Chain of Command

Here's the ideas that I've come up with so far. I must admit, most of the complaints I've heard so far from members tend to be of the misunderstanding variety. These changes won't help with them, they will continue to complain until someone explains how the guild works to them. Some complaints, however, stem from nothing more than Seshatnun and Thotholyte trying to do everything on their own. What this will do is attempt to spread the work among a dedicated group of officers leaving the leadership more time to... well, to lead.

Since this is an opener for discussion of ideas and brainstorming, I'm going to use terms I'm familiar with knowing full well that if/when implemented, they'll have cool new Stygian Guild names. For instance, Command and Control (C2) will become "Pharoah's Scribes" or something. This discussion is open to anyone in the guild, and any thoughtful insights and positive criticism is welcome. Just remember, no matter what you and I think about how things "should be" done, it is Seshatnun's decision as to what the final outcome will look like. We are all a part of this guild, but she IS our guildmistress.

What I was thinking was that, since we are a new guild and still under construction, and there is a limit of 7 officers, that they should be divided up as 3 Staff and 4 Line Officers. While I'm not too happy with the division of roles, this is the best I could come up with given my lack of MMO experience. Later, once we've been established, we would probably be better off having 1 or 2 Staff and 5 or 6 Line officers.

A. Staff Officers - These are your C2 folks, the ones who will be actually running the day to day operations of the guild. If they're doing their job right, you can concentrate on diplomacy and leadership issues.

1. Command and Control/Orientation: This officer is responsible for "getting the word out" to people, among other things. Other duties include maintaining a roster of active members along with their alts, assigning new members to someone who will give them an orientation tour of what we're all about as well as helping new players with game questions. This officer will also be in charge of the Guildmistress' personal guard. Motivators will fall under this heading, as well as coordination among the various officers to enable them to accomplish their jobs.

2. Harvest and Supply: This is one that can be removed once we are established, but is crucial right now. This person will coordinate and be responsible for all collecting necessary, and must be trustworthy enough to be entrusted with the guild bank (if possible with the guild setup as dictated by Funcom.) This person must be able to beg, borrow, or steal in order to maintain an adequate stock of ANY and ALL materials the guild might need.

3. Manufacturing: This officer is in charge of (can you guess it?) making things. Coordinate requests with the Supply Officer for materials in order to make weapons, armor, potions, etc. for the guild. Once we have everyone in the guild equipped and outfitted with only the best, this slot will also be better to be removed and replaced with a Line Officer. If needs dictate we still need a logistical system, this can be combined with Harvest and Supply once we are established.

Line Officers - These are your "Action Jackson" folks, the ones who throw troops into the meatgrinder and wonder what happened. Well, not if they know what they're doing. These are the positions most people think of when they hear officer.

1. Raid: Since this is a PvE type of thing, I thought it would be best to keep it separate from the PvP and Siege specialties. This officer will coordinate raids as far as times and dates, be responsible for leading the raids (whether personally or by assignment) and devise strategies and tactics for accomplishing the various raids successfully. Will also be responsible (upon request) for traiing on various tactics based on character strengths and weaknesses for the game.

2. PvP/Siege: Same with raids, only this officer will need an extensive knowledge of PvP warfare, and be responsible for training guildmembers (upon request) on various strategies and tactics. Will also be responsible for guild sponsored PvP tournaments, develop strategies and tactics for both attacking and defending a battlekeep, and generally anything to do with killing PC's.

3. Questinghelper: This is one of the biggest gripes that people have, and while the basis of most complaints ensure they will never completely go away, this officer will be in charge of coordinating the helping of people with either advice and/or assistance, to include "spur of the moment" raids (the singlemost common complaint.) Along with Raid Officer, this gets my vote for what should be split once we're established.

4. Intel/Security: The infamous "Dark Ops" of... well of infamy. This person will be responsible for gathering and maintaining a wealth of information on all other guilds on our server, to include sending out spies if no other means of gathering is available. In addition the intel gathering duties, this officer will also be on the lookout for other guild's spies within our camps, in order both deny them intel of our capabilities and/or provide false and misleading information. Among security duties will be the monitoring and/or squelching of "Astroturfing" within the guild, disloyalty, and recruiting within the guild.

In addition to these duties, each officer will also have people assigned to them by the C2 officer who will ensure personal duties are sread evenly among the officers. These assignments are "people assignments" only, with the exception of subleaders (sergeants.) Guildmembers SHOULD be going to their respective officers FIRST with problems or questions before they go to the Guildmistress or her Vice. The ONLY exception is if the problem is WITH that officer and they fear retribution if they talk to that officer first. It will also be the responsibility of the officers to maintain who among their folks are active users or have quit playing, general levels, and a list of alts with their info as well. This info will be sent up to C2, who will maintain a "master list." These people assignments are NOT duty assignments (except Sgts.) for guildmembers, who have only the responsibility of keeping the officer informed. Even the various Sgts. first duty is to any Guild Duties they may have volunteered for first, then taking orders from the "People Officer" above them.

And finally, among other things I haven't thought of, one thing I noticed was a lack of Awards and Decorations. Rank structure and promotions we have no control over until Funcom gets around to it, but awards and decs are a major source of pride for some people to be able to say, "I earned this award, and I that decoration." Prizes are good for most, I admit, but I may not be the only one who would secretly hand any prize money I won right back to the guild, but give me the "Order of the Harvesting Fool" Medal, and I'll tell people all about it. These may or may not have an accompanying prize (the game strucutre is weak on this piont) but maybe the website can replace the front page list of people with jobs with a list of people who've won various awards and Decs.

Anyway, these are my thoughts so far, as far as guild stuff. I must also admit, as far as forum stuff, we don't have a general question and discussion area, where I originally wanted to post this. Can we get one, Thoth, please?