On Commitment & Responsibility

June 3, 2008 on 11:55 am | In Uncategorized |

This is going to be somewhat brief and to the point, and I’m not going to get into specifics, because I don’t want to blast drama across the internet. However, AC as a guild has run across this situation a couple times now, and I’d like to make sure people think about things like this before they jump in.

When you are accepted as a member of a guild, and you are given the go ahead that you can raid with them if you want to, please, please think very carefully before you say “yes.”

A lot of people come into a situation thinking about all the fun and cool things that can happen joining a new guild. But then after only one or two raids of participation, something else catches their attention - a new MMO, a new alt, whatever. And then said person misses a raid or two. Then the delay game begins.

“Well, you know, I have to do X, but I should be able to raid again in a couple weeks.”

“I’m just burnt out on it right now, give me a little bit.”

“X real-life commitment is tougher than I thought, but I should be able to work it out.”

Here is the problem. Raiding guilds, especially casual ones like AC, have to maintain something of a delicate balance. A hardcore guild can recruit 30 people or so and say “we require 90% attendance.” But since we have no attendance requirements, we have to maintain enough of a raider base so that when some people don’t show up, raid can still happen. Conversely, we can’t recruit TOO many more people than a full raid, otherwise people don’t get to raid enough because they’re being switched out all the time, and get fed up and leave. It’s a balancing game, taking into account many people’s RL schedules and trying to fit them into a puzzle.

So when a casual guild accepts you, it means they are depending on you to live up to your commitment. Even more so if they have shuffled around the raiding roster or group roles in order to accommodate you. And if you hang around, not raiding, but still saying “just a little more time and I should be back on the bandwagon,” you create a problem. The guild can’t necessarily recruit to replace you, because you’re saying you will be back, and when you do people’s raiding opportunities have to get split up that much more. At the same time, when you’re not showing up, they’re stretching more and more to cover your slot, trying to keep raid momentum going while shorthanded. The problem only multiplies if two or more people start doing the same thing.

So, from a guild leader, please, please look at things from the guild’s point of view for a moment, before you decide to take the plunge. At least personally, if someone made a full effort for at least a couple/few months, and then something came up, I can understand it. But sporadic attendance, or promising you’ll be raiding real soon now, is worse than never showing up at all. It can threaten to stall a guild’s progress, which leads to more people not showing up, which exacerbates the problem, and so on. It’s a real mess to clean up.

Please don’t be That Guy. :P

(This has been a public service announcement from Stressed Guild Leaders of Azeroth)

8 Comments »

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  1. I’m sorry to hear that you’re having commitment/attendance problems. Sadly, I’m also a little relieved that it’s not just my little casual guild facing this. If you work out any good solutions, please post them as I would love to find a good way of getting through this. All the best!

    Comment by Joel — June 3, 2008 #

  2. A guild leader myself, I’ve seen this problem before as well. One idea is to have a probationary period (my guild’s is 1 month) during which time new members are free to signup for raids or whatever, but the guild knows that they are new and can alert the leadership if something odd is going on.

    As far as attendance specifically, we are also a casual guild, and unless the raid is newbie focused (starter Kara raid, etc) we suggest that interested people signup for the waitlist, they may get a chance to run if someone is unavailable, or someone can see that they want to go and offer their spot for the week, either of which lets the raid get to know the person, and the person get to know the feel of the raid, without a static spot being given away right from the start.

    Comment by Feather — June 3, 2008 #

  3. […] IRL has a good post » On Commitment & Responsibility for raiding. We seem to be struggling a little bit with this lately - school’s ended for some […]

    Pingback by Joel’s Scattered Thoughts » Blog Archive » On Commitment & Responsibility — June 3, 2008 #

  4. We are having the same issues at present. I don’t know if it is directly related to Age of Conan or just a general exam type period. For the first few months of this year we had great turn out for 25 mans and had some good progression. The last few weeks seems like everyone has had something on and we struggle to fill a 25 man.

    I ave also noticed that many of the higher progression raiding guilds have been very active in recruitment of late. We have lost out two main tanks this last fortnight to top end guilds and I know several other of our geared raiders are getting bored and looking around.

    It is a shame how quickly things can go pear shaped in a semi casual raiding guild.

    Hope it works out for you.

    Cheers

    Kolan

    Comment by Kolan — June 3, 2008 #

  5. I don’t think having an attendance policy is the difference between having people show up and not. Just like others have said, the combination of school letting out, sunny weather, and where we are in the game (people already thinking about WotLK like it’s coming out next month) affects even hardcore 25-man raiding guilds.

    The difference is we have a clear cut method of determining if people will continue raiding with us or not. Miss more than 2 raids a week for a month and we reserve the option to demote and replace you. What you’re facing is more of a grey area where there’s no line in the sand, so people string you along.

    That being said, just because you’re casual it doesn’t mean you are at the whim of your guild mates, though. Having signups and some sort of system to keep track of who shows up more often would probably help. Make it known that the higher attenders get raid invite priority. You could even tie it to loot priority.

    It’s your guild. “Casual” doesn’t mean “disorganized” or “powerless to direct the guild where you want to go.” :D

    Comment by Valyre — June 4, 2008 #

  6. I’d say I totally agree. We had a plan and set people to try to run 2 Kara groups. The first week went off without much issue but following weeks became hassles as we had to fill in gaps. Which brings us to now just doing one Kara group a week. Unless enough people on Saturday decide they want to go. It seems like an unspoken thing when they agree to raid and most people get that but others I think almost have to be directly told about it.

    Comment by sonvar — June 4, 2008 #

  7. I think this is just the nature of the beast. If you are in a casual raid guild you are eitehr burned out from hardcore raiding and need a break from teh demands of the “job” or you dont have enough time to give a hardcore guild due to RL stuff and like to have the option of not having to be there. If only there could be some sort of middle ground guild setup where raid attenedance isn’t required but the group is set and running each time with 95% predictibility and reliability. Maybe we can call it a casualcore raid guild.

    Comment by Jagerbombz — June 5, 2008 #

  8. Really well said ~ :)

    Comment by Monique — June 9, 2008 #

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