How To Start A Guild Properly
This is a guide for players who want to take on the challenge of building a guild and being able to keep it running and active.
First off there are 3 main things that you will need.
1) TIME: Obviously you will need to have to time to be able to get your guild running. It takes many hours planning and establishing what your guild is about and how you are recognized.
2) PATIENCE: It takes a while to get the guild going. Rome was not built in a day and neither will your guild. That I can promise you. It takes a while for even the name of the guild to get out there, so new members are not going to just be lining up to join the day you start. So just be patient, if you build it, they will come.
3) RESPECT: The most important quality a leader must have to own a guild. Respect MUST be shown to the devs, the players, the new players, other guild owners and members and so on. Every little thing you say that can bring your reputation down will affect your guild. So if you have a bad history with anyone I don't even suggest trying to start a guild unless you have turned your ways.
If you do not have any of these, do not even bother because you will most likely fail.
*Now before you start your guild I recommend you find your right hand man, the Co-Leader of your guild. You need to have someone to help you, to take care of things when you leave and so on. Make sure this person is very trustworthy, it is smart for this person to be one of your friends.
*Another thing before starting is you will need a website. All the big guilds have websites. If you want to be a good and big guild you will need one, period.
Things that the guild should incorporate is:
1) Guild Bank: A bank that holds all of the guilds gold and equipment. If you do not have one there will be little if no donations at all, because members will think the gold is just going to the leader. I recommend having a complete separate toon that holds all of the banks possessions, so things will not get mixed up.
2) Ranking: People love to advance in someway and having a ranking system in the guild is a very good idea. The more interesting and the more ranks you have will help keep your members involved with your guild. You could have things like having to make certain donations to rank up, which can only be good for the guild.
3) Events: This one is obvious, any good guild will have events for the members to compete in. Always have prizes for the winners, since they most certainly deserve it. The bigger the event and prizes the better. Holding more than one event at a time is good, however just make sure you are ready to handle it.
4) Forums: This you will need a website for. Forums are very important for a guild. Members need to be able to communicate, with ideas, suggestions, for fun and so on. I recommend have Forums no matter what. They just make your guild more involved and make all the members feel like they can contribute in some way.
5) Rules/Requirements: All guilds have rules and requirements. Without them there would be no structure and all types of players that you may not want to join might be bugging you to get in. Some guilds have very simple rules and some don't. Its all about how you want your guild to turn out. Be very smart with this one, the rules could make or break your guild.
Once you have all of these things put together, then you can start to advertise your guild. By this I mean NOW you can make your guild thread. I see to many players trying to start a guild with 2 paragraphs on their thread. Most do not make it. You have to have the structure built. This is the best way to get players to join. If you have a website already, which you should then your guild thread will be a breeze.
Hope this helps the players who want to try to build a guild. If you have any questions please PM me or post here.
Check out the other guilds to get a better idea of what to do. Click Here For Active Guilds.
Here are some DONTS for a guild:
1) Do not ask for your members ages or real names, this is a game, if they go ahead and tell you its because they trust you.
2) Do not break the STS Terms of Service, EVER!!
