I started a guild called the Filthy Casuals. Like the name suggests, we didn’t take ourselves too seriously and our main goal was to have like minded, fun loving people to play with. Initially it was only close friends who were allowed to join, but as our accolades became known in the world of Albion, many more sought entry into that brotherhood. I look back at the early days of that guild with fondness as we didn’t have a care in the world except for having fun.
A good guild leader is someone who can maximize their members’ gaming experience with the most amount of fun possible. This often means that they must play a community / customer service oriented role to ensure that members are happy. In the early stages of a guild, a guild leader does most of this him or herself, but as the membership grows, it is important for a leader to identify members within the ranks who show promise of leadership themselves.
A good guild leader is someone who can identify, nurture, and develop leaders to fill the officer ranks of the guild. Empowering officers takes time, but that time can pay huge dividends if you can find officers who are as committed to the guild as you are. Officers are essentially individuals who could run a guild themselves and so when they choose to be an officer underneath you, this shows that they feel they can grow and become a part of the guild culture and community. The more time you spend empowering these proactive members of your officer core, the less time you as the guild leader have to wear all the “hats” within the guild
A good guild leader delegates to willing officers so that he can focus his efforts elsewhere. Once you have your officer core trained and enthusiastic to take on additional responsibilities, you can delegate to them and free up some of your time for other matters. Instead of spending your time doing things yourself, you are now spending your time in close communication with the officers in charge, answering any questions they have and assisting them in amplifying their responsibilities to the rest of the guild. Elevating these people will allow them to field questions from the general member population, something that is invaluable if you as a guild leader want to get any play time in yourself.
A good guild leader is around his people and in the front lines of combat, leading by example. During times of conflict, members must see you among them, exuding confidence even when the situation appears dire. Although we are gaming and the purpose of gaming is to have fun, there will be times when more challenging scenarios come up where decisive leadership is necessary. In these situations, you should never delegate, but instead take the lead and establish clear lines of communication during a siege, an invasion, or a large PvP event.
A good guild leader is someone who can leverage technology to enrich the gaming experience for all. It has become a necessity to know your way around discord, a communication tool that has largely taken over the gaming guild scene, in order to provide a safe and accessible community for the guild to reside in. Spending time in the channels, both text and voice, and empowering officers and moderators to enforce the community guidelines, will build trust among the membership and create an environment of fairness where everyone knows their responsibilities while gaming together.
A good guild leader can whether the harshest of storms and ensure the community lives on during and after a crisis. Drama comes in small and large doses, and sometimes drama can temporarily cast a dark shadow over a guild and community. It is times like these when people begin to think that a guild can’t make it past the trials and tribulations of varying personalities. During these times, it is imperative for the guild leader to reconcile with the community, admit if things are not going great instead of sugarcoating it, and deliver a plan to right the ship and sail onwards to new heights.
A good guild leader has the ability to recruit new members during its inception and during periods where membership must be replenished. Recruitment starts with being inspirational and attractive to outside people looking in. Streaming has made it easier for guild leaders because they can provide a sneak peak of what it is like in the guild. It is important that when live and showing the guilds activities that the community is also a part of the recruitment effort. This is not to say that they need to act differently than who they are, but rather, they should strive to show their best versions of themselves to supercharge the recruitment efforts.
A good guild leader is an excellent communicator who can take on the roles of educator, mentor, and inspirational figurehead at a moments notice. This calls for a high level of empathy as well as a think skin. It requires knowing when a situation calls for a rallying speech to get the spirits of the guild on solid footing. At the end of the day, guild leadership requires you to publicly be the cheerleader for the guild, even when you feel tired. Ensure that during your time as a leader, you have someone you can confide in when the grind is a struggle, but do not publicly announce your struggles as they may lead some to question your ability to lead. Just like a significant other who tells you about his / her day needs to vent, so do you, so ensure that person or people are those whom you trust. When your mind is free from stress, you can then be at your best and inspire and motivate your guild for whatever task is at hand.
A good guild leader is committed to the community over all else. Excluding real life emergencies and obligations, a good guild leader should be focused on both the guild and the game that the guild is playing. Taking time and attention away from the guild and game should be kept to a minimum unless you want to foster a series of rumors about your commitment to the guild. If you do need some time to relax, ensure that you communicate clearly to your guild that you are taking a break for the evening but are wholeheartedly committed to the excellence of the guild and its accomplishments in game.
A good guild leader is focused on the long term and understands that there will be ebbs and flows during the life of the guilds existence. Short terms goals are good to inspire participation from guild members so long as they are working towards a long term goal. For instance, in New World we have the short term goal of acquiring a settlement. This settlement will provide us with the longer term goal of having a series of high level end game experiences in the form of siege PvP and PvE invasions, as well as creating a comradery among our people for accomplishing these goals. If for whatever reason we are unable to achieve our desires for a settlement, then the guild leadership will need to have other goals lined up as a plan B so that the guild does not see a temporary setback as the gravestone for the guild.
A good guild leader is capable of subordinating his own ego for the greater good of the community. Thick skin as well as being prepared for any scenario that may come is paramount for a guild leader to succeed. If a leaders’ ego is triggered because of something reactionary that has been said or done instead of thinking and responding clearly, it may create an environment of toxicity that no guild can ever get away from. A no tolerance policy towards toxicity goes a long way, but a leader must ensure he or she himself abides by these rules when struggles arise.
A good guild leader must be organized, but also flexible, to meet the challenges he or she will face. Being organized is a preventative measure to most issues that individual members may have, but being flexible, allows for a guild leader to make decisions on the fly. It is important to have regularly scheduled events, meetings, officer meetings, and general chats aimed at building comradery. It is also important to have a bit of spontaneity to keep things fresh for both yourself and your community. Technology helps a lot in regards to organization as there are a plethora of tools within discord and elsewhere to organize events for your community.
Last but not least, a good guild leader knows how to have fun too! All work and no play would make any guild leader a dull boy/girl. Although it helps to take your job as a guild leader seriously, you should balance your intensity by having fun. If there is a dungeon you want to run, make sure you do it! You can’t exclude yourself every time there is a limited amount of spaces available for content. As the leader, your reward for leading is not only experiencing the amazing community you are building grow, but your own personal enjoyment and character progression should also be growing along with it.
While many qualities of what makes a good guild leader are covered above, there is likely an exhaustive list of qualities that others can add to this list. It makes it feel like an impossible goal to be all these things at once, but that is why it is so important to have a strong core of officers and members in the guild to help you balance it all. Running a guild is like having a huge family. If you can keep people engaged and feeling those loving feelings towards each other, then you really got something special on your hands that will pay you back in droves through good times and memories.
If you care to add to this list, please respond on whatever platform you see this blog post and I will be happy to carry on the conversation. With New World launching on September 28th, I look forward to seeing many of you in my guild as we strive to achieve our New World plans together! Until then, get some rest because the fun starts very soon!
Kind Regards,
Blackboa