Power gaming guild buying up the healers

[Bolty]

My main question though is not "why does this happen?" but "how can I win?"[right][snapback]82595[/snapback][/right]

Hmm, ok. To "win" and keep your healers, know this: there are basically three kinds of healer players:

1) Someone who simply enjoys the challenge of being the one responsible for keeping people alive in a group. Sure, everyone plays a role in that, really, but it's the healer that's ultimately the final line of defense and has the largest responsibility and pressure.

2) Someone who is playing a healer as an alt because their guild has a shortage of healers and may not be very into it. They prefer another class.

3) Someone who plays a healer because they like always being in demand and expect people to cater to them because they are a healer. This is the type that gets people riled up. :)

What you're going to have to figure out is, which of these categories do your guild's remaining healers fall in to? If they're types 2 or 3, you will have a hard time holding on to them.

Type 2 will think "why do *I* have to bust my butt to level a healer for my guild when nobody else is trying. Screw this, I'm taking up Dusk's offer."

Type 3 will think "well, these peons don't appreciate my work, I'll go to a guild that does appreciate healers and gives them gifts."

If you have Type 2's and 3's, you will simply have to cater to them in some way, whether it be constant praise of their efforts or material gifts. Otherwise, they're leaving. Keep in mind that level 60 healers generally get whispers to join groups every 30 seconds in IF. Yes, every 30 seconds. Maybe not on a lower pop server, but that's what I've found on Stormrage. And offers to switch guilds can come on a daily basis.

Your only other solution is to go out and recruit, which blows because the quality of your guild will suffer. Go and recruit healers and you'll wind up with all Type 2's and 3's and things won't be very fun.

Also, keep in mind that even Type 1's can jump ship if they are a heavy Achiever personality and feel that your guild just isn't leet enough.

It really bites about your tanks. As Concillian pointed out, the quality of your tanks has a huge effect on your enjoyment as a healer. Sometimes healing a bad group CAN be fun, but only if you're going in with the mindset that you're going to have to work your butt off for a bunch of people who may have absolutely no idea how much you're saving their rears. And just as Concillian did, I found myself rolling tanks simply because I got tired of seeing bad ones and figured that I could do a better job, especially with my knowledge gained while playing a healer.

But Brista, the problem you're running into is what all mid-sized guilds run into: getting critical mass for end-game content. You're large enough to be fun to be in, but not large enough to keep the hardcore Achiever personalities who expect high-end raids consistently. Thus, your members get poached. The solution is to ally your guild with other guilds to get cross-guild raids. The Lurkers on Stormrage work now with The Basin guild and Carpe Aurum in raids of MC and Onyxia every week, but alone we wouldn't be able to, and without those possibilities for the level 60's we have, we'd wind up with more people leaving. Cause you know, my swingin' personality just doesn't seem to be enough for people to stay all by itself. :)

If you are guild master, you're going to have to start extending olive branches to other guilds of your kind in order to build a base of players. Create a chat channel that members of the guilds can join, like the {name hidden} channel the Lurkers use on Stormrage that Lurkers, Basiners, Guardians of Elwynn, etc all use to form groups if there's not enough interest in their individual guilds. By pooling your guilds together, you form a loose uber-guild with enough players to achieve a critical mass. Hopefully.

You will, unfortunately, have to get going on this quickly, before you lose too many members. Otherwise, you then form a critical mass in the other direction - negative growth - that led to the semi-death of the Lurkers guild on Tichondrius. Too few players encourages players to leave, which reduces the number of players, which encourages those left to leave, which reduces the number of players...ultimately, the personality and friendliness of the guild members is not enough for some people to stay - they want more. Even if they have to sacrifice that to get it.

Good luck. :)

I wonder if any professor out there has a research paper about the social dynamics of online guilds in this scenario?

-Bolty