Because government is conceived by the people, it must uphold the interests of the people, lest its purpose be defeated. Responsible government is a principle that attempts to achieve this by giving the people a direct say, or at least allow them to elect representatives. Under this framework, the government becomes directly responsible or accountable to the citizens it governs.
This widely accepted (by many democratic countries) principle can readily be applied to guild leadership in World of Warcraft. The guild's officers simply need to act in the best interests of the membership.
In GM we trust
The guild master (GM) is the head of the guild. They have the power to invite, promote, demote and kick members, as well as have free access to the guild bank (gbank) and guild/player/GMotD notes. They have the final say in the guild policies, including loot distribution and use of the gbank. The first in the line would have held the guild charter moments before the guild's foundation.
The GM controls the very existence of every player in the guild and possesses all other administrative responsibilities. They may or may not delegate these responsibilities to other officers.
To be able to act responsibly as GM, the person should be able to identify issues and properly deal with them, keeping in mind the purpose of the guild. This may involve eliciting and easing concerns held by guild members, and will require initiative and foresight.
Collective wealth
As a guild runs, it may accumulate resources, which all members of the guild have a share in. These would be held in the gbank for all to see. Perhaps, in the interests of security, only officers and the GM will be allowed to handle its contents on behalf of the guild. Perhaps the guild would want a guild banker to specifically deal with this matter.
While the guild banker cannot stay online 24/7 to handle every single transaction, they would be expected to honour the bulk of them. Whatever resources the guild has in surplus, the guild banker would use for obtaining resources in shortage. Since only the GM can change gbank permissions (unless if they are also a guild banker), the guild banker needs to recognise changing needs and recommend appropriate tweaks in them.
Since gold and items do not leave an obvious trail of exchanges, and Blizzard does not publicly disclose their trade logs (if any), a high level of trust is placed on a guild banker. They should be able to identify the guild’s material needs and stock the gbank accordingly. They should adopt policies to make the gbank accessible, both with handling transactions and explaining the gbank logs. Most importantly, they are expected to handle the guild’s collective wealth with honesty and due care, so as not to violate a fiduciary duty to the guild.
Leading the herd
While free will is highly desirable, it can easily lead to a lack of coordination when different people want to do different things. Even for a goal of downing a raid boss, there are still so many available options and particular combinations make or break the attempt. There arises a need for a player to lead the raid group, a raid leader.
A raid leader is expected to coordinate the actions of the raid group in order to clear the raid instance. This may involve assigning tanks, healing and crowd-control, as well as advising on a strategy to down NPCs. These responsibilities may be delegated to one or more role or class leaders.
In deciding on a strategy, the raid leader must be able to take into consideration the composition of the raid group and each players' particular strengths. If a strategy does not work, its weaknesses are to be considered and omitted in the next strategy. Where the raid does not learn the bosses purely through experience, the raid leader is expected to research pre-existing strategies and properly incorporate their strengths into the current raid's strategy.
ἄτομος (atomos, or "cannot be divided")
A boss is downed, and loot drops. Unfortunately, there are only a few pieces, lots of raiders, and each piece of loot cannot be split. Were the raid group prepared, they would have agreed on a loot policy beforehand and entrusted a loot master to exercise it.
The loot master's role varies depending on the guild's loot policy. If a /roll system were used, they would simply recognise the highest/lowest/etc. roll for a piece and assign it to the winner. Under a points system, they would need to maintain the points schedule and use it in deciding on the winner. Were a loot council was formed to decide on winners, the loot master is their actuator and would simply act on the council's direction.
In all cases, similar to the guild banker, the loot master is given a large amount of trust to follow policy. Also, where a case arises that the loot policy does not matter, the loot master would be expected to exercise good judgement and consider the guild's interests to properly assign loot, either by consulting the raid directly or, if the popular opinion is absurd, give sufficient reason for any deviation from it.
Keeping it under control
Despite these responsibilities to keep the guild under control, there still arises the issue of general order in the guild. Often, the chaotic tendency in a person will prevail and upset it. One or several officers would need to bear responsibility as moderators and handle such situations.
Since the guild exists for the members, the members have a basic responsibility to shape the atmosphere and should initially take it upon themselves to stabilise the situation. Of course, any moderators online at the time should assist. Where comforting talk fails, the moderator's power to kick members may need to be invoked.
A moderator is to exercise restraint with the beforementioned power. Proper judgement is to be used in deciding whether to revoke /g talk privileges (by demoting to a subordinate rank) or remove any offender from the guild. They are to know the guild's expectations for conduct and use that knowledge in their judgement, giving sufficient reasoning to the offender for any decision to mute/remove them.
WoW's guild system: a final note
A guild's members cannot simply elect a new GM when desired, since only the current GM has the power to assign their successor. In some guilds, the current GM is expected to act in good faith and pass the office when the membership requires it. Ultimately, the GM rules over the guild by decree, though there still remains some level of responsible governance. If a member does not like the way the guild is run, they can simply /gquit and find another one.
Epic was here :)
ReplyDeleteEpic was here again :p
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