I felt there was a need within our community for this I hope it helps anyone that might read it ..........
I know this is a MWOT but I hope any and all who take the time too read it are a little more enlightened .
Not a day goes by in Azeroth that one guild or another breaks up for any number of reasons. Whether it be politics, special treatment, lack of loot, drama or whatever. Guilds break up. That's just what happens. But I would like to offer some pointers for GM's or prospective GM's as well as in-guild "officers" and "class leaders". Be warned, this is not a "touchy-feely" or "getting to know your guildy" post. I don't care about anyone's feelings. If you want to be an officer just because your buddy runs the guild and you think you should be one of the top-dogs, stop reading now.
GM's
Let me start by saying that WoW in it's most basic form is a game. But you have decided to form a guild. Congratulations! Here comes the hard stuff. By forming a guild, you are agreeing (whether you know it or not) to be a leader. To that end, I will try to provide some insight into what that should entail.
1. Know what your guild's goals are. Establish some achievable goals and drive your officers/class leaders to move collectively in that direction. Don't set your goals too high, because failure to achieve a goal can be a crusher. Start small and find out what your guild is capable of.
2. Establish a chain of command. Once your guild reaches a certain size, you as the GM are going to be overwhelmed with /tells as soon as you log in. All your game-play time and enjoyment will be right out the window. How you establish a chain of command is up to you. Most guilds go with either appointed officers or class leaders. Usually 2-3 officers can take the burden off the GM and allow everyone to enjoy playing. But that depends on how much authority and trust you give to your officers. Even better, a class leader can be responsible for his or her class of player. Warriors, Pallys, Mages, etc. each have their own leaders which they can seek out for advice or assistance.
3. Establish a bank. Easy right? Wrong. You either have to keep track of the bank yourself or give charge of the bank over to someone that you can put your complete trust in. Even the APPEARANCE of impropriety without consequence can be a guild-splitter.
4. Set a standard of behavior for your players that YOU can live with and HOLD THEM TO IT! If you set rules down within your guild regarding acceptable behavior, you better be willing to back it up with consequences. No need to threaten. Leadership by fear doesn't being out the best in anyone. Just explain that if your rules are violated then....whatever. Whether it's a one warning and you're /gkicked, or 3 strikes and your out. If you set a standard, enforce it. Don't be the guy that looks the other way because your "friend" violated the guild rules but you didn't do anything about it. You HAVE TO BE IMPARTIAL. This is what it means to lead.
5. Lead by example. If you don't want your people engaging in certain behaviours or activites (spitting, etc) then don't do it yourself. Conversely, don't ask your people to do something that you haven't done already yourself.
6. For the bigger guilds. If you can, try to avoid recruiting RL friends. This only leads to in-game trouble if you don't enforce the rules and RL trouble if you do. Bad idea all the way around.
Guild Officers
Here comes the fun part. You wanted to help out the GM? Here's some of the things you just signed up for. Everything I stated above for the GM's also applies directly to you. Except the bank part. But, because you wanted to be an officer or leader you get to do other stuff too.
1. You need to be willing to put in the extra time and effort to support the guild. Not only are you taking the burden off the GM, but you have to help out your members also. If that means giving Joe-noob advice on PvPing or maybe even assisting on an occasional quest.
2. Again, ENFORCE the guild rules. We all have friends that have joined our guild at one time or another. But if you value your guild as a whole, don't let that get in the way.
3. Probably the most important (and most overlooked) aspect of leading is KEEP YOUR PEOPLE INFORMED! If you have a webpage post goings-on on the webby so your members aren't left out in the dark. If you have Vent chat, hold a guild meeting in Vent or TS. Let the guys/girls know what is going on.
4. Don't ever tell any guild member "The guild officers talked it over, don't worry about it." Treating your guildies like second-class citizens will certainly trigger a mass exodus of talented players.
Class Leaders
The billet of Class Leader is one that comes with a certain amount of pride. But it also comes with a great deal of responsibility.
1. You have charge of your class. ALL the hunters, warriors, locks, mages, etc fall under your tutelage. It should go without saying that the above guidelines also apply to you.
2. Strive to make your class the best in the guild. A little friendly competition between the classes is healthy and encourages people to push even harder (which benefits the guild).
3. Enforce the standards and rules of the guild within your class. If you have a hunter who is out of line or breaking rules, control him. Enforce the rules set forth by your GM. If he/she wants to remain part of the guild he/she will comply with the rules. If not, then bid them farewell.
4. Be willing to put in the time and effort to help your fellow <insert class here> get that epic quest done, grind to a certain level, achieve their goals. If you help them now, they will be more willing to follow you later. Trust me, you will be putting in some hours if you're a dedicated class leader.
FOR EVERYONE ABOVE: GM's, Officers, and Class Leaders.
When you have a meeting, whether it's in Vent/TS or just plain Guild Chat (preferrably Vent) let it all hang out. Speak your mind, argue your point, fight for your class, whatever. But when that meeting is done, and you exit that Vent channel, or guild chat, SUPPORT THE GM AND EACH OTHER. Don't bad-mouth the GM, or fellow officers/leaders because you didn't like the outcome of the meeting. And don't tolerate it from the other players. Stand together to support the guild and it will stay strong.
I'm not saying that you have to be a hard-@$$ to be a GM, or an officer/leader. But if you want your guild to be succesful, following the above guidelines should help out. Like I said, WoW is a game. But when you choose to lead others, it becomes something more. Seasoned soldiers will not follow an incompetent commander into battle. And they shouldn't be expected to.
Lead them, and they will follow.
So You Want To Be Guild Leader :
Welcome to the beginning of what will be a very busy (and sometimes down right tiring and maddening) but rewarding job. After making the decision to create and lead a guild, generally the first reaction is to run out and recruit. Though you will eventually get to that point, this is probably not the best starting point if you have not thought the entire process through.
I truly believe that no one starts a guild with the intentions of doing poorly, we all have good intentions, however, good intentions will not sustain a guild. Without great forethought and planning, most guilds are doomed for failure from the start. This guide has been written with the assumption that you are at the beginning of the process of creating a guild. I will speak about considerations and items of necessity for the successful creation of building a strong foundation to support the development and growth of your guild.
The thing that will kill your guild quicker than anything is the lack of strategic thinking and the ability to be flexible and allow growth. Though much of this will seem like things that will not be needed until late in your guilds progression, it is always best to start implementing them now. It is very difficult to change the direction of a large ship once it begins to move, you need to start your course in the right direction.
Who Are You?
Of the utmost importance now and through the entire life of your guild is that you have clearly defined goals and a flexible plan on how this goals will be achieved. What type of guild do you wish to lead for the long term? This may seem like an easy thing to come up with but it really is not, you need to do a lot of soul searching on this.
Everyone wants a successful guild but how do you measure success? By boss kills? By the number of members you have? By the friendships you build? By your longevity? This answer is going to be different for everyone and each answer will have its core strengths that you as a guild leader will need to possess to successfully lead the guild.
If boss kills is your thing then you are probably leaving towards a hard core raiding guild which requires huge amounts of discipline. For lack of a better term, this is probably the most militant leadership roll. You need to be willing to make the hard calls for the success of the guild which means being able to put the smack down on people not doing their jobs and removing and replacing them if they hinder the guilds progression. The rules are generally pretty strict in these guilds and again, you need to be able to enforce those rules (and I do not mean be a complete jerk about it).
If socializing and having people to talk to while playing in game sounds like a great thing to you and you are not so interested in boss kills then perhaps a casual guild is more your speed. Though it would seem this leadership roll is pretty easy it can have its drawbacks. You need to understand that you will lose people fairly frequently and be accepting of that. These guilds are generally seen as leveling guilds and many who hope to raid will move on. As a guild leader you yourself will need to realize that you will not be raiding in end game if you continue to lead this guild.
What if you like both of the above scenarios? What if you want to have it all? Ahh the ever elusive hybrid casual raiding guild. I probably know this most about this guild as it is what our guild, Resurrection, is. You will have not only the best of both worlds but also the worst. You will need amazing mediation skills while being able to balance that with putting the smack down. You will need to be very flexible in many areas, the largest being the constant leaps forward in progression and steps backwards that are inevitable in this type of guild. It is probably the most difficult of all guilds to run as you are dealing with a variety of people with different goals in the game, the one common thread is generally the time aspect that they have to devote to the game.
This list is not all inclusive to the various types of guilds on the servers. I have not touched on guilds that role play as I feel they are going to fall into one of the above categories. Not every guild will be the same and even within the three examples listed above they will vary greatly from one to another. This was not meant as a classification of guilds it is merely a tool to get you thinking about what your roll will be and if you are up for that challenge.
The Charter . What is Your Quest?
A guilds charter is basically a verbal snapshot of your guild. It speaks of your members and what their goals are and are not. It highlights the community of your guild and lets prospective members determine if they will be a good fit or not. The more specific you are about your guild and its policies the better you will find like minded individuals to join you in your travels of the realm.
Charters should be living documents. You should look and them frequently and ask yourself if it still defines your guild. Your charter should always reflect who your guild is and if it is not either you need to begin living up to your charter or looking at revising your charter.
Rules & Policies
I know, I hate rules. It would be great if everyone around me shared the same value system as me and the world would live in complete bliss... I know who am I fooling? Fact is if you are going to have a large gathering of humans in one place, you need to have some really basic rules and policies.
The biggest concerns for most guilds are the chat functions (in game and vent/ts) and members behavior in them and loot/DKP rules. These do not have to be end all lists. Again, start with the basics and build from there. If you are months away from end game raiding and DKP then state that you will be looking at a DKP system when you get closer to raiding. If you have one then great! Be aware of it and state what your intentions are with it ie: We will be using (name here) DKP system, or the guild will vote on a DKP system at a later date or all of your loot belongs to me! Just state it so applicants are aware of what they are signing up for, even if it is not determined they still are aware of that fact.
Ideally your rules and policies should be posted in the same thread as your charter so that the applicant can easily find all of the information about your guild. You can have longer specific threads breakdowns each area down but the overall synopsis and basic rules should be together.
Post it you say? In a thread? Where?
Glad you asked...
Guild Websites . If you build it they will come
I wish I had a dollar for every thread I have read that starts out with, We just put up our guild web site and no one comes to it. Perhaps its my background in the web and the knowledge of how much incredible info there is out on the web that makes me jaded, but I really cannot comprehend not having a web site for your guild as a priority BEFORE recruiting. Why would you begin recruitment w/o first having a place to say who you are and what your goals will be?
Websites are great for a few reasons:
Distribution of Information
A website allows you to reach a great number of people with your guild information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and so on. People can cruise your site at their leisure and catch up on guild events and happenings. In some case guild websites offer public sections for strats, crafting service notices and speccing suggestions to name a few.
Sense of Community
Our members are on our website a LOT. I am really happy to see the activity we have on the members sections as well as the open forum (we love our forums trolls!!!!). We share not only info for in game happenings but also personal events in our lives, recipes and fun websites we find.
Recruitment
Last but most important of all, if you have a website for your recruitment you are doing two things that in the long run will save you time and help build your site participation. First by having people apply to your site you are wedding out those that would be a good fit form those that would not and not spending those precious hours in game doing the first interviews.
Many will go to your website, read the charter and decide the guild is not for them, you have just saved yourself 20 30 minutes in game from talking with them. You will always get those that still would like to discuss the guild after reading the charter and that is great but if you can save yourself a bit of times by answering the same types of questions over and over. That is always a good thing!!!!
The other thing you will do is begin a process of having members go to the site. If they have applied through the site they are more likely to return back to the site again once they become members, the more information and activity on the site, the more draw it will have.
Website Must Haves:
Forums - The biggest necessity! You need a place to post information for all to see and for the members to contact each other out of game.
Calendars - fantastic to track your guild activities and events.
Guild News Its nice to see where other guilds are and to share information about where you are in game progression.
DKP Database to track DKP (for raiding guilds that use DKP only).
So where do you go to get a website? If you are wanting to try to save yourself as much money as possible you might try one of the guild website communities such as :
http://www.worldofguilds.com/
http:/www.guildportal.com/
A lot of people use bulletin board type sites for their website, these do the job nicely without all the flashy imagery and such:
http://www.phpbb.com/
The biggest drawbacks with the pre-made portal type sites and the phbb is that they are limited in their visual customization and you generally are going to have a bit of an odd website name that can be difficult for some to remember.
If you would like to have something a bit more eye catching and customizable and you have a good knowledge of web design then perhaps getting your own domain and server is the route to go. Of course now you are getting into real cost.
Voice Chat . Can We Talk?
Generally considered a luxury afforded to the high end raiding guilds, voice chat software should truly be a consideration by anyone considering to play a social online game.
So what is voice chat exactly? It is software that you download to your computer that allows you to connect to a server and talk in real time to others connected to the server. It is extremely helpful in 40 man raiding where the action can be quite fast and the needs of the raid party need to change rapidly. Speaking, George, pick up that puppy! is much faster than trying to type it out while fighting another MOB and can mean the difference between a successful pick up and a wipe.
The two most popular voice programs are Teamspeak and Ventrillo. Each has their strong and weak points and both are widely used. The software to connect to the server is free for all, but the server will need to be hosted by someone and there is a server cost that can range from $15 - $30+ per month unless you have a very fast server that you can dedicate some space to house the server software.
So why would you need this software if you never plan on raiding? Because WOW is a social game, creating relationships is a huge part of building a strong guild. There is only so much human interjection you can get through text in a chat box. Voice can take the social interaction to the next level.
As with the website, it is wise to have your voice chat set up before you begin your application/invite process to get people accustom to using it from day one.
Time . ticking away the moments that make up the dull day...
The biggest consideration of all in leading a guild is time. Do you have the time to commit to working in a game? You ARE truly working to make playtime enjoyable for your members. This is truly a JOB. If you are here to be the UBAH figurehead and think that being the guild leader means you play all the time and bark at other to do the work then you will be a very lonely guild leader very soon.
Ultimately the responsibility of running the guild is yours, you chose to do it so be prepared to work for it.
Much of my time is spent working on making the game time more enjoyable for the members of my guild and ensuring our success in achieving our goals. This means that myself and the officers are spending the time helping the members key for instances, complete their quest lines to upgrade their gear and working hard with the guild to learn boss strategies in addition to the day to day operations of the guild. You need to be in the trenches with the members and officers.
If you are only showing up for the fun parts of guild life and leaving your officers and other members to run UBRS for the 15,000 time to key someone while you are playing another video game or an alt on another server then guild leadership is NOT for you. This is not to say that running a guild takes priority in your life but it will be taking up most of your free time.
Good officers are worth their weight x one million in gold. Be sure you surround yourself with officers who share your passion for the work involved in running the guild, allow them to be active in the guild leadership process and listen to their advice. Do not ever take advantage of your officers hard work by being an absentee guild leader.
Bottom line you will spend many hours in the game and out working on your guild, be prepared for the time sink.
To Infinity and Beyond!!!
So you have read this little guide, it has not scared you off and you are ready to start planning your guild, GRATS. This is where my guide ends and anothers should begin. I am just here to get you thinking strategically and to help you lay the foundation on which to build your guild.
There are many aspects to running a guild that I have not covered because I feel that you need to have your members involved in much of the choices and allow them some ownership in their guild:
Guild Ranks
Looting/DKP Rules
Raiding Rules
Guild Banking
Disciplinary Actions
And many, many other items!!!
My parting advice is to always hold true to your core guild values, be prepared for change as it will happen to allow growth, always ask yourself if decisions being made are beneficial to the entire guild or just a few people, do not be afraid to say no, but also do not be afraid to try new things. Be approachable by all of your guild members and take the time to listen to their concerns, it is truly their guild, you are the person they trust to run it ;) (Special thanks to Nahurm GL of the guild The Protectorate League on Gilneas for pointing out a very important item that I missed capturing!) Above all allow yourself some playtime and have fun with your guild! After all the whole point of playing the game is to have fun.
General Conduct
We do not tolerate:
Harassment of members or other players outside of the guild
Ninja Looting or misleading "need" for loot (for example: taking loot for alts when other party members present in run can use)
Selling items/services in guild chat to other members (exceptions for this are epic and extremely rare items and craft/service professions. We understand that there is a value to some game items and services, please negotiate for these items/services in tells rather than in guild chat. We ask that all craft/services be sold for price of mats.)
Arguing policies and decisions made by the Council (we encourage open communication and value the opinions of all of our members, however sometimes hard decisions must be made by the Council for the good of the majority of the guild)
Guild & Party Chat
Though we are pretty loose in our guild chat we ask that you please be sensitive to all in Guild/Party Chat since it is a general chat and is used by all players to successfully play the game and be part of our guild. Please refrain from the following:
We do not tolerate derogatory remarks and words pertaining to ethnicity and sexual orientation. We have a very multicultural guild and people who have alterative lifestyles. Though some things may be made in jest, in a text based chat it may not come across with the same humorous tone you had intended.
Though the following topics are not "taboo" they are general pretty good ones to avoid as they are areas of strong personal beliefs and generally will take on a life of their own in the form of arguments that van quickly escalate:
Politics
Religion
WOW Gold Farmers
If a conversation in any of these topics ever begins to escalate you will be asked by one of the officers to please take it to a different channel and out of Guild/Party Chat. If you refuse to do so you could be placed on probation or asked to leave the guild.
Any arguing in Guild/Party Chat will not be tolerated. If you have a problem with someone please see an officer.
Remember, we share Guild/Party Chat - please be courteous to your fellow members.
Vent Chat
General Vent Chat IS an adult chat, please keep this in mind. Though we are looser in the General Vent Chat we still do not tolerate attacks or derogatory remarks of any type.
If you are in party chat with an instance group please follow the same guidelines that you would for Guild Chat.
Guild recruitment
I believe the best thing you can do to promote your guild for the purpose of recruitment is entirely dependant on what you want your guild to be. So the first thing you need to do is identify Who We Want To Be and What We Need To Get There.
If you want to make a fun guild of friends who go beat up on mobs in 5-20 man instances you're going to have an entirely different recruitment processto a PvP or hardcore PvE guild. So the first thing you need to do is work out what you want your guild to turn into.
After you've identified Who We Want To Be you move onto the process of recruitment. At this point you should be able to work out what sort of people you want. It's important you don't just go recruiting anyone and everyone because you're trying to build a functional and cohesive guild. No matter what type of guild you want, you'll always want people to get along with a minimal amount of drama. If you're recruiting everyone, you'll soon end up having people with different goals and ideologies from your own. You also need to be aware of other recruitment issues which are going to save you having other problems down the track, as such I would suggest thinking about the following things:
What sort of people do we want in the guild:
Hardcore 10 hour a day raiders?
Great community people who want to kick back and chat?
PvP players with a desire to hit HWL?
Casual raiders who can afford 10-15 hours a week?
... or combination of the above.
How many people do we need:
MC, BWL and AQ40 all require a minimum of 40 hardcore raiders to keep pushing content. 55 is usually considered optimum to give people time off.
The more casual your playerbase, the more people you need to get the minimum amount of people for an instance at any time. Casual guilds often run at 80-110 players for the above mentioned instances.
Having more people requires training more people, so you'll generally progress slower with 80 people than 55 people.
Some guilds are small and full of friends and tap out around 10-30 people. They often join with other small guilds to run the 40 and 20 man instances. Also they often have a PvP focus.
There are also many Zerg Guilds out there, which have a huge amount of members (usually 200+) that somehow manage to keep together despite dramas. In a sense they reach a critical mass at which their recruitment sustains the losses they suffer from the inherant problems with that size. These guilds can actually be great fun and can allow exposure to a lot of players, but they can also be very hard to manage as a guild leader.
What class structure do we need:
For 40 man's you'll need atleast 3 of everything. For 40 man raids many people suggest a minimum of 15 healers.
Some fights also are made a lot easier with a specific amount of certain classes. Some examples from the earlier endgame instances would be Garr and Moam (3-4 warlocks), Major Domo (3-4 mages) and many fights were 3+ tanks are needed like Hakkar and Tony the Tiger. So eventually instances you want to run will drive your recruitment.
Dedicated Main Tanks are important because having them equiped is going to make your life easier. You don't want fickle players as your main tanks if you want to make progress. You'll want atleast 3 good main tanks in the medium-term to deal with MC, ZG and AQ20. In BWL tanks suddenly have to really step up comparatively and this is a block for a lot of emerging guilds.
Always having enough heals is important. While some fights require certain amounts of other classes, every instance run needs its share of Priests, Druids, Shaman and Paladins. Especially priests. On that note be careful of the priests you recruit because it's a class (along with main tanks) that has high burnout.
You know you need more of a class when you don't have enough of them constantly signing up for raids. Even if you have 30 shaman, if only 2 are dedicated (or if 25 are alts) then you'll need to recruit more of them.
One skilled and dedicated player is worth his weight in gold. If you have a couple of these people you might be able to do without extras in that class.
As you gear up, your requirements in the lower endgame zones will become more fluid and there are always alternative strategies you can try to get past mobs you don't have the right class structure for. However it's worth noting that the common strategies are common because they're efficient, easy to learn and their effective. Don't make life too hard for yourself just because you're short a warlock.
What timezones and commitment do we need from members:
You'd be surprised how many times I hear about guilds having a mass-exodus of players because the raids were starting to late or early for East Coast or West Coast players.
Do you have a minimum amount of hours you want people to raid a week?
Are there times you need people available, like Friday nights, Sunday afternoons, or some weekday evenings?
If there are times you and your core members play alot, that's a good time to be looking for members to recruit. If you're on holiday and playing during the early morning regularly for a week, don't recruit the people who are only on between 1am and 3am unless they understand your guilds raid times.
Do you have an age requirement:
Do you talk smack over forums and ventrilo? If so then you need to consider the ages you're recruiting. Mommy's going to pull the plug on little Timmy if he starts talking about how Razorgores a real arsehat.
Times people can play are influenced by their age too. School holidays see's recruitment go up and Finals see's guilds dropping in size. Also people who work 7am-9pm at tough jobs are going to be more likely to burnout if there's a weekday commitment in your raid times.
After you've thought about all that junk you'll probably start realising what the best way is to go about recruiting people. For example a zerg guild doesn't have to be fussy about who it takes, so methods like spamming ingame channels, allowing a lot of your member invite people and posting recruitment messages on the forums are valid methods. If you did the same thing while wanting you make an elite PvP force, you'd have many members quitting within a week, undermining your recruitment.
So finally we come to the advice about things you can do to get more members. Everything here is tempered by the ideas above. For the most part though I think these are pretty inclusive ideas about how to get more people. Just remember while reading these that it all comes down too
Practical Advice for Recruitment
Here's my list of things you can do to generate more interest in your guild and recruit the right people to make a succesful guild. Please remember that not all of these things apply to all the guilds out there. Most of this is aimed at newer guilds trying to compete on well established servers with existing guild structures. So take it all with a good dose of criticism and use what you want to make your own decisions about how to start making teh ub3r guild!
1. Be seen in the game
People can only join a guild they know about. Obviously if you're around more and your current members are more active then you'll be exposing your guild name to more people. More than this though, try to be where the sorts of players you want to recruit are likely to be. Be active in the activities on the realm which are services by those players.
Be a voice on the forums and in chat but always keep to your primary guild ethos and character. If you're into raiding, then chat about raiding with people. If you're a PvP guild, then be talking smack with the other PvP people. It doesn't matter if the people you talk with are guilded, this is about generating interest in You and The Guilds.
Always remember: People will judge the guild you are in by the actions you take.
2. Play with the type of player you want to recruit
If you want to start a new guild from scratch with mostly new-to-60 players then you should be hitting up Dire Maul, Lower and Upper Black Rock Spire, Stratholme, Scholomance and Black Rock Depths. If you're PvP based then spend as much time as possible in battlegrounds. If you're end-game based then head to Silithus and meet the people who are grinding for rep there.
Always be looking for people to group with, guilded or not, to generate more positive word of mouth. Generating a reputation as being good at what you do goes a long way to getting people to come to you. When people know what you're about as a guild then they'll be more likely to come to you seeking a guild with shared values.
This also means you need to be available. If you're in a battleground and someone asks you to come on a run with some potential new recruits and you're guild has a PvE focus, then get you need to leave battlegrounds and join the group. Meeting people is half the battle.
3. Get a support team
Appoint some people to become recruitment officers. You don't need to define the position if you don't want too but you do need to get people actively performing this function. The amount of people you give invite priviledges too is going to be variable with the type of guild you are and the people you have in your support team. Whatever you do make sure you've got some people who you trust around you to help you make decisions and to help you recruit.
You can't be everywhere in WoW and, as I said above, you need to get your name out there. Recruitment officers (or whatever you want to call them) can help you spread your influence. You want motivated people who are enthusiastic about the Who We Want To Be element of your guild in these roles.
Additionally these people can help you setup things like websites, ventrilo, looting systems and all that other stuff that guilds do. Remember that recruitment is an active process when you startup your guild. It requires time and energy to get to the point where you don't need to advertise anymore for potential recruits. The more like minded and suitable people actively persuing that goal, the more success you'll have getting there.
4. Be honest with people
If someone asks about joining your guild, make sure they know what they're getting into. If you have a lot of people join your guild under the pretense of you having a 200 man ventrilo server and a website with a bazillion features and you then fail to deliver on them, you're making backwards progress.
You can't have a functional and cohesive guild without players who share goals with you. Make sure that when someone asks you about the guild you let them know politely what your guild is about so that they can decide if the guild is right for them. If they don't make the right decision about that they won't be around for long and they may generate a lot of drama and bad feelings when they leave, not to mention they may take other members with them.
5. Be picky about who you recruit
The people you recruit are going to be representing your guild. They're going to be the people that advertise your guild for you. If you've got a bunch of knobjockey's who can't speak english without inserting random numbers and capitolizing every second vowel, then you're advertising yourself as a guild of 13 year olds who ZOmGPwN7 in pvp.
Satisfy yourself that the people you recruit meet the standards for the guild you want to create but also be flexible and not to quick to judge. If you only have 2 priests and just can't seem to get anymore, then it might be worth leveling, gearing and training up some level 56 shadow priest who atleast seems to know how to play.
Some of the best recruits might seem wrong at first. You can always run a recruitment trial with them before inviting them. Many guilds have an On Trial membership position to give people a shot and work out if that two-way relationship between Guild and Member fulfills the needs of both people.
Even if you're a zerg guild and will take basically anyone you need to be careful about who you tag. If you sell your guild to a group of raiders and they join your zerg guild on the assumption you're running BWL 15 hours a week, when you're not, you might be in for a big spam of hate in the forums and on the channels in game. Weigh the risks when recruiting people and keep everything on the plate so people know what they're getting into and you shouldn't avoid most of those problems.
Always remember that first decision you made: Who We Want To Be! Don't be afraid to change and mutate you guild over time but make sure your members will be able to deal with these changes, otherwise it's exodus time again with all that negative karma-drama. All that gets spread by word of mouth too.
6. Let it be known you're recruiting
Most people will be more likely to approach you if they think you will consider their application. Be careful about how you let people know that you're recruiting because people can easilly get the wrong impression. Raiding players often won't want to join Zerg Guilds. With that in mind, if you're a raiding guild you don't want to be using: /1 Incredible Guild of Power is now recruiting all races and classes! PST for invite! as a recruitment method because that's just going to turn off the people you want to recruit.
Most newly formed guilds will recruit from the people they play with. If you run an instance with someone and they seem a great person, then tell them that if they're looking for a guild you'd love them to join. Be on the lookout for players who fit your guilds style and talk to them. Tell them to mention you to any like minded friends they have who are looking for a new guild.
You can post on realm forums and in public channels as well as IRC and other public boards but remember to define Who We Want To Be and not mislead people. Consider saying how many people you're looking for and of what class in such posts. Include information your guild, this stops you wasting your time from applicants who don't fit your style and they time for applying to a guild which doesn't suit them. Here are 2 example forum posts to demonstrate the difference:
7. Keep your current members happy and enthusiastic
If you lose the members you've just recruited, or the ones you've had since the beginning, then you're losing the recruitment game. Every member of your guild is an asset not only for raiding but also for recruiting. They wear your guilds name like a walking billboard.
You need to keep making progress even if recruitment is slow, if that's what your guild expects. In the early stages of raiding life you might need to try organise something with another small guild to get some more momentum in zones like ZG, AQ20 and MC. Keep working on getting out there into the game and having fun through whatever means you find. It's vitally important.
A happy and enthusiastic guild, even a small one, is in a prime position to expand their numbers. If you're guild members are meh about the current state of affairs they're not going to be putting in 110% effort to improving the guild. They're bad billboards and other people will notice and be turned off.
So that's it. Way more than I originally intended to post but then again, I think it's mostly relevant. As you can probably tell I think your best shot is to just go out there and play the game and be active in the community.
People in MMO's who are likely to join guilds go out and look for guilds to join. They are presented with a multitude of options and one of them, that a lot of people enjoy, is being there to help build a guild up from its roots. Those are the first sorts of people i'd be targeting and trying to recruit. Many hands make light work as they say.
Good luck with your guild recruitment
