Just a quick thing about guilds. I was wondering if any of you oldies out there have any ideas on how to recruit for guilds(not just for my benefit, but for others who read this post as well). The problem these days is that people are making their own guilds just so they can be in charge(which I personally find stupid). It would also help if you knew how to recruit the right people (e.g. bad people: hoarders, inactives, etc e.g. good people: donaters, active members, etc.) Thanks!
-Theultralord
Players have always been creating guilds because they want to be in charge. As far as I can tell, the guild hall update was designed to make running a "decent" guild more expensive, so that there would be fewer, better guilds. But the decrease in guild costs this summer (?) probably tilted the system back a bit, toward numerous, crummy guilds.
Your ideal recruitment strategy depends somewhat on your guild's personality. For example, if you're focused on PvE, then try recruiting guildless people in Clockworks parties. If you're focused on PvP, then try recruiting there. Other places to recruit include Town Square, Bazaar, Advanced Training Hall, Guild Recruitment forum. But recruitment is much more meaningful when you have some connection to the recruit --- for example, you're getting along in party in the Clockworks.
When recruiting, try to give the recruit some information about your guild: what sets your guild apart from others, why he should join your guild instead of others, etc. A reason of "We're casual players who like to have fun" is not good enough. Almost all guilds say that.
Admittedly I never did full on "mass" recruitment to pad out a guild, but I have done a bit of recruiting. The easiest method is just asking a few friends if they'd be interested. Maybe even get guildmates to invite a few of their friends.
However, this was my preferred method:
"Ask not what your guild can do for you, ask what you can do for your guild"
I'm not talking from experience, but making your guild stand out as a community will draw some attention your way. I remember there being a thread a while back that asked what players wanted in a guild. There are probably plenty of threads like that, but they may prove useful.
Oh yeah, and personally, guild invites with some sort of information on the guild and some personalization to it stands out. Making proper use of your desired language too. Polite private messages for introductions are also bonus points.
People underestimate the effort that you must put into a guild to make it work.
You have to be either, famous or very active with recruiting.
If you're famous, people will just gravitate towards you and your guild.
However, if you need to go out recruiting all by yourself I have a few tips.
First thing's first. Get about 3-5 close friends whom you trust completely. Those are the people who will stay with you even when your guild is still small and inactive. Promote the most active 3 to officer and ask them to help recruit.
A secret GM recruiting technique that I like is to go into LD, devestate the competition, then recruit their broken egos. That works quite well for me.
I logged in a few months back I had spam mail from people asking me to invite them to my guild. I logged in last week and had more spam mail from different people asking if they could join my guild. As far as I know before I left my guild was relatively active, maybe 10-15 people on during the evening. Now my guild practically has 10-15 members. I guess people are reading the wiki section on guilds? Might need to update that. So anyone sending me mail to join Order Of Valor, thanks for the interest but don't bother, I don't log in anymore and most of the guys bar 1 or 2 have quit the game as well. I would recommend you mailing Viperer. I guess if I ever do come back, things will change. But..meh.
Any way back on point. Theultralord you are absolutely right. When I first started playing and I think this is true for everyone, I got my first guild invite to join League of Hell. It was a pretty cool guild. At the time Obsoletebot was co founder along with Cruelbad. Great guys, a lot of respect for them. I was made GM relatively fast. But as I got better better and made more friends, and people started to be come very inactive I decided to leave. Homeless I wondered the clockworks with friends who too were in the same boat as I.
It wasn't long that I then got an invite to join Gambit. My stay didn't last long, was a good guild but not for me. I then got an invite to join Knightmare. At this point I was thinking about joining them, a guild with a lot of reputation, will always be active, participated in LD guild vs guild. This was an ideal guild for me. But as I contemplated a friend asked me if I was thinking of making my own guild. After a few days I went and made Order Of Valor. This is how me and my officers turned a new guild, with 100s of better guilds out there into a very active and strong team in a matter of weeks.
1. Only invited 5 stars, the odd 4 star if they died 3 or less times during and entire boss fsc run.
2. Make a guild wiki page advertising my guild. Copy and pasted this link to potential recruits.
3. In guild we did Test of Valor. Where members would rank up if they passed.
4. Never allowed anyone to discuss being promoted.
5. Always came online even for 5mins a day. Just to see how things were running and make changes.
6. Did lots of LD. We didn't really do any GvG.
7. Never allowed anyone in guild to fall out with anyone. If there was a problem and they weren't embarrassed to share, they would discuss their problem either in guild chat or private message to me.
8. I knew a lot of people, and they knew me. Either by the 'Official Pricing Thread' or that guy who stands in the corner near the AH outbidding everyone on blue shards and monster bones.
9. We were a relatively mature guild. Ok we acted stupid sometimes, especially doing that speed sit and stand chair glitch. Lining up 10 or chairs 10 of us would just spam x all day, or what ever the button is.
10. And I was always friendly to the recruits. All top ranking members were. That's the most important part of running your own guild. So people respect and you get respect shown back. But my kindness always had limits. Which some people know all too well.
11. Never invited anyone who complained, moaned, acted childish in general. I didn't want the headache.
Hope this helps.
Promise the first 6 people executive potitions.
Promise the rest a free banana cake.
It worked for my old (joke) guild.
"Recruiting" isn't too hard. Just spam invite everyone without a guild in Haven, you'll get a few in. But finding valuable members is. Keeping them is harder. There are a lot of different people, and they want slightly different things than each other. Your guild should serve a purpose that satisfies what they want from theirs, and don't bend it in order to fit everyone's expectations because that will only work against you.
Aside from recruiting, some things to keep in mind when leading a guild:
- It's okay to be picky. Know what kind of people you want and don't want. Don't compromise. Becoming an "everything for everyone" guild never works in the long run.
- Know your members. Your core group molds your community, and you should prioritize decisions around them. Not only because you want to keep them around, but also because you should care enough to want to make their SK experience better.
- You will never have it easier than just being a normal member. You have to be personally responsible for the well-being of the guild, and the moment you decide that you want to give up due to pressure is where it starts to collapse. If it's getting inactive, do something about it. If the guild has a bad reputation, do something about it. If upkeep is a problem, do something about it. And no, you probably won't get any reward for it other than knowing that you've kept the boat afloat for one more day.
- Be active, and have a presence. Show up online, answer people's questions, make small talk, participate in runs and LD if you can.
Things that make recruiting easier:
- Community presence. If your members are often seen in LD, in Haven, anywhere, people will start noticing the guild.
- References from your own members. If your members enjoy being in your guild, they will naturally suggest that their friends join if anyone goes guildless.
I usually find it nice to talk with the recruits a little bit, and get to know them. Usually it is easy to determine what their personality is like, a little, by the way they speak and their positive/negative behavior. I always leave the Guild Hall open and spend my free time there if I can, in case recruits come. It also helps if a guild has a good reputation as well.
Also, it has been kind of annoying how guilds has been springing up with people who just can't handle them. If they want control, they should at least have been an Officer or Veteran before. Otherwise, who knows what they'll do.
- Araliaggtwo :3