Quote (FlyingHigh @ Tue, Jul 17 2007, 06:12am)
yes but other guilds that havent played and now are will be replaceing them, and our guild will still remain in its same position unless someone wins.
Ladder Slasher Team Building Success1. Team
2. Goals
3. Rewards
4. Attitude
TeamThe first trick to building a great Ladder Slasher team is the entire concept of team. Do you speak with your slashers via IM? Do they speak to eachother? Do you know who all is slashing in your guild? These are questions you should ask yourself, and if the answer to any of the above is "No" then you should take immediate action to correct this oversight. One good method for making sure the team has good interaction is to purchase your own guild chat channel. I believe the cost is 1500fg, however it has proven well worth it. Or you have the options of Vent, or even creating your own IRC server, rather than depending on that provided by JSP.
Once you get the communication channels set up so that your ladder slasher team is interacting with eachother on a regular basis, and maybe even getting some encouragement from the non-LS portion of your guild as well, the next step is to assess exactly what form of slashers you have. If you observe all of the most successful guilds, such as "The Big Three" aka Empire, Desolate Carnage, and Intrasiege, they do not truly survive on people who pop out an MQ a day. Those people certainly help, but they have a core team of close to 10 grinders, people who no matter what the gear is, grind it out for several hours per day. On top of the grinders, they have 10 or so more players who play far fewer hours, but in a few cases have better gear, so their hours compare. However, speed demons don't give success, grinders do.
Imagine, if you are able to recruit 6 grinders, and have them become the core of your team, even if those six grinders each attempt only once per 4 weeks due to poor gear, That is still 1.5 attempts per week, and with the odds of passing MQ hitting on in six, that's 15 guild points a week on average. This is a very considerable amount, and will shoot you past all but the top 10 or 15 guilds in a relatively short amount of time.
After recruiting your core grinders, you need to work on getting those who play just occasionally, but when they play, they like it to be fast, so they tend to get great gear. These people tend to attempt around the same amount or even just a little less than the grinders do, simply due to low amount of time playing the game. However, they make great cheer leaders.
GoalsOk, now that we have a team built that has the basics to get you where you want to go, it's time to set some goals. The first trick is, give some options. If you have say 10 slashers, set a goal of 10 attempts in a single week. Then perhaps set an outlier goal of perhaps 20 attempts, with a reward if they hit. The best reward, often, has to do with items. One thing I'd recommend, since you're spending a fair amount on your LS team anyway, is to go ahead and check out the trading hall. Work with Dark Lord and have him tell you what items are good, then start buying items here and there for loan to trusted guild LSers. Then, you could commit to buying say 1 item every time your gulid hits the larger goal.
Now, that's just a short term goal. What about the long term goal? See, you could always set a simple goal. 100 guild points. Everyone wants to hit that, simply to get into the scandal sheet if nothing else. But what reward could you give? Maybe 1000, 2500, even 5K fg for the person who gets the most attempts between now and when you hit 100? Dunno, but whatever the reward, it should always be appropriate for the goal you are setting, if you are giving out a reward at all.
If you ever fail to hit your minimum short term goals, there's something wrong. Either you are setting unrealistic goals, or you are not communicating with your team. It's always important to be aware of who will actually be available, who's out on vacation, etc. It is also nice to know what characters your team uses, and what levels they are, as well as their gear. You should always have some idea of what your team is going through. Even if you aren't going to play, you should learn about the game, as the guild leader. Dark is a great resource to learn about the game. Use him.
RewardsMmm... Forum gold...
InsaneBobb drools...Seriously though, forum gold is not always the most important thing. There are several methods of rewards. One is forum gold. One is a raise in rank, or even a custom rank. Another is gear. A third is the loan of gear for the most productive slashers. I'm sure you will figure more out as well.
You will find that at some point you will need to balance out the rewards some. There are some slashers who literally play 12 to 15 hours a day, yet take a month to get to MQ. Others play 2 hours a day, and can do 2 a week. Why? It's all about gear, son. If you have great gear, you can get 'er done quick, if not, it's like climbing up a sheer rock face while naked in a wind storm. Not impossible, but more people quit or fail to get there before reset than not.
So something should be done to help out those who devote themselves to the game as well as those who play occasionally yet get lots of attempts. A gear bank and loaning to the most active is usually one of the things that works, as long as you can somehow verify the time they spend at it.
Just remember, if you make it ALL about the rewards, then there will be no guild loyalty. Without loyalty to the guild, as soon as rewards stop, so does LS participation, because your LS team will go to true teams, rather than just going for a paycheck, so to speak.
AttitudeThis is the single largest factor influencing your team. You will find once you have a team established, it is attitude, overall outlook at the team, the game, and the community that makes them a TRUE team, not just a group of people looking for some easy forum gold.
It is important to always be as positive as possible. Encourage your team constantly, let them know they are appreciated, no matter how slow or fast, how weak or strong, whether they play an hour a week, or 15 hours a day, each member of the team IS a member of the team, and without all of them feeling positive, your team will never reach its true potential.
It is always good to make stats that show where your team is at. Perhaps think up some motivational writings. Make them graphics that promote their positions as respected slashers of your guild. Spice things up for them. Remember, though LS is only the smallest portion of your guild, they are the ones who will determine the ranking of your guild. That in itself is worth pure diamond, my friend, and if you don't attempt to make them happy, then you're never going to retain any of the best slashers, or get them to slash more often than just occasionally.
It may be good to attempt to seek out someone within the community who is very enthusiastic and would like to help. Have them do stats for you, set up rankings charts, come up with goals, etc. They can then work with you on rewards and more.
Always remember to emphasize, no matter how good your guild grows, that there is no true "best" in ladder slasher. Sure, at any given time, one guild may do better than another, but many have fizzeled out and died in regards to LS, simply because something else captured their attention. Always promote a helpful, positive, upbeat attitude that will inspire the respect of the LS community, among your members. Go into it KNOWING that regardless of rank, guild points, or anything else, your LS team is equally as good as any other, simply because they ARE active, and ARE doing what they can, and ARE contributing parts of the LS community.
Promote helpfulness and openness between members. Attempt to inspire trust among your team. Sometimes one team member may have the perfect item just laying around spare that will help another succeed. As the leader of the team, it's always good to open yourself up to purchasing these extra items, if decent, for guild item bank as well.
If you go into the game, and come into the community, with the attitude "We will succeed, we will gain the respect of the LS community, and we will do it with style," then it WILL happen.
Good luck to you sir, and may the US Armed Forces succeed in all its endeavors.
This post was edited by InsaneBobb on Jul 17 2007 10:18am