GCD ChowIt is not unexpected that Claire Monroe is not the first GM to face problems like bickering guildmates, server/faction choice, and disagreements on loot rules as they all come with the territory of leading a group of pixelated adventurers. But the biggest challenge for those running a guild, perhaps, is maintaining a roster of active members.
The guild was founded in January 2015, yet boasts a roster of over one hundred and fifty members. Recruiting was as easy as posting a link to Monroe's guild's Enjin page in the forums and watching the applications roll in. Within two weeks the guild was sporting triple digits. "I don't know if it was the hype surrounding the game, or the fact there weren't many other guilds recruiting at the time, players just started lining up to join us," boasts Monroe. It was indeed both of those reasons that played heavily into the guild's early success as the group was formed under the banner of ArtCraft's upcoming MMO Crowfall.
Claire fondly recounts the good old days of the guild, which was about three months ago, "No matter when I logged into the guild page, there were always new forum posts or members shooting the breeze in chat. We would talk about what classes people were going to play, what the crafting system might look like, and speculating which year the game would ultimately be released. My guess is Q4 2017."
It was then in late March that Monroe started seeing a downward trend in activity. Over the course of two weeks, an average of less than ten members a day were active on the guild's page, down from an average of nearly eighty. "It seems that our guild party to mark the end of Crowfall's Kickstarter was the end of our guild for some reason. We had over 120 guildies in chat that night but haven't come close to that since...I don't know, I thought we had a good thing going."
For the last several weeks, Claire has made several attempts to increase guild activity, but they have all come up short. "I have been racking my brain trying to figure out ways to draw members back in. So far my best ideas have been sitting in Mumble talking about how awesome the game is going to be or sitting in chat and typing about how awesome the game is going to be. Even the poll I posted on our page was ignored by all but three of our members. I figured asking 'Even though the finalized list is literally years away and detailed information regarding the topic is sparse, what class are you going to play come launch?' would stimulate some discussion. I was wrong."
There has been talk about the guild shutting its doors for good if activity doesn't pick up. But for now, Claire Monroe is committed to once again being one of the premiere guilds in Crowfall and figuring out the cause of the massive drop in guild activity. "If I can just figure out why Crowfall lost so many players so quickly, only then will I be able to solve my guild's activity problem."
The problem is simple. The wait. Over hear at my guild I was surprised when we still have a lot of active players after the kick starter. We use stack nice program gets the job done. Anyways to tackle the wait we've been playing games together until the wait is over. So far it's working out alright. The point is if you have to question what your guild or clan or whatever people call it needs to have a goal. Needs to find a meaning to exist. Once you set up your foundation that is built strong that has a meaning than you can actually make something amazing. The effort you put in is the effort you get out of it it's a saying someone dear to me said to me when I started out gaming. This is Intel from the guild Obsidian. All I have to say is best of luck and keep trying. Become strong I want strong rivals so don't let me down.
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