Member Discussion

What a G M Does - transparency, questions and nominations

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I'm posting this as a new topic primarily because There's been some hubbub about who the GM of our guild presently is. 

What a GM primarily does - A GM can do these things for a guild

  • Approve members into the guild (Ast's and Guild officers can do this)
  • Promote members into positions like Ast GM's and Officers. (Ast GM's and Guild Officers can promote people too)
  • Upgrade the guild (which at this point is moot because our guild is at max level for everything).
  • Run the Guild Tree
  • Run the Guild Altar
  • Add people to Guild Battle (Ast GM's and Guild Officers can also do this).
  • GM's and Ast GM's can also kick people from the guild and demote them.
  • Can post a recruit members post in World Chat to get new members.

And that's about it.

What a good GM does is:

  • Hold Guild Tree at consistent times through the week.
  • Run Guild Altar at least once a week.
  • Keep trying to recruit members (Ast GM's have a part in doing this too).
  • Help out lower level members and assist by giving advice when asked.
  • Helps people finish up their daily quests.
  • Talks to their members about things that affect the guild.

And that's about it.

What I'm striving to do is all of the above, and a bit more by making this forum which, while not very big as of this writing might be useful to a lot of people.

The number 1 thing that a good GM does to help their guild, is to be consistent. It's difficult at times. A GM is a human being and they do have an IRL concerns and lives.

I'll continue on with this post a bit later but just wanted to give people an idea of what I was talking about.

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This is going to be a rambly post:

A point about handling conflict and Transparency

This is more my opinion at the moment, so keep that in mind.

Conflicts in guilds happen. Guilds split, people leave, and sometimes people end up in positions they don't know how they got into.

As many know there have been some conflicts and I want to in part apologize for those conflicts, but I believe there's a time and place for up front transparency in a guild. Keeping things restricted to PM's can lead to a lot of unhelpful rumors. For the sake of this thread though I won't mention names, and I have to say before going on a lot of the people here and afar are very good, friendly, lovely, players, it's just that conflicts in guilds happen.

As many of you know recently a certain member was banned. Typically before a banning and ideally a GM would talk with this person over PM and at least tell them to cool it. That didn't happen with the person... primarily because it had happened multiple other times, this person was kicked and this was the last straw. I called them out over Guild Chat which again I wouldn't normally do, but I did, and I know it's hypocritical to our guild rules which had at that point just been newly minted and are still open for suggestions and additions. I felt it was necessary with this person for a few reasons. Namely I wanted the guild to know exactly what was said so there would be no confusion about it or hearsay. Following this person's ban we ended up losing a number of members who left of their own volition. I pretty much knew that would happen as did others.

I was also similarly transparent over another more recent event with a much beloved guild member who left. I'm really sad about that one, but again I think it's important to tell people flat out what had gone on. I would normally not do that. I would've kept things to PM. This person was a friend to me since the first days of the server's opening. I was sad that they left. Again we lost more members.

I should also add to this the event of our former GM who left of his own volition without explanation. I really had no part in that. We lost a lot of members in that event. As stated before it's happened before, there was nothing I nor anyone else could do about it once things were over.

All these events have taken an actual emotional toll on me. I'm not looking for sympathy here, but just to make the point that I'm human. Even though this is "just a game". I've known many of these individuals as friends since the server started in June or July of 2014. I still consider many of them friends and many of them are still decent good players whether or not they're in our guild. Still I've outright wanted to rage quit the game recently. I likely won't do it though. Just know that when a guild splits, it isn't pretty. We've lost a lot of good players in our guild because other people chose to leave. It's their own choice, and there's nothing I nor anyone else can do about it, except to maintain an open door policy. People who left can come back, our members are welcome to come and go as they like, although personally please tell us why? If there's something that need fixing please tell me or an Ast GM. That would be very useful information :)

So now we have very slimmed down guild, but I don't think that's a bad thing. We have a fresh base to start on. Where our guild goes is up to our active members.

All that said there was mention of a few good ideas I really do like.

Rotating GM's - I like this idea. The reason it was scrapped was because less than accurate polls were cast (to my understanding)... namely we had more votes than guild members and for people who honestly, Ast and GM's didn't know. A month after the idea was floated it was unofficially scrapped by a former GM. I don't blame him for doing it. The main threat in rotating GM's is that if someone is promoted to GM will they give the position back after their month is up. Keep in mind GM's can kick people (all people) if they want to. They can do a LOT of damage. Which means this position has to go to someone who is reliable and trustworthy. We had a situation in the past where a GM left and the role was handed down eventually to me, but not before half the guild was pointlessly kicked (as in I don't think they asked for it, but it was a while ago so I don't wholly remember).

So thoughts? Feelings?

I'm open to suggestions.

About PhoenixS15

Phoenix S15 on Wartune - Kongregate


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