Comments on: Shared Topic: Guild Retention Strategies

By: Having a Plan — How Guilds Stay Together «

Having a Plan — How Guilds Stay Together « — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:10:41 +0000

[...] I apologize for the long delay from my intended post time. Special thanks to Ophelie and Jaedia who tackled my too-big post before I did! Guild week has been more successful than I [...]

By: Jaedia

Jaedia — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:19:47 +0000

Do it.

By: Ophelie

Ophelie — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:02:04 +0000

Thinking about this again…you’re absolutely right about people being bad at complaining. That gives me an idea! ;D

By: Ophelie

Ophelie — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:18:02 +0000

I didn’t make one because I decided to write this Shared Topic instead. I SUPPOSE I could look into that after tonight’s cramming session.

By: Ophelie

Ophelie — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:14:14 +0000

Communication *is* hard and that’s what makes it so much fun! It’s like a Suduku puzzle!

There is actually a technique I didn’t mention for dealing with people who whine to whine. Whenever you feel like a conversation is about to go nowhere and someone is complaining about something they’ll forget about in an hour, changing the topic works wonders. Constant whiners often just want to talk about something and don’t know what else to say. If you give them a new topic, it’ll bring their mind somewhere else.

If the complained about subject seems remotely important, I’ve given people “homework assignments” where they have to come up with an example and a suggestion. I can’t say I’ve ever had to do it in a guild, but it’s always worked great for me IRL.

By: Ophelie

Ophelie — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:03:57 +0000

To be honest, I’ve never been in a guild with a DKP system. My old guild used a roll system and Conquest uses loot council. Going on a guess, I would say that DKP would help keep people motivated during progression and when there’s a lot of competition for loot.

Maybe it’s because I don’t care much for loot myself, but I’m hesitant to advocate using loot to keep people interested in a guild. I’d rather my teammates be there because they’re enjoying the game and not because they’re trying to get uber neckpiece of pwnage.

That said, the prospect of racking up DKP for more chance at ICC goodies might be a good motivator for raid signups and keeping those 25 mans alive. Unfortunately, I don’t have any first hand experience with DKP here, so I can’t say more.

By: Matticus

Matticus — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:48:47 +0000

Speaking of communication, what is your twitter account? ^^

By: Lloth

Lloth — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:24:59 +0000

Communication is hard :p
As an officer of my guild, we’v heard a lot of complaints about people not agreeing with decisions, accusing us of having too many cliques, of not helping ppl gear up enough. Problem is none of the ppl complaining are willing to say WHICH decisions or WHY, and the people complaining about not getting help gearing are the kinds of people who sit in /g and never ASK for help. It’s alot harder being a leader of a guild than people realize, especially when the complainers are never willing to be specific about their complaints.

By: Pheadra

Pheadra — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:04:29 +0000

I love this article. In fact I am sending it to my GM and the officers right now. The fact that we should be doing “guild bonding” exercises escaped my brain until I read this post.

I have one point to ask about: Do you encourage the use of a DKP or similar system as a way to keep guilds together? People will be less likely to leave if they know they’re going to lose their chances at getting the best loot.

P.S. The Bullet points read fine on my screen :]