I started playing RIFT in headstart about a month ago, and created my own guild. Things are going pretty well and I’m loving the game, but this is my first time running a guild and I’m learning things as I go along.

For those MMO players out there – do you have any advice? Led a guild? Been in good/bad guilds? If so what would you change or keep the same?

I ran my own guild in WoW for a while.
You definitely need to establish and maintain power.
Make sure that the other people in the guild know you're the leader and that they should treat you as such.
They are in your guild, gaining benefit from being with you, so if they act out, you can punish them.
You don't want to lead with an iron fist though. You want authority, but don't want to be tyrannical.
It also really helps if you have a few people that you really trust to appoint as officers to help maintain peace and whatnot.

Thanks for the advice. Im having a lot of troubles maintaining enough game time. Juggling work and other commmitments is tough.

I know what you mean. My guild ended up falling apart because I got a job and wasn't around enough to run it properly.
You definitely need to dedicate a good chunk of time in running it.

I have run a guild in a very long time, namely because I stopped caring about mmo's for a number of years. However, when I did have my own guild for a number of months, it was composed of mainly good friends of mine so things were very mellow and we had a great time together. We never had any real issues...Namely because I was one of the strongest archers on our server and could easily kill them if I needed to :lol: So yeah, apart from what Ark said, building up your strength is always a good thing as well as building good relationships with your guildmates. If there's no sense of community then you're not really a guild.

If there's no sense of community then you're not really a guild.

I love this. What a perfectly simple way of summing things up. Thanks for the advice.

No problem, hope it all goes well for you :)

Also, I'm jealous. I want that game :ninja:

Lol, it is a lot of fun. You should get it.

i can vouch for what they've said as a fairly experienced guild leader myself the main keys to being a good guild leader is:have a good head on ur shoulders and know the game so u urself know what ur doing so as to help those in ur guild be it in battles or passing on any knowledge regarding said game as to what to find where and the like,always make sure u maintain ur authority as guild leader without being an arse about it and punish any unruly types that ur misfortunae tho commonly gonna get and maintain as much peace as possible and build up ur relationships within the guild as well as train to strenghen urselves and learn ur strenghs and weaknesses and how to effectively balance them out as much as possible,as far as appointing trusted ppl to be officers (or as i usualy prefer to call em co-leaders or generals) when appointing officers its always a good idea to have more then 1 and when promoting 2+ officers it helps to also know they're time zones and who is on at what time typicaly and for how long and who might be good to appoint to take over at aropund that time so that u have at least 1 officer on to take over for the other when they're time to log out arrives (granted they don log off sooner cause of being tired or life issues nothing many of us can due to predict or control that sadly >,.,<;; ) and those r just the most basicly and fundamental things u need to be a good guild leader there is more based on my own opinions and experience but that explaination would take me awhile lmao anyways hope these help further ur developement into becoming a potentialy good guild leader for ur game of choice i know nothing of rift so thats why i only mentioned the most basic but important fundaments that applies to guilds of any game :3 if u have any questions about leadership i can try to answer em to the best of my knowledge and when i am on so feewl free to ask any time :3

I've never been a guild leader. I've never had to be. I was picked up by my guild on the the first game I played and I've been content traveling with them. Beyond anything else, I've been with them so long because they're my friends and I'm happy to support and be supported by them.

So my advice? Genuinely care about your bros.

EDIT:

Also. Learn the game. It helps when the guild leader knows what in the fuck he's doing.

Back when I played iRO, I was part of guilds, and even ran my own guild.

For when I had my own guild, I recruited my friends(both people I knew in person, and those I knew only online) that could help me establish the base of power(mostly Chain of Command), and since we were almost all in different time zones, we always had someone online to help people out. Plus, we were a guild dedicated to just helping others in the guild, and having a good time.

That being said, even if you do appoint an officer, or second, or whatever....just make sure that they know it is YOUR guild, and that it will be run the way you wish for it to be ran, and that if they make a decision, they damned well better have discussed it with you first. When others start taking over the guild from where you want it to go, then it is time to get a new second/whatever. And like Arkkath said, you need to dedicate LOADS of time if it is a guild that goes into the tournaments/contests of skill/whatever RIFT has. Mostly in making sure that everyone is able to get what they need in order to make their characters stronger than all the others(but make sure you help them get it, without doing all the work, or buying the item for them if its in a game's NPC store).


Above all else, try and motivate people to be active whenever possible. When I lead my guild, I worked 2 jobs, did online upgrading for classes, and still went out with friends. That left about 8-10hours a week to dedicate to sleep and the guild. Its a good thing my best friend and I were practically co-owners of the guild(I knew his log-in info, and he knew mine...helps we live a 5min drive away from each other too), so we could go on each others account and help people if one of us had a character to help with and the other didn't.