Preparing the Guild for Cataclysm - Ranks

Before anything, GRATZ to my guildmates for downing Sindragosa! Keku and team really hit one out of the park, and I'm hoping they down the Lich King this week, too!

Cataclysm's right around the corner, and I'm excited because this expansion brings more powerful tools for guilds, rewards people in guilds for their achievements, and gives guilds reasons to do things together. The expansion does reward larger guilds, however. I'm guessing its because larger guilds are a little harder to maintain and manage.

I'm looking to put my guild right at the cutting edge of casual and hardcore. We have a very large number of dedicated members, but nowhere near the membership of some other large guilds. We have quality members, not a slew of impatient unloyal kids. Our members don't troll the trade chat, nor do they act like a bunch of spastic Halo/Call of Duty Xbox kids. Anytime we recruit anyone like that they usually leave on their own, or get the boot whenever their asses feel the need to disrespect someone (as seems to be normal with these children...)

Over the next few days I'll be outlining several guidelines as to how Unforgiving will be restructured, and the thought process behind it. Today will be foundation of the guilds organization: the ranks.

When you have a group of 8 - 12 pals, its easy to organize things. And all the guild achievements will still be available to small 12 man guilds. Sure. But those rewards aren't accumulating any quicker. Right now Unforgiving has 264 members over level 10 - and 152 of those already at Level 80 (I'm hoping to increase that in Cataclysm with more quality members by 50% before Spring 2011). With so many members wanting to do so many different things, a stable organizational foundation needs to be in place. Its much like how a company is run. Only not so much. It is a game, after all....

The ranks I'm looking at going into Cata stand as follows:

Guild Master - some bloke that works at playing a game
Guild Leaders - the eyes and ears and feet and hands and mouths and faces of the guild.
Recruiters - former officers, loyal members, players with valuable opinions, etc. This rank is as close to being an officer as can be. Their only real power will be to invite new members and maybe pull out some more from the guild bank than other members.
Raid Ready Tanks and Healers - they share a rank. Normally unless its a Paladin, you can tell who a tank is vs. who a healer is.
Raid Ready DPS - Facerollers
Casual 85s - the guild members that aren't ready to raid, don't want to raid, can't raid due to PC/Internet issues, no vent, etc.
Guild Member - anyone under 85 that's not on probation
Probee - someone on probation. Probation lasts until they're trusted members. participation on the guild forums helps speed up the process. facebook adding the guild also helps, as then there's a face connected to the member.
INACTIVE - anyone that hasn't been online in 2 months. Normally after 4 months they get the boot unless exempt for whatever reason.

The way the ranks are made, the only real promotion comes when a Probational member moves out that rank. Everything else is up to the individual player. hit 80 = Rank Increase. raid ready = Rank Increase.

I love the way this ranking system works. At a glance I can mouseover my info bar (titanbar, fubar, or any guildinfo broker-based addon) and the list of online guildmembers will pop down and list at-a-glance how many tanks or healers are online at a time when thinking about forming a raid into anything, or if i need to fill a dps slot, I can see whos online at that very moment and send a quick whisper. If I'm on an alt, and need to get someone invited, I can pull down the guildlist and see what recruiters are online that can send a quick guildinvite. It's plain and simple enough that any fool can see what the ranks mean. It's a lot simpler than trying to figure out what a 1st Lieutenant rank is vs. a Titan rank vs. a Destroyer rank vs. a Fodder rank.

I think these ranks take away the idea that favorites get promoted, and everyone else is just filler. It removes the notion that all the members are just there while the officers have an exclusive club. Which I think is just the philosophy a good guild will need in a game that rewards guild working together.

Next time I'll go over our guild ranks in relation to our guild bank, as well as start elaborating on our Guild Leaders' responsibility (or lack thereof) when it comes to the bank.