Master Musings: Recruitment

The musings of a guild leader are always full of drama. I wouldn't deny that my own musings aren't free of the dreaded drama bug, but we're all human. It's just that guild leaders are more exposed to those sort of things. What makes you different though, is your ability to come back from cloud nine to the people you love.


Ah... Recruiting. Even before I became the guild leader of Inflation, I was in charge of recruiting and cleaning the guild as a vice. It was a little bit of busy work, but I enjoyed it. Pre guild penalty was some of the craziest, most fun days that I remember. We were still young and were not subdued by a community that had their heads too far into their anuses, but the past is the past and we're now deep into post guild penalty.

I'm just going to divert here and rant about the guild penalty. It's absolutely stupid. There's been arguments about how the guild penalty preserves guild ethics, but this is just a game. You can preserve guild ethics in your own guild, but a game is supposed to be competitive and fun. Waiting three days to join a guild, especially if you just came back from an extended break or quit, can be some of the most lonely three days you can imagine. I know this because I buddy prospective guild members so I can keep them company or keep tabs on them. Is it really fair to punish those people? Not really. So save your argument that it preserves guild ethics and let guilds have the freedom to do what they want. If they don't have guild ethics, then we'll know.

The recruiting process has always been the same. Get my server microphones from the fashion shop, type out our recruitment advertisement, wait for people to whisper and deliberate. Our guild recruits people level 140 and up, but I usually bend the rules for those who need it. I usually say yes, unless I know the player will be uncomfortable in the guild. We have the level requirement for one reason: majority of our population is 130-19x. Since most of our players fall in that range of mid to post game, it's only fair to appeal to that population. Anybody that falls below that rage is in jeopardy of feeling left out or not fitting in, leading to an unhappy guild member. Majority of the guild members are nice to help, but at the end of the day, we can't hold someone's hand their entire journey.

But even to those I reject, I do try to refer them to guilds they might find happiness. Inflation isn't the only guild after all and there are some guilds I feel are down to earth with down to earth people who do down to earth people things that don't involve trying to fit into the greater scheme of the community. Aka not a clique.

Recruitment never stops at the advertisement though. I allow guild members to refer friends and family to join. Regardless of their level, they have a reason to be in the guild, through that friend or family member. Sometimes their time in the guild is short and other times it is not, but it's always nice to see the wonderful people who hide in the shadows of our guild members.

In the greater scheme of things, we are all a family and those who I recruit are welcomed into our family.

But I'll save that for another day.