Elements of an Enduring Guild
The Guild Beyond the Game, Part II

There are certain factors that seem to define a guild, and to determine the chances of that particular guild for success or failure. Of course, nobody sets out to establish an organization, either online or in the real world, with failure as a goal.

Still, there are four very basic components of a guild that define the ability of the people gathered under a common name to overcome obstacles and build a strong foundation. These for components include the Guild Structure; Guild Leadership; Guild Membership; and In-Game Support.

Guild Structure is not so much the tools offered by the game or games in which the guild exists, but rather the organizational structure determined by the founders of the guild, initially, and the leadership and membership of the guild as it evolves. Guild Structure can allow a guild to shift from one virtual arena to another without violating the basic principles upon which the guild was established.

Some examples of Guild Structure include the Monarchy style, where a single leader is assisted and followed by a tiered system of ranks; the Council style, where a group of peers are equal in making decisions and share specific day-to-day responsibilities; and the Military style, where leadership is ranked based on service and history with the guild, as well as demonstrated abilities. Often a guild finds dissent when one style of organization is not working compatibly with Guild Membership or the In-Game Support, or the personalities of the Guild Leadership are too abrasive, or not strong enough for the style of organization chosen for the guild.

Guild Leadership has more to do with the individual qualities of the players who choose to form guilds. Some people are better leaders in the real world than in communicating their intentions through typed phrases or message-board instructions. If your leadership is not able to communicate instructions, requirements, rules, and policies effectively with the membership, the membership cannot possibly comply. Furthermore, if a leader is either too abrasive or too meek, membership will be more likely to ignore whatever policies are set in place.

On the other hand, sometimes a leader, or leaders, can become so central to the functioning of a guild that when they have to take a leave of absence, leave the game, or stop gaming altogether, the guild ceases to function and a mass exodus occurs. Guilds need to be careful that the leadership does not have the only password, key, storage vault, or knowledge of processes that enables the guild to function, but emotional attachment is another matter altogether, and a charismatic leader can inspire an entire guild, while the loss of such a leader can result in emotional turmoil.

Guild Membership is a vital component of the lifespan of any guild. Guild members are likely to share times when they are available to play: if they don’t, it’s nearly impossible to form a cohesive organization. Guild Membership can be built, not only in terms of the number of members, but also in terms of the knowledge shared between members and the sense of community found in /guildchat and on the message boards. Some guilds have required members to group together, while others have found that establishing agreements to trade services or raw materials for free or at cost can help to strengthen the ties within the guild.

Sometimes, as with the departure of a valued leader, a number of members will choose to leave a guild all at once. Maybe they have decided that another guild suits their playing time or styles, or maybe they have grown tired of the game. In some ways, Guild Membership is the central reason why certain guilds have been able to exist in more than one virtual world: if the bonds formed between members are strong enough, the guild will survive anything from cataclysmic departures to the end of the virtual realm.

In-Game Support is the final component of guild growth and success. While In-Game Support is not the most crucial concern, it can help to shape the interactions between guilds and within guilds. For example, the advent of /guildchat itself was a management innovation in the MMORPG genre. In addition, many games have offered guild management tools, made available to the leadership, that allow for ease in maintaining an organized structure. On the other hand, games without structured guild management still see the creation of guilds, although the process for establishing an organization may seem more onerous. The initial start-up cost of a guild in Dark Ages of Camelot (DaoC), for example, appeared quite steep to those of us who entered the game with a guild already planned, but we soon learned that it wasn’t either as tedious nor as expensive as it seemed at first glance.
 
Personally, I have been a member of a wide range of guilds during my online gaming career, from the small, family-style guild to, at least temporarily, the high-end raiding guild. I have even been part of the leadership of two guilds, one with a very transitory lifespan and the other which has reached across no less than a dozen games, and has become something more of a community than an actual guild.

The second guild, which has become a community, has a number of individuals who are all very capable of leading but who each have resisted the role of “leader”. If you were to look at its metamorphosis from a guild in Asheron’s Call to the community that today spans several games simultaneously, you would see the flaws in the area of Guild Structure and Guild Leadership that have caused the organization to lose focus. It also serves to illustrate the point that none of the four components exist individually: without structure, leadership, a dedicated membership, and the right in-game tools, even the best intentions cannot produce a functional guild.

It is my hope that Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will offer the right balance between guild structure and flexibility to allow for a range of organizations. After all, there is no perfect guild, or else the gaming world would have found and duplicated the structure many times over.

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