Monday, August 4

Being an officer: Optimus style

I'm an officer in my guild and i am one because i feel i'm needed to, not because i want to. I became one because i was needed at that time and i still am because i feel i still contribute in my role. It's kind of the Optimus Prime kind of way i guess (nerd alert!) who filisofy was that a leader was there for his "followers" and not the other way around. (i know it's a fictional person but the idea still sounds good to me)

There are guilds out there with a Guildmaster (or even an council like we have) but where his every wish and idea is rule, it can be no other way.
Things in this guild are quite strict and constant and at times even dictator-like.
I've heared of guilds that even fell apart because of the way guildmasters like that bended the rules in their own favour.
Like i said, there are little benefits for our officers, what we do for our guild often comes out of our playtime but i do think most of our guildies understand that (still there are always a few rotten apples who like to give you a hard time if something doesn't go 100% as intented, we're only human afterall.. but that happens not too often luckily)

Now we don't have a guild like that, we are there for our members and i can't think of any benefit of being an officer besides having something more to read on the forums during the day. The proof of that is that we constantly adapt our rules... perhaps to a point where we have too many rules but in our vision it's the only way to keep things fair to all members with as little as gray-area as possible.
These new rules are actually new ideas how to handle things, most spawn out of something one of our members has said and evolves into something we can work with. Every couple of months there is a new revolutionary idea of which we manage to implent a few into our system.

A few examples of our non-basic rules:

DKP based on Contribution points
How to make a simple system more complex? Add an extra layer. Each raid we give people contribution points, these can be earned by showing on time, and attending at raids.
This system was added for various reasons of which i forgot most already but it did make farm content instances less dkp-friendly. Where in the past people willing to wipe all night on new bosses got less dkp then people just showing for farm content it is evened out now. Also being backup will give you a share of your CP now, we can actually reward people who stay available.
At the end of the week the CP's are translated into dkp giving each person a share of total dkp earned (1 CP can be worth less on a week with less activity, it all stays in balance)

Marks and Gems from the bank
Based on attendance (all tracked in our overcomplete dkp spreadsheet) you get a number of Marks and Epic gems at the end of each month.

Offspec for gold
At first our bank got flooded with Void Crystals till someone asked us why the hell we couldn't think of some way to buy offspec gear without spending that much dkp on it (offspec = 50% of normal dkp price), so this was created.
Basicly when an item drops people can whisper if they want to buy it for dkp (main-spec). If no one wants it people can roll for it for offspec (damage kit for a healer for example), the winner pays the dkpvalue in gold (T6 chest for 300g aint bad right?) unless someone rather spends dkp on it for offspec.
Now the beauty of this system is that people get their share of the money at the end of the month based on attendance, so it's not uncommon to get 90-120g in the mail suddenly.

Buy future pattern drops
Now this is still in the making and perhaps we can't get it fool-proof so it might not ever see the light of day but still it's an idea.
Anyway the idea is that people who buy a pattern from someone outside the guild with which they can craft theirselves a bop- mainspec- upgrade item with.. can have a chance to get (some of) their gold back. If the pattern later actually drops and no other crafter wants it for their mainspec, we will sell it and they will get a share of that in return of the set dkp-cost. The ammount of money they will get depends on the ammount we are able to sell it for.
That's roughly the idea, now to eliminate as many gray-area's as possible so people can't abuse the system or simply misinterpretate aswell as make it as fair as possible to everyone so people who buy the patterns don't get an advantage over non-crafters.

So as you can see we try to make sure the spoils of war don't end up in the guildbank but are fairly spread amongst the guildmembers.
I myself am getting away quite easy and my gametime lost is limited although on the other hand the behind-the-screens-activities cause me quite some frustration now and then which effects my play-fun ofcourse... but our raidleader got it worse.
He gets most of the drama while he is the one who does most for the guild, i don't even do a third of what he does for the guild.
In fact, he's the real Optimus Prime in our guild as he still goes on eventho i am sure at times he'd rather not log on at all. Still he keeps going as his guild needs him, the benefits (like i said, if any) of being an officer don't even come close to the burdens.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Exanimo, it sounds like your guild has put a lot of thought into this. My guild is in a rather tough spot right now. A lot of the officers are struggling to push past Kara and get into 25 man raiding in a more serious fashion while not disrupting the casual nature of the guild.
As an officer and raid leader, I understand the issue with being "there for the followers" and trying to have organized rules to keep things objective and aboveboard for everyone involved.
Right now, we use a loot council system for loot on our guild runs and random rolls in 25 man content. I think this loot system is a part of the problem because it doesn't incentivise raiding, particularly progression raiding. Our best geared could easily start into tier 6, but most of our members would be at the tail end of tier 4.
I've never been a fan of dkp systems, because I think they can form a barrier that seems to big for newer members, or lead to people avoiding upgrades because they are holding out for some specific drop, which once they get, they can use the dkp they have amassed.
I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind going into some more detail on your CP/DKP system? And in your experience does it work to reward effort both inside and outside of raids while not being a barrier to rewarding newer members?

Anonymous said...

Good post again Exa :-)

I like to add one thing. Even tho our dkp system seems ridiculously complicated on the surface, in actual use its very easy to follow. All loot has a fixed dkp price (based on item level and slot), so everyone know how much a drop cost beforehand. DKP totals and loot history are readily avaliable in a spreadsheet any guildy can access, which makes the whole loot distribution process very transparant and fair. During my 1 year in the same guild as Exanimo, I think there has only been 1 controversy over loot - which is waaaaaaaay less than any guild I've ever been in before, be it WoW or other MMORPG's :-)

Exanimo said...

Let me give you the link to our dkp spreadsheet for starters, don't think there is much harm in that: http://www.elysium-wow.net/dkp/dkp.htm
You won't be able to see all the calculations in it but it will show a couple of things:

-Price List with dkp price based on slot and ilevel (Bow is more expensive for a Hunter then a Rogue for example, daggers are cheaper for Hunters as those are more trinkets. I want to add that dkp doesnt determine loot priority)
-CP awarded on last months raids, showing both in the raid as being backup.
-Conversion of CP to DKP on the running totals tab and how that effects each person.

Probably has more info for the digger aswell. I'll see if i can get into more detail of the CP-DKP system later without making it all too complex.

Chris said...

Another great article.

I am an officer in a guild and it is a huge privilege that should never be taken lightly. Always remember that this is part of the game that is not achievable through the game, like unlocking a quest or a new boss, but because of other real life people who trust you and think you are worth something.

losprophet@aszune

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing that spreadsheet, Exanimo, there's quite a bit of information there. So, to see if I have this straight, DKP is determined based on what drops that is purchased for DKP. At the end of the month, that total is calculated against all CP earned to get a ratio of CP:DKP which is then given to members providing the dkp pool for the next month?
Another questions then how is CP earned? How do you use it to incentivise progression content so people don't just show up to farm nights when they can bank DKP via drops?

Exanimo said...

Tbh i have to read up a bit again on how it exactly works.. i helped think of its current state quite a while back but i'm not the one keeping track of it.

Every item which drop earns the raid DKP which is devided by the end of the week. Every 15mins in the raid earns you a CP, aswell as every try on new bosses, signing up on wow-raidar.com and showing aswell (negative if u dont show) and u even get a point when u sign up that u cant come.
So you see, because of CP people who come to wipe night on new content dont get the shaft but are actually rewarded dkp aswell.
Now in a week where we would only do new content and dont kill anything, there wouldn't be any dkp but since there is i'm guessing we're assigning dkp to not just lootdrops but will have to look into that ;)

CP gives more posibilities.. people who can't get a spot in the raid can earn CP aswell for example, IF they show up at the start and are available (to avoid people coming on too late just to go on backup and "farm" CP's). It's also limited to max. 2 nights a week so someone who is on backup more often (prob for some good reason) can never get a shitload of CP, longest nights count.

There are many more rules like this which should be on writing somewhere in an enchanted tome on our forums somewhere :P

At the end of the week we coutn all the CP given out and find the dkp:CP ratio and give everyone his share. Another advantage is that this can still work for a zero-sum dkp list if required.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Exanimo. It seems like an interesting system and there are some parts of it I think I may have to steal :P