So, of course, with the year coming to an end and it being a time to reflect, lets go around a bit.
How long have you been doing it? Do you think you’ll keep running your guild? And if you’re not a guild master, that’s fine too, weigh in.
I’ve been guild master since the middle of TBC back when I was 17. I’m 31 now. And I’ve had this open discussion with my people about how at some point, I gotta hang up the hat. Over ten years, almost fifteen, I’ve been guild master. And don’t get me wrong, I love my people. Some of them have been around since Wrath or Cata.
But man, I feel tired. And that’s not to rag on anyone. It’s just me saying, you know? I’m kinda tired. I miss being someone who just showed up, and I don’t even really remember what that feels like anymore because I’ve been doing it for so long.
In reality, I know that when I give up guild master, I’d probably take a break from the game and quit. My people have made it clear that even if I handed GM off? I’d still be GM / dad. They call me dad, boss, you name it, I get called it all. And I lead them in other games too.
So I know my days of being guild master might come to an end at some point, but realistically, I don’t see it happening anytime soon. What about other long time guild masters? Are you tired, like I am?
I took over as GM of my guild in 2013, the guild’s previous GM (the guy who formed the guild on day 1 Kara) stepped down when his daughter was born. I had been an officer since Ruby Sanctum days.
amen.
Running a guild is a lot of work, stress and responsibility.
It makes me laugh a little (or cry maybe) when I see people post about how nothing in wow should stress you out because it’s just a game.
that doesn’t apply to people who want to maintain a successful (by whatever metric you choose to use) guild.
yea. when I hang up my hat, I’m hanging up the entire hat - both raid and GM. I’ve lead the guild through five (fingers crossed for six) CE’s, and I think when I’m done, that’s it. I don’t have any interest in raiding under someone else, or being in someone else’s guild.
Man, this hits home. I always think about how times had been different in other expansions and the amount of people who come, and go.
You know. The revolving door. Some people come in, they hang out, and they stay for the long haul. Other people leave after a tier or two. Legion was a high time. BFA was fine too. Shadowlands has hurt my guild significantly though, among other guilds I think.
I did think if any expansion was gonna take out the guild, and subsequently me as a guild master, it would have been WOD. Now I feel like it’ll be SL considering the way things have been going with the expansion, and how many of my people (rightfully) just don’t find it fun. I don’t blame them.
But then as GM, and you know this I’m sure, when people come and go you’re there with the pieces and you go “…Crap, now what?” And you have to somehow fix the mess other people leave behind. It’s very stressful! Guild Master is a lot of 52 pickup.
I can relate and honestly It’s such an underrated and under appreciated (at times) essential job in this game.
I was a GM from just before Ulduar to Throne of Thunder. On a semi-Hardcore (back then everyone was hardcore? lol) Raiding Guild. It took A LOT out of me.
To always have a competent full roster is quite frankly… a monumental task no matter what year of the game it is.
I manage dozens of people and big teams IRL, so It came naturally for me for the most part, but at one point I just felt like I was clocking in to do my job again but in-game haha. I had to walk away.
Don’t regret the experience, but certainly don’t regret being “one of the group” now either. I have enjoyed being mostly solo player and a mercenary of sorts. I can always manage to accomplish my goals.
Sometimes my eye twitches when I see things I can do better… but I let it go and remember Im here to have a good time, not improve metrics haha.
well the only guilds I am gm of are the ones I create just for me and my alts. Still a lot of work but I keep out the drama. I don’t mind people parking their alts in my guilds as long as they aren’t just there to rip off my guild bank. I don’t mind helping people but I don’t want to be the one doing all the work while they are siphoning off my guild bank for their main toons. I will still maintain my guild as it is just a place for me and my alts and reflects on my game play.
I was a guild master for 2 years, and was an officer in the guild for one year prior to that. In BFA, I stressed myself out and broke my back trying to create content for a guild that was admittedly dying. We were a RP guild, and many RPers left to Final Fantasy.
I eventually graduated college and got hired at my new job, which accelerated my career to my promotion, and I convinced myself that I didn’t need to do it anymore: the constant guilt of a dying guild, the burden I placed on myself to keep it alive. I eventually stepped down and guile hopped a bit.
Admittedly, I haven’t found a guild like my old one since. Seems a lot of the big RP guilds died on my server, especially with the new allegations. But I don’t really regret my choice to step down. Real life comes first. If I was offered another opportunity to become a GM, I’d likely decline. It was too much on my shoulders personally.
This is our tenth year. I created the guild and still guide the helm. I would be open to taking a break, but I have yet to come across anyone that would be a fit, and that is before they would want to do such a hare-brained thing. >.<
Things are changing. Just as Blizzard has to keep morphing aspects of their game in order to succeed in the market, I’m having to finally bow to the reality that Alliance is dead and move Hordeside. So in order to keep the guild running until we can cross-faction Raid/guild, we all moved over to the placeholder Sister Guild I created some time back in between raid releases. I consider our guild still ongoing since it was a full roster shift.
The last few months have been rough, personally, what with the addition of work that does not treat my schedule kindly. I am tired, and having to swap factions feels bad, even though I know it’s the correct choice. Right now, my guild members carry me through it, and I am thankful to have them. I do have high hopes for January with a shift change in the wind. My intent is to keep at it until my guild mates indicate that we’ve run our course.
There is something about holding space for others to meet, to have a touchpoint, that I find a worthy aim. I’m not spectacular at it, and I owe our longevity to the quality of our members, but I am persistent.
For the coming year I am interested in returning more to our roots, and focusing on our guild’s personal development. There is quite a bit that can be taken from the game and incorporated into the day-to-day world that is beneficial. Participating in an online group and pushing oneself in content and/or social challenges w/out the threat of loss of income is a powerful tool towards personal mastery. The trick is to hold that intention close consistently when you’re stuck on the third boss.
I’m in a guild that has elections about every 6 months and the positions change with a new GM. So far I have not seen any issues, other than the most recent GM who has been afk for a month. This is the first time that has happened.
I was leader of a huge guild in the MMO I played before WoW.
IT WAS A FULL TIME JOB.
And when WoW was wrapping up its beta phase and we all knew what was coming, I made it PLAINLY CLEAR: I was never going to be a GM ever again.
We all logged in on Day1 and formed the new guild… and SOMEONE ELSE was the leader.
BEST DECISION I HAVE EVER MADE IN MY LIFE.
I’ve never once regretted it, never once accepted an offer in the years since.
If it’s a “friends and family” type guild, less than 20 active members… then MAYBE.
But any medium-large sized guild is too much drama, too much work. Maybe you find that fun in your teens/early 20s, but in my 30s… I have ENOUGH OF THAT IN MY REAL LIFE!!! lol I come to this game to GET AWAY from all that! lol
since I moved all my toons to this account and realm as well as dismantling 2 guilds and guild banks while setting up this new guild and guild bank I can see I have a lot of work to do. Overloaded with bags and goblin glider kits right now. One full tab of just goblin glider kits. And so much in the food tab to sort through. From different levels of the game. And now I see I have 3 toons that are tailors. One in SL that needs to make some bags to upgrade her prof. Well I guess I’ll have to make some more toons to bring into the guild to use up some of the supplies and smooth things out. But then again it is my guild and I would never abandon it.
So, I was the GM of a guild from about halfway through 2020 until just before Thanksgiving, and let me tell you, when I finally passed the yoke off, I was so relieved. I didn’t hate my guild or the people in it, but between the roster churn and people burning out, it was extremely difficult every week to pull people together and try and get them excited to do guild functions.
In a way, I’m kind of glad because it’s helped me to enjoy WoW a bit more now that I don’t have people riding on my dedication to making sure things happen. I get to just sit back and press buttons and not have to worry anymore, it’s nice
I had been wondering if the responses would all be in this similar vein of “When I passed it off, things got so much better because X” and I had a feeling it would be the case. Reading it though is a bit different. It hits differently.
A big part of whether you burn out is if you get a good group of officers in place. If you have good people and a good organization, the guild practically runs itself. The only real drama comes in when someone steps over the line. You need to deal with that ASAP, because it sets the tone for the guild and lets people know the guild won’t tolerate any monkey business.
Because this was a social/family guild, WoD is what sank us. The Garrisons really did a number on the kind of folks that we had in the guild.[1] I don’t think any amount of Guild Intervention could have stayed the guild bleed out from Blizzard’s changes. Though sometimes I play what if games. I think things could have been drawn out longer, but with the population of people we had at the time, the accumulating changes would have eventually cleared the roster.
[1] - I had no idea how much was flowing through guild members in terms of raw mats. Just ore alone was maybe 20k or more a week. Plus cloth, enchanting mats, and all sorts of other goodies. For those people nothing in the newer expansions is going to really hold their interest.
