Faction Leader

Well for me since I have been a guild member, leader and Alliance Commander in past games...I would say good judgment, a good demeanor, knows when to put the hammer down, uses his brain and puts trust in his/her men/women....

There are alot more but it is you who have to figure out your "command" style
b:victory

No problemo Abs b:victory

Teiw - Sanctuary wrote: »

Good attendance. Sense of humor. Sexy voice. Dosen't ragequit for 6 months to play another game. Also hosts daily TT/Nirvana marathons. Shares his wealth every now and then >:3

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a fair, nice leader who cares about his members, personally i love my fac a lot & my leader has helped me a lot with personal issues aswell ^^ and probabaly for some of the reasons Teiw has mentioned

What Ninna said is good but attendance is the most important mostly because of what Alsiadorra said. I had to take a leave of absents cause I was in the hospital, so I left my second in command to lead. By the time I came back half had left and I find that my second command joined the military and is over seas =w=''

So all in all...be active, and if you have to be gone for awhile make sure your second in command or those who are in your higher ups are trust worthy and not pig headed.

Good leadership, if the leader isn't there the faction dies. But not just good attendance, the leader has to be willing to actually get the ball rolling and do stuff. Instead of remaining quiet and just doing their own thing. It shouldn't be on their members to do things like TTs/Boss runs/nivys for the higher level people/etc. If they have to take a leave of absent, the director should be someone who is willing to devote that level of commitment as well not just their besite. Although, it's equally as important that the director is someone they can trust. Also, an active guild chat is important to me. Even if you're having a private convo in TS/Ventro, not everyone can use the service and it's nice when the people who use the in-game chat aren't left out in the dust.

A good guild Leader is prepared to consider every possibility and every side in any drama, while simultaneously representing the interests of the guild and being a sympathetic ear to all involved. The better that these elements are balanced and supported by a mixture of being thorough and being decisive, the better the Leader.

Aside from the ideas presented by others in the thread (so far they're all very good), I'd also like to note that the Leader should be very comfortable with their Director. In some guilds, including in mine, the Director acts as a second Leader (making both Leader and Director formally "equals"). This can function quite well if mature people are involved, and if these two people are close then it's likely to boost everything significantly. If the Director is clever enough to be a Leader in their own right in another guild, then this equality can serve a guild well indeed and prevent the dramatic break ups that have happened in many factions.

Depending on the age of the members in your guild, you might be stricter in any rules that you establish for guild behaviour or less so. Obviously with lots of older and more mature members you can relax rules quite a bit, whereas a younger crowd will eat each other for breakfast if you leave them without some guidance. With a more mixed group, you could treat cases specifically (recommended with a larger guild, but it is a lot of work) or level the playing field and expect at least young adult level behaviour from everyone.

Being able to multitask is another really important skill in a guild Leader, most of all because of the need to utilise an audio server and or voice chat program to talk to the guildies who have a microphone and at the same time respond in the written guild chat helpfully. If a Leader engages to every active member of the guild on an individual level at least weekly, with some leeway for time zones of course, then they are very successful on a communications standpoint.

Watching the emotional morale of your guildies can be extremely useful. The best Leaders might even apply some psychological thinking or counselling styles to help if there is a drama. Being at the emotional centre of the guild can help in predicting and acting to prevent large dramatic break-ups that split the guild in half or worse.

The best Leaders consistently and intensely love their faction and their members and will be expected (fairly or otherwise) to devote a great deal of time to maintaining and growing it, not simply delegating tasks to others but actually getting their hands dirty.

A good leader will also be able to take criticism and/or advice. A good leader will not kick people based on them giving criticism and/or advice. That can cause a snowball effect of members leaving because person X was kicked unfairly, then others leaving because person Y left.

I've noticed in a lot of factions where the leaders either were never around, always stuck in FC, or simply too bigheaded to take any advice. Lead by example, if you want members to help eachother, help them too. Don't just say what should be done, but show what should be done.

Also, while a guild site / forums are a great addition to any guild, do not expect every member to be active on it, or spend all your time perfecting it whilst ignoring whatever is happening in the actual game. Same goes for vent (or similar); while it's a great tool for some people, lots won't use it, so don't make it mandatory. Furthermore, state whether it will be a TW guild, or you have plans on becoming one. Then please stick to this decision. A purely PvE guild suddenly turning into a TW guild will cause issues with all the people that don't want to or can't come to TW. The likelihood of succeeding in TW is slim, and that in turn creates a large chance of complaints about not enough people going there or similar complaints.

Really though, before inviting people to your faction, clearly explain any of the above things that you'd consider mandatory/are expected. It will save a lot of trouble later.

Oh and especially avoid such phrases as "I'm the chief, you are the indians, you will do as I say", "I'm the leader, stop disrespecting me" (When being told you can't win a TW against the top land owning faction with only 2 lvl 100s and about 15 people showing up).

(I know I might come across as someone that just can't handle 'authority', but really that was only a couple of factions that were that bad; really, really bad.)

Be consistent with rules, don't stand above others, know your limits since you want to play the game as well, be decisive if necessary. Leaders with these attributes I had good experience with. b:chuckle

I've known four people as faction leaders so far during my time on PWI.

One of them, and the people he surrounded himself with, was the reason I and my significant other joined the faction in 2009, and are still with them today. He went on hiatus and passed the torch to someone else, though he later came back and has not sought the position again. That takes a remarkable amount of humility, IMO. He had TW aspirations for the faction back in 2009, when it was quickly becoming apparent that it would never be feasible... but I can forgive him for that. :P

The person he passed the torch to could best be described as... let's say "kooky." Not in one of those annoying teenager LOL RANDUM kind of ways... you just gotta be around the guy for awhile to understand. ;[ Very fair, level-headed, seasoned vet of the game, helps with all kinds of things... "shares [his] wealth" as someone in this thread put it... we had a lv85 veno come back from over a year's hiatus because her account was **** and all her gear was wiped, he gave her a TT80 wep and a new gear set to get going again. Loaned me 4mil the other day to buy my significant other a demon Spirit's Gift book. ;] And those aren't the only examples. There are things I disagree with him on and times I still want to strangle him (not the least of which is all those damn ecstacy cards he seems to get >_>), but overall deserving of his place, and by my luck he's lurking the forums right now ready to pick apart everything I just said.

The other faction leader I know on HT, I've known her for less time, and as with the others, I don't agree with her on everything either. :P I do applaud her for staying on-message and running a large, successful non-TW faction, while still at the same time being stricter with who they invite than my main's fac. If you want a good example on how a faction is logistically run, this is your girl. :P



Now, if you want an example of how not to run a faction, look no further than the one I joined on Archosaur for a short while. At first glance, this faction looked to be the closest thing to "large, successful, casual and mature" that the Arch server had to offer.

Then I took a look at the slogan which said "RECRUIT ANYTHING."

Then I noticed at least 70% of the people in the faction were clowns, always being silly, never bothering to balance the humor with maturity.

Then I noticed that, while doing my Arch character's FB69 with them, the Marshal (a Lv98 Seeker) flatly refused to tank Polearm without Bloodpaint, whined about it, ragequit, and then the Leader and Director (who were also in the run) tried to support his position against me. XD The run was never completed.

THEN I noticed that those three officers all hit 100, roughly at the same time, through... you guessed it... dragoon glitching.

And finally, the day I quit, the leader was musing in guild chat over how much real-life money she still needed to spend to buy R8. >_>

When I quit, I talked to the director (the only person in that fac who I actually liked) about my reasons for leaving, and she told me (paraphrased) that "90% of this server glitches frost, deal with it." Well, that was that. It was goodbye Glitchosaur, back to HT with me. :P

If anyone's curious about the identities of these facs/officers/etc., send me a PM about it.

To bad this Discution was opend a long time aggo and person who opened has left the game.He was my guild Leader and in last 6 months of his playing was a different person,so looks like he didnt listen too what ppl told here.

Necro

I like a leader who is a person. And a leader for the members, not for themselves.

What I mean by that is that they interact with the members and do not, at least in public, make obvious distinctions in their interactions between regular members and Executors/Marshal/Director. The same is obviously true for the Exec/Marshal/Director.

I also like a leader who has a vision of what to do. The vision, however, has to be one that is shared by the people, not one that the leader forces to the people. And the vision should be realistic instead of being an actual dream.

Also, a leader should never need to justify their actions to the people, as the actions of the leader should reflect the people's opinion.

A leader should also be present and make it known. A leader who is a leader only in name and is effectively a ghost whose leadership is only shown through the actions of the Director, Marshal and Executors isn't exactly doing a good job.

In terms of action, I'd prefer a leader who's activity-centric. Things like faction TTs, faction FCCs, faction Nirvana, Faction Trials, etc., regularly. Depending on the faction, you might also want there to be a forum and possibly a voice chat option.

Oh scrap, it was a necro. Q_Q