How To Organize Your Guild - part 1

Everyone remembers the first time we probably played an Online game. Chances are, it's most likely Philippine Ragnarok Online, the country's first (and still most popular online game).

At first, you go solo. Killing porings and putting on stats on whatever attribute suited your fancy. The thought of strategies, "min-maxing" and build optimization where as alien as apple pies were to Aborigines. All you ever wanted was gaining EXP, leveling up and farming for that "dream weapon" or gear.

But what about the first time you joined a guild or a party? That's when it hits you... it really is an "online game" and interaction is key and vital to survival ("even share" was the rave... so was "leeching"! Damn those merchants at GH!!! Wakokoko).

Interaction with your new friends elevated the game to the next level. Now that you have a party and a guild, you have to think of strategies involving not just individuals but as a group. Where was the best and fastest place to level? What monsters gave optimized exp? What will be our party composition? Do we bring elemental weapons? Questions such as the above, led into "forks in the road". With so many options and decisions, chaos loomed upon the online organization without leadership.

This is where the role of the guildmaster (which is the defacto term in most online games) come in.

Now, being a Guildmaster does NOT necessarily mean that you have to have the best and strongest character with all the rare items and uber-boss carded gear. This is a misconception in pinoy online game cliques and cultures.

Simply possessing the skills and charisma of a natural leader is more important. Having a good character with all the "gamit" is certainly a boost, but not a necessity to lead your guild or group into victory.

This article is a generic guide (for any online game) on how to organize your guild.

1. DECIDE ON A GOAL

Assuming that the leaders of a group have all been elected (or simply decided upon), the leaders' first task is to decide on a goal. Some guilds and groups are simply casual in nature and just form for friendship and having a pool of friends when going into another dungeon-run at 2am. Others are more ambitious. They dream of conquering the world, being the strongest in the PVP arena or owning the most coveted items.

As leader of the pack, you have to meet with your members and agree upon a primary goal. Is it to be the best in PVP? Was your guild formed as a support group to "gear up" members? Does your guild fancy grieving and killing your nemesis guild and hunting them down and nuking them with a big can of whoop-ass?

Whatever it is, decide on the primary goal. Write it down. Once done, you can then tackle your secondary or even tertiary goals.

2. THE GUILD STRUCTURE

This implies a simple scheme or chart determining who the leaders are, the generals or the lieutenants. As the uber-Guildmaster, it is your job (with inputs from your "council") to determine the guild structure. What are the responsibilities of your front-line leaders? Do you have generals calling the shots in siege? What about logisitics officers? Does your guild have that? And what about members? What's their role? What are the rules? Will you maintain a guild fund?

Your guild Policies will form based on answering some of the questions above. Don't try to "pay out" siegers just because all the other guilds do so. Sometimes analyzing things will pay off in the long run. Define the roles of EVERYONE... and i mean everyone. You won't be sorry.

When forming policies and guild rules, just think of the old addage "does it benefit the majority?" "Will it benefit the group?" "Is it the right or moral thing?"

If you answer yes to the above questions, you're in the right track.

Don't forget to write down your policies. Even if it means a few scribbles in a notebook, that can do the job.

Here are some of the stuff that you need written down

• Guild goals
  
• Organizational Structure
  
• General Guild Policies
  
• Membership and eligibility requirements
  
• Roles
  
• Sanctions

3. COMMUNICATION TOOLS

In this modern day of internet, forums, emails and SMS, I'd like to focus on how you can best use the web as a tool to organize your guild. Let's list some of the obvious choices.

a. Forum - there are lots of free forums such as invision [ www.invisionfree.com ] which you can use. A forum is important since you can document all your policies, announce news and schedule sieges, EBs or ingame events for your guild. As the uber-Guildmaster, you must be an Admin and share/delegate this responsibility to your lieutenants.

b. Mailing list - aside from the forums, mail-lists can also be used to send messages to all.

Below are other web tools which you can use

• Instant Messaging
  
• Blogs - this one is the best!
  
• Create your "Guild Frienster" account
  
• Online Photo Albums - show that "asa" moment screeny or your latest inuman binge photos! Check out www.photobucket.com
  
• Website - create your official guild site... it can be a daunting project but it can pay off. Soon, you can even have a business selling guild merchandise and even souvenir trinkets online
  
• Cellfone text blast - with all the fuzz about unlimited texting, this won't cost that much.
  

Remember, the web is a tool... and your site or forum is NOT your guild. Your guild is the amalgamation of all the elements above.

Guess what the most important resource is?

The GUILD MEMBERS!

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That's it for part 1 of this article. Next blog, i'll tackle scheduling, time management and even how to plan for EBs - meeting in the flesh is an exciting and integral part of managing your guild.

Trust me, being a leader of a large organized online game guild is a Herculean job. But if you pull it off, all your sacrifices and hard work will pay off in the future.

And that's the strength of Level Up Games. We focus on the community and organized guilds are always supported and recognized.

If you have any ideas or suggestions on how we can help support your guild, feel free to leave a comment below.

Seeya next post!

Strength and Honor!