Taking over a Guild Due to an Inactive Leader

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO

You can ask for a change of management by sending in a support ticket. ZOS will then send an e-mail to the original GM and ask him or her if they wish to hand over management to the person who requested it. If they want that, they are asked to make the change themselves. (While the game was still subscription based, they were given temporary access.) I don't know what happens if they don't respond, but if they refuse, the leadership doesn't change. The decision to hand over is still up to the current GM.

I think this is a good system. An orphaned guild doesn't have to stay defunct, but a guild put on the back burner will not be subject to a hostile (or at least unwanted) takeover.

Dahkoht

olemanwinter wrote: »

My landlord has been out of town a few months. I'd like to just take the property and own it. It should be mine.

Except here Zenimax is the owner.

That guild leader doesn't "own" anything either.

Stalwart385

As long as you have access to the guild bank this can be a good thing. Had a small guild where everyone but two people quit. We now share a guild bank. Great for storing all those mats. I wouldn't chance breaking that at all, hah.

Iluvrien

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO wrote: »

I think this is a good system. An orphaned guild doesn't have to stay defunct, but a guild put on the back burner will not be subject to a hostile (or at least unwanted) takeover.

^ This. Guild handover is only actioned after contact the with the current GM has, at least, been attempted. That is why it seems to have taken 4 months to change over the leadership of the guild I am in. Unfortunately by that time most of the existing members had left in frustration.

@Elijah_Crow's point is a good one, however it does not take into account that it is possible for people who are not the current GM to have put effort into the guild. In my case I put considerable effort into recruiting, organising Dungeon trips and working with the other officers with regards to the RP structure behind the guild. Who was it who was made temporary GM when the original creator went on holiday? Me. Who was it who rebuilt the guild bank when someone the original GM recruited and gave bank privileges to cleaned it out? Me. Who has spent the time trying to rebuild our numbers after the initial release peak even during the time when I had to pretty much burn out my wife's laptop to do so while my PC was being shipped to Japan? I'll give you one guess.

So if you are suggesting for one moment that I don't have a claim on the guild that I worked, and continue to work, so hard to protect and resurrect then you can jolly well go-seek-fruitful-venture-elsewhere.

Elijah_Crow

I recommend that you have a conversation with the guild leader prior to this kind of thing occurring, so you know up front that you might be putting in a ton of effort and never have any real control.

I'm not trying to be insensitive to individuals who find themselves in this situation, however the important thing to remember in a guild is it's about community. If the remaining players want to /gquit and re-form, you keep the most important part. The rest is just mechanics and name.

Shimmer

Iluvrien wrote: »

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO wrote: »

I think this is a good system. An orphaned guild doesn't have to stay defunct, but a guild put on the back burner will not be subject to a hostile (or at least unwanted) takeover.

^ This. Guild handover is only actioned after contact the with the current GM has, at least, been attempted. That is why it seems to have taken 4 months to change over the leadership of the guild I am in. Unfortunately by that time most of the existing members had left in frustration.

@Elijah_Crow's point is a good one, however it does not take into account that it is possible for people who are not the current GM to have put effort into the guild. In my case I put considerable effort into recruiting, organising Dungeon trips and working with the other officers with regards to the RP structure behind the guild. Who was it who was made temporary GM when the original creator went on holiday? Me. Who was it who rebuilt the guild bank when someone the original GM recruited and gave bank privileges to cleaned it out? Me. Who has spent the time trying to rebuild our numbers after the initial release peak even during the time when I had to pretty much burn out my wife's laptop to do so while my PC was being shipped to Japan? I'll give you one guess.

So if you are suggesting for one moment that I don't have a claim on the guild that I worked, and continue to work, so hard to protect and resurrect then you can jolly well go-seek-fruitful-venture-elsewhere.

I agree 100% with Elijah. I have a suggestion for you. Leave and create a new guild. Thats pretty easy. Now you havent wasted all this time on the forums asking what you should do, but rather be enjoying the game in your newly formed guild that you made.

Junipus

olemanwinter wrote: »

My landlord has been out of town a few months. I'd like to just take the property and own it. It should be mine.

Technically it's "My landlord has abandoned the property I live in, I should have precedent to take ownership of it to ensure it stays in good condition and is maintained".

Any good guild leader who knows that they're going to be afk with something else for a prolonged length of time should make provision for someone else to manage the guild while they're away. Whether it's take full, but temporary ownership, or just stewarding it for the foreseeable future, those who abandon their guilds without any plans in place for it to be maintained should accept that it might not be there as they left it when they get back.

Elijah_Crow

dap_robertb16_ESO wrote: »

olemanwinter wrote: »

My landlord has been out of town a few months. I'd like to just take the property and own it. It should be mine.

Technically it's "My landlord has abandoned the property I live in, I should have precedent to take ownership of it to ensure it stays in good condition and is maintained".

Any good guild leader who knows that they're going to be afk with something else for a prolonged length of time should make provision for someone else to manage the guild while they're away. Whether it's take full, but temporary ownership, or just stewarding it for the foreseeable future, those who abandon their guilds without any plans in place for it to be maintained should accept that it might not be there as they left it when they get back.

When I began my guild in ESO, every player who joined knew that if I and the core officer group left for any period of time, the guild would be mothballed and there would be no maintenance. If that happened they would be welcome to stay or leave as they chose. In the by-laws on the website, etc.

This is directly because of a bad experience when returning to SWTOR after a break where we had allowed for a steward who did a poor job preserving everything our guild was about. After this experience and the drama our return created, we actively made the decision that we would never allow that to happen again.

In my opinion you can manage a guild any way but I think it's the responsibility of the guild and officer to let any players know up front what would happen in this kind of circumstance. And if you join a guild and expect to be contributing heavily, shame on you for not asking!

Ask before the fact, make arrangements before the fact, don't try to take something that someone else formed after the fact. At that point it's better to re-form and make it your own.

Shimmer

dap_robertb16_ESO wrote: »

olemanwinter wrote: »

My landlord has been out of town a few months. I'd like to just take the property and own it. It should be mine.

Technically it's "My landlord has abandoned the property I live in, I should have precedent to take ownership of it to ensure it stays in good condition and is maintained".

Any good guild leader who knows that they're going to be afk with something else for a prolonged length of time should make provision for someone else to manage the guild while they're away. Whether it's take full, but temporary ownership, or just stewarding it for the foreseeable future, those who abandon their guilds without any plans in place for it to be maintained should accept that it might not be there as they left it when they get back.

Dont you think the landlord would be pretty pissed if he came back and his tennant had taken over his land and there was nothing he could do about it? This argument is silly, and will continue back and forth. Just reform and play the game.

Endurance

Dahkoht wrote: »

olemanwinter wrote: »

My landlord has been out of town a few months. I'd like to just take the property and own it. It should be mine.

Except here Zenimax is the owner.

That guild leader doesn't "own" anything either.

Actually, that guild belongs to the person that made it. you dont just take it from somebody else because they dont get online anymore.. you leave and join a more active one or you make your own

Iluvrien

Elijah_Crow wrote: »

I recommend that you have a conversation with the guild leader prior to this kind of thing occurring, so you know up front that you might be putting in a ton of effort and never have any real control.

I did. What I didn't realise was just how new to GM'ing he was. The irony is that we had discussed just this situation (myself, him and one of the other senior officers) two days before he bailed. We had all agreed to meet at the weekend (it was midweek) to talk it through and put into place plans to prevent it. We never saw him again.

Elijah_Crow wrote: »

I'm not trying to be insensitive to individuals who find themselves in this situation, however the important thing to remember in a guild is it's about community. If the remaining players want to /gquit and re-form, you keep the most important part. The rest is just mechanics and name.

If you believe that a guild is truly about community, why would you place the onus on the community to reform when there had been no error in behaviour on their part, rather than one guild leader who was utterly selfish and bailed before completing the measures that would have prevented the situation from occurring. That doesn't speak to community-mindedness to me. That speaks to me of selfishness.

Sylance9 wrote: »

I agree 100% with Elijah. I have a suggestion for you. Leave and create a new guild. Thats pretty easy. Now you havent wasted all this time on the forums asking what you should do, but rather be enjoying the game in your newly formed guild that you made.

You misunderstand. I wasn't asking what I would do. I was relating a previous experience. The guild leadership transfer was completed on the 23rd of November last year. so for the last 7 months I have been GM of our, slowly, rebuilding guild. I have, in fact, been guild leader almost twice as long as the original incumbent... and yes, during that time I have been enjoying the game greatly, thanks.

What I am doing "wasting all this time on the forums" is speaking out in support of the ability of CS to change guild leader in very specific circumstances after having tried to make contact with the existing leader.

Endurance wrote: »

Actually, that guild belongs to the person that made it. you dont just take it from somebody else because they dont get online anymore.. you leave and join a more active one or you make your own

And when they put in a guild-wide mail ability so it is possible to inform all existing members of the existence of the new guild, or a mechanism to auto-invite them (guild copy) then I will probably take this path instead. In the mean time I will continue to be happy that CS can and do have the power to reassign leadership in circumstances such as mine.

Elijah_Crow

At this point I will have to politely agree to disagree. I very much hope that CS was willing to do this because the original guild owner gave permission in your case and didn't take it upon themselves to decide what was best for a guild created by a player. In my opinion it was overstepping their bounds.

With that said I am glad you are enjoying the game and hope your guild continues to grow and thrive.

.. you thief.. lol..just kidding.

Xandryah

In SWTOR, after some inactive time of the guild-leader (maybe 3 months or more) and while there is one active paying player, then the guild-leadership goes over to that very player..it happens automatically, i believe (it happened to me once)

I suggest you to submit a ticket... and good luck ^_^