MMO Weekly: Unnecessary Guild Drama

06 Jan 2011 at 02:09:19 by Jeff Hollis

Hey there, my online friends, and welcome to this week's dramatic edition of MMO Weekly.  In this week's episode, we'll talk about the business of running a guild inside your favorite MMO, and the drama that necessarily comes with it.  Whether or not this drama is worth putting up with is something that you'll have to decide for yourself. 

In discussing this with a friend earlier today, we found that we were on opposite sides of this issue.  Mind you, he and I are both old hands in the MMO biz, we've played so many different MMOs it's actually quite hard to count them all, and we've been members of (and occasional leaders of) a LOT of guilds. 

The one thing each of these guilds have in common is the drama factor.  Of course, what I'm referring to is the inevitable arguments, conflicts, and other dust ups that occur at some point in the guild's existence.  As my friend David pointed out, these are almost always unnecessary.  As I counter-pointed, it doesn't really matter if they're unnecessary, they are inevitable.  I've never been in a guild that didn't have drama.  In most of them, the drama is a fairly regular occurrence. 

Why do these arguments and disagreements occur?  Simply because most guilds are goal oriented, and because they are essentially competitive enterprises.  Whether your guild is a PvP guild, and everyone is trying to win battlegrounds, or whether it's a PvE guild, and everyone is trying to efficiently kill bosses, the problem is the same.  You can't win them all, and this causes frustration.  Also, there is only so much loot to go around, and everyone wants a piece of the pie.  That's not always going to happen.  If the Sword of Damocles is a rare drop, every fighter in the guild isn't going to get one, at least not any time soon.   This, again, causes frustration.  Frustration leads to arguments, and this rapidly turns into guild drama. 

To Bounce or Not to Bounce

The Pro-Bounce Argument:

David voiced his solution to all the drama that inevitably invades guilds.  Either you behave reasonably, or you're out.  As a guild leader, David opined that a strict no-drama policy could solve this problem.  What does this mean?  The first person who throws a fit when they don't get the Sword of Damocles gets summarily bounced, and kicked out of the guild.  The same holds true for the first person that gets all upset at the healer because he didn't get his heals.  Bounced.  Likewise, the person who bitches that the tank sucks, or the person that pisses and moans that the rogues aren't doing a good job of DPSing, or someone blames someone else for not picking up the spawns during a boss fight?  Bounced, bounced, and bounced. 

Would there be warnings?  For non-serious incidents (i.e., mini-dramas), of course there would.  In fact, you'd get a pair of warnings, but on the third offense, you're gone.  You'd be finished, kicked out of the guild, and made an example of. 

Bye bye, no turning back, see you around.  David is a no nonsense kind of guy. 

The Anti-Bounce Argument:

My solution to the drama that infects the guild is simply to put up with it.  You can make a big show of trying to keep the drama to a minimum, but the bottom line is this:  there will be drama, and you, the guild leader, aren't really going to kick anyone out over it.  You can talk about kicking people out, you can warn people, and you can bark like a big ol' dawg.  And you know what?  In almost every instance, you'll find an excuse to not actually kick anyone out of your guild. 

Think back on your own guild experience for a moment.  What happens when someone becomes all dramatic?  People start trying to appease them, calm them down, and otherwise get them to stop being dramatic so that everyone can get back to playing.  Also, try to remember a specific incident for a moment.  Whenever an important person threw a big ol' bitchfit and left the guild, was it because they got the boot?  No?  What, you're saying they didn't really get kicked out, but instead, they quit?

Why is this?  Because every guild leader knows, deep down inside, that if you start kicking people out of your guild for being dramatic, pretty soon you'll have an empty guild.  Pretty much everyone brings some drama at some point.  MMO gameplay pretty much provokes even the nicest people into getting frustrated, angry, or having a bitchfit of some kind.  

The Reality

Is there a solution to this problem?  Can MMO players co-exist in a drama free guild?  Is this even possible?

I'll speak candidly, folks.  I've been in a fair number of guilds, and I've never seen any guild avoid drama completely.  I've even been in a couple of odd guilds, in which the guild leadership was unusual, or the guild “government” was set up in a very unorthodox way.  The goal of these setups was to avoid guild drama, and enhance guild efficiency.  What was the end result?  You guessed it:  guild drama. 

Of course, the above is only my experience.  What do you think?  Has your experience been different?  Are there any tricks, tips, insights, or pointers you can offer here to your fellow readers?  I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. 

And that's all we have for this week, friends.  If you enjoyed this little scribblefest of speculative opinion, feel free to visit us over at our newest project, TORWars.com.  It's an online magazine dedicated to the upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, and a safe place for us to engage is this kind of near-insane unfounded speculation every day.  For now, ciao!

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