World of Warcraft guilds, sometimes a lovely source of chat, friendship, and community, can also be an easy way to get a good team together in a few seconds. At other times... well, let us just say that a lot of guilds more closely resemble a pit of constantly emerging demonic brain-eaters than what I described earlier.

Seriously, that is probably why you are reading this article. Your probably looking for some interesting info about guilds or you have decided to form your own guild, demonic brain-eating or not. Here are a few considerations for you, whatever your intentions.

First let us consider it from the point of view of a potential solo player looking for a Warcraft guild. Finding the right WoW guild is often a big decision. Many different factors can affect whether a guild is right for you, and not all of those factors are based around how good the members are, either.

Ignoring whether or not you like the members in a particular guild, does your time zone, or your time schedule, fit in with the general member base? This is a big question; if you are only online when one other strange lurker guy is, do you really want to stay? Even if everyone else is awesome? If they're all east coast time, and you're west coast, and you all have jobs, then getting together for more than an hour or two at a time might be tough.

Running a guild? A serious one? It can be either fun or a total pain in the ***. This killer WoW Guild Management Guide will help you to make your guild fun, for you, as well as for your minions, er... guildies.

Most guilds want characters who are up to snuff, have good or great gear, and can play well in raids, PvP, etc. If you need help packing on the levels or getting gold then check the resources below.

Yeah, it could be a really good guild, but if you cannot participate with the rest of the members for one reason or another it does not really matter. Scheduling is one of the most common problems.

Another problem is if your levels do not match those of the other members, whether this be gear level or actual player level. Either one of these can separate you from guild activity. A group of really nice, but low level players simply cannot help you do that high level dungeon. Of course, if you all work well together you might be able to get yourselves to that point, but if you need help now then they won't be able to help you.

If you just want a guild for the chat, relieving the boredom of grinding perhaps, then a lot of things will not matter as much. Kidding around, joking, and swapping lies about other guilds and players is a great way to pass the time. The good gnomes behind the development of Wold of Warcraft have added a lot of humor into the game, and many guilds are dedicated to role-playing rather than leveling and gear aquisition.

Beyond those problems of time-zones, level differences, and the like, it's up to you to find a good group of wow fanatics, avoiding the earlier mentioned demonic brain eating beasts like the plague. One last thing to remember is that it's your brain. If you don't want it to be eaten by your current guild feel free to quit.

With that covered lets move on to guilds from the guild leader/CEO/Big Kahuna's point of view. Starting a guild is quite honestly a nightmare, often inspiring a string of headaches and leaving you wondering why it ever seemed like a good idea.

Getting members is one of your biggest problems. Many people like active and large guilds, so trying to recruit someone when the entirety of your new guild is you is very hard. An obvious solution would be to form the initial base of members from close friends, perhaps even RL (real-life,) or just long term in-game acquaintances and buddies.

Beyond recruiting and membership numbers, other issues include how your guild leadership functions, officers, class leaders, all that good stuff. Given the billions of different systems for guild running there are right now, I will leave that up to your discretion, but it is a big thing to decide and set up.

Finally, just consider whether it is truly worth it for you to attempt this endeavor. Many guilds have fallen apart before they even truly started. Like running for office, it helps to have a thick skin and a clear idea of what you want your guild to be. Even the best guilds started from zero, or close to it.

Being a guild leader is a difficult and annoying job, but if you get a good guild going it is also extremely rewarding. It's also a lot easier to do if you have a lot of free time. If you're only on for a couple of hours a day, or week, then making a cool guild will be pretty nearly impossible.

Good luck potential recruits and guild masters!

Ask yourself: Do you want to be in (or run) a guild for ... chat? fun? raids? PvP? PvE? Leveling? Someone to sell your crafts to?

Top Reasons to Join that WoW Guild

1. Revenge - You've just been ganked by a pair of rogues 10 or 45 levels higher than you. You'd like some help in evening the score.
   
2. Teams - Going solo is a drag? Need to eat that Elite Boss? Get a guild team.
   
3. Easy loot - Sometimes the higher ups in the guild will run you through the various instances. They kill everything and you get the goodies. And the XP (that's a hint.)
   
4. Socializing - Yes, some people actually do that. They LIKE to chat and joke around. Weird, I know...
   
5. Chaos. Guild teams can be just as wacky as any other, but they're more fun because you know the wackos and have an idea of what goofy stuff they're going to pull. Since you're all pals you can put up with it more easily than the idiots in the pick-up-groups.

Top Reasons NOT to join a Guild

1. The Guild leaders claim more than their share of the loot.
   
2. If they treated you like mud it would be a promotion.
   
3. Several people in the guild love to form teams and join teams. The only problem is that they're insane, and not in a good way.
   
4. You like your teams to go in hard and fast, but the others are a little more leisurely... ok, ok... it's takes them 10 times longer to do anything than a stoned gnome.
   
5. Some random guild member makes it his/her life's mission to make your life miserable, for no reason that you can make out.
   
6. Most of the guild members are friends in real life and they're several time zones removed from you, so you're soloing anyway.
   

The "World of Warcraft Professional Guild Management Guide" teaches you how to become a successful guild leader in World of Warcraft, no matter what kind of guild you are leading or planning to found.

The first thing to do is to decide what you want your guild name to be, for example: Snuggle Bunnies of Doom." Have some alternate names, just in case your first choice is taken. By the way, the name should be G or PG rated. If it's offensive to anyone for whatever reason then the chances of your losing the guild name are pretty good.

Track down a Guild Master in any of these capital cities and give him a click. Pick "How do I create a guild?"

Type in the name of your guild and acquire the guild charter. You'll need to get nine other signatures, besides yours, in order to create your guild.

When you begin looking for players to put down their signature, open up your inventory and right click on the charter, then click "Request Signature." When you do that, the other player gets a pop-up box asking them to sign the charter.

It's considered bad for to do this while the other player is at the mail box or otherwise shopping, You should also ask first. Many people will advertise in the chat channel and bribes (1 or 2 gold) to sign are a good idea.

As long as they wait till after your guild is officially registered, and then quite, you're good to go.

Once you get all ten signatures, quickly head back to the Guild Master and right-click on him. Pick the "Register" option and you're good.

Now if you're really serious about your new guild you'll want to check out the World of Warcraft Professional Guild Management Guide and avoind many of the headachesassociated with running guilds.

Good luck!