Recruiting

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Looking for a more robust “Recruit a Friend” option

So, here’s a funny situation.

Blizzard’s Recruit a Friend program. It’s a nice deal for both sides.

Blizzard potentially gets new customers, at the cost of giving you a few extra benefits to leveling speed in game, plus summoning each other (something high level guild members get now too), plus after a few paid months the recruiter gets a mount.

Not a bad deal at all.

What I’d like to bring up is a poser in how it works.

Now, the enhanced leveling speed works when the two players, recruiter and recruit, are both playing in close proximity to each other.

The gifting of free levels goes between the two players.

The summoning works between the two.

It’s awesome.

But only as long as there are only TWO people in the relationship!

Let’s take a look at a different situation.

Let’s say, purely as an example, that there are two very long-time players, we’ll call them Bear and Cassie.

These two have been playing for a very long time, lots of alts, lots of level 85 characters.

These two experienced players each have their own distinct account, and enjoy making new alts and playing them together as a team.

Now, let’s assume these two have children. Children that have seen mommy and daddy play World of Warcraft together, and are now old enough to want to play themselves.

And what the children would love to do most of all is play in a team WITH mommy and daddy.

Well, that’s where Recruit a Friend goes off the rails.

What these three people would prefer to do is have a third account for their son, and then each would make a level 1 character, group up, and play, quest and adventure together.

If these experienced players try to take advantage of this Recruit a Friend program, two out of three characters will level faster. Much faster. Much, much faster.

The group won’t get the same satisfaction from playing together, as one levels at a different rate and contributes less or can’t even hit the higher level mobs.

Is this the end of the world? Well, no.

But it is my way of pointing out a situation where it would be nice if you could link accounts together as a “family plan”.

Sure, you’re not recruiting a friend… but you are recruiting a family member, and isn’t that just as likely? Isn’t their money just as welcome?

Isn’t the lack of a three member option in Recruit a Friend a potential reason these three family members will seek out a competitors’ video game where the three CAN play together and enjoy rewards?

It’s a thought. Enhanced leveling is nice, a rocket mount that you can carry other people on is nice, but it seems a darn shame to have to exclude yourself from enjoying those benefits because you plan on having three people playing together instead of two.

I know this is aimed more at my older audience, but how many of you have run into this same kind of consideration, where you and your spouse might both play and your child or children are old enough to join in the fun?

Oh, and speaking of an older audience…

I saw someone this morning in game, and they were in a guild that has my new all time favorite guild name.

“Member AARP”

That, my friends, is epic win.

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The BBB is hiring!

Hold up, don’t get too excited.

I ain’t hiring for the blog.

I’m not even hiring for anything game related.

I’m hiring someone for a real job.

Networking is one of the ways in which people are supposed to get good leads on positions that may be available. Consider this post as part of your network.

I have an opening for a 3rd shift Machine Maintenance Technician that I am looking to fill as soon as possible. This is a new position that has been created to fill my department’s growing needs.

The candidate I am looking for needs to be skilled, experienced and love what they do. Machine Maintenance Technicians are the investigative detectives of a production facility. People come to us with problems they just can’t solve on their own, and ask us to make all things clear and restore hope and order. Oh, and get things running again so we be making money.

This is a real posting for a position in my department. I expect to act this upcoming week on all initial phone screenings and begin arranging interviews.

If you are, specifically, a qualified and experienced Machine Maintenance Technician available for 3rd shift work in the Minnesota Twin Cities metro area, go to the bottom of this post to view the required qualifications.

If after reading the list of qualifications you feel you are qualified and experienced, and the position interests you, please email me at tigerlordgm@yahoo.com and I will send you the link to the posting.

All resumes are to be sent in following the link, the same as all others we are considering. Resumes sent in using the posting link will go directly to Human Resources, will follow our established corporate HR procedures, and the hiring process will follow all appropriate rules and regulations, local, state and federal.

This is not a method to bypass anything, it is simply an opportunity that is available for someone with the right skills and experience, and having been the subject of a layoff myself in the not-so-distant past, I want to make sure I do my part to get the word out. 

The window for sending in a resume will close on 5/7/10, so if you are interested, act now.

Continue reading →

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Sidhe Devils now accepting new members

Okay, everyone’s response has been more than overwhelming.

Srs. Thank you!

We’ve had offers to have us join cool sounding guilds on a lot of servers, offers to make alts and join guilds on PvP servers, and many suggestions to form our own guild.

For now, I have no plans to change servers. No matter how awesome your guild sounds, and I’ve read some really neat sounding guild descriptions from wonderful people, I am just not ready to up and leave so many friends I’ve made on this server.

I do reserve the right to make alts on another server to say hi to you, though. 

Right now Cassieann and I have returned to our alt guild, Sidhe Devils, that we share with the alts of our friends Ina, Mark, Andy and James.

Originally, Sidhe Devils was to be a joke guild to screw with other uptight players. We each made female night elf alts, joined Sidhe Devils, and had a bunny rabbit pet. The idea was, someday we were going to do full raids with female night elves with bunnies out, and irritate the stuffy hardcore guilds.

Since then, it has stayed a fun light hearted ‘staying in touch with friends’ alt guild.

Well, we are going to keep it that way, as a friendly, casual guild. We are just opening it up to new friends-to-be, that’s all.

Cassieann is done with writing a nice pleasant charter, and she has already added a ‘Guild’ tab on the blog frontpage.

If you are on Kael’thas (US), and you are interested in joining us, knowing full well there are at the moment a total of TWO active people in Sidhe Devils, then visit the guild tab to read the charter and see instructions on how to ask for an invite.

And while Cassie and I, and the Kael’thas realm are all on Central Time, our best friends Ina, Mark and Andy all live in Singapore, so if you happen to be on Kael’thas at a really wierd server time, don’t feel excluded. I bet they’d love a few more people to hang out with. 🙂

I intend to get a Ventrilo server and guild website that has forums going, because I like to be able to chat with my friends worldwide. But that kinda stuff takes time, and there is only so much Cassieann… umm, I mean I… can do in one day.

To quote Ferris Beuller… “Life moves pretty fast…”

 Wish us luck, folks!

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Looking for players in all the wrong places

Yesterday, I went off on this long wandering thing about how guilds recruit new members and all that sort of stuff.

And while it was true in it’s way, the perspective is all from someone that is in a fairly big guild that wants to add new members.

I liken it to joining the dating scene. You know you want to find that special someone, but you don’t really know where the magical place will be that you’ll find them.

Will I find Mr. Right in a PUG? In the official WoW Forums? As a friend of a friend?

Is it too forward of me to go to the WoW Forums and announce I’m looking for Mr. Right? Will I attract the wrong kind of player there?

Should I sit in a major city and announce my desperation to the entire server as I send out my recruiting cries to the Trade channel?

Hint: DON’T try in recruit in /2 Trade. It may seem quick and easy, but they won’t respect you in the morning.

Should I hit the PUG scene? Maybe I’ll find Mr. Right in a PUG of a hard instance, and he’ll be so impressed with my leet skillz he’ll want to follow me home to my guild!

Well, that’s all stressful enough, but there is a flip side to the issue that I didn’t talk about, and my friend Kestrel reminded me of that this morning.

Being the recruiter for a moderately large raiding guild that has Karazhan on farm and 3/5 Zul’aman is probably much like being a fine, hot mama looking for a man.

You aren’t worried about finding someone, because you know you can find someone at the drop of a hat. What you’re worried about is finding the right someone. And sometimes it seems like finding a nice, responsible, mature player that isn’t afraid of commitment is impossible amongst all the cast-off rejects all out on their own looking for new guilds to take advantage of.

But there is the other side of the story. What if you’re the nice young man, hoping you are smart enough, witty enough and fun enough to attract the attention of that exciting, intelligent lady, and it feels like none of them will even look in your direction much less stop to chat with you? 

It may take quite a while to build up the courage to approach a member of the guild you’re interested in. You’ve seen them around. You see their gear, you read the forum posts left by some of their more outgoing members (and even though they scare you, they still obviously know what they’re doing in a run), and it’s clear to you they’ve got a lot on the ball.

You think they’re just what you’re looking for. But when you do a /who of their guild in the Social tab, pick a member that isn’t in a instance run or raid, and whisper them timidly asking if they have the time to tell you who their guild recruiter is, you are told “Just go to our website and fill out an app.”

Feels like a brush off, doesn’t it? It feels like rejection?

Well, before your disappointment spirals down into the depths of self-pity, and you decide you didn’t really want to join them anyway, remind yourself of what it is you are trying to do.

What? No, the answer isn’t ‘score a hottie and dance like disco’, Matticus. Sheesh. 

You are looking to find a group of people that you will enjoy playing the game with, who will, at least part of the time, share the same goals you have in the game.

You want the perfect guild. yes you do.

But you are willing to settle for a guild that shares the same interests and is fun to be around. After all, not everyone can be lucky enough to find perfection.

Yes, we’re still talking about guilds!

The first rule of finding yourself a new guild is to engage in your own interest, spend time among other people who are also doing the same activity, get to know the community of folks who do it, and then talk to those people and get to know them.

If you want to join a guild in a social game, then you need to engage in social activities.

The more you actually DO the stuff you are interested in, the easier your search for new friends becomes.

If you enjoy raiding and running instances, then join a lot of Pick Up Groups. You will meet a lot of asshats, it is true. But believe it or not, you will also meet a lot of good, friendly, knowledgeable players that are suffering through the same crap you are, and are in the same position; they aren’t in raiding guilds either. These folks you meet casually may not be able to hook you up with a guild invite, but you will share the horror of asshats in PUGs, and you may find that whispering them to chuckle or wince over the latest bone-headed move by one of the other PUG assclowns will gain you a new friend in the game.

Make enough of those, and you’ve got a guild someday. And even if you don’t, every new friend is a new friend. How is that a bad thing?

Aside from lonely soloers like you, there are also a lot of ringers in PUGs. Many end-game guilds don’t organize anything other than raiding. Raids are put on a tight schedule, and if the individual players want to run heroics to farm badges, or are seeking a particular drop from an instance (like a rare enchant recipe, or that damn Hourglass of the Unraveller), they will likely find themselves in a PUG for it, since many of their other guildmates spend their non-raiding time farming money or mats for the consumables they need.

You do your personal best in the PUG, you don’t bitch or act like a princess, you do your best to be yourself, friendly, have fun, and kick ass, and these ringers will notice, and word will get around. You WANT that kind of word to get around. They may not personally ask you into their guild, but they may mention to a friend that they met this kick-ass mature, skilled Hunter in a PUG, and the guy was single! I mean guildless. Right, guildless, sorry.

And the friend will keep that in mind. Out of the blue, you may find yourself asked one day if you can fill in for someone on a Karazhan run, by someone you don’t know.

Word to the wise… if this happens, don’t worry about the loot. Your concern about whether or not you will be allowed to roll on loot in someone elses’ run is understandable, since you haven’t ever been to the raid before, you’re excited, and you are afraid to commit your time for nothing to what is essentially a PUG.

But if they are whispering you, and they are in a reputable guild, then they are most likely asking you along because they heard you were smart and cool and fun to play with and could do your job. They probably do Karazhan often, and aren’t that worried about loot. What they are worried about is whether or not you can put enjoying new things and having fun above loot. It’s a character and personality test. Remember, they are the hot chick. They are the ones that can have any old player, but they don’t want any old player. They want a long term relationship. They’re looking for the kind of character that suggests you may be capable of commitment. And they do NOT want to worry about having a messy breakup further on down the road. 

If there is a guild you see around, or that you have PUGed with that impressed you, don’t forget to check them out, too. In a world where we Google dates to find out what skeletons are lurking in their backgrounds (They were arrested in Tijuana for WHAT!?!), don’t hesitate to go to the official WoW Forums for your particular realm. In most cases, there should be a sticky thread listing guilds on both Horde and Alliance sides, and most guilds will make sure a link to their guild website is in there.

Visit their website. Read whatever they have available to the general public, open forums, Guild charter, Application Form, etc. If they do have an open forum section, hey, this is a friendly game. If you are there because you enjoyed a PUG with some of their members, or if you’ve been impressed with the mature and friendly way some of their members treat others, hey, why not say so?

And I recommend doing that even if you are not looking for a guild, or are already in a solid guild.

Make a post in their forum just saying “Hi, played recently with such and such in a such and such run, and had a great time. Thanks for making a PUG fun, appreciate it, take care and peace out. You guys rock. Keep it up, I appreciate it.”

If you are there because of something like that, why not say so? Letting people know you appreciate what they do, the effort they put into being good plaeyrs, is NEVER out of style.

In the end, my biggest advice to you is; if you want to meet someone, you are not going to do it by solo questing. You are going to have to get out there and actually meet and greet, do what it is you are interested in, and chat with the other people who are doing the same.

It can be scary, I know.  

In the past, I have been in the position of wanting to have enough friends to run the 5 man instances, wanting to be in a guild that raided the 10 mans, and wishing I knew where to go to find one. 

But my mistake was that I did not enter the instances on my own. I didn’t take the initiative to go PUGing. I waited to be invited into a guild, expecting to then start doing a lot more group activity.

And the truth is, the core problem I had was that I was intimidated by doing the instance. The time I expected it to take, knowing that I was going to be committing myself to be in a single run lasting an hour and a half, with other people depending on me not to screw up, was a big looming scary wall.

What if my son needed me and I had to bail and disappoint people while dealing with things at home? What if I screwed up and wiped the run and everyone called me an asshat noob? Worse yet, what if I deserved to be called one?

Somehow, looking at that wall, I decided that if I were facing it with friends who would be more forgiving of my potential screw ups, it would be easier to face.

But when you are in a guild, the pressure is greater, not less. Instead of screwing up in front of a random grouping of strangers, you have the potential of screwing up in front of the people you are planning on spending the rest of your life… um, I mean the majority of your game time with.

So the wall doesn’t go away, it just gets higher.

You need to take action now. Face your fear of instances, or of participating in the PvP community or the twink chat, and get out there are do some group playing. Be yourself, do your best, be patient with asshats but don’t take their shit, and you WILL become known.

And someone like me will see you, and say to the other Officers, “Omigawd, Irv, let me tell you about this Warlock I met the other day when I was doing the Consortium daily… you would not BELIEVE the damage he was putting out, and he never pulled aggro… oh, I thought I was going to die, he was so hawt.”

And Irv will say, “Oh sexy… was he guilded?”