Player Associations Archive
Thread: Whats your Command Structure?
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Gooney
Sat Mar 05, 2005 10:33 am
#14
Adrir wrote:
Rank & Title, in my opinion, is a pretty redundent in a game such as this since small guilds dont need it and why bother in a larger guild.
Having delegated functionality (having "Event Managers", "Recruiters", etc.) is usually better. The titles automatically generate recognition and the player fufills a worthwhile function. It will also give some players something to strive for. However, inactivity or neglect can result in "holes" being generated in areas of the PA.
Having a pure dictatorship can be very challenging since managing a guild can be strenuous and time counsuming however, if the guild is small, it is the most effective. The "My word is law" and "I always know best" philosophies will shape a guild perfectly, even if it means losing a few members initially. But, it doesn't give members any recognition or anything to aspire to (except form their own guild and do it better than you!).
The Officer/Member approach (or "Executive") can be effective if executed well. Officers organise and manage anything and everything. Members will aspire to become offcers by trying to impress their peers and officers will aspire to out-do each other by organising the most uber event or recruiting the best talent (NEVER MOST NEW MEMBERS FOR RISK OF IMPLOSION!). A disadvantage however is when there are disagreements, contridictions etc. Also, they must be carefully guided by the guild leader or the PA may "loose perspective".
*Updated other post with more detailed explanation of structure
You address here the single most difficult part of maintaining a PA with ranks and officers etc. Namely, the hardest part isnt finding Officers, thats easy...I mean who doesnt what to be called an officer (Especially in a PA with Uniforms)? No, by far the most difficult thing is to find officers who are willing to place the PA before their own goals. These arent always mutually exclusive and there is no one who expects an officer to dedicate all, or even a majority of their time to the PA but some effort has to be expended.
A great player doesnt necessarily make a great officer, and this is a constant problem in a PA with ranks. Lots of people are cool as hell, have good ideas, and say they are interested in helping out the PA. But when it comes down to it, very, very few people are actually willing to give up any of their time to perform Officer duties. This is why we ultimately dispensed with officer "Roles", except for individuals who have demonstrated a certain...panache. One or two good ideas arent really enough...what is most important is consistancy.
So if you do decide to use Ranks and an officer/member delineation its important to make sure that the officers are not just willing but have demonstrated a consistant tendancy to put time into the PA. Otherwise you just end up with a bunch of people with officer titles and the actual rank looses all meaning.
Like I said this is a constant issue. Reason being because once youve made someone an officer, in a PA with a fairly large and established structure you cant just demote them. Making them an officer is an endorsement of the current guild leadership...if you get a dud, your pretty much stuck with them until they decide to move on. Then again Im not sure how much difference it really makes, even a really large PA can survive with a very small number of active leaders in the Officer corps. Active officers are nice because it means that the other active officers share the load, so instead of having to come up with activities every week, you maybe only have to do it every couple of weeks. Giving everyone more time to do as they wish...IE work on their own interests.
-Gooney
StarNick
Sun Mar 06, 2005 9:58 am
#15
Originally I had a coordinatorship program...
1 - Guild Coordinator
2 - General Coordinator
3 - Military Coordinator
4 - Events Coordinator
4 - Mission Coordinator
The general was essentially a co-leader, with military for PvP, events for player events, and mission for dungeons. Needless to say, sometimes having these abilities split between people can be great - but barely any of the coordinators did a great job...
So we have this system now:
1 - Guild Coordinator
2 - Military Coordinator (for PvP)
3 -Magistrates (Officers who can recruit, have militia powers, and can organize guild events/help out)
Simplier system, easier to handle...plus we've been getting a more done in name of stuff to do =)
Adrir
Sun Mar 06, 2005 10:13 am
#16
StarNick wrote:
but barely any of the coordinators did a great job...
Yeh, which is why I usually employ my "executives" system (See above)
StarNick wrote:
1 - Guild Coordinator
2 - Military Coordinator
3 - Magistrates
I like this, would be nice for a faction-based guild. I would expect the "guild coordinator" to be the leader and the "magistrates" the officers. It would be interesting to have the "military coordinator" concentrate on organsing PvP but it only works if a competant player has the position. I prefer just to have all my officers share all the responsibilites.
LadyIllyria
Thu Mar 10, 2005 1:23 pm
#17
Ours is a role-play guild. We have different structure layers in the guild that can get confusing. There is the basic: Mistress, Employees, Slaves, and Prospects. The slaves have their own heirarchy, the employees tend to have their own as well. For who has what powers, some of the 'slaves' actually have more rights and responsibitlies than the 'freeman'. This is our current command structure:
The Mistress: Mayor of the city, Manager/CEO of the business, Guild leader of the guild.
The Majordomo: Head slave, in charge of all other slaves, the Mistress's right hand.
The Shugenja: The Mistress's best assassin and her left hand.
Ninja-ko: The Mistress'sPersonal body/honor guards, female only.
High Inquistor: Just what it sounds like.
Admiral: In charge of our space forces.
General: In charge of our ground forces.
The new titles (except for majordomo which has been there since the beginning of the guild) have come about because of the number of people in the guild now. I simply cannot run the business, city and guild solely by myself anymore, and still do other things like run events, go out hunting, PvE'ing, PvP'ing, or just role-playing. Each of those I gave a title to have more than earned it. Instead of creating titles and then filling the post, I've tried to give a fitting title to those that took the iniative in areas.
Mistress Kyphi Makarha
LexxYovel
Sat Mar 12, 2005 8:31 pm
#18
Our Command Structure:
-Leader (who is also a mayor)
-Commander of Combat
-Commander of Combat Support
-Commander of Crafting
Basically the Commanders have complete recruiting abilities. Each one takes care of his own division. Combat Division contains members all related to combat (duh), Combat Support includes people like doctors and entertainers, and Crafting division contains people who have any crafting proffesion. The Commanders jobs are to make events, recruit, and maintain their division.
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