Roleplaying while recruiting. Improvement or hinderance?

[Garile]

I was wondering about my time in Planeshift and about how I've changed.

One thing that has changed is how I recruit. Ofcourse I also changed guild so they have different standards, but even if I didn't my standards and ways have changed aswell.

However are these changes really all for the better? Chosing a guild seems to be very OOC at the moment. Specially new players have often chosen a guild way before they learn RP. This means the number of people I recruit these days has been almost none.

The main question then arises does this way of recruiting lead to higher quality and a better guild in the end? Or should one recruit with some lower standards preparing to steam the recruits into what you would like instead of recruiting them that way?

[Zan]

I find it the only way to recruit but that's because I'm practically always roleplaying. Unfortunately it does mean we're very restricted in the number of people we can recruit but RP guilds will always come behind non-RP guilds anyway.

One thing I do do is recruit people with an interest in roleplay and who are at least on the right track. I'll do my best to teach them the ropes and get them into the fold .. but this doesn't always work out in the end. A lot of people I recruited on those terms eventually decide they aren't into roleplay enough to stick around. The few that do make it all worth while though.

In the end I'd much rather have a handful of good roleplayers than an army of questers or levelers or whatever.

[Tuxide]

A guild that grows very fast does not last very long.  In most cases.  If you want your guild to become popular, then become a forum mod and use your sig for recruiting purposes.  Don't get me wrong, using your sig to spread awareness of your guild, or your guild's website doesn't bother me much, but using it for recruiting does.

[Velh Krome]

.. Roleplaying while recruiting..
We used to handle it mostly like that, recruiting people only by roleplayed reasons. That means we usually were aiming for few meetings, two or three, gathering trust of the one targeted, making sure he can be trusted and such - Just the way of acting our chars have to go for, concerning the Collective's nature.
Now, as it turned out after quite some attempts.. to (role-) play out recruitings the proper way in most of the cases failed. Reason: Massrecruiting guilds caught the newbies.
For some time now we tried to resist to lower our personal standards, but we had to realize that this wont result in any success. So finally we agreed in no longer accepting massrecruiters spoiling newbs, but to try to recruit with a much smaller amount of rp involved.
We already tried to do so once, and it actually felt pretty poor. It lacks a whole lot of depth and immersion - but if it will lead to gathering members, willing and proficient roleplayers, the lack could be balanced out later on.

About the "quality" of the guild in the end, well, in my opinion (otherwise we wouldnt have altered our way) its the guild who has a big influence on how the members will develop. Promising newbies can become ooc-chatters in those mass-guilds, or to roleplayers in according guilds.

One thing I do do is recruit people with an interest in roleplay and who are at least on the right track. I'll do my best to teach them the ropes and get them into the fold .. but this doesn't always work out in the end. A lot of people I recruited on those terms eventually decide they aren't into roleplay enough to stick around. The few that do make it all worth while though.

Ditto

Thats in fact quite funny, Tuxide! I thought that myself already: Guild-leading forums-mods not missing many occasions to advertise their guilds probably have good chances, even when recruiting roleplaying-wise only;)

[Garile]

*smiles*

My sig? ahh well you probably mean Sangwa's seeing I'm no forum mod. Kinda stole his signature anyhow.

I don't think my signature really recruits people. They would only click it if they were interested to begin with so it only makes it easier for people to find the website and learn more and obviously I don't minds people knowing what guild my main character is in right now.

Anyhow I don't believe extreems are good so massrecruiting isn't good for a guild, but seeing how few join sometimes with high standards it does make one wonder if some lower standards though still having standards wouldn't work better with the idea of teaching them as they go.

It would mean letting in people your not sure about yet, but in addition it might bring more people into roleplaying aswell. Hard to say where the perfect line is I suppose.

OK was writing this before Velh posted. Thanks Velh for the post. Well that is pretty much what I'm starting to think aswell. I'm not sure I want to go that well, but it does seem to go the way that if you want to be a succesfull RP guild you do need to lower ones standards a little and focus a lot more on teaching the new recruits to get the group you want.

[Phinehas]

For me it's a mix. I want to recruit IC because that makes sense, but I also want to know the person OOC. The reality is that while IC is the focus, there is a player behind the character, and if he's a jerk it could ruin the fun for the other players in the guild.

I'll give an example for myself... Yesterday I had fun roleplaying with a couple people, among them was Lirreka. I was suitably impressed by her RP and later on I saw her in IRC so I talked to her for a bit. She seemed an intelligent, with-it young lady who I would enjoy having in my guild, and I'd already seen that her RP was good. So I talked to her about the guild and she said she'd prefer IC recruiting. So we agreed that we hope our character's meet again, and chances are that if Phinehas realizes she's a magic-wielder(which he doesn't at the moment), then he'll end up trying to recruit her. Ideal situation as far as I'm concerned, if it works out, I'll end up with a cool character and a cool player in my guild.

[Duraza]

Well I'd say what I was think but Phinehas said it for me  To tell the truth though I never actually recruit. Most who have ended up joining any of my guilds were just met accidentally and after a few chats accepted (either that or enslaved  ). I think that having your characters goals alligned with the goals of the guild the most important thing though. You can ICly become friends with guild members and join their guild and its still as bad as OOC recruitment. In that case I rather see someone get recruited OOCly because they already understand their character to fit in ICly. One could argue to say its an IC choice but it still doesn't feel right to me.

[Farren Kutter]

I have tried recruiting solely ICly. It is hard to actually find RPers not already in a guild, and hard to find new players that would join a guild of Rangers. Everyone seems to be in the whole noble warrior or evil character bit, no one cares about nature, and if they do, they go and start their own guild, thus depriving the others of new members I find it hard to recruit bot because of the method, but because of the multitude of same-goal, same-kind guilds, and it is the one with some attribute, sometimes, OOC, that gets it. One guild has more members, perhaps, and is thus able to recruit more because they have more people recruiting. Maybe one invites OOCly, which of course is an advantage.

[Phinehas]

Stop talking, Farren. Nobody cares about nature.

It had to be said.

Still though, I think you're right... part of the difficulty in recruiting is that 95% of characters are cliches.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

To me the DE is and should be a leet guild, do not lower yourself to street spam Garile.

[zorbels]

For me it's a mix. I want to recruit IC because that makes sense, but I also want to know the person OOC.

 

What if the person doesn't want to get to know people OOC in this game? What if all they want is the RP and care not about getting to know people? Some people even take it to the extreme and RP their characters personalities on the forums. This poses a problem with your wanting to get to know the OOC. So what do you do? Turn away a good roleplayer? Or choose to accept that their character is all they will be in game and recruit them anyway?  Just curious.

[Phinehas]

Honestly? Haven't had to make that decision yet. Haven't come across anyone of that description. Sure I'm not buddy-buddy with everybody OOC, and have no desire to be, but I haven't come across anyone who refuses to be OOC at all...

[Zan]

To me the DE is and should be a leet guild, do not lower yourself to street spam Garile.

Why not? It's completely justifiable in character, especially for the military branch of the DE. Armies always recruit with street spam.

This doesn't mean you have to become a mass recruiter and just allow anyone into the guild. You can still shout out about needing more recruits but make sure the undedicated ones are scared off by a harsh interview.

[Velh Krome]

Just to mention it, as devs and mods say it waaaay to rarely: Join the Dark Empire, it's the most superior guild by far Planeshift has! 

But seriously now, even if the Empire is that "leet", if they dont have members even their reputation wont help much and it will turn into a farce.
We thought quite some times we could "target" the DE but we just had problems 'finding' it - That guild surely is great and all, and I wish they grow (again?) for they will provide atmosphere and plot! After all they are a roleplaying-guild and shoud be one of those ruling;)

Of course the personality of the player and his attitude we also take into account, but so far we always were successful evaluating by the way one played.

Even if to "lower the standards" would mean a less pleasant moment of recruiting itsself, it doesnt mean it would lower the standard of the whole guild, so I second Zan there. To take it to the extreme, even if you would use massrecruiting-methods, maybe first 10% roleplaying-way, rest ooc, still there would be a big difference in the end. A member of a massrecruiter would then have the guild-tab to chat, a member of a roleplaying guild also, but much more important he would find himself in an area where things get figured, plans made up, stories told, maybe intruiged, maybe .. to make the long story short: He would find himself within something quite fascinating and exciting. And that alone already would form the newbie and show him how grand PS really can be.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

Good point zan, I just meant I dislike when people spam new people invites. A good guild should have quality people seeking it.