TDH Part 3: Growing the Guild

At this point, (early summer 2005) the guild was a purely social organization. I viewed it as a way of expanding my social network inside the game. I didn't know what a raiding guild was, and wasn't too interested to find out. The thing is, the top guilds had an elitist air about them, intentional or not. I remember trying to PvP (player vs. player, i.e. fighting teams of Alliance in games of capture the flag) and being removed from groups to make way for "Hell" and "Virtus" members. It was not a good feeling. Also, I had little interest in doing what it takes to be "included" by what looked like a group of 12 year olds. (I imagine it involves being self-aggrandizing beyond the limits of good taste though I have never put this to the test)The guild was a place in the game where not only could I feel included, but could include friendly people as well. This was my goal, to grow the ranks of Two Dollar Horde while trying to select for the friendliest people. I was sure they were out there, and probably as annoyed with the current balance of power as I was.

Towards this end of recruiting as many friendly people as possible I instituted two radical policies: One, anyone in the guild had "invite" capabilities (the ability to add another player to the guild). This ability to invite new members is usually reserved for "guild officers". Two, the recruiting criteria was simple. The game allows you to wave at other players by putting a "/" before the word wave when typing. I would /wave at people and if they responded with a return /wave or /cheer I'd invite them into the guild no questions asked.

The guild grew in spurts and bubbles. You'd occasionally invite a "connector" who would bring in 2-4 of his/her own friends. We grew to around 75 characters this way. Since some players (Real-Life Humans) had multiple characters in the guild, we probably had close to 30 real unique players. I didn't really attempt to govern the guild in any way, nor was it needed. Much to my surprise, new recruits praised my leadership. They said that the guild atmposphere was much friendlier than their previous guilds. Lesson one of leadership: As a leader, people will like you by default as long as you don't attempt to exercise power. Lesson two: recruiting friendly players had, surprise, created a friendly sociable guild. Thus we had two main assets: A funny guild name and a pool of friendly players.

Throughout this early stage, we had no turnover whatsoever. We also had no appreciable "Drama" in guild chat. Demographically, we skewed somewhat older than average (I have no statistics to back up what the average WoW player's age is, but the average age in our guild was 28). Further, as luck had it, a sizeable core group of our players knew each other online from playing "Everquest" (EQ). Apparently, some of them had originally thought I was a friend of their who had played by the name "Aardvark" in EQ. I dispelled this rumor to everyone's surprise after a few months. Strange how a case of mistaken Identity can be exacerbated by the anonymity of the game. In any event, we became known as "that Everquest guild". I felt this was a dubious distinction. I heard the adjective "Carebear" used to describe us at several points.

Since PvP was my main focus in the game, (I love team vs. team competition) I wound up building up a reputation with the other PvP regulars. I started being asked to fill in spots on the "good player" teams when their guildies weren't around. My character class in the game, Hunter, played to my own strengths. The hunter has a sort of "radar" in the game so I made it my mission to act as an AWACS in games of capture the flag. I didn't have the gear to compete with the best alliance players one on one, but I could sure as hell vector my team of better-equipped players to crucial points.

My own reputation blended with that of my guild mates. We began to be known as a PvP guild, which was something that I was much more interested in. Being known for battlefield ferocity is far superior to being known as a Carebear IMHO.

The guild was established. We grew briskly. Our first brush with the cruel hand of "Guild Drama" was just around the corner.