Curse

gwepwe · Jan 04, 2006, 03:48 PM // 15:48

I don't know if anyone else has experienced similar problems but i've just started up a new guild and at the moment there is only 3 members including myself. I've been playing the game a long time and have a couple of experienced lvl20 characters, but its still hard to find people to join your guild without spamming messages in ascalon. The only people that have seemed keen to join came for a day took all the help and money that they needed then left. Can anyone tell me where i can find some good honest people! seems to me i wasted nearly 30k on a guild for nothing, AARRGHH!

Sofonisba · Jan 04, 2006, 04:02 PM // 16:02

Don’t get discouraged; be patient.

Just make sure you play with your existing guild members as much as possible. As I have stated many times, the best way to have people beg to be in your guild is when they see 2-3 of the same capes doing a mission together. The good people LIKE to see teamwork, much more than they like to receive items or money. We have never had to recruit, we’re pushing 60 members with usually 10-12 on every night…. But it’s been slower lately because some folks went away for the holidays.

In my opinion, spamming recruitment slogans in Ascalon nets only randomness.

Yes there are leeches… but if you play with someone first, without even mentioning the word “guild,” and they seem like a good team player? Those are the kinds of people you ask, AFTER the mission is over.

Good luck.

EDIT: Actually I just counted... 71 members including 4 duplicates (multiple accounts).

M1h4iL · Jan 04, 2006, 04:18 PM // 16:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by gwepwe

I don't know if anyone else has experienced similar problems but i've just started up a new guild and at the moment there is only 3 members including myself. I've been playing the game a long time and have a couple of experienced lvl20 characters, but its still hard to find people to join your guild without spamming messages in ascalon. The only people that have seemed keen to join came for a day took all the help and money that they needed then left. Can anyone tell me where i can find some good honest people! seems to me i wasted nearly 30k on a guild for nothing, AARRGHH!

Thats why I have never been a guild leader, I let the hardcore players be leaders because they will keep the guild laive better, my self, being a casual player, I would simply find no time to keep a guild alive an active.
I reckon you should find some good friends to join thet are from your country and log on at similar time when your on.

Gott Wood · Jan 04, 2006, 04:48 PM // 16:48

I classify myself as a hardcore player.....I play 5 hours a day during week days and 8 on weekends.

I have ran into serveral guild leaders threatened by me.......my level/quantity of play.............and generousity.

All those hours you accumulate a bunch of rare weapons, armour, caster items. I have all I need so...........

I actually had a guild leader tell me to stop giving stuff away.......unbelievable.

Had another guild leader to stop running members from asclon to droks or sanctum. They need to earn it. The same guy did not like me running/bossing the ascention missions getting guildies through them. He also had a problem with power leveling a guy in an afternoon. Got him from level 3 to 20 in a long afternoon.

Well guys I have done most if not all the game and this is how I enjoy the game now.

Sorry hope I didnt highjack the thread.....just needed to vent

gwepwe · Jan 04, 2006, 05:02 PM // 17:02

I guess that people recation depends on who you help. I'm not borthered with running people to the end of the game if they've already completed it with one character before. If thats what they want to do then so be it. I also like to help people and i think im a fairly good natured person, i do give out lots of free stuff to people that need it. It just not nice to be taken advantage of and when trying to recruit its hard not too

Marodac Evilbane · Jan 04, 2006, 05:09 PM // 17:09

Recently I have become a temporary guild leader as well, and I am familiar with that problem. Here's our response:

A warning to the players asking for items
A second warning on guild chat including the mentioning of kicking
The actual kicking of the player that wants to use the guild

I don't like to kick, and I put this situation before my officers. We reached 100% unanimously the point that we are here to help, but not to be used. Therefore we made a code of conduct, in which we explained how we run the guild. We will help any member with quests, missions if needed (we decide when something is needed, and if we are willing to help - to prevent misuse of officers time), and we provide answers to any question a new member can think of. In our guild it is common for officers to give weapons to newer (younger and lower in level) members, but we feel that is a gift, not a right. We will not give any cash, materials, weapons etc. to a member who we have not yet come to trust. Members that help other members are sooner to receive great gifts than people that ask for green bows for their lvl 10 R. The latter is currently on the secind warning, and my foot is getting itchy...

So in short, don't get too frustrated by leeches, they appear at the best of guilds (especially at the best of guilds, since these have the best things to leech). If you do not trust your members yet, let them know. The good ones will understand, the bad will leave or get kicked soon.

Medion · Jan 04, 2006, 05:16 PM // 17:16

My guild, which I started with a few friends from another guild was started about 2 and a half month ago. At this moment, we have about 12-15 active members.

We are a guild that doesn't want to get everyone in. Our vision is that only the people of who we think are rather good, get in (friends of people who are already members can join too). Because of this our guild is not growing very hard, but we haven't had one leecher so far. True, we had some people leave the guild after they saw it wasn't too big, but they didn't leech.

So just be patient and don't accept everyone in your guild. Also, be sure that in the first few days you play a little with these new guildies, especially if this is their first character.

Mimi Miyagi · Jan 04, 2006, 06:02 PM // 18:02

Getting a new guild off the ground - especially considering how long GW has been out - can be a bit of a challenge.

Spamming Guild join messages in Ascalon, LA, Droknars (wherever) is both a waste of time, and incredibly irritating to everyone else in the town. No one pays attention to it, except for the scammers and leeches looking to make a quick buck.

Because most folks are already in a guild that play the game, the only real way to get more members is to find the disgruntled ones and poach them off the other guild roster.

Here are some other suggestions, with pitfalls...

First, examine just what direction you want to take your guild. Considering it's only 3 people, that somewhat limits your choices to either team arenas (with a 4th PUG member), PVE, or trying to set up a Tombs PUG every night.

What you're trying to do is play organized missions, or team based PVP and find extra players looking to fill a slot, and play with them. If your guild has at least some appearances of teamwork and camraderie, then the guys you play with will more often than not inquire about joining. You have to think - if they are already in a guild yet by themselves looking to join a PUG in team arenas, then chances are they are probably in their own crappy guild, or in a guild that isn't normally online at the same time he/she is. Anyway, get the PUG member on Teamspeak, and chat with them, and show them what warm fuzzy happy people you are, and also get a chance to assess your potential new guild mate's ability to fit in with your own personalities.

Play more PVE, especially in the lower areas (pre LA, for example), even if you've done them a billion times, and help new players get past Frost Gate, Gates of Kryta, etc missions. Advertise in the early mission towns you are doing mission and looking for new players to help them. This will provide even more opportunities to gain new members. Start a new character in presearing, and simply join up with the obvious new players, and help them do some quests, etc. Pick out the players not wearing capes (although this isn't a 100% clue with the options of turning off capes/hats) and add them to your friends list, and help them out when they need it.

Building a successful guild requires WORK and selflessness on your part, if you want it to grow. Put aside your needs and concentrate on helping others, even for free. Be somewhat picky about who you let in, don't just let someone in and lavish gifts/gold as a bribe for their friendship - real guild mates don't see a guild as a way to get stuff, they see the guild as a group of friends playing together.

As a last resort, delete your guild and join an established guild. If you are not able to successfully recruit players, you are probably not cut out to be a good guild leader anyway. There are PLENTY of great guilds in the game, not all of them hang out in Tombs demanding you be a R6+ player to join.

Hope this helps.

Lady Frost Bite · Jan 04, 2006, 06:35 PM // 18:35

My guild has had issuse in the past with leechers and whiners and beggers. the best way we have found to get past this is to not give stuff to ppl who have been in our guild less than 30 days. we figure if you have been with us that long and don't get anything except for some small amount of mission help then you are not here to leach however if someone wants something bad enough they might stick it out at which point we figure they must need the items more than we do. i also believe its going to be hard for you to find players because you don't have that many members but i could be wrong. my guild started back in june or july of 05 with about 4 really good ppl we are now up to 22 i think(haven't done a head count in awhile)since we started we have lost a fair amount due to our guild leader getting mad and disbanning but what can you do. most of the ppl that were in the guild before we disbaned came back because above all else we are loyal to our guild and to the other ppl in it. most of us are friends or friends of friends or brothers of friends ect ect ect. so we don't have a major problem with leechers. every now and then we do come across one but at any given time during the day we have an officer on and if an officer or even our gl sees you asking for things ie money or crafting stuff we will tell you weather or not we have and weather or not you can have it if you start to beg or just piss us off in general then all of our officers have the right to kick you for the betterment of the guild. if you really don't want to deal with the hassel then put someone else in charge and you can come to us. just pm me ingame(Little Blue Steel) and i'll be more than happy to send you an invite(you wouldn't be the first gl to leave your guild for us)

kimahri · Jan 04, 2006, 07:11 PM // 19:11

Since my guild is swedish the easiest is to meet a swede during a mission. If you have a language incommon (except english) it's much easier to bond. Then, you ask if he wants to join. Then he might say something like "Sure, the guild I'm in now sucks!". Then you invite the person, then you have a new member and when u become many, then people will come by themselves.

Though it does make it easier if u have [SWE] as guild tag

.

Lord Iowerth · Jan 04, 2006, 08:50 PM // 20:50

Well, from personal experience: our guild is a small one, and very slow-growing ... which is just the way I like it. I'd rather have a relationship with someone long before they ever are in the guild, which avoids such morons.

I am an officer, and the leader keeps trying to make me leader, and I keep telling him he better not ... for reasons that would take too long to explain.

Sometimes one of the other 2 officers will invite people without prior knowledge, or at the recommendation of a member ... this has lead to leeches/idiots/etc ... so we've instituted much the same policy as some others who have posted here, to not give any actual items until they are trusted. Here's my example:

Me, helping a guildie (we'll call him good guildie) run from Yak's to Ice tooth, to beacons, to LA. Asked in guild chat if anyone else that had a second character needed a run as well, and got a response from a new guildie (we'll call him evil guildie).

I ask in Yak's if anyone else wants to come on the run, for tips (appreciated, not required, of course), and we get a full party.

Between Yak's and ice tooth, everything was pretty much ok. At ice tooth, one or two people drop and say they just needed to get there, or had to go, etc. no worries. One tipped me, I thanked him, and we got a few more people to replace them.

Well between Ice and beacons, evil guildie says in team chat that everyone should just give tips to him on arrival. Good guildie says "Um, no? you're not doing the run". Bad guildie keeps spamming that everyone should give him all the tips, so me, being the nice person, says "Bad guildie, I can teach you how to do this run if you want, it's nice to meet people and make a few extra bucks ... you don't have to try and leech". (most of you see this coming) "ZOMG i'm not a leech, you should give me the tips, I need the money!"

I won't bore you with more details, but needless to say, we finally shut him up after a few minutes, and once I got to beacon's I kicked him out of the group. I talked to the leader a while later, told him what happened, and before I could say anything his name disappeared from the guild list.

Moral of this story: Play with your potential guild mates before inviting them.

Vladmoney · Jan 04, 2006, 11:19 PM // 23:19

If you PvP and get pretty good, you can just ask people that you had a good time PvPing to join your guild.

gwepwe · Jan 04, 2006, 11:29 PM // 23:29

thanks for everyones input, it's good to know that there are decent people out there (something that it's sometimes easy to forget). I'll take that all into account.. oh and for a bit of self promotion, if anyone want to join the guild just send me a private message

Inureface · Jan 04, 2006, 11:49 PM // 23:49

The way I got recruited into my guild was in pre-searing, by a now long gone

officer (said guild was too boring). You should look for new players in Pre-sear and offer help and just a general group of buddies who you can chat with and stuff. Until this thread, I never knew about the problems with leeches and stuff and now if I think about it, I could've been viewed as a leech when I asked 3 times for help on villany lol. Or when I proudly stated I had no money after burning it on skills. A guildie gave me 10k which even now I think was a very nice amount, especially me being less than 1 month old and her being newer to the guild than me.

Ultimate_Gaara · Jan 05, 2006, 12:58 AM // 00:58

The problem with starting a new guild these days is most people only want to join big PvP guilds that have a good chance of winning in halls or becoming a highly ranked guild so naturaly getting people to join your small guild is not easy... Now i won't lie to you, I myself would love to be in a big guild that always has enough active members to pvp with, however ive been with the same guild since it first started so I don't plan on quitting it any time soon. However you said you have a guild hall which could make it somewhat easier to get people to join.

Now I can't really give you much advice on how to recruit successfuly that has not already been said. I myself did a mission with the leader, he said I was a very good player his guild could use, i guess not aggroing everything really pays off.. now im not sure if he was just blowing hot air to get more members but it turns out the guild is run by some nice dudes

So here is my advice for when you get people to join. First of all be nice and if they have a question answer it for them if you can. For example I logged on the other day to play only to find a new member online, I was just getting ready to travel to the next town when he starts asking questions such as "Whats a good secondary for a monk" and so on. Second if they need help, do it. Ive done missions, quests, and town traveling with my guild even if ive already been there and done that. Try to stay active, if your underlings are logging on only to constantly finding the leader and officers always off line and seeing "Last logged on two weeks ago" then your going to be in some serious trouble. I know a lot of the time if I log on only to find no guild mates on ill just log out and play another game.

Anyways i don't know what other advice to give you seeing how im not exactly a recuiting guru myself...

LifeInfusion · Jan 05, 2006, 02:00 AM // 02:00

The people spamming in Lion's Arch and Ascalon are bound to get this happening: people that don't know what a guild really is like and/or just want items and experience.

Try to recruit people that KNOW what they are doing. These will stay in your guild (provided you know what YOU are doing, also ...lol).

Then make sure you have a way of communicating : an online forum, email mailing lists, etc.

My old guild fell apart because our leader didn't log on for a while. That, and coleaders were sometimes recruiting people without knowing them that well :/ (What can I say... I WARNED them not to take everybody...)

P.S. (Edit)
I remember giving stuff to people in my guild for free, just because they were guildmates. Don't overdo it like I did. When the guild fell apart I had nothing to show for it, since I couldn't really use the faction.

master_ranger_matt · Jan 05, 2006, 04:31 AM // 04:31

a thing ive found work is asking existing members if they have people they know like friends that might want to join the guild. also old guildies are always useful, if you go way back you can always trust them.

m30wc0w · Jan 05, 2006, 05:45 AM // 05:45

I got in my guild partying with someone. Sometimes if you look for nice honest people they will come to you. Example: I'm 13 years of age and I was helping people at some low level missions. A guild thought I was a good person and added me. However the guild did not seem to be very active so I quitted it. However I try not to leech. Someone in my guild rushes me I will try to pay them back. Even though the situation has not came up lately.

Morangen · Jan 05, 2006, 07:07 AM // 07:07

It gets really hard because people looking for a guild dont always want go ask people if they can join without knowing much about the guild they are in and its no secret that people that play this game are not always the most eager to talk to each other.

The best ways I have seen are to be a friend to people around you and do things with your other guildmates where others can see it. If you find someone you work well with then add him to your friends list and contact him again. The thing is to make sure you pm that person again and invite him to do some questing or whatever.

You can also always check the looking for a guild forum on this site. It seems to do pretty good as well.

Any ways thats my 2 cents

Guardian of the Light · Jan 05, 2006, 08:25 AM // 08:25

Don't give away MONEY. Thats the stupidest thing to do. You can give help and items but not money because most people take them and leave. My old guild that went inactive on me

had a 0 money give away policy to NEW members. To old ones I said ok but if any officer asked me "This guy wants money and will join if he gets some should I?" I answer NO!