“They’ll never find me here!”

This expansion has given players of all levels an absolute tonne of stuff to do, and many players feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content they have at their disposal. For some people, guild chat is a prime place to express their concerns and find a sympathetic audience. However, some players can take the negativity too far and it can have repercussions on the guild culture that some guild leaders, like me, don’t pick up on until the damage is done. In our case, the near constant “QQ” of one particular player contributed to a valued member deciding to call it a day with our guild. Now the question is, how much complaining is too much, and what can guild leaders do to minimise the impact these wet blankets have?

Off Balance

I need to stress here that I do not see an issue with people venting their frustrations on occasion. I myself have been caught out a few times getting involved with the, “I hate The Golden Lotus!” mantra that can sometimes pop up in guild chat. We’re a group of like-minded people, and it comes as no surprise that we all share similar opinions on issues both in game and in real life. However, some members don’t seem to have anything good to say about, well, anything, and their constant stream of negativity can be tiresome. It has definitely upset the usual balance our guild environment, with jokes and healthy conversation being replaced with complaints, followed by worse still, silence. When Player X whines for the fifteenth time that the reputation cap on valor gear is stupid, guild chat goes quiet. We get it, you don’t enjoy dailies. I don’t know many of us who do, but we do not need the constant reminder.

Nobody likes verbal vomit.

Silver Lining

Now that I am aware of the issue, I can start making a conscious effort to steer guild chat back in the right direction. It is something that my co-GM started doing for fun before she moved interstate; be that annoyingly positive person who always has an answer for any complaint that was thrown into guild. So far, it’s working a treat, with people usually having a laugh at how it’s not really that bad after all. It’s moments like these that I realise that the fun is still there, it just needs a good prodding every once in a while!

For once, I am not going to harp on about guild policies and how a rule on negativity could have saved us from losing a member. To be perfectly honest, I feel that it may be going a little too far down the censorship path, even for me. With the sheer amount of content available to players,  it’s very easy to get caught up in what you are doing and forget to read what’s happening in green text. The best course of action here is just to pay a little more attention and be more involved with the conversations that are taking place.  Of course, should Player X continue to rain on everyone’s parades, I won’t hesitate to ask that they tone down the complaints, and neither should you. How they act once the conversation has taken place will dictate whether or not they get demoted or removed.

Do you have a question about guild management that you would like answered on Neri’s upcoming Youtube series, The Purple Parlor? Simply email your question to neriapproves@gmail.com or leave a comment here.