Recruiting is a fickle thing. One person’s perfect candidate is another’s worst nightmare. What it all comes down to are certain expectations on the part of the guild as well as the potential recruit. While our guild is always looking for good people to help round out its roster, there are certain guidelines that both guild members and recruits should be aware of before suggesting someone for recruitment or applying to the guild. New recruits would also find it especially helpful to read through the Mission Statement in addition to this document when considering filling out an application. More importantly, however, this document should be read in its entirety before suggesting someone for recruitment. The purpose here is to set up a clear and precise definition of exactly what we are looking for.

Potential new recruits to the guild should be well rounded players. We look for a balance between three particular aspects: compatibility, competence, and commitment. We understand that no person is complete in any of these three categories, or that no person is an exact average of the three. It is important that we gauge the quality of these three aspects in every recruit. If you are in fact applying to our guild, it would be helpful to us if you gave yourself a sort of “self-evaluation” and assessed how you fit into that three aspect framework. Now, let’s go into a little more detail about exactly what we are looking for here.

While it is important to staff the guild with all sorts of people, we would like for at least every applicant to have a certain amount of dedication to the guild. “A certain amount” means that we expect recruits to be readily accessible through several means (e-mail, forums or in-game chat) and expect an expedient response. We need accessible people, so we don’t bloat up our membership with inactive players. Also, we expect recruits to make attempts to attend any scheduled guild events as much as possible. We’d like to keep members up to date on guild issues and strategies, but we don’t expect the recruit to devote large amounts of time to the guild. We understand that most people have jobs, families, and real life responsibilities outside of their online gaming life. Also, although it is not required, it is definitely a major plus if a recruit could contribute more to the guild than just playing regularly. Any help with website design, guild organization, developing strategies, and other aspects of guild management that a recruit might be able to offer are a definite plus, so be on the look out for people with these types of abilities.

Skilled players are welcome and of course encouraged to be recruited and to apply. However, be wary. Many highly skilled players on, if recruited, would not have the slightest inclination towards being dedicated to the guild, or being amiable to its members. A lot of the "good" players in the game are predominantly focused on "dressing the doll" or focusing solely on conquering the end-game content at any costs. Skill is not so important that it supercedes our insistence on only recruiting team players. Yet, competence is still important. This does not necessarily mean that a person is a “fully decked out with gear” or that they can beat almost anyone in a one-on-one PvP match. Competence more importantly includes being aware of how the game works, how it’s typically played by opponents, strategies for various instances and using that information to a player’s best advantage to help his or her guild best perform as a team. In other words, we want competent, smart players, even if they have room to improve in their gaming skills. If you think a recruit fits this description, and they fully understand the basic controls of the game, then we will probably be satisfied.

But, the aspect which our guild places the most importance on is compatibility. As a recruiter, it’s hard to say how well a potential recruit might really fit in with the guild. Most of the time, the actual application process will establish how good of a rapport the recruit actually has with the rest of the guild. However, there are some things you can identify and consider when communicating with a potential recruit.

The potential recruit should hopefully…

• have a strong desire to be part of our guild.
• put the success of his or her guild over personal glory or loot.
• be pleasant and generally helpful to other people, in game, on forums, and in Ventrilo (i.e. makes some sort of attempt to help new players, doesn’t insult others for any reason, etc.).
• be mature and sportsmanlike at all times, during, after, and outside of the game (i.e. does not excessively global spam chat, does not cuss out other players, does not blame teammates for wipes, etc.).
• seem to have opinions and visions that are congruent with the direction of the guild. (i.e. wants to participate in organized team play, wishes to part of a team atmosphere, etc.).

If a recruit meets these guidelines, then he will probably be a good fit with our guild, and should be suggested for recruitment.

Recruitment can be an arduous task, but its well worth the effort, if we can staff the guild with competent, dedicated people who enjoy playing with us. I hope that this has been of some help to all of you.