Our guild officially lost our first member to Rift this week, and unfortunately she was a key player for us in Wrath of the Lich King. She had not been online in a while, but we all assumed she was taking some time off and would be back eventually. For the amount that she loved WoW, we never would have guessed that she had moved on to Rift. However, she logged on this week, removed every toon she had from the guild, and said her brief goodbyes.
A few months back we had to remove a player from our guild who had been with us for quite some time and was an astounding tank. Unfortunately he just wasn’t fitting anymore and was finding joy in ticking people off. A few other people, feeling that the guild would not succeed or progress without him, decided to part ways with us as well. In the end we lost two great tanks, a healer, and a phenomenal dps.
What do you do when a key guild member leaves your guild?
This is a tough question, as one strong person leaving could completely decimate a guild. First thing you need to do is prepare a list of all the positive and negative effects that will happen with the loss of said player. If the negative side is far larger than the positive side a guild meeting definitely will need to be called. Have a list ready of all tasks this guild member did for your guild. Hopefully you will find another guild member, who has been waiting for their chance to prove themselves, to take on these tasks. Naturally, there will be a period of adjustment.
Word of advice; do not try to take on everything yourself. You probably all ready have your share of duties, and you may find the added responsibility building up quickly. For a more in depth look at this situation, I recommend watching The Weekly Marmot: Episode #64 http://youtu.be/aV2PQn4CY0U.
In our case with the member who left for Rift, we had players take up her roles before we realized where she had gone. With this being done, all we are really missing out on “game wise” is an astounding healer. As our guild considers its members as family, we are also losing out on a very sweet person and friend.
Many guilds will need to go on a recruitment mission to fill these missing roles. Again, there will be a period of adjustment for new guild members. The best way to help new guild members fit properly depends again on your guild. Practice runs will help drastically. Try getting a set group of guild members to take on gearing the newcomer and teaching them your guild’s strategies. Don’t forget to listen to what they have to contribute as well. You never know what neat little trick they’ve picked up along the way.
Now, I may get flamed for this, but I believe Rift is only a fad right now. It is a solid game and Trion has put a lot of effort into it. Unfortunately, for WoW players it’s a current escape from a game they insist they hate but for some reason cannot stop playing. All ready since Rift’s launch a fair amount of players have quit and returned to WoW.
What do you do when the guild member returns?
This can be tricky and all depends on how long they were gone for. Officer status being restored lies on the type of guild and the player in question. In our case, she would definitely be getting her officer title back. Getting their raid spot returned is a whole other matter. In no way should said player get their spot back for raids or rated battlegrounds. All it would accomplish is frustrating current raid members. However, put the returned guild member on a list of players you can call on if someone is unable to make it to the raid. Once they’ve proved themselves to be reliable and “good” for the group, they can be added as a permanent player in your raid or rated battleground.
I hope some of this will help your guilds remain intact. If you have any comments or some added suggestions feel free to leave them below. Don’t forget to follow me on twitter @akadarcee. I will be back next week with more tidbits of interest, and don’t forget to check out my game reviews every Tuesday.
No comments:
Post a Comment