5.4. What Are Guild Halls? Do I Need One?
At the time of writing this article, guild halls are not implemented but have been talked
about by the developers. The general principle is that it is housing, for the guild, within the
game. It would be a place that only your members could get into and hang out. In some
games you can furnish them or rent NPCs (like bankers, trainers etc..) to work there or
perhaps add in portals to other locations or message boards to leave notes to friends.
In some sense, guildhalls are a status symbol. The Blizzard developers have said that

guildhalls will be VERY expensive. So at least initially, only the larger guilds will have
them and thus denote their “uberness“ by having a guildhall. Eventually though, even
smaller guilds could pool funds and obtain one.
If you are a smaller guild, you might consider one of two options. The first option would
be to setup a banker mule for the guild on your GM account. A level 1 char that you don’t
mess with. Everyone mails donations of gold to that character. Once in awhile you login
and collect the donations out of your game mailbox. In this way you keep your personal
stash separate from the guilds and you can tell what your total guild treasury is. The
second option would be to implement guild dues. If you had fair and recurring dues then
you have a guaranteed revenue source every so often and you can add that into your
guild bank account and build up over time. You can, of course, do a combination of both.
It is too early to say if guildhalls will be worth it or not. They are, in other games, so it is
something to think about and perhaps start banking your gold for.
5.5. What Are Some Basic Guild Rules That Are Good To Have?
In one of the earlier sections in this document, we talked about the need to establish guild
rules that everyone has to follow. What rules you pick really are totally up to you and are
based around the kind of guild you wish to have. Since most gaming guilds are friendly,
social ones who’s underlying goals are to have fun and play the game together, some
basic rules/decision points you may wish to consider implementing include:
●No abusive language in guildsay. No personal attacks on other members in
guildsay. If you want friendships to form then keeping guildsay a friendly place will
foster that. Since every member has access to the channel, and you need it to
communicate, you don’t want people to be afraid to speak up in guildsay or even
to dislike logging in due to the content they see there. Also bear in mind that some
of your members may be younger and offensive or adult topics might cause them
issues if their parents walk by and see them on their kids screen.
●Acceptable Guildsay use policy: Above and beyond offensive language and
personal attacks, you should define what is an acceptable way to use guildsay.
Since everyone has to share one channel, if it becomes a massive partyline, does
that serve your purposes? Maybe it does. If it doesn’t then you need rules to
handle that.

●Acceptable Public Image policy: What is an acceptable public image for you? Is it
ok to use bugs and exploits and be known for that? Is it ok to scam other players?
Is it ok to raid newbie towns of the opposing faction? Is it ok to engage in flame
wars on the public posting forums or insult or attack the developers on Blizzards
forum? Depending on how you answer those questions, you need to craft a policy
on what members can and cannot do, in the public eye, so that their actions grow
your public image in the way you wish it to grow.
●Your internal chatzone/posting forum policy: What is acceptable use of your
forums? Can members post links to other guilds they are a member of? Can they
post pornography or obscene content? Can they rant and rave at you, the guild or
other members? Define that policy. Post it. Sticky topic it and make sure
everyone knows it
●Can members be in guilds other than yours? Define that up front and let everyone
know as they join if they can or cannot be in someone elses guild
●Do you have a requirement to attend a certain number of raids per week/month?
To be online a certain number of hours? To login your char within a certain
number of days or get removed? If you do, define those limits and make sure all
members know them.
●Is it ok to disagree with you, the guildmaster? To challenge your decisions
publically? To disobey a guild policy or decision you make? Decide on those
topics and make that clear.
●What is your recruiting policy? Do members refer new people? Can they guild
anyone they meet? Make sure everyone knows that
●What is your policy going to be about Alt characters? Can members guild them?
Is there a limit to how many? Do they need to be a certain level first?
●Can members be in both the Horde and Alliance factions? If so, can a member on
the alliance side kill a member on the horde side if they face off in pvp
somewhere?
●Is it ok for members to use guildsay (or your posting forum) to sell items to other
members? If they can sell to other members, is there a limit to how much profit
they can make?
●If members have an issue or problem, how do they get it resolved?
●Is there a guild heirarchy? If so, how does each member fit into it? Who do they
have to take orders from? What does each title mean? How can a member move
up the ranks?

Clearly defining as many of your rules, as early in your guilds lifespan as you can, will help
you avoid problems in the future. Whatever the rules you set down, you need to enforce
them fairly and within the spirit of your rules. If you let one member get away with
breaking a rule but then enforce it on another member, you will lose credibility with your
guild and it may cost you members or the guild may implode. Be fair. Be consistent. And
remain within the spirit of your rules, or modify the rule to fit the new reality of the guild.
5.6. Are There Official Shard Forums To Advertise My Guild In?
There are a number of places you can advertise your guild. I wish to avoid listing too
many websites since they do come and go pretty rapidly but I do want to give you some of
the more static ones and some ways to find other places to advertise your guild.
The primary place is on Blizzards site. They offer two methods to get your guild name out
to the WoW community. The first is the Guild Recruitment Forum located here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.aspx?fn=wow-guild-recruitment You can post a
link to your site and information about your guild and how to contact you.
The second method is that each server has its own server specific forum. The complete
list of them is located here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/realmforums.shtml Find the
one for your server and bookmark it and post your guild information there as well.
In addition to Blizzards site, most major news sites also have a Guild forum. WoW
Stratics (http://wow.stratics.com), Warcry’s WoW site and the Vault Networks WoW
(http://wowvault.ign.com) site are three big ones. There are many many others. If you
use google and search on World of Warcraft Fan Sites or News Sites you will return a
number of hits. Many of them will have forums that include a guild recruiting forum.
And finally, there are a good number of “Top 100 Sites“ lists out there that you can
register your guild to. You can get your members to click on the link, once a day (in most
cases) and vote for your site. Once again, go to goggle and search on World of Warcraft
Top 100 and you will get back several hits of sites you can register to.