In the event that a guild leader takes a leave of absence and remains inactive for an extended period of time, it can be difficult for some guilds to carry on as normal. To help assist with these situations, we're introducing a new system in patch 4.3 known as "inactive guild leader replacement" that will allow players of the appropriate rank to take over leadership of a guild from an inactive guild leader via the Guild tab.

The way inactive guild leader replacement works is pretty straightforward. If a guild leader’s character is inactive for 30 days, a notification will appear in the Guild News & Events feed which can only be seen by guild members who are eligible to become the new guild leader. To determine eligibility, the game will look for the highest ranked character in the guild that's logged on in the past week, and any guild member from that rank will be able to request guild leadership simply by clicking on the notification.

As with many actions in World of Warcraft, clicking on the notification will open up a confirmation window which, once accepted, will transition leadership from the inactive guild leader to the first player to request leadership. If guild leadership is changed, the old guild leader will be notified via email to his or her registered Battle.net address. While some players may need to log out and back in before their Guild tab will visually update, the change in leadership will be immediate, with all ranks and permissions remaining in-tact.

Please note that if you're an active leader of a guild, this system should not affect you or your guild. The goal of inactive guild leader replacement is simply to allow guilds which have found themselves without leadership for a long period of time to resolve the situation on their own without the need to contact our In-Game Support department.

Inactive guild leader replacement is currently live on the PTR, but keep in mind that it may be difficult to test in a PTR setting, as a guild leader will need to be inactive for a full 30 days before the option to transition leadership will become available.

09/30/2011 12:37 PMPosted by Turtoth

Next highest? So a guild leader could have the rank directly below him be used JUST for his alts and never fear losing his spot...

That would only work if the characters in those ranks were active. If Rank 1 in a guild (the rank right below guild leader) has no active characters within a week of the guild leader being marked as inactive, then then game will open up eligibility to Rank 2. This will continue all the way down to the lowest rank in the guild, if necessary.

Example: Let's say a guild leader has 5 alts in Rank 1 listed as Officers. No other characters in the guild are in that rank. If the guild leader goes inactive and none of those alts have logged into the game in the past week, then the game will also allow Rank 2 characters to request leadership. If there aren't any active characters in Rank 1 or Rank 2, Rank 3 characters will be eligible. (And so on.)

09/30/2011 12:41 PMPosted by Sheldorr

Is this if the account has not been active or just the character that is the guild leader?

It's per character, not per account. While we understand that guild leaders may enjoy leveling alts, we still feel that it's reasonable to ask them to log into their characters at least once per month.

The duration of inactivity isn't final, though. We'll definitely be considering player feedback and may make adjustments before patch 4.3 releases.

09/30/2011 01:12 PMPosted by Malaika

As a guild leader (this is my alt, too lazy to switch to my main who is in charge of the guild), I really think there should be an option for the current GM to put a name in to nominate someone preemptively, and if for some reason the GM is gone for 30 days+ THAT PERSON who was nominated the by GM to take over the guild has first dibs, if they don't accept within a week, THEN the system that is currently being tested go into place

This can be achieved by placing that character at the highest rank below guild leader. If you've already done so, but that rank is shared (meaning, it's occupied with characters you don't feel should be guild leader), then you may wish to create a separate, higher rank for the character you'd like to be your successor. This way, he or she will be given the opportunity to adopt guild leadership in your absence first -- provided, of course, that their character has logged in within a week of you being marked as inactive.

That's simply a suggestion, though, given current functionality. Many elements of this system are not final, so feedback is absolutely appreciated. Thank you for yours! :)

09/30/2011 01:20 PMPosted by Jawaka

So is an absentee GL the only reason that this tool would assign a new guild leader?

Correct. This system will only come into play in the event that a guild leader is marked as inactive, not before. At present, inactivity is set at 30 days, but that may change before the patch is released.

09/30/2011 12:07 PMPosted by Lylirra

Inactive guild leader replacement is currently live on the PTR, but keep in mind that it may be difficult to test, as a guild leader will need to be inactive for a full 30 days before the option to transition leadership will become available.

I've seen some confusion about this paragraph on a few fan sites, so let me clarify a bit further before the pitchforks appear. :)

In this instance, "difficult to test" does not mean the system has been challenging to test internally. Instead, it simply means that, given the current inactivity marker (30 days), it may take a bit of finagling to experience and test out on the PTR...because you'd have to create or copy over a character on the PTR, start a guild, and then not sign into that character for a month. We've been testing this system for quite some time now, and will continue to do so until patch 4.3 launches.

09/30/2011 12:26 PMPosted by Kardone

Also perhaps it would be beneficial to tweak it to inactive for 24 hours simply for testing purposes on the PTR?

Good suggestion! We're looking into doing this now. While 24 hours is a bit short, there is merit in reducing the duration on the PTR somewhat for the sake of testing (we're thinking more like 10 days).


Edit: This will be for the PTR only.

Lylirra I hope you are reading this :D.

Every post, I has read them. :)


Edit: I've gone ahead and bumped the post count on the thread. Please feel free to continue providing feedback (just remember to keep it constructive).

10/03/2011 12:49 PMPosted by Jasada

This is definitely a ploy by Blizz to force people to keep paying their subscription fees.

This is neither the intent of the system nor the motivation behind its creation.

Currently, we have a policy in place that allows members of a guild to petition for leadership in the event that their guild leader remains inactive for an extended period of time. It's a service our In-Game Support department has provided for years, as we understand that it can be difficult for some guilds to run efficiently without the presence of an active guild leader.

Given the frequency at which this service has been and continues to be used, we felt that adding a feature which allows players to address these kinds of situations on their own, right through the game client, would be helpful and, more importantly, something that many players would appreciate. There are definitely situations where a guild leader might be unable to log in for an extended period of time due to factors beyond his or her control, but even in those cases, we don't want guilds to be unable to grow or manage themselves because their current leader is away.

Now, you may not agree with the way the inactive guild leader replacement system is implemented on the PTR, and that's fine. We definitely appreciate your feedback. In the next PTR build, we'll even be reducing the time a guild leader needs to be inactive for the system kicks in to 10 days (note: this is just for the PTR) to encourage testing. So, if you want to jump on to the PTR at some point and give that a try, that'd be great.



Also, just for reference, keep in mind that several of the automated, in-game features you use today were once services performed by our In-Game Support department. They weren't implemented as features because we wanted to shirk responsibility, but because we felt that it would be more enjoyable for players to address those issues quickly, without having to contact Support. That's the goal here, as well.

10/04/2011 02:11 PMPosted by Scrüffy

Just my veiws on the subject.

Thank you for them! Constructive feedback, even if it's negative or not in favor of a feature we intend to release, is definitely welcomed.