It is our experience that a guild cannot become both large and long lasting, if mass recruiting is the norm. More than 80 percent of The Syndicate has been with us anywhere from one to nine years. Because of our low turnover, we recruit only to fill newly open spots in our ranks, usually coming from members needing to leave online gaming for medical, parental/spousal or job-related reasons. Once in a blue moon, we have to remove a member or someone quits for another guild, and we will recruit to replace that person.
To join The Syndicate, we require several things. First, a recruit must share our goals, vision and play style. It would do us no good, and the recruit a disservice, to add someone who was looking for something from the guild other than what we offer. Second, we only add people who are team focused and who are friend focused. Part of why we are successful is that members are just as happy helping a fellow member achieve a goal or in seeing a fellow member winning a piece of loot, as they are advancing their own characters. Third, we seek members who understand the hierarchy in the guild and wish to be in a guild that operates in such a manner. Membership won't last long if the recruit is constantly at odds with how we do things internally. Fourth, we must know the recruit well.
The first three conditions cannot be accurately judged with a simple questionnaire. We must really get to know the person well, often over weeks or months, and then we will consider encouraging them apply to join.
Structure
In order for a guild to succeed, decisions need to be made and a method for accountability for those decisions needs to be designed. There are a number of different structures a guild can take to achieve that goal. Some guilds use a council. Some guilds use democracy. The Syndicate uses what we term a benevolent dictatorship. In a nutshell, the guildmaster, Dragons, makes all decisions and guild policy, and ultimately takes responsibility should any of those decisions turn out to be incorrect. However, decisions are not made in a vacuum. Feedback is strongly encouraged and decisions are made based on that feedback and past experiences.
Under Dragons are two advisors (Grif and Dargus). In the event a policy decision has to be made, and Dragons is unavailable, they do so. Under them is a cadre of Squad Leaders. Often, but not always, these are long-time members. In all cases, they know the guild inside and out. The squad leaders are charged with enforcing guild policies and helping to run the guild on a day-to-day basis. Every squad leader has an assigned portion of the guild that they keep informed, help resolve issues for and generally help move toward the guild's goals. The squad leaders are also a primary source of feedback for future policy decisions, as they take the pulse of the guild by talking with their squads on a day-to-day basis.
Creating a guild is relatively easy. Becoming a large guild isn't all that challenging either. Becoming a large, stable guild, which lasts for many years, is an epic achievement in the MMOG world. The Syndicate leads the online world in that feat with more than 5,000 man-years of combined membership. Creating a guild like that is impossible to sum up in a few points or a single article, but the above three factors are certainly huge contributors, when applied in the correct way, to any guild's long-term success.
Sean "Dragons" Stalzer is the leader of The Syndicate, one of the largest and oldest online gaming guilds with over 550 members.
