So unless you’re living under a rock, then you know they’ve announced a November 13th release date for Wrath. Also, if you are living under a rock, stop. First rocks aren’t comfortable homes. Second, if you’re going to be a good leader you need to know what’s coming and prepare for it.

Now if you’re anything like me, the release date was the trigger you’ve been waiting for to start making solid Wrath plans. Sure I’ve been keeping up with Beta and Test server information but always with a grain of salt, because it’s Beta. I’m not ready to go up in arms about Beta information until it’s written in something more solid than a flavorful gelatin product that I’m sure has a trademarked name. A two month timeline on the release means it’s time to start taking Beta and especially test server information more seriously.

So as an online leader what does an expansion mean to you that it doesn’t mean to other people? (Conversely if you’re a member what should you expect to see your leadership do to prepare and how can you help them?)

The major thing a vertical expansion provides is an opportunity for change.

Whoa wait a minute, Auz you said vertical expansion, I heard this was a Wrath expansion, has that medicine the doctor given you finally gone to your head?

No little voice in my head, it’s not affecting me any more than to make me publically argue with the voices in my head, I’m ashamed to admit I was doing before the medicine they gave me. Vertical is an adjective that gamer theorist (yes this is a real class of people, some of whom actually get paid but most are laymen with blogs like me) have attached to expansions that require a character’s growth (leveling) to reach new content. It’s counterpart is a horizontal expansion which provides more content and items to be acquired without requiring character growth to reach it. (I apologize to all the gamer theorists out there I have offended with my crude but concise definition of these concepts.) So the Sunwell patch could be considered a horizontal expansion and the Wrath is a vertical expansion. And now someone queue that music from the now you know comercials.

Uh Auz, we don’t have a staff, you’ll have to do that yourself as I’m incorporeal.

What do you mean we don’t have a staff? Matt has a staff, and I’m at least as cool as he is.

Yeah but Matt suckered them into it by bribing Wyn with cookies and snagged Syd with that clever So You Think You Can Write Blog Posts So Matt Doesn’t Have To thing.

Darn him, I’m guessing I can’t steal that idea and have it work twice huh?

Nope but you might be able to train the pug.

I do have cookies… ChickGM and Pugdude!

Damn it voice in my head, you’ve gotten us way off track, and probably lost our readers.

<Ahem> So vertical expansions create change, by requiring us all to level. The gear advantage that individuals and guilds have and the requirements that zones have disappear. Shaking the Etch-a-sketch of wow gear hierarchy and forcing us to draw a new picture. In addition the class balance etch-a-sketch will be shaken, and we’re going to get used to classes playing new roles. (Rogue Synergy? Pally AOE heals? Druid out of combat Rezs? It’s a scary new world) Finally, the tradeskill etch-a-sketch will be shaken.

So in the face of all this potential change, what does an online leader do?

First, read Bre’s post, protecting your landscape.

Okay now, do an internal check. Find out what aspects of the game you are willing to focus on, both as a leader and a member of a guild. Then keep your mouth shut about them so that you don’t influence the others and you get honest feedback.

Next, speak to your guildmates. Sure right now you’re a casual guild, but what secret hopes do your guildmates hold? It may turn out that now is the time that your teammates want to start some raiding or maybe your raiding guild is tired and wants to step back? You’ll never know if you don’t ask them. (Note I’ve been out of touch with my guild for a bit, but before I was away I already knew the thrust of my core members. Even if you are in close contact with your members, you should check again. Some people’s opinions are going to change as the possibility of change is higher.)

Take your polls and put them in three categories, the leadership, the core, and the future (your newer members).

• If your leadership, core and future are all in alignment - The future path is clear and your life is beautiful. Give your guild recruitment leader/process a pat on the shoulder and start working on your path.
• If your leadership and core are in alignment but your future is out of alignment - Let your future know that you’ve heard their views but that the guild is not going to change to meet their expectations. They are welcome to stay on if they’ll accept the current guild path or you won’t begrudge them if they look for a guild more inline with their desires. (Bonus points if you help them find it). Then take a hard look at your recruitment process and make sure you’re clearly stating the guild focus and asking people about their goals within that process.
• If your leadership and core are out of alignment - This sucks. If there is room for compromise, I highly recommend exploring that opportunity first. If not, then one focus has to win out. I will refrain from commenting about which I believe should win out and only say that no matter which side goes the guild has a hard time of rebuilding ahead of it. Whichever side wins, let the guild know as soon as possible so that everyone can make plans. If you are stepping out of the leadership position, a gracious last act would be to help the guild establish their new leadership to the best of your abilities.

Now that you’ve found your guild’s Wrath path, it’s time to lay the groundwork.

• If your guild is continuing along it’s old path - this work is fairly easy. You’ll need to look over all your publically available information to make sure it’s updated for Wrath (applications, website, etc) and you might want to use that time to look over your guild rules to ensure that what you have documented is actually what you’re enforcing.
• If you’re making a path change, - let your guild know right away, so that people know what to expect out of the guild for Wrath and can make plans accordingly. Then take a look at the guilds on your server who are currently on your desired path. Read all of the guild’s publically available material and if you are fortunate enough to be able to find a leader in another guild who is willing to answer your questions, remember that this leader is also preparing his/her guild for Wrath and you should use the time they make available to use wisely. From this information you’ll have a good idea of what other guilds offer and their structure. From there you can work with your leadership to determine what you can offer and what new responsibilities need to be doled out. While you’re discussing this, think about how your guild can differentiate itself from your peers in your chosen niche and be sure your recruitment process capitalizes on this distinction.

Let it be known that I’ve never lead a non- PvE raiding guild, though I have been an observer or member of most types of guild. With that caveat, here is a rough listing of the responsibilities, as I see them, of the leadership for different guild niches.

Any Guild

• Guidance of focus
• Recruitment process
• Acceptable behavior standards
• Enforcement of standards
• Communication -Website, Vent, Email Chain, Phone list as required
• Conflict resolution
• Shared resource management
• Event Organization as required
• Documentation of required information
• Publication of guild standards, goals and accomplishments as required

Role Playing Guild

• Environment crafting
• Overarching guild plot
• In character/ out of character protocol and expectations.
• Role playing guidance
• Event Organization

PvE Raiding Guild

• Research - zones, bosses, classes, patches, etc
• Set raid strategy communicate it
• Loot distribution system
• Expectations of raid behavior
• Class/Role leadership

PvP Raiding guild

• Research - zones, pvp objectives, classes, patches, etc
• Set PvP strategies and communicate it
• Expectation of PvP behavior
• Class/Role leadership

If you have anything to add that I’m missing please let me know in a comment.

I had intended to make this a complete guide to Wrath guild planning, but this post is already too long and I’ve only just begun. So in order to; not draw me from my own guild for too long, keep you from falling asleep and bolster my post count, I’ve decided to make this a post series.

Hey Auz I know this is the end of the post, but you see all those bullet points you don’t have links for. You should totally fill in the blank spots for those.

I know voice in my head, looks like I won’t run out of topics for a long time.

I have been a piss-poor blogger this month. I’ve been a poor guild leader, and you can guess how real life commitments have gone. To avoid the risk of being the officer who shared too much, I will just say it was unavoidable and unexpected. To those of you who sent kind messages to let me know I was missed, it was very touching and definitely brightened some bad days.

Despite my inadequacies as a leader this month, my guild has done well without me. They’ve killed a new boss, recruited new people, lost two members and gone on mostly as normal. Why have they done well without me? Don’t I spend my days writing about good leadership and how that has a positive impact on guilds? If I’m really all that good at what I do shouldn’t they have struggled in my absence?

They did well for two reasons.

• I have an amazingly strong and dedicated officer core
• While the event that took me away was unexpected, the possibility of such an event was foreseeable, so we had prepared for the possibility of my extended absence.

I returned to raiding two nights ago, and I’m slowly working my way back into the game and leadership of the guild. While I was away there were some things that popped up that and as I settle back into leadership I’ll have my hands full for a bit, but it dawned on me that if I hadn’t been able to return this guild would have kept on ticking without me.

In some ways that makes me a little sad, knowing that while I helped build it and create it, my guild is now it’s own entity and no longer requires me. On the other hand, I’m very proud. I’ve put in place a plan and gathered people who are so strong and believe in the goals of the guild that even without my help, it continues to thrive. I imagine this is a similar emotion to that of a parent watching their child move out into the world alone.

Okay Auz, touching moment, I’m glad you’re back ya know cause here I am reading what you’re writing, but what does all this mushy stuff with your guild have to do with me?

I’m glad you asked imaginary reader in my head. It has to do with you because it dawned on me, while I was sitting there contemplating the nature of my guild and the situation that pulled me away from it, how many unexpected things have happened to myself and the people I’ve been guilded with over the time the guild has existed. It dawned on me that the unexpected, happens often enough that you should be prepared.

In the business world, I was once employed by a brokerage company. It was there that I learned a great many of the tools I use today in my guild leading. One of the lessons I learned is that when a small business owner dies, the best indicator you can use to determine the future of the business they owned is “Did they leave a business succession plan?” I don’t know the statistics, but the ones I made up on the spot say that 90% of all small business whose owners did not plan out what should happen to the business when they die, fail shortly after the owners death.

Now death is one of those final things, and honestly there are more important things to plan in the event of your death than the future of your guild. (Like who gets your framed first issue of Nintendo Power) However, what if your main tank gets moved to night shift? What if you have to move to Wyoming (I still don’t have a reader from there so I’m pretty sure they don’t have the internet)? What if your recruitment officer has a baby and has to quit playing video games. (Yeah I know she should teach it to drool on the 2 key (chain heal) and be a resto shaman/hunter) Fortunately most things that would take someone away from the virtual world give you a small amount of time to plan for them, but I’m here to tell you from first hand experience that isn’t always the case.

The easiest solution to unexpected absences, is officer redundancy. Guilds all have commonalities that have to be accomplished that take effort outside of play time; recruitment, new member initiation, dispute resolution, in some cases loot distribution, any information tracking the guild requires, website or contact information maintenance. Regardless of how your leadership structure divides these responsibilities or what other responsibilities your guild leadership may have, it’s a good idea to make sure at least two of your officers are trained and able to handle any one responsibility.

A second tip is keep and eye out for leadership potential and develop it where you can. Earlier I mentioned I have two members who manage our WWS reports and auctioning off our raid goodies for cash. I also have another member who leads off night runs of ZA. These members have proven to me that they are responsible and willing to put time into our guild, and should I need to grab another officer they are a good starting point. My guild already trusts them and has found them dependable in their roles. These potential leaders a fertile crop from which the next generation of our guilds leaders may spawn and in allowing them room and culturing the leadership they have shown our guild also reaps the benefits of their existing leadership.

A third tip is establish your hierarchy. It’s ugly but the number one thing I’ve seen tear a guild’s leadership apart is the struggle for dominance. Leadership is established in two ways it is both bequeathed and earned. As a leader I may choose a new officer and place them in a position of authority and responsibility, but from there they have to earn the rest. They earn a guilds trust by proving dependable and reasonable. In a guild where the leadership struggles against itself it’s often because officers and leaders undermine each other in an attempt to garner more of the guild’s trust than the others. When one leader of a guild is removed, the balance that is already in place shifts as others take on new responsibilities to fill the void. By firmly establishing spheres on influence and trust between your officers and any potential new recruit to a leadership role you can help prevent this from happening.

While the need for a written plan of succession that appears in the business world does not appear in the virtual world, I encourage virtual leaders to take a moment and contemplate what would you like to happen to your guild if you weren’t there? And what would you do if another person you count on wasn’t there? By contemplating these things and even talking about them with your officers in advance you may be able to take the sting out of an unexpected event that might otherwise prove damaging to your guild.

I apologize for the unorganized nature of this post and lack of pictures (Sorry Matt). Much like leadership I am easing myself back into blogging and my other writing. Based on the results of the poll and my recent easing back into my former life, Tales from the Tabletop will become a feature of this blog rather than it’s own blog. Expect to see that begin to appear as a new feature soon.

I was on a rant with (maybe at)  Matticus about WowInsider (Matt gets all my WI rants since he has allied himself with the devil). Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good resource and if they called me up and said “Yo Auz write for us” I’d be there, but some things really really irk me. My rant with Matt after I got past the poor proofreading (yeah I have typos but no one pays me for this, I think they should be more professional) rant that started me going, came back to one post that Scott Andrews, author of Officer’s Quarters wrote. I apologize in advance for the rant-y nature of this post, but this rant has sat buried inside me since January and Matt gave me permission/encouragement to let it all out.

I read this post (it’s actually two posts) and I VEHEMENTLY disagreed. I’m not sure I can stress VEHEMENTLY enough. Maybe bold-ing it and adding a striking font color will work?

VEHEMENTLY!

Silliness aside, Mr. Andrews writes a good series, but if I agreed with everything he said there would be no need for me to write, I could just put up a big link to his series and be done with it. Really Mr. Andrews’ post and my VEHEMENT disagreement with it is part of what convinced me that there was room for me to share my opinions in a guild leadership focused blog, so you have Mr. Andrews to thank or curse for my blog.

For those of you too lazy or too enthralled by the bright colors on my site to read what Mr. Andrews wrote, I’ll sum it up for you.

Mr. Andrews made a two part post covering the “right stuff” for an officer and the “wrong stuff” for an officer. Stuff translates to personality traits and/or qualities.

His “right stuff” list:

• Maturity
• Generosity
• Good Communication Skills
• Emotional Intelligence
• Game Knowledge

His “Wrong Stuff” List:

• The Player Who Really, Really Wants to Be an Officer
• The Player Who Plays for Unhealthy Amounts of Time
• The Player Who Shares Way Too Much Personal Information
• The Player Who Never Plays Sober

Now on the surface I could see how this could be good advice. I can really see why you don’t want a feral druid* who doesn’t understand what threat, babbling incoherently while he drools on his keyboard and tugs at your arm every 30 seconds saying “I wanna be an officer” to be an officer.

*I picked feral druid because they do after all, tank with their face.

But truly I have beef. I have large amounts of grade A sirloin beef. Below is my list of beef:

• The traits your officers need depends largely on the goals and focus of your guild,
• My officers have different personalities and character traits
• Some of the bad things can be good
• Some One of the good things is bad

So in an attempt to provide structure to this rant, I’ll tackle my beef on topic at a time.

Traits are dependent on the needs of your guild: I lead a progression focused raiding guild. I don’t lead a solely progression focused guild, my guild struggles very hard to straddle the line between progression and people. Some of my posts are largely impacted by this bias, for example, my analysis on the struggle of raiding guilds or my perspectives on taking back previous members. All of my posts are somewhat impacted by this bias, but I try my best to make my posts accessible to the general GM, as far as my experience will allow me. Often you’ll hear me state that you know your guild better than I do and my solutions may not work for you.

I’ve been in several types of guilds in the 10 years I’ve played online guilds. Heck, I lead one guild with the same name and same basic principles as the guild I currently lead, that was VASTLY different from the guild I currently lead. What makes a good officer in one guild may not translate into another guild, in fact it rarely does. On my server there is a guild of 15 people who have many alts and raid casually and there is a guild with 247 alliance accounts and an equally large number of whorde horde accounts who have many alts and raid casually. There is no way the officers for those two guilds share the same experience.

So my advice is don’t take other people’s lists at all. Put that away and make your own lists:

• Take your ideal guildmate, someone who goes above and beyond and think about the traits they have.
• Take the responsibilities and needs you see the potential officer filling and think about the traits that would make a person successful at accomplishing these things.
• Think about the things that are simply not acceptable for your guild or things you wouldn’t want other people to emulate.
• Take a look at your existing leadership structure (Hint: If you’re starting a new guild, this is you) and think about what strengths and weaknesses this structure has. Make a list of traits that will help shore up the weaknesses and play well against your strengths (Example: I’m a soft spoken, My Co-GM is louder. In raids I calm people down when they are upset, and he fires them up to kill a boss)
• Finally take a look at your guild and see how those things match up and find the best fit. You aren’t going to find someone perfect. I am not perfect, I have yet to meet someone who is (though I’ve met a few that think they are). My officers aren’t perfect, and you know what, I like them better for their imperfection.

My officers have different traits - and it’s a good thing. If there was such a thing as a master list of traits that an officer needed then guilds would have very similar officers. Even stipulating that guilds have different needs officers within guilds would be very similar. That simply isn’t what I’ve seen in my online play. Different characteristics and personalities make for a strong leadership core.

I have an officer who:

• Has been in the military and tells it exactly like it is (much to my occasional dismay).
• Is an absent minded professor, very gregarious not likely to remember what he promised he’d do.
• I think of as “dad” he’ll take you aside and gently reprimand you or listen calmly while you pour out your heart.
• Is anal retentive and remembers every detail about everything. people who speak to him often walk away overwhelmed by the amount information he provided them.
• Shares too much, but in a way that often finds my members sharing too much right back at her.

My point is, my officer core is strong because these different personalities play against each other and with each other to hash our our battle plans. (The anal retentive one gentle reminding my absent minded professor of what he has forgotten, etc). Also my members can relate to at least one of these different personalities when they have something to discuss. It’s a hodgepodge, it’s a mess, but it’s my hodgepodge mess and my guild wouldn’t be the same without it.

Some of the bad things can be good - or at least not deal breakers.

I mentioned my officer who shares way too much personal information. - She’s personable and charming. Yes I do know what color her dildo is, but you know she also knows about mine. (No I won’t tell you.) She has a way of talking to people and accurately reading people’s comfort levels. When people are feeling overwhelmed or had a bad day, guess who they talk to? They can tell her anything, they trust her because they know so much about her. Is it always a good thing? Certainly not, without her high emotional intelligence and ability to read people it would be detrimental.

Why does the player who plays unhealthy amounts of time play so much? - I know one person who’s in a wheelchair and on disability because they are fighting cancer, they have a healthy disposition and if you didn’t really get close to them. they would never tell you why they were on so much. WoW is their social outlet; it is their way of smelling the flowers. Certainly someone in a similar circumstance could use WoW in an unhealthy way or take our their bitterness about being trapped in their wheelchair fighting cancer on their in game socialization. What about the stay at home mom who’s kids are growing up, but still need their mom more than she can provide if she were working? There are many people who may play more than you but not for unhealthy reasons. If you can find one of them they can make for great officers with the time to accomplish more than you can and the high accessibility to members.

The person who really, really wants to be an officer - This is another why question. Some people know they have something to give that the guild needs and they care enough about the guild to want to give it. Some talents you can share with a guild without being an officer. To give you an example I have two players that came to me wanting to share their time and talents. One volunteered their time to run our WWS reports and another volunteered to take over auction housing our raid items and investing gold in items they saw fluctuating on the Auction House. Neither one of these guys is an officer, but both did take initiative to come to me and offer their services. Some talents require being a part of the planning process or authority to carry out. For example a role leader needs the authority to approach someone who is under performing to share their knowledge with assurance that they won’t be blown off. Some people think officership is just fun and power, but those are generally people who haven’t been officers before. Always consider the motivation, before you blow off someone that approaches you about being an officer, Ask them why they want to be one and what they have to offer.

Always drunk - I’m going to agree here, this is pretty much not going to work. Though in the interest of argument, some people use my absent minded professor as a venting source because they are relatively sure he won’t remember or take significant action. Perhaps this could be stretched into some argument, but that’s not a limb I really feel the need to climb.

One of good things is bad - I have one really really major disagreement here, though the list is mostly a good starting ground.

Generosity - Now granted Mr. Andrews gets Auz points for focusing on time and not items. But overly generous officers can coddle their members and foster dependence. I’m all for helping my teammates, but help them help themselves. When I picked up a druid (Hai Rita) that I loved from moonkin to resto because I saw great resto potential in her, I didn’t sit down with her and teach her spell rotations and stuff. I asked her to make a gear plan and then I reviewed it with her, I made a list of web resources that had great druid information on them and emailed it to her. I put the work on her. Not because I’m lazy or mean, but because it made her independent. She needed to think for herself and she needed the skill to make herself great. I was never more proud of her then when she came to me to talk about an article she had read and why she disagreed with it. That druid now owns her class, I didn’t give it to her, I only pointed the way. If I were more generous with my time I could have coddled her and done everything for her. She might still be a great druid but she would be dependent on me for how she thinks about the druid class and how it heals. She’s much stronger having earned it on her own and having made her own decisions. Moral of the story, she’s stronger because I gave her less time. In addition to that, a leader’s job is never over. It’s okay to be generous, but unchecked a guild will eat through all of your available time and ask for seconds, instead of generous I’ll take smart time management skills. Decide how much time you can give as an leader and then use that time wisely.

I don’t have such giant beef with the others as I do with generosity except to say they aren’t all necessarily required. My 15 year old brother (Hi Brudar!) lead a guild in WoW called the “Lollipop Kids.” To be in this guild you had to be a dwarf or gnome. They never raided. They never even hit max level. But you know what? He and his friends had a lot of fun. I love my little brother but he’s not terribly mature (what, Jim, you aren’t =P) or able to theorycraft on the ins or outs of his class. His emotional intelligence and communication skills are slightly above average for a 15 year old boy. He was the perfect GM for his guild. They flourished under his leadership and had a blast together, right until they decided that gaming on an xbox was way cooler than on the computer.

Long post, short - Don’t create strict rules or boxes for your leadership. Some of the best leadership is done outside of conventional thinking and wisdom. To quote myself; “If you do what everyone else is doing, you’ll end up where everyone else is.”

So I’ve just offered you a spot as an officer in my guild and now I’ve asked you to sleep on it before you answer me. What things would you consider before answering me?

Below is a list of questions I think any member should answer before taking on a leadership role in an established guild:

• Do I intend to make a long term commitment to this game?
• Do I intend to make a long term commitment to this guild?
• What will my responsibilities be?
• Do I want to make a long term commitment to these responsibilities?
• How are my views inline with that of the current leadership core?
• How are my views different from that of the current leadership core?
• What strengths do I have to bring to this guild in a leadership role?
• Which of my weaknesses might affect my ability to hold a leadership role?
• Is my GM aware of these weaknesses?
• Am I willing to commit to being a good example for my guildmates?
• Can I establish a good working relationship with the other members of the leadership core?
• How do the other officers interact with the GM(s)?
• Is that how I want to interact with the GM(s)?
• Do I respect my GM(s)?
• Why is the GM looking for a new officer?
• Does your idea of the authority you should have as an officer line up with your GM(s)’s?
• Does your idea of the role you would play in the leadership core line up with your GM(s

What things would you consider?

So you’ve had a bad day. Your dog threw up on the carpet, your fish died and someone backed into your car in the parking lot. Some days just suck, but how do you keep real life suck from affecting your WoW time?

1) Examine the cause of suck: Some things that suck just need time to get better, but some things do require that you actively work to fix it. Never let obligations in WoW prevent you from taking action that’s needed to better your real life.

2) Examine the level of suck: Some things suck more than others. If your stubbed your toe, well in the words of one of my favorite officers, “Life’s hard, get a helmet.” If a close family member died you should expect to be more profoundly affected.

3) Examine your mood: Are you feeling bitter, sad, vindictive, helpless, outraged? Depending on the root of your emotions going and spending time in a leadership role could help you feel better or may make things worse.

4) Examine your triggers: When you’re emotionally charged there are some things that can set off those emotions. Are you going to place yourself in situation where those triggers are likely to occur? What can you do to avoid those things or minimize their impact on you?

5) Warn your raiders: You raid with these people more nights than most and some of them for a long time. You’re not perfect, they don’t expect you to be perfect. In an extended period time the odds of you having a bad day go up to 100%. Don’t be afraid to let them know that you aren’t yourself today, but you’ll be back on top of things in no time.

6) Ask for help: If this kind of suck is going to affect your ability to do the things your guild needs from you, don’t be afraid to rely on your officers or veteran members. You trust their judgment that’s why you promoted them in the first place, this is the kind of day where they get to earn their keep.

Lastly, focus on yourself and what you can do to get back on your feet. It’s tempting to feel drawn to what your guilds immediate needs are, but the sooner you can get over what’s got you bent out of shape, the sooner you can go back to being the guild leader your guild has come to expect you to be.