I’m currently in the process of laying down the foundation of my new guild. I’ve got my leadership team in place and my goals laid out. My goal for Wrath is to kill Arthas and I’m going to be surrounding myself with players with that same goal. I’ve outlined my 3 P’s philosophy. I was advised that I should have clear goals in mind along with my system. So here it is:
Progression
This is a raiding guild, first and foremost. While I like PvP like any other player would, my heart belongs in the PvE world. We will tackle farm content at times, but the moment I feel we are capable of “jumping the curb†(as Guy Kawasaki puts it), I will not hesitate to make that leap. Old world raids are something I won’t completely rule out. But I won’t even bring that up or mention it until a year or so had gone by in Wrath.
With that in mind, loot council will be loot system of choice. I know a lot of players have mixed feelings about loot council. Some players have had bad experiences and some have had terrific experiences. In the interests of progression, I feel that loot council is the best system to use. Loot may not be fair and it may not be equal, but I will do my best to ensure that it is effective and not wasted. The concept of loot rot is where a player has an epic and then decides to pursue (and pick up) an item of marginal upgrade to them when it could have benefited another player.
I have no desire of seeing that happening again.
This means you have to place your trust in myself and the system. You have to trust and believe that I know what I’m doing. For this to work, players have to buy into the system and have faith in my vision.
Performance
Everyone gets held to the same standard of performance. If you don’t meet it, my team and I will sit down with you and attempt to isolate the problem. WWS and other tools will be used extensively to help troubleshoot and improve your play. Everyone in my organization understands that they will be criticized and critiqued to a degree. I want it known now to my current guild and future prospects that I will never have a problem with you as a WoW player, only your WoW playing. We have a fair number of analysts (who amaze even me) who will go through as much as they can to help you get better.
Unless you’re a big douchebag. Then you’re gone.
Everyone has off nights. Even Matticus has off nights (and they tend to occur around the time of NHL playoffs). I’m not the best Priest in the game, but I usually bring 100% as much as possible to the table. However, if I start playing like crap for whatever reason, I won’t hesitate to pass raid lead to my lieutenants and excuse myself from the raid. I’m not going to bring down my guild if ‘m the reason for failure. I’s a two way street. If I think you’re having an off night, I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger and ask you take the night off.
This is also where loot council comes into play. Did you flask? Come fully repaired? Early? Full set of pots and reagents? My council will factor this into their thoughts. I reward performance and preparation. I believe good players should get rewarded for their hard work and effort. I will strive to make the process transparent and minimize any possible accusations of bias. Don’t worry, you get to have a say in the type of loot you’re interested in. I’m not going to send you something that you don’t want.
Accountability is something I believe in.
Perseverance
We’re going to wipe. A lot. Get used to it. If you’re not used to wiping by now, then a progression guild may not be for you. It’s the courage and the will to continue that counts. Accept the fact that there are nights where we’re seemingly going to beat ourselves against a wall. That’s what learning is all about. We wipe, we learn, we move on. If this is not something you’re prepared to do, then my guild is not for you. If you don’t believe in the system, then my guild is not for you.
We’re going to have good days and bad days. Some days, we’re just going to have to grind out the encounters. We’re going to have a lot of fun regardless of what happens.
Those three principles will center around my attitude in running the guild and my raids. It won’t be a democracy. It’ll be a mattocracy. Democratic guilds have always been stonewalled in my experience. There would always be disagreements. Surrounding myself with people who agree with me and my vision solves most of that. I’ve got an awesome team behind me in terms of leadership and ability.
One more thing
You should be aware of a few things. I’m only human. This is the first real guild that I will be leading into an expansion. I’m going to make mistakes along the way. But you have to believe that I will do what I can to fix them. My “youth†and “inexperience†are what some would consider flaws.
I will also listen. I may not do what you ask. I may not believe the same way you do. But I will listen to anyone under my leadership especially if they disagree with me. In the end, you have to respect that I may go in a direction you do not believe in.
It’s a hard thing to ask people you hardly know to believe in you and trust you. But if you’re truly interested in raiding with me, I will need your faith and trust. Without it, my system won’t work. Trust me to do the right thing.
Because if I don’t, a number of bloggers will certainly make it public and hold me accountable. It certainly is in my best interest to do well.
Progression, performance, and perseverance. That’s my system. Trust me.
Still interested?
I have a number of DPS and healer spots still open. I don’t have any Mages or Shamans at the moment. Tanking positions are presently filled while applicants are being reviewed.
Intended raids will be on Tu, Th, Sat, and Mon from 6 PM – 9 PM. I wanted to start out with smaller hours but that won’t be possible with progression in mind. I intend to be in Naxx by Christmas.
The site’s still being worked on. Give it another 48 hours and forums should be available. In the mean time, if this is something you’re really interested in doing, leave a comment with your email and Syd or myself will get back to you.
Yes, that Syd.
I know you’ve already said you will. But if you need any advice or anything, drop me a line. Though, uh, I may be as busy as you over the next few weeks. ;-P
http://www.lumethemad.coms last blog post..Away for a Week or So; Part One of Series Unfinished
I know you said you would hit me up later, but just emphasizing I’m open for discussion/advice. Well. After I am 80 that is. And then there will be a few weeks where I’m busy watching guildies’ progress towards raiding and what holes we might have, but should be able to alt-tab out to check up on IM’s after I’m 80 and when I’m not doing Naxx-10. =)
(Argh. It keeps auto-filling out my form so my name is my site address. >_<)
Very well written and quite enticing. I even have a few spare DPS toons (and a healer) kicking around in my character select screen that never get playtime. I’d really like to talk about the possibility of one of my toons coming over to join you guys.
Hey Matt looks like you have things being well thought out. I have no doubt you will assemble a great guild team and will do well. Wish you all the best in the expansion with your new guild and all your success. No doubt, running a guild will be really hard work to say the least.
Lume: You know I will at some point. I’m not going to be shy about it. I’m going to need help and someone I can turn to =)
Galo: Thanks!
Hey long time reader, and want to say good luck with you heading up a raiding guild. Heck stumbling on your blog what really got me motivated to want to raid! I have 2 dps classes that I would be interested in bringing over if I make the cut.
I will either be someone you love to play with or loathe to play with
Take that as you will
You know if I wasn’t so attached to my friends on my home server I’d head on over. Good luck to ya Matt!
Pikes last blog post..No WoW? No problem.
My Pre-BC raiding guild had a great founder/GM named Panthro. He was fair, smart and well liked. Guy was a PhD in Physics. S-M-A-R-T.
he admitted to me that there were two things he did wrong:
1) He referred to the as HIS guild. He had to learn that it was OUR guild. That WE made it. Yes he paid the 10 silver for the charter, but it took 10 of our signatures to MAKE it.
2) He tried to keep the list of officers to one per class. he ended up with “class lead officers” that weren’t worth a shit and a “DKP admin” (me) that was leading raids, settling guild drama, etc.
Be willing to be flexible with your command structure. If you have a Death Knight that would make a great officer , but no mage, that’s ok. Take the player, not the class for leadership.
On the same hand, make sure that everyone feels thier interests are represented on the loot council.
In the end, I think you’ll be fine.
Also, shoot me an e-mail. I’m still kinda tempted to transfer a character, but on the fence since I usually don’t like PvP servers.
Danielandthelionss last blog post..danielandlions: Irony: Personalized lic. plate NCGNTO.
For those of you who are excited about the Matticus vision and want to apply, I urge you to use the comment form on the blog. That will get you into my inbox and we’ll get a conversation started.
You should mention that the times are in xxx timezone (I’m assuming pacific, unless you’re moving off of Ner’zhul), I suspect.
Anyway, since I didn’t post in the other posts/threads, good luck &c. (And remember amazon for all your shopping needs?)
Your link to “Bananashoulders.com” in your ‘Recommended Blogs’ is broken. Awesome blog btw, i’ve been a steady reader for a long time now. How are the Queue times there on Ner’Zuhl? Thrall-US seems to be overpopulated, and so i hear most of the Alliance healers took the free transfer while it was available. Keep up the good work–
I just want to wish you luck with the guild. It sounds exciting and I’m looking forward to reading all about your progress.
I’d be tempted to head on over myself, but unfortunately I’m east coast and have two small children so my available hours are quite a bit later, and I was lucky to be able to help form (and be an officer for) a guild that fits my times.
Best of luck!!
I am going to make your life a living hell Matt (as well as current and future guild members.) MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA
@Flashoflight: Fixed, thanks for the heads up! Queue times seem non existent. There’s a lot of players, yes, but I’d say our pop is med-high? Give or take.
Interesting management philosophies. From the looks of it, you and I are thinking about alot of the same ideas (I dont agree on loot council, but then again, my raiders have a history of passing up gear for the person that truely needs it)
I look forward to watching your guilds progression from BWL.
GL
Agreed. Interested.
Keep us updated on the progression, so us with less fast progression can learn 😉
Best of luck with the new guild ^_^
This guild sounds very much like my own. I recently got together with a group of people dissatisfied with how raiding guilds always seemed to be run on our server (Nordrassil-EU) and we formed our own based on our own views of what makes a guild succeed.
We have a loot council-type system (we all think DKP has too many flaws to justify when a council has so much more potential if you put some thought into the decisions), all our raiders and officers are open to suggestions and criticism, we value effort in researching and developing our characters’ skills and we’re selective with recruitment because we want people to really buy into our way of raiding.
We’ve recently had to turn down a group of raiders with full SWP pre-nerf experience because they couldn’t believe that we’d ever go anywhere without DKP (“but *every* top guild has DKP…”). But we feel that if you decide what you really want in a guild and stick to your basic guiding principles you’ll find enough people who feel the same and success will follow.
If I was over in the US, I’d be very tempted myself. Good luck with the new guild!
Good luck, Matt! Looks like you’ve got the makings of a good guild.
kyrileans last blog post..Only a few hours more…
Unfortunately, your raiding times do not coincide with my available time, or I might have considered it. Good luck!
Interesting philosophy and very interesting to see things put down so clearly. If I was in anywhere near the right timezone, this is the kind of thing that would make me consider a server transfer. I’m very curious to see how this will work out for you, especially things like the loot council. Good luck!
Avonars last blog post..Homesick? Already?
Matt, I love what you wrote, and just wanted to say grats on the new Guild for you and your team!!
From a fellow British Columbian WoW addict … =)
“Everyone has off nights. Even Matticus has off nights (and they tend to occur around the time of NHL playoffs). I’m not the best Priest in the game, but I usually bring 100% as much as possible to the table. However, if I start playing like crap for whatever reason, I won’t hesitate to pass raid lead to my lieutenants and excuse myself from the raid. I’m not going to bring down my guild if I’m the reason for failure. It’s a two way street. If I think you’re having an off night, I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger and ask you take the night off.”
I never understood this. I’ve never seen a player having an “off night” before. Sure, I’ve seen new / inexperienced / undergeared players performing poorly, compared to the veterans. Sure, I’ve seen complete “baddies” performing horribly, then illogically blaming their shortcomings on others. But I’ve yet to see this “off night” people speak of.
Perhaps an “off night” isn’t so much about actual game performance as it is about overall performance? For example, a bad attitude (whining over every wipe, etc.)? That would make sense. I’ve seen that happen a lot. I’ve had to deal with it a lot — even stop myself from being a baby at times.
But as far as players’ actual game performance lacking on certain nights? I don’t know… is this perhaps something that happens when you raid too much, for too long? A symptom of burnout?
I love the ‘it’s not a democracy’ line because when I was running our guild (quit due to RL), the idea that just because you have a vote and a bad idea doesn’t mean you should excercise either. I left minor things to vote (when are we going to run) and took care of major ones (where we are going to run).
The phrase that me and my friends came up with was “this is not a democracy, it’s a dictatorship” and that was our unofficial motto. But authority was never exercised line a dictatorship… that was the key difference.
Great piece here.
Now that you’ve “been there, done that” and now that Ulduar is out, is there anything you’d like to add /update on your philosophy? My guild has gone through a number of changes since Wrath first came out, as have many guilds, and I’d be interested in knowing what changes in people/ composition/ theory or whatever that you’ve seen.
I love your stuff btw!
@Beth (Companion): Hmm, I can’t too much about that. I still believe in the same philosophy. I haven’t really deviated too far from it if at all. But I will ponder it when I can and if therse anything I can add or change.
This is more of a question than a comment, because i had a look at all the content posted on guild philosophy and couldnt quite find exactly what i was looking for. Probably, you guys would be the right person to answer this, since a lot of time and effort has been put into understanding the mechanics of how a good guild should work.
What happens when a guild loses its vision?How do you actually work towards getting back on track? Is it possible to align everyone in a guild towards the goals of a few dedicated people?
There are 2 types of guilds i have seen, which always tend to be strong, successful guilds. There are the old, vanilla based guilds, where friendships have been forged over time, and everyone is on the same wavelength as far as the guilds aspirations are concerned. The other ones are guilds made by RL friends, where again, the bond between guildies is more than that of someone whom you just bump into online.
But for guilds that are made by multiple random people, and have the aspirations that are understood only by a certain few?
Lets say theres a guild on a random server, who is currently around 5th-6th on realm, and wants to go higher up the ladder. Only the GM and few officers might really have the fire within them to go ahead and take efforts in this direction. But there is a significant number of people who only want to progress into new instances because of better loot, which in turn would help them top damage/healing meters. How do you try and battle the human ego to be the best in his field and align it towards working to a guild’s common goal? Any suggestions?