New in 4.3: Inactive Guild Leader Replacement
Originally Posted by Lylirra (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
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, as a guild leader will need to be inactive for a full 30 days before the option to transition leadership will become available.
This article was originally published in forum thread: New in 4.3: Inactive Guild Leader Replacement started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 195 Comments
  1. littlewisp's Avatar
    Lol. In all the guilds I've been in if the GM decides to take a long break they hand over the reins to the next chosen highest officer. Honestly, if you're that afraid of your members taking over your guild you probably shouldn't be running one.
  1. Krekko's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Deyadissa View Post
    Sounds ridiculous, guild leaders won't be able to take a break from WoW.So if they know they're going to come back to WoW someday, they'll have to kick every single member out of the guild so nobody can take the level 25 guild.

    I forsee a lot of raging.
    I don't get why a guild master of a guild level 25 guild would think it's okay to leave for 30 days + And have everything in tact, when it's still a communal guild for the rest of the people in it. Unless purchased as such, it's not a single person's guild only, the guild mater sure as hell didn't get to 25 himself, and if he chooses to take a 3 month break, there is no reason why they should have their arms tied behind their back as the guild master has his leave, while still they contribute money to the guild bank (At which point the GM can come back and collect and make bank off of that). Once again too, it's not the only way to do this, this is already in game VIA Tickets, this is just an interface option,
  1. mmoc44e5154f48's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Velestro View Post
    i can c a abuse wat if sum guy in the guild gets pissed off and he is the one to become the new guild leader and starts deranking/kicking ppl from the guild i can c alot of disputes being caused by this.
    Is typing full words really that hard? And the rule is not new, so nothing will change. It's just to make it easier and lessen the requests to the Gamemasters. It's a good change.
  1. Gihon's Avatar
    If they don't test the system though, and it somehow leads to abuse (like people finding a loophole to steal a guild), I foresee a great deal of QQ, Blizzard answering more tickets than they would have otherwise, and general discord. I also don't like the idea that it seems to be a "first come, first served" style system instead of a vote, even if the vote was just among the officers - maybe I'm not reading it right, but it doesn't seem to suggest that people will be able to shut down a bid for GM. This coupled with the "it's going to be difficult to test" does worry me.
  1. gibborim's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Deyadissa View Post
    Sounds ridiculous, guild leaders won't be able to take a break from WoW.So if they know they're going to come back to WoW someday, they'll have to kick every single member out of the guild so nobody can take the level 25 guild.

    I forsee a lot of raging.
    Sure, if you level 25 guild is some shitty leveling farm, then yea, you might have to kick everyone or pay a 15$/month maintenance fee on what is ostensibly your most valuable in-game possession.
  1. shammaz's Avatar
    its obviously going to get abused once active - it will cause more problems than it will solve.. its only purpose is to save people having to open a ticket to request the transfer of leadership. - save GM's time so they can deal with some noob hunter saying his wolf doesnt have stealth like the other night elf lvl 30 hunter in gnomer that has it for his cat I think having to open a ticket and having a gm investigate is more thorough buuuut i guess if one noob complains about it on forums then others will therefore a new lazy 'click to get gm' system will be implemented, blizzard really needs better solutions... for example: what if a gm is on holidays for 30 days and leaves leading the guild to his 2nd in command? he'd have to, to make sure no one else takes gm status Will the gm have to pass leadership to this 2nd in command to ensure the guild isnt passed off onto someone that has their own agenda - since they only have to click a button now.. or better yet after the rank 1 gives gm to his 2ic, what if the 2ic takes the guild for himself? Well there you go in the 20 seconds i had to think of that at 4am i've already thought of why this is stupid. and my finally my favourite part - "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." LOL so wtf can we do then. make a guild on PTR, invite some people on PTR, make ranks for this PTR guild, log out for 30 days, come back... OO my guild was taken away from this hunter that complains about his pet wolf not having stealth. Here is my suggestion: Give all hunter pets stealth and we wont need this guild replacement system, there i said what we were all thinking. good night xx
  1. shammaz's Avatar
    its obviously going to get abused once active - it will cause more problems than it will solve..

    its only purpose is to save people having to open a ticket to request the transfer of leadership. - save GM's time so they can deal with some noob hunter saying his wolf doesnt have stealth like the other night elf lvl 30 hunter in gnomer that has it for his cat

    I think having to open a ticket and having a gm investigate is more thorough buuuut i guess if one noob complains about it on forums then others will therefore a new lazy 'click to get gm' system will be implemented, blizzard really needs better solutions... for example:

    what if a gm is on holidays for 30 days and leaves leading the guild to his 2nd in command? he'd have to, to make sure no one else takes gm status
    Will the gm have to pass leadership to this 2nd in command to ensure the guild isnt passed off onto someone that has their own agenda - since they only have to click a button now.. or better yet after the rank 1 gives gm to his 2ic, what if the 2ic takes the guild for himself?

    Well there you go in the 20 seconds i had to think of that at 4am i've already thought of why this is stupid.

    and my finally my favourite part - "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."

    LOL so wtf can we do then. make a guild on PTR, invite some people on PTR, make ranks for this PTR guild, log out for 30 days, come back... OO my guild was taken away from this hunter that complains about his pet wolf not having stealth.


    Here is my suggestion: Give all hunter pets stealth and we wont need this guild replacement system, there i said what we were all thinking. good night xx
  1. Master Guns's Avatar
    How in the world could someone "abuse" this LOL? If a guild leader is inactive for more than 30 days, it's time to pass leadership. So please explain how this could possible be "abused"?
  1. fixit's Avatar
    Shouldn't even be an option.The guild leader owns it,just cause they want to study for uni or concentrate on a work project for 3 months,they should not lose their property.The officers should have access to all the tabs anyway if they wish to clean it out and start another guild.Even though they feel robbed of their guild achievements/history...to fkn bad,it belongs to the guild leader plain and simple.For instance if you own a house and decide to go on holiday why should your flatmates/tenants be able to claim the house.
  1. Gallahadd's Avatar
    decent idea, I like it, but I think the name is a bit long... I much prefer 'Incite coup d'etat'
  1. zin21's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by littlewisp View Post
    Lol. In all the guilds I've been in if the GM decides to take a long break they hand over the reins to the next chosen highest officer. Honestly, if you're that afraid of your members taking over your guild you probably shouldn't be running one.
    this. GM position requires you to be active. if youre not active, pass it to someone trustworthy and capable for the time being. you can get it back when you come back.

    For all the "pseudo guilds", this change doesnt matter anyway. kick everyone out like you all shouldve been doing if you quit sub for while. like many pointed out, theres already a petition system that does the same thing right now. so it doesnt change anything, it just makes things easier to do.
  1. Mewtwo's Avatar
    I don't really see how this will be abused. Don't want to lose your guilde? LOG IN or PROMOTE AN OFFICER while you are gone if you know you will be gone for a while.

    Not sure if this has been brought up before but..
    This has been in the game WAY before 4.3..just never had a built in UI. You had to page a GM to do it..but yeah. It was still very possible.
  1. Shagrat's Avatar
    If you're going to be away from WoW for longer than 30 days, why wouldn't you pass the reins over to a trusted officer? People can do this now, submit a ticket requesting to take ownership of the guild if the current GM has been inactive for a certain period of time. If you can't trust the officers you have now to hold the reins while you are away for school/vacation/burnout/fire/whatever, why are they officers in the first place?
  1. Yriel's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Master Guns View Post
    How in the world could someone "abuse" this LOL? If a guild leader is inactive for more than 30 days, it's time to pass leadership. So please explain how this could possible be "abused"?
    Or if he has legitimate reasons like some really long vacation or a long business trip he can always just tell that to his officers. It´s not like he gets autokicked after 30 days of inactivity. If the officers know whats going on no one will remove him as a guild leader.
  1. Ineras's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shammaz View Post
    I think having to open a ticket and having a gm investigate is more thorough
    There isn't really an investigation when ticketing to take a guild over from an inactive leader other than, 1) has the guild leader not been logged in for at least 30 days and 2) is the person ticketing for leadership in the guild? This new system has more control than the tickets as it will at least filter people based on eligibility of their rank where as now whoever tickets first (no matter the rank) can get the leadership.
  1. shammaz's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Master Guns View Post
    How in the world could someone "abuse" this LOL? If a guild leader is inactive for more than 30 days, it's time to pass leadership. So please explain how this could possible be "abused"?
    same way people have found ways in abusing all these silly systems. dont tell me you've never been ripped off or had someone exploit something that you've spent a while trying to earn - maybe you havnt been playing long enough

    Quote Originally Posted by fixit View Post
    Shouldn't even be an option.The guild leader owns it,just cause they want to study for uni or concentrate on a work project for 3 months,they should not lose their property.The officers should have access to all the tabs anyway if they wish to clean it out and start another guild.Even though they feel robbed of their guild achievements/history...to fkn bad,it belongs to the guild leader plain and simple.For instance if you own a house and decide to go on holiday why should your flatmates/tenants be able to claim the house.
    well unfortunately in the world we live in, in most countries there are squatter laws that protect them when they decide to move into your house after you leave it unattended for too long etc etc but yeah morale is.. well idk it just sucks
  1. Cherrysoul's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by fixit View Post
    Shouldn't even be an option.The guild leader owns it,just cause they want to study for uni or concentrate on a work project for 3 months,they should not lose their property.The officers should have access to all the tabs anyway if they wish to clean it out and start another guild.Even though they feel robbed of their guild achievements/history...to fkn bad,it belongs to the guild leader plain and simple.For instance if you own a house and decide to go on holiday why should your flatmates/tenants be able to claim the house.
    Well if the Guild Leader is needing to do RL things, then he/she should hand over the reigns temporarily until he/she returns, this is not about that, this is about people who just vanish and either never return or come back 6mths-year later, meanwhile the guild has disbanded as they dont know what is going on. You can't compare it to your suggestion of you going on holiday and someone claiming your house. Two totally different situations and at the end of the day YOU don't own your guild, Blizzard does.
  1. mmoc02e1f68496's Avatar
    Not really...
    In my opinion a good guild leader should make someone else temporary GL if they're gone for longer than 2 weeks, so that that person can handle things like the guildbank and whatever is needed.
    30 days absence (specially when unexplained) is actually kinda long for an active guild, at least, that's what my experience is as an officer. It's just not handy to not have the GL options available to someone in the guild for a longer duration.
  1. themortalgod's Avatar
    I like the idea but i think the implementation is off. Once the 30 days expire its a mad dash of first come first serve? They should have made it a vote or something to prevent the guild ending up with a new GM they don't want.
  1. Angelic's Avatar
    So pretty much the fastest guy wins, it shouldn't be like that. They should introduce a vote if there are several officers.

Site Navigation