Player Associations Archive

Hey everyone,

I am the leader of a small PA on Shadowfire and we took a big step this summer to increase the fun for our guild. What we did was ask another rebel guild that is also relatively small to partner with us. It was a good step for us because we found that, by ourselves it was hard to keep the events rolling fast enough to keep members interested. I often found myself receiving tells upon tells from members asking me what we were doing tonight, or the next day. As guild leadership takes up a lot of time anyway, I found myself stressing a bit over keeping the guild happy. Dont get me wrong my guildies are great, I just like things to be moving fast and feel bad when they aren't. Our partner guild was in a similar situation, each of us having some hologrinders, and then our hardcore lets go hunt every night people. So we teamed up. Nothing official, but when the chat channels came about it was great. We now have a chat channel that all our members from both guilds share.

So how has this helped us? Well first of all we are able to extend our network of friends, being small guilds we dont have all the professions, and we find that we complement each other very well. Each guild manages to fill in the gaps of professions of the other. We also extend our network of sharing by helping each other out with xp, loot, healing, buffing, and resources. Second, by having more friends that we really treat like fellow guild members, we are able to tackle some of the high end content in the game. Things like the DWB, Corvette, Geonosian Labs, krayt hunts, etc... These are adventures most small guilds cannot tackle alone much less with people they trust and know like their own guild. It has also been a great help in PvP as we have more people that aid us in times of need or when we just want to have fun. Finally, the chat channel allows all our members from both guilds to listen to what everyone is doing and hook up for random hunting, help with quests, info about resource spawns, and just good ole chatting. It is also good for maintaining that active continuity so that a good size group is always available for the hard core gamer and casual gamer alike.

The important thing for us...we dont tread on each other's business. Each guild still does their own thing from time to time and matters directly related to the specific guild are kept within that guild. I know a lot of you may already be doing this and I would love to hear how other small guilds have tackled the problems of keeping things interesting and tackling high end content. Personally, I enjoy a small guild. I know everyone well, and I am able to have conversations with all my members regularly. Our partnership with another guild was a lifesaver for us, as our numbers dwindled to about 4 active players and out of that not everyone could be on all the time. Since we are fairly selective in recruiting it opened a door for us and has enriched the playing experience of both sides. Since then we have grown to about 9 active players and looking for a few more.

Your Idea is great but doesnt have to be limited to small guilds. My guild has 90+ memebers about 30 are inactive. And within the 60 several have alt acounts. But working with other guild always keeps players interested. Especially doing PVP and big hunts. One thing all guilds should do is stuff together even if its faction missions in groups just do them together. Go to a planet with several caves, no matter how week and knock em out. Also a good thing is to set up days to do stuff. Send guild emails saying when and where to meet. I do this all the time. I am not the guild leader just one of the officers and I help my guild leader by being one of the organizers of hunts. Having others help organize hunts keeps them interested and takes away some of the strain off of you.

Traceral Savage

Traceral Savage
Spec-Ops Command
Master Doc/Master ??????
*Never argue with an idiot. He will bring you down to his level then beat you on experience*

yeah this works for all guild sizes. It just seems a lot of smaller guilds complain about guild size limiting their ability to tackle the hig end content in the game. Smaller guilds can sometimes suffer from an inferiority complex when they want to do something just as a guild. I found by constantly interacting with a known group you get that same guild feel. I look at our partner guild as really just more guild members. Bigger guilds who delineate a chain of command typically get this sort of benefit within their own guilds just due to sheer numbers.

One more tip for small guilds. Host events or trips to high end content to make it available to your guild members. By sponsoring the event you maintain a degree of control over it, and can increase your numbers to do things like the DWB. Post these events on the forums and find ways to announce them in game. This sort of thing will show that you are a proactive guild and will be a boon to your recruiting if you desire to grow.

Pida, Master Ranger, Master Creature Handler
Kobak, Master Commando, Master BH
Muddy Master DE, Master WS
Katrina' Master Doc, Master ID, Musician

Bye