Guild Wars 2

INTRO

This guide will build a framework to help you more successfully run your guild. Guilds can differ vastly but these principles are elementary, and whether or not you have articulated these ideas yourself, you may recognizing them as having been used in a successful guild you were in or currently lead. These principles can also be found in businesses, organizations, sports teams and even the military. For the sake of length, this guide will only touch on three broad principles and how they play out in GW2.

First off, running a guild is hard work and an on going task. It takes discipline and passion, a perfect guild is not built in a week. Successful guilds have vision, management, and marketing.

VISION

Leaders are visionaries, creatives. They see something that does not yet exist and envision how to get there. They have the ability to inspire and rally a group of people together to drive towards a common goal.

Before starting a guild you should sit down and ponder what your vision is, what will drive your members forward, giving them a reason to invest in your community. As a guild leader you need to realize that there are hundreds if not thousands of guilds and millions of players in the game. Your goal should not be to recruit every player, your goal should be to recruit the right members. Having the right members in your guild will enable you to accomplish your goals more easily and with greater reward – it will be more fulfilling.

In GW2 we have some broad terms that define our guilds, such as: EU, NA, PvE, PvP, WvW, PvX, casual, semi-hardcore and hardcore. These are excellent at helping players quickly narrow down possible guilds to join, but they aren’t specific enough to keep your guild driving forward for long.

Now, with in each category, PvX for example, what makes each guild different? It’s YOU, the guild founder. You are the secret ingredient that makes your guild unique. So sit down and make a list of things that define you as a player and a person. Traits that you want in your members. What time zone do you play in, or perhaps it’s sporadic, what type of content will you play the most, do you care what build people run, will you use voice coms, coarse joking, tolerance towards diversity etc? I suggest you write down three adjectives that describe you as a player and as a person, these will more greatly define your vision than a general “PvX” would.

MANAGEMENT

Leaders and managers (officers) have vastly different rolls, and it’s rare to find someone that is good at both. Leaders envision goals and define a route and drive the group forward, whereas managers help build, oversee and maintain systems that enable the guild to move forward. With GW2’s ranking system it is very easy to co found a guild with other friends that can help lead or manage, or even have ranks for sub leaders and managers.

Building a system that enables your guild to move forward is crucial. It clearly defines expectations and protocols so that members know how, when, and why. There will be less drama and greater efficiency in your endeavors.

Google docs is your new best friend. It is basically an online Microsoft word/excel data base where you can define your guilds protocols. You can share these documents with other leaders, officers and members, allowing them to leave comments or make changes. Here are a few examples documents that I use for my guild (Guild Roster, Promotion Letters, Recruitment Ads). Alternatively, many guilds have a guild website/forum where they list their rules, code of conduct and protocol. Enjin.com is one of the most popular.

As a newer guild, protocols are something that you can grow into as your roster grows, and keep them as simple and straight forward as you’re able.

MARKETING

Once you have a vision, and have roughed out the framework of your guild protocol, it’s time to get members! Like previously stated, you don’t want any player, you want the right players. Good marketing does two things: it conveys your guild vision to potential members and it filters out incompatible players.

Imagine your marketing process like a giant funnel with several check points that players must pass through before becoming a member. Each check point is narrower than the last and more accurately paints a picture of what your guild is about: what you expect from players and what they can expect from the guild. If the player passes through each check point and still wants to join, you can bet they are a pretty close fit for what you’re looking for.

There are four primary places that guilds recruit: in-game map chat, the official forum, your servers forum, and word of mouth. In-game map chat has a broad audience, while word of mouth has a narrow audience, so where you advertize will directly affect how many players you reach and how varied the type of applicant you will get. Regardless of where you recruit, all members should pass through the same filter to ensure quality members join.

As an example, you may choose to advertize in all 4 ways, but you could have one designated recruiter that interviews each player. You could also have a website that briefly goes over a code of conduct players must agree to, or even an application. You could have all of these. When I founded my guild I began recruiting in map chat, but as we grew, I narrowed down how we recruited to almost only word of mouth. During that phase when we recruited in map chat, I used ads that I knew would attract the type of player I was looking for.

Want to achieve that elusive 81st level? Want to dual wield greatswords? Sorry, we can’t help. But if you enjoy making friends and steam rolling content, check us out! ~> DragonEmpire.us

This was my bread and butter and it recruited many of my best members who are now my officers. This ad does a few things, it jokes about end game content, touches on close community and playing intentionally and aggressively. So right off the bat I’ve already narrowed down my audience to veterans that like to joke, are social and want at least a semi hardcore atmosphere. All that and I didn’t even mention PvX, NA, semi hardcore, guild buffs etc that so many people advertize. Every once in a while I get a response in map chat “That ad is so dumb!” and I would just think to myself “no, it’s working as intended by keeping you out.” And I’m able to say that because my goal as a leader is not to recruit everyone, but only the right ones.

CLOSING

I hope this helps out some of you, if you have any other tips or tricks please leave them in the comments for others. I love GW2 and this community and I hope we continue to grow stronger as a player base.

I like this guide, but I’m not sure how helpfull this will be for new guilds.

Like you’ve said there are thousands of guilds, and you’re gonna make yours very specific in what it does before it’s even created. This can be great if there are lots of players who like this.

However you still have the issue of a starting guild (very low activity, no guild missions, players leaving often for another guild).

To have a chance I’d say start mass recruiting the first weeks, get in every player who you think is “nice”. Once you’ve got a solid foundation you can specify yourself more into one direction and recruit towards it.

You might loose players over time due to the specific direction, but as you’re also recruiting you should maintain some balance in numbers / activity.

Have a nice chat with the players you are recruiting, you’ll find out quick enough if they fit your guild or not (even when mass recruiting!)

ermm..

there are a lot to talk abt in management, it is really a big topic