Longtime ZAM user Adam "Ferrel" Trzonkowski has written a book that gives guidance to guild leaders. Get some details about the book and author in our interview!

Are you a guild leader looking for some guidance? Then you may want to check out The Guild Leader's Companion, a new book written by longtime ZAM user Adam "Ferrel" Trzonkowski. Using his years of experience from games like EverQuest and EverQuest II, Trzonkowski has created a reference guide that will help you run a guild in any MMO.

Editor-in-Chief Darryl "Togikagi" Gangloff had the opportunity to talk with Trzonkowski about the creative process behind writing the book and his history with MMOs, as well as the difficulties behind transferring your guild to a new game (in his case, it's Rift). You can read the full interview after the jump!

The Guild Leader's Companion is available for purchase through Amazon, and you can even pick up the digital version for your Kindle. Trzonkowski will be donating 100% of the proceeds of sales made through June 30 to the Fisher House Foundation, which provides a "home away from home" for military families to be close to a loved one during hospitalization for an illness, disease or injury. This is a great opportunity to get some guild leadership help while donating to a good cause!

ZAM: Let's start off with your gaming resume. What's your history with MMOs, and which games stand out to you the most?

Adam Trzonkowski: The history of MMOs and my playing them are basically in perfect sync. Prior to the advent of the graphical MMO I was a huge fan of MUDs. That is where I started in both online gaming and guilds. When I was introduced to Ultima Online I readily adopted it but still spent a fair amount of time in the text-based games that came prior to it. EverQuest, on the other hand, grabbed me like no other and demanded all my attention. It is the game that defined me as an MMO player and as a guild leader. There have been good MMORPGs since but none have felt the same to me as EQ did all those years ago (even though it wasn’t my first).

ZAM: Writing a book is no easy task. What made you decide to write it, and how did it ultimately go from concept to reality?

Trzonkowski: That is certainly the truth! To be honest the book started off as therapy. Leading a guild for years takes a toll on a person. Leading a competitive raid guild adds even more stress. I spent a long time thinking about what I had done right and what I had done wrong. I relived certain choices that in hindsight I could see as completely awful. Of course it is easy to do that after the fact. I found solace in writing about those experiences and when I started my book there wasn’t another like it. It seemed right to share my mistakes with others in the hope of helping current and future guild leaders keep a bit of their sanity. The process was tough but I broke the book up by chapter and section. Finishing each little bit gave me the confidence to continue on.

ZAM: You state early in the book that the first question you ask anyone who wants to be a guild leader is why they'd want the position. Why did you want the job?

Trzonkowski: To be quite frank, I didn’t. When I started playing EverQuest II with my friends it was our goal to just hang out together, find a decent guild, and have fun. It wasn’t long after our invitation to Iniquity that the officers asked me to step into a leadership role and I agreed. It was something I had done it before and things were still pretty casual. When we decided to vote out the current guild leader the other senior officers and I talked it over. Nobody really wanted to be the guild leader but I was willing to accept it. That happened in 2004 and it has stuck ever sense. These days I can’t imagine doing something else. It is hard to give up the helm.

ZAM: The chapters of your book have titles that are straight out of a business manual: Human Resources, Organization Structure, Accounting, Public Relations and Production. Do you view guilds as a business model?

Trzonkowski: In a lot of ways I do. A guild is like a team or business. It truly amazes players to see the intersection of management in gaming. If you’re familiar with management, psychology, and leadership you can do a lot more with a guild than you might imagine. I think it is wise to look at any group of people and use all the tools available to strengthen the organization.

ZAM: Some people may say, "This is a lot of work for a game." However, all of your guidance certainly has real world benefits. How has your guild leadership experience helped you in real life?

Trzonkowski: It has had a hugely positive impact on my real life. By being a guild officer and leader I was forced to interact with other people. It takes effort to learn how to deal with them appropriately while achieving the organizational goal. I’ve also learned how to manage time, resources, and people. When I was charged with similar duties in my real life career it was old hat to me. I know some people don’t believe that MMO leadership is real but it translates directly. Dealing with people is dealing with people regardless of whether a monitor is involved.

ZAM: Can you give us any specific examples of a time when your leadership experience came into play in-game?

Trzonkowski: My favorite story is from EverQuest II and I tell it quite often. Iniquity was working on the original, pre-nerf, Darathar. This was the hardest mob around and marked the end of classic. My main tank and one of my main DPS players were in my house playing with me. Midway through the fight the tank looked over at me and said, “We’re just not going to win. We don’t have the gear.” It seemed like that. We had been learning the mob eight hours a day for five days straight. I looked at him and said, “We’re staying till we win. We can’t hope that the random drops are kind to you.” Both the tank and my DPS were clearly pissed at me but we kept at it and we won that night. The moral of the story is knowing when to be firm and when to retire, even in the face of people who are in disagreement.

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