What are some good things to have planned out first (other than name)?

What are some things a guild needs to do to be successful?

What does a founding player need to do to make my guild successful?

Your guild will need a purpose, a recruitment system that reflects that purpose and a vague guideline for expansion.

While it depends on your definition of success, I personally believe all guilds should strive for a friendly atmosphere that makes their players feel welcome and encourages them to grow. Founding players ideally shouldn't wave their age (of being in the guild) around in front of new members, nor should they expect special privileges for it - your founding members may be your Officers, but this should be because of their interest in the guild and it's life, not simply because they were there first.

I definitly agree with the poster above; a friendly, organized, recruiting guild is the best.

So, keep in mind that you should appoint officers ( or elect or take volunteers, however you choose to do it) based on thier qualities of leadership and ability to help new players/guildies with whatever they are struggling with. It will also be your responsiblity to organise your guild's raids. You may want to appoint a "raid leader" to actually take point during the raid and or set up nights for raiding. That person will be in charge of knowing how the operations are played and how to fight boss mobs (if possible). I would suggest having at least two raids per weekend - one for fresh 50s and one for the geared 50s.

Being a guild leader will take up time, so if you are having trouble doing it all by yourself, delegate tasks to officers or ask for volunteers. You definitly want to have guild recruiters - these people can volunteer for that role. Make sure you have some rules about who you would like to recruit - for example - (1) players have to be age 18+ or (2) players have to be level 10 to recieve guild invites (exceptions would be for alts of current guildies). If you have any other things new guild members should be aware of, like how guild bank space works for example, make sure your recruiters know to share this information with new guild members. Oh gosh, what else...there's so much lol. Oh, it is always nice, upon recruiting a new guild member to introduce and welcome them into the guild.

That's all I can think of right now - hope that helps

to delve quickly into the more nuts and bolts that the previous 2 posters did not hit (they hit it right on for guild atmosphere!).

Decide if you would like to provide out of game options for your guildmates. Think about questions such as:

VOIP

• Will you be running Operations and/or Flashpoints?
  
• If an RP guild, would you like to be able to verbally RP with the others?
  

If you decide for it, you should look into your options. Start small. 15slot VOIP servers are cheap enough, and can always be upgraded if your find the need. Your choice of which service may want to boil down to the big 2; Ventrilo and Teamspeak, simply for the fact that they are the most common, so it will be easier to have other people join (as the majority of players who are willing to join voip, have at least one, if not both already installed). There are plenty of other options out there, depending on your needs (such as Skype or Dolby Axon) that are outside of the normal thought of gaming VOIP options.

Website

• Would you like to be able to coordinate guild activites outside of game?
  
• Would you like to have a calendar so players can see upcoming events?
  
• Would you like to keep track - and possibly make it shareable - of guild loot / attendance /points that your guild cares about (such as earning points for RP'ing, mentoring, helping new members etc).
  
• Do you want to have an easy place to share screenshots?
  

Any of these alone could be reason enough for you to choose to use a website. Your own personal level of skill with websites, and extra time to invest in creation and upkeep will be your driving force between the different options.

Best luck =) Remember, its all about having fun. Sometimes putting in a bit of ground work at the beginning (which isnt fun) will allow you to reap the benefits for a long time to come, and can help alleviate drama ahead of time.

Founding players ideally shouldn't wave their age (of being in the guild) around in front of new members, nor should they expect special privileges for it - your founding members may be your Officers, but this should be because of their interest in the guild and it's life, not simply because they were there first.

Like Officers who gear you up just so that you can carry all their alts to 50, moment they hit 50 carry them in Ops to get them full Columi (probably from 1-2 runs max!) while you stay in the same gear you've had for weeks.

Like Officers who gear you up just so that you can carry all their alts to 50, moment they hit 50 carry them in Ops to get them full Columi (probably from 1-2 runs max!) while you stay in the same gear you've had for weeks.

I sense the faint hint of terrible experience. I'd say the best way to get around this is to have set raiding units which will be lead by experienced players (whether on their mains or alts) that are designed to gear new 50's. Of course if your guild is anything like mine, it might just be a bit hard to get people signed up to run entry-level content and you end up running with chaps in Rakata who are derping around in another spec for practice and/or fun.

Besides you can get fully Columi geared by hitting the right Flashpoints and getting lucky.

Basically the first thing I would recommend is to have a very specific goal in mind for your guild. You need to offer or focus on something unique from other guilds in order to attract players. Whether that be Endgame PVE, World PVP, Ranked Warzones, Levelling, Crafting, or even just Social. The more specific purpose your guild has, the better chance you have of getting the type of players you want. If you just say "we are pvp guild" why would they join yours over the litany of other pvp guilds. What makes you unique.

Have an application. Any application. Just something to weed out the people who can't even be bothered to take 5 minutes to tell you about themselves. We basically use it to make sure the applicant's expectations are in line with our guild's goals. It doesn't have to be an intensive background check, just a couple questions to get to know the player a little bit.

I would say a website is required. It makes communication between members much easier. The recent character transfers are a great example of the benefits of a site. Those who have sites will find it much easier to coordinate the guild migrations because of the various issues that arise. Stuff like name changes, getting coordinated to get your guild charter, etc... You don't need anything fancy, just something with forums, really.

Voice chat would depend on your guild. If you are aiming for high-end PVP or PVE content, voice chat is almost a requirement. Being able to communicate instantaneously is important. If you don't do that stuff, you might not need voice chat, but it wouldn't hurt. I've never done it in other games, but I've found that I enjoy the people I play with enough that I hop in our voice chat almost every time I log in to the game just because I want to shoot the breeze with them.

I wouldn't worry about officers until you get big enough that you start to feel like you are doing more work for the game than you do playing it. And typically the people that really want to be officers shouldn't be the people given power. If they want to be officers, there has to be a reason. You want to look for the people who contribute to the guild in a meaningful way without being prompted or asking to be rewarded. And you usually have to approach those players and ask them to take on the responsibility. If they seem reluctant, don't bother them. They aren't any use to you if they don't want to be there. If they are OK with the idea, then make sure you have a specific set of duties for them (such as raid leader, recruitment, quartermaster, etc...).

Just try to make sure you don't step on other guilds' toes. Don't ninja other guild members. If you gain a member who just recently left a guild, talk to the previous GM about it to make them understand you didn't ninja that member. Make sure your members represent your guild tag in the manner you want them to. That kind of stuff.

Hope that helps. )