We are in difficult times. ICC and the last major content patch of WotLK has been released. The Cataclysm alpha is currently being tested and I wouldn't be surprised if the Beta was made available within a few weeks. On top of all that summer is fast approaching and we all know that plays havoc on raid availability. Times are hard for raiders and raiding guilds.
In times like these guild rosters are heavily influx. Some guilds fall apart. Others need to recruit heavily to fill spots. It is not unexpected for raiders to look for greener pastures in this situation. In fact, all three of my guild moves occurred during the summer, so I understand the situation very well. That said there is a right way to make a change and a wrong way, and in my opinion ninja quitters are a bunch of cowards.
It's Not about Loyalty:
At this point many bloggers would go on a rant about guild loyalty and such. I won't. I think the concept of guild loyalty is overblown quite often and in general I think guild members owe very little to their guilds in the long run. No one is paying my 15 dollars for me, and no one can tell me went to play, what to play, or who to play with.
I know it sucks when a valued guild member leaves the guild or goes casual. I've had quite a lot of experience with it lately in fact. Not only have many of our veteran raiders gone casual, but we have also lost a couple of leaders who decided to quit the game or go casual. I don't begrudge them their rights to do so. I just think here is, or at least should be, an etiquette for making this transition.
The Etiquette of Leaving:
Give Notice: Though it may feel like it at times WoW is not a job. I am not suggesting that you give your guild 2 weeks notice though it would be nice. However, every guild does deserve some notice even if it is only a couple of minutes. Take for example the inspiration for this post. Last night two of our raiders didn't show up for raid. We waited a little bit but started without them in hopes that they would show up soon. However, after about an hour someone noticed that neither of them were on the guild roster any longer. They had ninja quit without saying anything on the forums or cancelling their raid sign up. As a result we raided short most of the night.
Some of you may be thinking "what's the big deal?" If we had the people available to replace them we would have. Since we didn't, it probably wouldn't have mattered if they and told us a head of time. I disagree.
First off, at the very least it wastes the guilds time. We used valuable raid time wondering where they were and trying to replace them. Second, who knows what could have been done in a days time. I know we are getting apps to the guild still. Even with very little time a couple of those could be approved and included in raid. Third, we have several member ranked guildies that are available for raid on occasion and are willing to fill in when necessary if they can. By ninja quitting you don't allow any of these things to happen and as a result waste the time of 24 other people.
Be Considerate: As said before I think guildies owe their guilds very little, and in general I don't think they owe anything for the gear they receive. If your their for the fight, you earned it just like everyone else. However, some guild assign specific jobs to guildies like being the guild crafter. These people are given preference for patterns and mats. With in reason, I think these people should repay the guild for some of the things they receive. Certainly return any mats you are given, and if possible provide compensation for the patterns you receive, especially if you are quitting the game and giving away all of your gold.
Conclusion:
I know I am drawing a fine line here and some of you may not see the difference. I will admit that some of my comments are coming from the bitterness I feel over wasted raid time last night. To some extent I am probably blowing this out of proportion. However, just because I am angry and possibly a little irrational doesn't mean I'm completely wrong. If you are thinking of making a guild change I wish you good luck, just be considerate in how you leave.
Yes, we are Recruiting:
If you hadn't guessed my guild is recruiting again. We have spots for a Feral Druid, almost any Ranged DPS (included a moonkin, damn you Murmurs), and hybrid healers. If you're looking for a focus guild that gets a lot done in just 9 hours a week, the LoE may be the place for you. You can find more info here.
Showing posts with label Guild Recruitment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guild Recruitment. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Friday, May 22, 2009
Guild Exclusions are a Sign of Poor Leadership
(Blog Azeroth has weekly shared topics. I generally don't participate but this one interested me. You can find other posts here.)
If you look at recruitment posts often enough it is not uncommon to come across a post that says something to the affect of "No Women" or "18+ Only." Some people look at these type of rules with disdain, because they show prejudice. However, when I was looking for a new guild nine months ago, I loved them. They gave me great insight into the competence of the guild leadership, and told me I probably wanted to avoid the guild.
Now this is not, going to be a long post about how these policies are Sexist or Ageist. They are, but like it or not there is some practical reasoning behind the rules. Kids to tend to be more immature then adults. That doesn't mean that kids can't be mature or that adults can't be immature, but in general I think its true.
From a sex perspective, I do think the presence of women in guild opens the doors additional risks that would be less common in an all male guild. For one, some men insist on acting like idiots around women. It's not the woman's fault but something that has to be dealt with. Second, It seems to me like women are more likely to have an RL relationship with a guild member. Which can lead to uncomfortable situations like this one found on WoW.com. Worse still, I've seen situations where real life Husband/Wife drama spills over into the guild.
Like it or not, these are real issues that have to be dealt with by guild leadership. However, instituting a straight ban on women or kids is just lazy way to deal with the issue. What it said to me as an applicant is that when a problem presents itself to the guild, the leadership took the easy way out. They would rather cover up the problem then fix it, and why would I want to be a part of a guild like that?
A good guild leader would deal with the issue/person instead of making a preemptive ban. If a male member is acting like an idiot, deal with him and not the girl even if he is the main tank. If the female player isn't good enough for your content, then be honest and work with her. If it blows up, at least you tried. Plus I have to believe that there are ways to identify problem players from the application process. So, when I see a ban on a recruitment post I know the guild has management issues and would probably end up disappointed if I joined the guild.
On side note, a vast majority of the women I've played with have been great. I think they are the norm rather than the exception. By the same token it was months before I learned that a member of my guild is still in high school. He is great to play with and I would have believed him if he had told me he was 30 years old. The guild that uses bans would be missing out on great players, and are diminished because of it.
Edit: People seem to be not reading my post or missunderstanding it in mass. I want to make a couple of things clear. While I think the presense of women in raiding guilds can potential bring addtional issues to the surface, I in no way think those women are the cause of those issues or at least in a higher degree then the men. I have played with just as many if not more whiny, loot whoring, men as women. I in no way advocate a preemptive ban. In my opinion, guilds that do have leadership issues, because they deal with the stereotype instead of the problem.
If you look at recruitment posts often enough it is not uncommon to come across a post that says something to the affect of "No Women" or "18+ Only." Some people look at these type of rules with disdain, because they show prejudice. However, when I was looking for a new guild nine months ago, I loved them. They gave me great insight into the competence of the guild leadership, and told me I probably wanted to avoid the guild.
Now this is not, going to be a long post about how these policies are Sexist or Ageist. They are, but like it or not there is some practical reasoning behind the rules. Kids to tend to be more immature then adults. That doesn't mean that kids can't be mature or that adults can't be immature, but in general I think its true.
From a sex perspective, I do think the presence of women in guild opens the doors additional risks that would be less common in an all male guild. For one, some men insist on acting like idiots around women. It's not the woman's fault but something that has to be dealt with. Second, It seems to me like women are more likely to have an RL relationship with a guild member. Which can lead to uncomfortable situations like this one found on WoW.com. Worse still, I've seen situations where real life Husband/Wife drama spills over into the guild.
Like it or not, these are real issues that have to be dealt with by guild leadership. However, instituting a straight ban on women or kids is just lazy way to deal with the issue. What it said to me as an applicant is that when a problem presents itself to the guild, the leadership took the easy way out. They would rather cover up the problem then fix it, and why would I want to be a part of a guild like that?
A good guild leader would deal with the issue/person instead of making a preemptive ban. If a male member is acting like an idiot, deal with him and not the girl even if he is the main tank. If the female player isn't good enough for your content, then be honest and work with her. If it blows up, at least you tried. Plus I have to believe that there are ways to identify problem players from the application process. So, when I see a ban on a recruitment post I know the guild has management issues and would probably end up disappointed if I joined the guild.
On side note, a vast majority of the women I've played with have been great. I think they are the norm rather than the exception. By the same token it was months before I learned that a member of my guild is still in high school. He is great to play with and I would have believed him if he had told me he was 30 years old. The guild that uses bans would be missing out on great players, and are diminished because of it.
Edit: People seem to be not reading my post or missunderstanding it in mass. I want to make a couple of things clear. While I think the presense of women in raiding guilds can potential bring addtional issues to the surface, I in no way think those women are the cause of those issues or at least in a higher degree then the men. I have played with just as many if not more whiny, loot whoring, men as women. I in no way advocate a preemptive ban. In my opinion, guilds that do have leadership issues, because they deal with the stereotype instead of the problem.
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