My first raiding guild in BC was led by a very, very self-centered warrior and a small group of his close officer buddies. He didn’t care about progression or gearing up guildies, and didn’t even bother to set up a working loot system (it was /roll, with dibs going to the GM’s friends.) There was no app process, or anything else you’d typically expect of a raiding guild. We were essentially a PuG with a common guild tag. Needless to say I was hungry for some real progression… and so were several others in the guild. We spoke up together to ask to begin T5 (we had been farming Mags and Gruul for months) and ended up rubbing the wrong way with the GM, so we all got gkicked. I have no regrets, because after that I started looking for more structured guilds to raid with.

There’s not much I have to say about my second GM, I never really got to know him. I joined a T6 raiding guild as a social member (because they were full up on Hunters) and the Hunter class lead basically stood between me and any chance of raiding in that guild. I don’t think the class lead liked me, because I was out-DPSing him in vastly inferior gear. People started getting lazy and not logging on for raids a few months before WotLK, so the guild more or less died.

My third raiding guild, and my last one before I transferred off of Blackhand, was interesting. The people were good. I thought the GM was, too, until after I left and things I hadn’t known before started to surface. The GM had formerly led another guild on Dragonmaw, but drama that got publicized on WoWInsider forced him to transfer and start anew. The problem that eventually drove me to transfer was similar to why people raised drama on Dragonmaw; he lacked empathy on a massive scale. It was clear that he cared about the guild, but more for his reputation than progression or the guild itself. He was also very stubborn and his ego dictated that banging heads against a boss that the guild wasn’t ready to down yet for an entire night was better than calling it and trying again tomorrow. If a guildie was having issues with the way he ran things, he didn’t try to talk it out, he simply gkicked. A lot of great players were lost that way.

After this third guild, my guild search went multiserver. In the past I had been limited by the availability of recruiting guilds on Blackhand. My fourth guild was on Dark Iron. The GM was well loved by the members and they unanimously voted to give the GM the first Twilight Drake that dropped when we downed Sarth+3. The problem was he didn’t seem to care much. He was a nice guy, but he would often log out an hour or two before the end of a raid if we were having issues/wiping. Not long after I joined the guild he stepped down, to be replaced by a new GM (also warrior, hey!) … this GM didn’t listen to the wishes of his guild members. He wanted a black proto drake, never mind whether the rest of us were up to tons of force wipes trying to get a particular achievement or not. Arguments and lots of instability, including officers gquitting, caused them to disband.

With Ulduar around the bend I was surprised to find that a lot of guilds are actually looking for Hunters o.o (this never happened in BC.) I managed to sign on with a top Horde guild on Gorgonnash (same battlegroup as Blackhand, irony)

This guild is interesting in that they actually don’t really have a GM-type figure. There are officers on the top platform, and that’s it. Each officer has an assigned role, ie recruiting, leading raids, healing, DPS, etc. It seems to be working.

Sophie (Elsen-Terenas-EU)s last blog post..Updates

He originally started out as a lock named Swordemon, and then switched.
I thought he was a good gm: good natured, able to tell people whats up, and he wanted us to have fun.

One thing that he couldn’t help was that he sounded a little High-pitched… and so no one really took him all too seriously.

I’m really sad that the guild fell apart, as I thought he was a great GM. But there weren’t enough people in the guild who were mature enough and serious enough to take advantage of his leadership.

tbh, my GM is the reason why our guild is still standing, along with some other officers, i don’t like to look like someone who ‘s trying to get a raise but he has some good qualities that keep us up :

- Enthusiasm
- Good Coordination with the rest of guldies
- Professionalism
- Firm when needed
- has Integrity
- Present at all raids

what i like mostly about him is that he always asking about other classes abilities in order to learn what can help in composing a raid .

and most of all, he treats us all with resepct, and he takes the GL position like a RL position with all the pain and headache it gives, becuz ofc in every guild there will be problems, although he is not forced to handle all this, but his passion for the game drives him to do this, and yes, i found my self compelled to talk about him when i saw the title to prove that other Guild leaders can be just wonderful

thank u

PS: he s a resto druid why i have a feeling healers usually make good GL, matt ?

I think it was http://blessingofkings.blogspot.com, but I’ve searched back a bit and can’t find it to quote there, so it may have been someone else, and if so, I apologise.

Someone posted that everyone who plays less than you isn’t dedicated enough and doesn’t deserve the loot. Everyone who plays more than you has no life. Isn’t it great that _you_ managed to find a balance?

But I have to agree that enthusiasm is the most important quaility a GL can possess. I am not a walking WoWwiki or a master of every class and spec (though I’m trying!) but I care more about my guild and their happiness than I do for just about any other thing in my life. I have a passion for this game and this guild that I’d like to think excuses the mistakes, poor judgement calls and occasional lapses in composure that happen to all human beings.

At least I hope so.

Oriniwens last blog post..It’s a Whole New Game

I laughed when I read this, and I mean absolutely no disrespect to the poster in saying that, but the first thought was, “Oh, if only!”

I am the Commandant (GM) of the Damnation Army, which I founded and have had the privilege of presiding over for nearly a year. We follow a strict hierarchy system for ranking as befitting a paramilitary town defense unit. And I can assure you that as difficult as recruitment might be, it can seem easy when compared with some of the other responsibilities and obligations we have to maintain.

Often overlooked is that, for us, there is no ‘off button.’ We don’t have the liberty of being able to log on and go mindlessly level or find some peace and quiet (that’s what ‘hidden’ alts are for). There is always something that needs planning, organising, checking up on, or following through with, in order to maintain a well-run guild. I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished, now being the premier town-defense guild on our server, but speaking from experience I don’t think for a moment that Matt is over-analysing or taking this too seriously. He is new to the position, and in time, his visions will translate into experience. Some of his visions will fail, some will wither and fade away, a chiseling process where imaginations of one’s mind meets the reality of involving other people. And with some perseverence and luck (and I’m a big believer in the adage ‘hard work creates its own luck’) Conquest will grow and develop in the direction he’s steering it, even after the First Big Crisis arrives to test him (and it *will* come).

I’ve yet to meet a single player who was worth a damn who didn’t take the game seriously (and by that, I don’t necessarily mean being a mirthless stuffed shirt, mind, but rather simply having a focus and desire to excel). I think most anyone here posting and reading this probably fall to a good degree in this category- after all, why bother to read this kind of blog if you didn’t? But as Matt transitions from being ‘just’ a healer and into a GM as well, I’m looking forward to reading perspectives on both topics.

Apoptygmaas last blog post..Damnation Army in Retributive Strike on Stormwind