I have a theory and let me know if you think this is accurate or not! I firmly believe that Guild Reputation is a very negative force in WoW. Never before have people been so dependent on Guilds for support than now, which could have been a good thing, but the way Blizzard went with the notion ended up being a strong negative element.
Let me start by saying that we all know there is no qualifying factor in becoming a Guild Master. You can be 12 years old or the CEO of major corporation, you may never had a job in your life or a second of experience managing other people or a system as intricate as Guild politics and still become a GM. That being said, the WoW community did a very good job of regulating Guilds. Guilds that had unstable leadership almost always fell apart, and if you had a misunderstanding or got a better offer from another Guild you could leave with no qualms.
As a GM under the old system of controls, I constantly was checking myself again the happiness and satisfaction my guild members. Being a trained leader in the private sector, I still found it difficult to please everyone, and many people left for things could have been resolved. This aspect was frustrating, when the news was released that they would be making changes to game so that Guilds represented more value than just a place to hang out and make friends, I was very excited. It had the promise of making it a choice and a choice that represents value. I envisioned the system being such that if you had a beef you would try to voice that opinion instead of leaving in order to work things out and preserve your status in the guild.
The current system works that way, however, Blizzard went so overboard with this concept that many Guild Masters including my own have turned into mini Stalins. Stalin (really all bloody dictators) was notorious for making dissidence and protestors disappear, when the news got out someone had disappeared in the community the shock wave of fear silenced everyone into compliance. My hypothesis is that a lot of GMs, including my own, have become little autocratic dictators...why? Simply because they can.
Blizzard has made it extremely difficult to gain Guild reputation, to the extent where you are looking at between 2 and 4 months to earn the higher levels of reputation. The choice of leaving a guild right now isn't a choice at all. You leave you lose months of work. You leave, you lose all perks that the guild had "earned", you leave you are setback almost irrevocably. If you dissent you are removed, and the rest of us are silenced...it could happen to me next.
Guild Masters have become wise to this fact and, I believe, many have given into the temptation of absolute power. No longer do you have to be flexible and adjust your leadership style based on the morale or guild performance. You no longer have to worry about negative feedback or dissidence. The false choice of leaving a guild forces members who aren't willing to lose a monumental amount of work into compliance. I have also noticed in my personal experience is that these leaders who turn a deaf ear to their members and become autocrats begin to believe they are doing well as leaders because of the membership stability of the rank and file. These members, however unhappy, continue to do the dailies and build other forms of reputation which go to bolster the guild, regardless of the members willingness to do this. The guild continues to earn achievements and greater perks, even though the majority of the members would just as soon break their GMs computer as give them credit for the Guild's success.
So what we have in Warcraft now are massive amounts of people under the thumbs of dictatorial Guild Masters who are unresponsive to their needs and absolutely nothing they can do about it. Well today, I did something about it, I left my guild and lost 2 months of work (11000 reputation points). I will post later on with what I find as far as how difficult it is to earn that reputation back with a guild deserving of my support.
It will get easier. People every day are losing guildies and it sucks. (As the GM of my guild, it hurts to lose any guildie, because I, as their Glead, have failed them.
ReplyDeleteBut there are some GOOD guilds that deserve supportive active helpful members.