A guild leader has to be den mother and bitch goddess in one. You have to be prepared to lay down the rules and abide by them, while at the same time, taking care of everyone in your guild. It's a lot of work and it's a really fine line to walk along at times. [WoW, F, 27]

The most valuable lesson I've learned from being a guild leader is: You'll never be everybody's friend, and wholly expect half the guild to have it out for you. There's two sides to being a guild leader. There's your social side, and your leading side. The social side is everybody's friend, the leader side gets things done. You have to break eggs to make cake, so to speak. [WoW, M, 23]

Well it sometimes was like being a mother of 15 children ;) [GW, F, 28]

The hardest part about being a guild leader is listening to people's real life problems. I am sort of a 'mom' to people in the guild and a lot of them confide in me. I listen to some really sad stories and it's very difficult to hear them, they effect me greatly. Probably the most difficult was when a 27 year old woman in the guild told me she had terminal breast cancer and that she just needed to talk to me because she was 'so scared'. I think the toughest part about hearing things like that is the realization that these folks had to confide in someone that they don't even know - I feel so bad that they don't have a real life friend or family member that they can reach out to. [EQ, F, 50]