Imagine comparing a company or a raiding guild to a car. You would not compare a Mercedes Benz to a Yugo and say they are the same because they both get you from one location to another. Or perhaps you would, in which case I have a nice luxury Yugo to sell you for the low, low price of $50,000.

One of the major business catch phrases of the twenty-first century is work-life balance. Work-life balance refers to how much a person is able to maintain a healthy level of work and non-work activities so that they do not get burned out. Gamers face the same issue. Since being a raider is effectively a second job, the balance between playing the game, working, and real life is often the number one factor behind what type of raiding guild a player joins. This is further complicated by the fact there is no right answer as to what a proper work-life balance is. It is different from individual to individual so the correct answer for one person does not mean it will be the correct answer for the next.

Guild officers need to determine what raid-life balance they want for their guild and promote that balance to current and future guild members. This process can include developing an understanding of the ethics and mechanics behind existing guilds to determine which structure will work best for their desired guild members. The values exhibited by each type of guild mirror those of the business world. In both cases, finding individuals that have similar values to your organization is a major step towards a long-term enjoyable partnership. On the flip side, finding individuals with goals and objectives that differ dramatically from the guild or company’s mission and purpose will almost always lead to frustration and unnecessary stress.

At the highest level, you have raiding guilds that are not just a second job, they are a first job. There are 5-10 of these types of guilds in the world and they expect the game to come first, even if that means taking a vacation from your work to defeat new endgame content when it is launched. These players take the game very seriously and their guilds go after the “world first” achievements. A “world first” refers to being the first guild in the world to defeat a new boss encounter. Defeating the final boss of a new zone is the game equivalent of winning the Stanley Cup or Super Bowl. Given the extreme requirements of these guilds, it is understandable that you are talking about a player pool of a couple of thousand players out of an eleven and a half million player subscriber base.