Guild Wars 2

I know that most players have a dream of creating a successful guild in GW. Like most, I also had this dream. And started this journey of creating my “dream” guild. So off I went making the coolest sounding guild name and tag.

Little did I realise just how tough it really is. Unfortunate to say, I met with abysmal failure. My guild is no longer around. And I’m not the only one that has gone through this, many smaller guilds face this on a consistent basis. After reading some of the recruitment post, and realising where I went wrong.

I thought I’d give a few tips as to what they can do to help their guild grow. I can’t guarantee that it will bring new members flocking to the guild. But I do hope it can give some help to the smaller guilds.

Tips:

• Observe: as to how some of the other guilds write their recruitment post up. This being the language and structure. Then write/re-write your guild recruitment post. Put in as much detail as you can about the guild like; what your guild is about and what it plans to do, what server is it on etc. Many smaller guilds neglect doing this. And are easily passed over by potential members. Remember you are selling your guild to potential members. This follows on to my next tip.

• Format: format your recruitment post. Use sub headings, bold, italic, underlines, paragraphs, bullet points etc. Make your recruitment post as neat and attractive as possible. You want to attract their attention. Your recruitment post is like your resume/CV. Handing in a very badly written resume/CV won’t get you a job.

• Guild site: Quite a few new guilds aren’t without a guild site. Think of setting one up. The most used ones are guild portal, shivtr or enjin. Use the one you think is best. And incorporate it in to your recruitment post. And keep the site active as well. After a while think of getting either TS or mumble.

Now comes the hardest part of all. Actually attracting new members.

• Forum: You will be spending a lot of time looking at the looking for guild section of forum quite a bit. Copy and paste your recruitment post. If it’s a long one, then make a digestible version of your recruitment post. By digestible, I mean a shorten version of your recruitment post. High-lightening only the key elements of your guild. The other way is to make a small comment and then link it back to your recruitment post.

• In-game advertisement: Whilst you’re playing the game, you should advertise in-game via game chat. This allows any players that do not frequent the forums to know about your guild. Give a small description of your guild. Guest on other servers as well (spend some time there as well, if any do show interest).

• Other sites: You could try other sites like Reddit, just copy and paste your recruitment post.

The biggest flaw is: all new guilds don’t advertise themselves properly. How will any potential members know you’re out there. You could be the best fit for them, and they’ll pass you by because you didn’t let yourself be known to them. Numbers in a guild also play a factor as to any potential members not wanting to give your guild ago. You need to convince them that it is worth their time to come to your guild. It just takes more effort, that’s all. Remember all the mid to large guilds went through this phase.

Whatever happens keep trying and don’t give up!!!. Keep banging on doors and eventually people will answer.

GOOD LUCK!!

Some extra tips I’ve seen from guilds I’ve been in.

Define what kind of guild you want it to be, for example, WvW heavy guild, PvE heavy, dungeons and so on. I feel this is important for small guilds that have a small number of active leaders (or even a single one), even if you plan on doing a bit of everything, usually there’ll always be one aspect of the game you (and your leaders) will like the most, advertise it as being a guild heavy in that aspect and mention that you also do the other things. That will also make sure that the people that join will be on the same boat than you (otherwise you might end up having people join that are always in WvW or PvP while you spend most of your time in PvE or dungeons, for example).

Figure out what stands your guild apart from other guilds and advertise it. Some examples, doing daily events (mondays doing dungeons, tuesdays is WvW day and so on), doing silly stuff (mass naked dancing in LA), maybe a guild focused on no drama easygoing people, or on the other hand one focused on progression and speed clearings, stuff like that.

Don’t only advertise with the random map spam… there are usually so many of those that most people just tune them out as it is. Instead invite people to do activities with you. If you do silly stuff, advertise it on map chat (Guild X is starting the naked WvW race in 10 minutes, if you want to participate, go to Y waypoint and get naked!!!), or dungeon running (Guild X is going to run Y dungeon in 30 minutes, if you want to join one of our groups, sent me a tell!!!). One good example I ran into sometime ago was with guild missions, a guild was about to start their guild mission run and advertised in map chat in LA whoever wanted to help them (and of course get their commendations), they sent people temporary guild invites (giving them a specific rank) and went on to do the missions, and when they were over gave everyone thanks for their participation, and that they would remove the temporary members when they were done, but that whoever wanted to stay as a guild member, just mention it on guild chat and would be moved to full member.

That is a clever tactic, that last one. I think my guild needs to employ all of these tactics to help our guild grow, since we are quite small. We are on Aurora Glade mainly, and our leaders are active but we aren’t having too much success recruiting. Are there any other tips we can employ, since we only have around 10 people last time I checked.

The Rogue.1328:

That is a clever tactic, that last one. I think my guild needs to employ all of these tactics to help our guild grow, since we are quite small. We are on Aurora Glade mainly, and our leaders are active but we aren’t having too much success recruiting. Are there any other tips we can employ, since we only have around 10 people last time I checked.

The last part is a good trick. So you can try that out as well. 10 is a good number, it shows that your guild is slowly growing. Patience and perseverance is key (and a little bit of luck).

Thank you for the tips! I’m helping someone establish a guild (I’m not a leader) and we are struggling to recruit people (and getting them to communicate in guild chat. Many of them are quiet unless you try to talk to them, or take them out for an event). It will definitely take a while for a guild to get established. All guilds (even the big ones) went through this too.
Good luck to all the guilds out there!

Don’t advertise your guild at all. Play lots of dungeons via the lfg tool, if you had a good group ask them if they want to join your guild. If they are playing decent, you can be sure that they at least spent some time in the game and keep playing the game for while.

kokiman.2364:

Don’t advertise your guild at all. Play lots of dungeons via the lfg tool, if you had a good group ask them if they want to join your guild. If they are playing decent, you can be sure that they at least spent some time in the game and keep playing the game for while.

That would be advertising your guild in-directly.

thepinkthingy.5921:

Thank you for the tips! I’m helping someone establish a guild (I’m not a leader) and we are struggling to recruit people (and getting them to communicate in guild chat. Many of them are quiet unless you try to talk to them, or take them out for an event). It will definitely take a while for a guild to get established. All guilds (even the big ones) went through this too.
Good luck to all the guilds out there!

Best of luck to you thepinkthingy. It will be a hard struggle but keep at it!!!.

Starting up and keeping a guild going, is by no means an easy feat. I also struggled at the start, but I’m glad I kept at it. I’d be more than happy to sit down and talk with potential guild leaders looking to start up their own home and aren’t sure where to start.

Another resource I was pointed to by a fellow guild-member is this set of articles:

http://massively.joystiq.com/category/the-guild-counsel/

It’s stuffed full of some great tips for dealing with all kinds of situations. I wish I had known about it sooner. New articles are posted periodically too, so be sure to keep checking it now and then.

Best of luck to all of you out there looking to take on the challenge of guild leadership

Another tips. Get a VOIP (Mumble, Vent, TS, etc) and advertise it in the guild. Those who come in the VOIP usually are active player. Its more personal that the guild chat so people will talk more to each other. Its a great way to include a new members. This is a good place to ask what most people want to do next, organize events like guild missions, explain stuff to new players, etc. This is also a great way to put life into you guild as people talk to each other about all kind of stuff and push people out of their shell where they play solo and don’t participate with the guild.

AriaSilverfyre.8702:

Starting up and keeping a guild going, is by no means an easy feat. I also struggled at the start, but I’m glad I kept at it. I’d be more than happy to sit down and talk with potential guild leaders looking to start up their own home and aren’t sure where to start.

Another resource I was pointed to by a fellow guild-member is this set of articles:

http://massively.joystiq.com/category/the-guild-counsel/

It’s stuffed full of some great tips for dealing with all kinds of situations. I wish I had known about it sooner. New articles are posted periodically too, so be sure to keep checking it now and then.

Best of luck to all of you out there looking to take on the challenge of guild leadership

Thank you for sharing the link Aria. Just been reading one article from the site and I have to say it is informative. I’m glad that you kept at it.

You’re welcome. I’m very glad I kept at it too

Thaddeus.4891:

Another tips. Get a VOIP (Mumble, Vent, TS, etc) and advertise it in the guild. Those who come in the VOIP usually are active player. Its more personal that the guild chat so people will talk more to each other. Its a great way to include a new members. This is a good place to ask what most people want to do next, organize events like guild missions, explain stuff to new players, etc. This is also a great way to put life into you guild as people talk to each other about all kind of stuff and push people out of their shell where they play solo and don’t participate with the guild.

Absolutely, keeping communication open is vital to any guild. Folks you aren’t running a library, staying silent after getting new member(s) won’t help you in the long run. They will find it awkward and will leave within a few hours – guaranteed. Be inclusive to the new members, talk to them. Break the ice – find a common ground with them and then build from there. As Thaddeus stated, getting to know them will help your guild to grow. Staying silent or not being inclusive will help to only slow any progress in your guild.

I’m just going to echo people and say that map spam is just ignored nowadays except for people who are new to MMOs completely. I would never join a guild because someone in /m told me to, but I totally would if we just did something fun together.

In fact, map spam actually turns me off from a guild. I won’t even think about a guild who spams map chat, because it feels desperate to me (not that they’re necessarily desperate).

I’ve had a guild since day 1 and we’re up to about 160 members now. I’ve never spammed map chat to find guild members.

Think of it this way. If you are part of a club that accepts anyone, well then, why would I want to be a part of it.

The focus IS very important. When I talk to people I tell them I have an ultra casual guild that would rather fail a dungeon run with friends while laughing than succeed with complete strangers. This gives me the type of person I want in the guild. I can’t remember that last time we failed a dungeon run, but we do have a no blame dungeon thing going on. People make mistakes and we laugh it off and move on. It’s cool. We have fun. We teach them how to play better, but not by shouting them down.

The thing is, if I just opened up this guild to anyone who answered a shout in LA, I wouldn’t have that kind of guild. I’d have a bunch of people who wanted phat lootz and wanted to min/max and cared whether I took a ranger or engie, or why aren’t I on my zerker warrior for a speed run.

I don’t care that other people play that way…I just don’t play that way and don’t want to join a guild of others who play that way.

So focus really is very important, not just focus on what you do, but focus on who you are.

But spamming map chat in LA. You might grow your guild right into the ground.

Vayne.8563:

In fact, map spam actually turns me off from a guild. I won’t even think about a guild who spams map chat, because it feels desperate to me (not that they’re necessarily desperate).
…
Think of it this way. If you are part of a club that accepts anyone, well then, why would I want to be a part of it.
…
But spamming map chat in LA. You might grow your guild right into the ground.

I couldn’t agree more. I have never announced my guild in map chat once and people still find us via word of mouth. That’s the best way to know you’ve got something good going. Quality over quantity if you really want something that will stand strong and last for a long time.

That doesn’t mean the huge guilds are better or worse than smaller ones. It’s all a matter of the aforementioned, very important focus and communication. Get those down and you’ll go far no matter how many members on your roster.

AriaSilverfyre.8702:

That doesn’t mean the huge guilds are better or worse than smaller ones. It’s all a matter of the aforementioned, very important focus and communication. Get those down and you’ll go far no matter how many members on your roster.

Exactly and well said. But some people do tend to see the quantity of members as a selling point to join a guild. It defeats the purpose of not wanting to be a faceless member, whilst in a smaller guild you have the chance to be a face and be part of something, however people seem to have an issue with that – the amount of members in it. Which baffles me.

Whilst I agree that map spamming is ignored and quite frankly abused. But if used in the correct way, it can in fact be beneficial to the guild. Use it to advertise events like for example “Hey, I just set up this new guild [insert name and tag]. To commemorate the opening I thought I’d hold a silly event [insert silly event]. If you’re interested whisper / mail me for an invite”.

Needing advice. We do general map chat shout outs talking about what the guild is about, kind of people we look for, ambitions (wanting to be big enough for Teq), etc. Yet still can’t seem to get any attention towards our group. Around 25 actually in the guild, 4-5 that actually ever rep though.

Mentioning some form of activity (naked run example haha) is a good idea and I think will help us, but actually talking about what we’re about needs to be somewhere too I would think. And seeing how what we’re doing doesn’t seem to work, how else should we do this?

It will be hard to get members when you’re starting out. There will be a lot of turnover of members until you start finding the right ones to stick around and build with. Don’t rely on posting in map chat alone to get more members. As was mentioned earlier in this thread, utilize the variety of other options there are too.

Make a post here in the Guild Recruitment section. Also make posts on other related sites (GW2Guru, MMORPG, etc). Surf through the LFGuild posts and see if anyone sounds like they might be a good fit and contact them (but don’t just randomly send a guild invite. That’s rude. Be sure to speak with them either directly in game or via mail or forum pm first.) Be truthful in your posts as well, and be willing to flex and change as the needs of your member base change.

Don’t be afraid to remove the “dead weight” from your roster either.

MoS.5970:

Needing advice. We do general map chat shout outs talking about what the guild is about, kind of people we look for, ambitions (wanting to be big enough for Teq), etc. Yet still can’t seem to get any attention towards our group. Around 25 actually in the guild, 4-5 that actually ever rep though.

Mentioning some form of activity (naked run example haha) is a good idea and I think will help us, but actually talking about what we’re about needs to be somewhere too I would think. And seeing how what we’re doing doesn’t seem to work, how else should we do this?

Aria pretty much covered everything as to what I would say to you. As for the 20 odd members that don’t represent your guild, communicate with them, see where you and the guild stand with them. If they don’t respond / have no interest in staying – remove the dead weights and keep the ones that do. Re-build, re-organise, re-shuffle in your guild. Just read the tips on the thread, and see how far it will take you and your guild.

Slightly late to the conversation, but regarding /map chat advertising, I’d say it depends on who you’re looking to recruit and what your guild is focused on. In my case, despite my general dislike of the practice, I do post ads in the map chats of starter zones. However, the messages are very firm about the kind of players we recruit- my guild was primarily founded to provide a “safe space” for LGBTQ players, female players, minority players, players with disabilities or illnesses, and other marginalized groups to play the game and socialize with support and without harassment or prejudiced remarks.

As such, this is the general /map form I use:
Ember Solace [SOL] is a small social guild devoted to being a warm, prejudice-free space for LGBTQ individuals, women, people of color, and other groups at the margins in MMOs and reality. We welcome players of any experience level and are extremely newbie-friendly. For more information, PM me or visit http://redd.it/1w93gs.

I never use the following:

• Anyone welcome
• PM for invite

I’m also specific about the purpose of my guild and what it offers that most other guilds don’t (a safe space where LGBTQ players/women/others are openly welcome and not just tolerated) and the kind of people I want to recruit (people who are looking for a harassment-free space and people who are supportive allies of those groups). That tends to filter out the majority of MMO players, sad as it makes me to say.

If someone PMs me asking questions, I answer them, but also make sure to ask them if they read the reddit link I posted (which links to our reddit posting and is extremely upfront about our guild’s nature). If someone PMs me asking for an invite, I direct them right away to the reddit post. In addition, entering the guild itself requires a detailed written application (that directs people to our Purpose and Principles) and trial period.

So far, I’ve recruited in /map about fifteen times (never more than once an hour, and spaced out across different starter zones). Out of those fifteen times, I’ve gotten five PM queries. Four asked immediately for an invite- I told them about our application process, directed them to the reddit post, and didn’t hear from them again. One PMed me to ask about the philosophy of the guild- I sent him the links and afterward chatted with him for an hour afterwards about the game and life. He applied and has been getting along with the guild extremely well.

tl;dr if you want to recruit via /map, some personal dos and do nots:
Do:
-Say what your guild’s purpose is
-Ask for a certain type of player/personality
-Be ready to answer questions in-depth
-Link to your website/a post with more information
-Have a way of filtering prospective applicants
-Space out your posts, across maps and time
-Overall, design your posts to be both advertisements and filters.

Do NOT:
-Say something like “Generic Guild [Tag] is recruiting, PM me for invite.”
-Say “PM for invite” or “anyone welcome,” or invite everyone who PMs. You can say “any experience level welcome” and such, but when it comes to maturity and personalities, you want to be selective and recruit people who won’t clash with your guild.
-Spam /map chat every five minutes (or less).
-Recruit just to up your numbers. In my case, I recruited in /map in order to reach players who wanted a safe space, but didn’t read the forums or weren’t aware one existed.

Never too late Falunel. And thanks for the tips on map chat, it is always great to give out tips so that it can help out other smaller / start up guilds.

Regarding the guilds website. Try and be active on the site. Post up some screen shots you had with other guild members, this could be the leaders organising a small in-game event, this could be anything. Like I had with my guild members. There are some screen shots of the guild having an in-game event and some screen shots were taken, you can see them on the guilds site. You can even post them on your recruitment post. Make the recruitment post inviting. Having a mechanical approach, will just come across as a run-of-the-mill recruiter to the potential member. Who is only interested on recruiting them for numbers. Show that your guild is different.

Also, when it comes to a guild website, it helps if the site is aesthetically pleasing. In other words, nice to look at. That doesn’t mean you have to go all out and spend a ton of money and have it done by a professional web-designer. You can do a lot on your own with the free site hosting services that exist (ie: enjin, guildportal, etc). Spend time playing with the customization tools to give your site something that will keep people looking at the content. The last thing you want to happen, is people going elsewhere because they risk going blind trying to read what information you have to offer.

As Aria stated. Presentation plays an important part in attracting new members. So spend some time in learning to customise the site.

Once you’ve setted up your guild. Think about hosting events. Not only will this help to create a bond with other guild members, but it keeps the guild more interesting. This doesn’t have to be guild treks. Just a fun event, like a mad race to a certain area. Or having a tea party dress up, whilst running through a certain map. Creativity is your friend.

In addition to what CalamityO.2890 is saying, I want to give you all another tip. This isn’t only a great tip for new guilds, but it’s also great for many bigger guilds. What am I talking about? MOA Productions is a guild-event-sharing-platform! Are you busy recruiting and dont you got the time to keep putting guild events togheter, you might want to grab one of the events MOA Productions offers. And if you got great events you want to share? You can share them through MOA Productions!

Click the link below to visit the website of MOA Productions:
moaproductions.shivtr.com

I think one important thing to consider when starting a guild is that you’ll have to deal with adversity.

We had our own guild from the very start of GW2 and I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, people I played with a lot and were good friends and people who helped us make our guild strong and a nice community.

I’m very happy with my guild, but I personally have to be careful I don’t get too attached to it. I want it to go on forever if I had any saying in it, but the problem is that I’m not the only one needed for that. Even though you’re a leader you’re as much a part of the guild as any member is.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that you’ll also have to realize a guild is not always ‘fun’ and can have its sad times too. Not wanting to sound depressing or discouraging at all! It’s just something players forget when they’re enthusiastically starting a guild. Just a tip

Well said Shaquinna.

Running a guild is not always butterflies and unicorns. There has to be rain before a rainbow appears. One of the hardest parts of being a GL is not letting those storms get to you and bring you down too far. A guild can be very much like a family (I know mine is to me) that can sometimes feel even closer than your real one. Like a real family, there are disagreements and arguments. Learn to roll with the punches and you’ll do well.

I’ve recently been part of starting a new guild from the ground up. We started with 3 members (one of which, I’m married to) and we now, about 2-3 months later, have close to 40. Here’s what’s worked for us:

- Your guild should stand out for a reason. For our guild, we built our guild on the foundation of having a safe space for people, regardless of identity, so that people who are LGBT, international, with disability, etc. can all be part of a community that doesn’t discriminate against them or make them the butt of a joke.

- Respond to people in the Looking for Guild forums like a real human being. Don’t just spam people with some copy-pasted response. Read the posts that people make and if you think they would be a good fit for their guild, tell them why you think this in your response. Tell them why your guild matches their specific goals.

There’s of course a lot more, but I believe those were the two biggest reasons for why our guild took off. Just be aware that you may fail abysmally starting off. It’s harder to get people when you don’t have people, so don’t get discouraged if everyone leaves your guild because it’s not ‘active’ enough. Keep at it.

Good luck!

AriaSilverfyre.8702:

Well said Shaquinna.

Running a guild is not always butterflies and unicorns. There has to be rain before a rainbow appears. One of the hardest parts of being a GL is not letting those storms get to you and bring you down too far. A guild can be very much like a family (I know mine is to me) that can sometimes feel even closer than your real one. Like a real family, there are disagreements and arguments. Learn to roll with the punches and you’ll do well.

Exactly Aria. Running a guild has it’s ups and downs. Dealing with different types of personalities can cause a mayor problem within the guild. As you said, learn to deal with them. It can be a headache, but it is worth it.

Dahkeus.8243:

I’ve recently been part of starting a new guild from the ground up. We started with 3 members (one of which, I’m married to) and we now, about 2-3 months later, have close to 40. Here’s what’s worked for us:

- Your guild should stand out for a reason. For our guild, we built our guild on the foundation of having a safe space for people, regardless of identity, so that people who are LGBT, international, with disability, etc. can all be part of a community that doesn’t discriminate against them or make them the butt of a joke.

- Respond to people in the Looking for Guild forums like a real human being. Don’t just spam people with some copy-pasted response. Read the posts that people make and if you think they would be a good fit for their guild, tell them why you think this in your response. Tell them why your guild matches their specific goals.

There’s of course a lot more, but I believe those were the two biggest reasons for why our guild took off. Just be aware that you may fail abysmally starting off. It’s harder to get people when you don’t have people, so don’t get discouraged if everyone leaves your guild because it’s not ‘active’ enough. Keep at it.

Good luck!

The guild I’m with also started off with only having 2 members (I made it 3), but it has now risen in to the double digits. With hard work and persistence, you can make a difference to the guild. And make it more enjoyable. The key is to know what you want from the guild and what the guild can offer you.

I’ve been on and off Guild Wars 2 recently since I started college a couple of years ago. I have been having some difficulty recruiting people for my RP-ish guild based around the popular game “Dark Souls”. Since Dark Souls II is on the horizon March 11, I was thinking of bringing the guild back up and find some good members. I’ve been posting for a while on my guild, but I can’t seem to have any takers. Any other ways I could use to get my guild more noticed, or is there something that I’m missing?

Here is the link to my guild “The Three Lords of Lordran”: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/guilds/recruitment/The-Three-Lords-of-Lordran-Dark-Souls-Guild-2/first#post2926902

Lord Gwyn of the Sun.3842:

I’ve been on and off Guild Wars 2 recently since I started college a couple of years ago. I have been having some difficulty recruiting people for my RP-ish guild based around the popular game “Dark Souls”. Since Dark Souls II is on the horizon March 11, I was thinking of bringing the guild back up and find some good members. I’ve been posting for a while on my guild, but I can’t seem to have any takers. Any other ways I could use to get my guild more noticed, or is there something that I’m missing?

Here is the link to my guild “The Three Lords of Lordran”: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/guilds/recruitment/The-Three-Lords-of-Lordran-Dark-Souls-Guild-2/first#post2926902

Gwyn – the whole purpose of this thread (which Aria kindly linked you to) isn’t to promote your guild on. It is designed to help guild leaders, like yourself to get advice and tips on as to how they can attract and get new members in.

Guilds should hold events. And talk about them in both forums, post pictures etc (on the guilds site and this one). You want to make the guild look like it is personal and it’s ran by humans – and not by robots.

Feel free to add your own tips and suggestions. And if the smaller guild leaders are having trouble(s), put your quandaries here.

If any guild leaders can discuss as to the pros and cons of using social media sites, like face book pages instead of guild sites; guild launch, shivtr and enjin. Would be helpful. Would this make smaller guilds who aren’t as creative with their site, make it easier to attract and communicate with their guild mates.

Also can it be possible to make this thread a sticky, so it doesn’t need to be bumped up. As I feel it has valuable information that can be beneficial to players that are thinking of starting up new guilds. And I do link this thread up, when new guilds are created.

I agree with making this thread a sticky. I think it would reach a lot more people that way.

In regards to using social media, it does have great potential to be a useful thing. Depending on hows it’s used, I don’t see why it couldn’t take the place of a regular guild site. Though, on the other hand, not everyone uses the various social media options and it may leave some people out if a guild was to only use Facebook for communication.

I had made a Facebook page for my guild, but it didn’t see much use, so I eventually just deleted it. I think that was because we already have a full site with a forum to pass along information on.

Just to touch upon something. When I say observe other guilds recruitment post, try not to actually copy their post. Your recruitment should reflect YOU and YOUR vision for YOUR guild. It won’t help if you copy another guilds recruitment post, as it’s not your vision. Write and re-write your recruitment post, till it reflects you and your vision for your guild.

Also, don’t be afraid to let your recruitment post change over time as your guild grows and shapes itself. Keep your information up to date to reflect how your guild has grown. Look back at your posts now and then to see the changes. Your guild is almost like a child in a way, it grows and changes over time, but we might not always notice at first.

AriaSilverfyre.8702:

Also, don’t be afraid to let your recruitment post change over time as your guild grows and shapes itself. Keep your information up to date to reflect how your guild has grown. Look back at your posts now and then to see the changes. Your guild is almost like a child in a way, it grows and changes over time, but we might not always notice at first.

Aria is correct on this one. Update your guild recruitment post, to reflect the growth of your guild.

It can be disheartening to see guild members go. As it effects the numbers in your guild. However, this is the norm. Keep recruiting and also see where you are going wrong, re-evaluate as to why member(s) want to leave. Discuss as to why they are unhappy, or want to leave. If it goes against guild policy then either; readjust your policy to accommodate their needs, BUT without it effecting the guild overall, basically coming to a compromise or let them be on their way if you’re not looking for any compromises. Which ever stance you take is up to you.

There’s a new site called Guild Bastion that’s geared towards managing/starting guilds. There’s a couple of posts on the ‘Leadership Blog’ already. They are also starting a guild recruitment service for games. A complete package kinda thing.

http://www.guildbastion.com/

When it comes to second in command or guild recruiters, always be in constant communication with them. As they will be giving general feedback as to what is the general mood within the guild. Also, if one of your second in command or recruiter leaves the guild. Find a replacement that will benefit the guild and will more than likely help to stick around and help nurture the guild. Not someone that is only interested in getting a promotion and does nothing to help the guild.

Wow dude! I’m Remaking my guild recruitment page this very minute!

This might be frowned up, though not really sure. But to the more newer guild with less than <10 members. It might be a good idea to buy influence from the guild registrar. Buy at least 1,000 with about 2 gold. With this, you can buy a guild emblem. It will help to kick start your guild.

I’ll see what i can do! The banner of the Bloated Cat Legion shall rise!

My biggest lessons:

Drama can be the death of a guild. It is therefore important to adress any potential drama as early as possible. Have clearly outlined rules and sanctions, and someone able to follow through. This person should be patient, trustworthy, communicative, but able to take action if needed. If this is not the GL themselves, then the GL should back the disciplinarian publicly. The disciplinarian isn’t above the rules. Be fair. Be SEEN to be fair.

Having active chat and engaged members is hard work, and it’s on you to make it happen. Friend your guildies. Check the roster regularly and greet people when they log in. Ask people by name if you need people to round out parties. Chat, crack jokes. Make guildies feel comfortable.

Don’t let people leave on a sour note. Even if they decide to leave remain courtious. You want them leaving thinking:"That guild didn’t work for me, but they’re alright’. They might refer to you at a later date with friends that DO fit, or at least not give you a bad reputation.