I have tapped into my experiences as a World of Warcraft guild/raid leader to draw parallels to real-life community management.

1. TOP 10 BEST PRACTICES
INWORLD OF WARCRAFT
GUILD MANAGEMENT
…AND HOWTHEYTRANSLATETO
REAL LIFE COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
-It takes a community to slay a dragon-
By Ryan Meiselman

2. PersonalizingYour Structure
• 1 Leader or multiple Co-Leaders?
-Make sure you have an appropriate
number of leaders for your guild
structure.
• Having a good group of officers is
crucial to a successful guild, because it’s
impossible for one person to make
everything run smoothly.
• Only give an officer rank to someone
you trust completely with guild affairs.
A bad officer can cause a lot of issues.
• Have several ranks of players, from
recruits to officers or leaders and
everything in-between. Make moving
up in rank a big deal, or else nobody will
take the rankings seriously
Real-life connection:
One size does not fit all.
Intelligently customize
your community structure
to meet the needs of the
community.

3. Effective Money and Item Management
Real-life connection:
Be unique, set yourself
apart from your
competitors, and offer
special benefits to draw
in new people.
• A bit of investment into a large guild
bank may be beneficial, as it is
something that can attract new
members to joining, and prevents
current members from leaving.
• Guild repairs are often very sought-after,
but unfortunately this is a huge expense.
Perhaps try offering temporary repairs
as a reward for loyalty or good
performance.
• Item management within the guild bank
is also crucial, as you want to help your
members, new and old, with their
affairs, but you cant give everything
away to the first person who asks for it.

4. Guild Recruitment
• Know your audience - if you
want to attract certain types
of players, cater your
recruitment towards those
players.
• If you are recruiting for a
raid or some other
important guild position,
make absolute sure that you
want this person before
adding them to the guild.
• Be concise, but unique in
your recruitment messages
Real-life connection:
Tailor your marketing and
advertisement to those you
wish to attract into your
community.

5. Raid Management
• Sometimes a guild leader will also act as
raid leader, but sometimes the guild
leader will appoint someone he/she
thinks would be better for the job.This is
up to you.
• Raid item management is important,
specifically the type of loot system used.
Make sure you have the right loot
system, and if it doesn’t work out, don’t
hesitate to change it up.
• There will be a number of sellable items that
drop in raids. Most guilds choose to sell these
items for guild bank profit or use them to
craft new gear for raiders.You must make
sure everyone involved is on the same page
to avoid conflict.
Real-life connection:
Clear communication is the cornerstone to
keeping your community and its leaders happy.

6. Maintaining Guild Image
• Only appoint an officer rank only to
those who will uphold the
reputation you want for your guild.
• Feel free to recruit anybody who
wants to join your guild, but be
weary that people may not have
the best of intentions.
• If you want to be more selective
about people, go for it, but realize
that your numbers will be much
lower because of it.
• If starting anew on a new server or
character, think of it as a clean
slate. Make connections and a good
name for yourself on this server,
and people will know you.
Real-life connection:
The image of the
community will
determine its ability to
attract new members.

7. Dealing with Bad Reputation
• If an incident occurs that damages
the image of the guild or its
members, deal with it swiftly and
thoroughly. Something small can
evolve into something much bigger
if you don’t deal with it right away.
• If said incident involves select
members of your guild, punish them
or risk people thinking you tolerate
such behavior in your guild.
Real-life connection:
A bad apple can spoil
the entire harvest.
Aggressively uphold
your community’s
standards, or risk
ruining its integrity.

8. Guild Outreach and Inclusion
• Make sure everyone in your guild feels included
and important in some way.
• If you have a server on aVOIP program such as
Ventrilo orTeamspeak, make sure that many, if
not all, of your guild members have access to said
server.Vocal communication with your guild is
very important in establishing lasting members.
• Simply having a lively discussion going on in your
guild chat works miracles for the sense of
community felt by your guild members. Even if
it’s something simple like saying congratulations
for a level-up, every little bit helps the vibe.
Real-life connection:
Make sure your
community members
feel valued and
appreciated. Positive
reinforcement for
contributions will
make individuals feel
included.

9. Guild Events
• Building a sense of
community is absolutely
paramount for having a
successful and fun guild.
• One popular way to do this is
to hold guild events.These
events can be anything from
a trivia contest to a
scavenger hunt to leveling up
fresh characters together
during a specific time.
• If you happen to do events
that cater more towards max-
level players, such as dungeon
runs and raids, make sure you
also plan events for the lower-
leveled players, too.
• Real-life connection:
• Special events help build
and reinforce a strong
sense of community.

10. Inter-Guild and Server Relations
• Forming friendships and alliances with
the other guilds on your server’s faction is
a great idea, not only because it
promotes camaraderie, but it can also be
very beneficial to everyone involved.
• Tight-knit guilds who are into endgame
raiding will particularly benefit from
these types of inter-guild relationships
because of the nature of raiding. It
provides both guilds with a greater player
base of max-leveled characters.
• Real-life connection:
• Collaborate and intermingle with
your community with others to
increase their value to their
members. Everyone wins!

11. Out of Game Responsibilities and Costs
• Being a guild leader has certain
responsibilities associated with it, but it
also may come with some real-world
costs.
• Most serious guilds will have a server for
aVOIP program such asVentrilo or
Teamspeak, and said server costs
money, usually in a monthly fee.Work
out how you(and possibly your officers)
will pay this fee.
• Most guilds also have some sort of web
presence.This site is usually a place
containing a forum, event calendar, and
other things related to the guild.This
usually will not cost money, but it
requires a certain amount of
maintenance and start-up work.
• Real-life connection:
• You may need to invest in
infrastructure to make your
community as you plan it to be.
Cutting corners on spending may
hinder early progress.

12. Thank you!
• Who I am:
• Ryan Meiselman -
Community Management
Student at Hampshire
College
• Edgaralanbro – Level 90
Orc Hunter, co-leader of
<Broner Patrol>
• How you can reach me:
• Twitter: @Rmeiselman
• LinkedIn: Ryan Meiselman
• SteamID: RMeiselman