The Daily Quest : guild

An Interview With: The Guild!

Indelible — Sat, 03 May 2008 23:28:44 GMT

In recent years, MMO gaming has gone through a spout of growth on a massive level, not only in the world of nerds but right throughout popular culture. All around the world, people have latched on to the MMO phenomenon in various ways, shapes and form.

One such project is a web-series called, "The Guild." Produced, written and starring Felicia Day of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Bring it on Again fame, The Guild really is one of those things you just can't miss.

The Guild follows the story of a group of players from a guild in an online game who take their relationship from the confines of the computer out into the open air, allowing all sorts of humorous encounters to occur. The characters are amazing; the stories humorous but what makes the guild so good is the simple fact that almost every MMO gamer out there can related to either one or many of the characters portrayed in the show.

The Guild is about to air it's final offering for the first season, taking it to its 10th show. With season 2 on the horizon and some of the guys running round doing live shows, things really are looking bright.

I decided to pester Felicia Day and Kim Evey -- star and producer respectfully -- to ask them what made and makes The Guild and what we are likely to see in the future, as well as getting their opinion on a few other things along the way.

The Daily Quest Interviews Felicia Day and Kim Evey -- The Guild!

TDQ: Firstly, could you tell us a little about yourselves?

Felicia: I'm a professional actor, I've lived in LA for almost 8 years now. I went to the University of Texas at Austin and majored in Violin and Mathematics, and naturally after college I moved to pursue acting as a career :) I've worked in many movies, television shows and national commercials. I've always been a gamer and a general geek, and I created The Guild after kicking a World of Warcraft addiction. With Kim's it came to the Internet! Oh, and I love cats and fantasy novels. :)

Kim: I have a background in improv and sketch comedy and I moved to LA to pursue a career in acting. I started working enough to make a living but there was still a lot of the proverbial sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. My husband is also an actor and an extremely funny person. He started doing comedy shorts and I persuaded him to post them on YouTube. We had success with a short called "Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show" and that made me realize that I could be doing something with my time other than sitting around worrying about how I wasn't doing anything with my time. Now I produce GTCMS, The Guild and 2 Hot Girls in the Shower in addition to commercial and TV acting.

TDQ: Seeing as The Guild is focused around an MMO Guild, have either of you played any MMOs before and if so, how addicted were you?

Felicia: Yes, like I said I was addicted to World of Warcraft for almost 2 years. Big time. I got to the point where I would wake up in the middle of the night and farm Dreamfoil. And fish. It was a bad addiction. Previously I had been addicted to Diablo in college and after that Puzzle Pirates. I obviously have a video game addiction problem, LOL. I still play a lot of video games, but I'm trying to avoid getting "hooked" again.

Kim: I've never played an MMORPG because I knew that if I started there would be no turning back. The last RPG I played was Legend of Zelda on Nintendo 64 and I was ridiculous about it. I went through a number of years where I wouldn't allow myself to play any type of video game because I would just go until I was exhausted. Even, like, playing online spades on MSN, I would play for hours. I would forget to eat. Felicia just gave me her DS and I played Phantom Hourglass like a fiend on the last Guild shoot. At one point Felicia ran across the room to move a glass out of a shot and I realized I was completely neglecting the shoot in order to play Zelda. Bad. It's bad.

TDQ: So where did the idea for The Guild come from? How hard was it for you to take it from paper and actually get the actors, gear and money together to see it all to where it is now?

Felicia: I wrote The Guild as a 1/2 hour pilot for television after some friends (including producers Kim and Jane) helped me shake my WOW habit. Everyone I showed the script to thought it was funny, but said it was too "niche". Since Kim and her husband had so much success shortly before with their Internet projects, she helped me realize that the best place to put the show was where gamers hung out: On the web. After Kim, Jane and I decided to work together to do a pilot episode, it was phenomenal how quickly it came together. Sheer will. And a touch of naivety, haha.
To get to this point now, 6 million views later, it has taken (and continues to take) hours a day of marketing, publicity and fan interaction. These things do not just happen overnight, even though we have a build-in fanbase of gamers and Buffy fans (which I was on the last year of). Lots of webisodes garner only a few thousand hits upon release. The true work takes place between shooting.

Kim: The challenge that we didn't think about with The Guild when we began our gung-ho efforts to put it together was that it's pretty much a full-on production to mount. My other shows take place in one location so it turns out we were a little bit naive about just how much work it would take in the long run to consistently schedule all the cast, crew and locations that go into making The Guild. We've scaled down considerably since our first shoot just to try and make things move faster but it's a delicate balance to get the right amount of people. You don't want too many extra people but you also don't want your lead actress to be the one running across the room to move the glass out of the shot. You should have seen our craft service table for the first shoot though. It was an awesome sight to behold.

TDQ: I think a lot of people would be interested to know what the differences are between working on an independent web based series and a major TV series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Felicia: Uh...everything? :) Besides the comfy trailer, the custom built sets, the enormous crews the...paycheck... Yes, it's night and day. We shoot with minimal crew and minimal equipment. We can't shoot consistently because we can only do it as donations come in (for now). And as stressful as it is wearing 10 different hats on set, I totally love the process because of our crew and our fans. It makes it all worth it. And I get to write stuff that makes people laugh. What's better than that?

Kim: On a major series you get to just be an actor. On The Guild you have to do everything. And the craft services on a major series don't start awesome and then shrink by the final episode of the season to the point where you're inadvertently starving your cast because you didn't buy bagels. On a TV series there are always plenty of bagels.

TDQ: The Guild is very tongue in cheek about the characters and the stereotypes it portrays and the way it deals with the issue of MMOGs but I'm interested to know what you actually think about MMOGs and their effect on society. Do you buy all of the reports that MMOGs promote violence and are bad for the community, promoting addiction for example, or do you think otherwise?

Felicia: Absolutely not. I mean, yes, there are addiction problems that can get out of hand with certain personalities with gaming or anything else (I include myself in that) and having friends and family help you realize when you cross the line is key. But I think that the social aspect of gaming is really fantastic. I'm much closer to my brother after playing World of Warcraft with him for a few years. We talked more than we ever had before over Vent.

TDQ: The Guild is aimed at a potential audience in the 10s of millions due to the popularity of games like World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online. Do you think these numbers show that there will be a place for shows like The Guild on main-stream television networks in the future or do you think that it will always be something for the niche?

Felicia: Well, I think the best shows, especially comedies, are about people "making a family" whether it deals with an office, an actual family or a group of friends. I try to write my characters as fully as I can, so even non-gamers can enjoy the foibles of a set of quirky characters. It's a strange time in TV and film because the network model isn't working as well as it used to, and it may be that launching from a more specific point of view can become more universal for audience members, if that makes sense.

Kim: There's absolutely room for it in the mainstream. People love character driven comedies and the trick is, how do you bring those characters together? Sitcoms are just a bunch of unique and endearingly flawed people with a central thing in common whether it's hanging out at a bar or working in the same office or playing an online video game. The game lingo is in there because that's part of a gamers life but the focus of the show is the relationships and the characters. And Felicia's just getting started. The whole point of The Guild is watching these people who have poor or odd social skills develop them with each other and that's universally appealing--that's just standard sitcom.

TDQ: You are past your 9th episode and are moving on strongly. How has the reception been up till now? Has it all been good or have their been some pesky doom sayers who said it wouldn't work?

Felicia: I think the idea of having girl characters who game was really our biggest hurdle at first before we began shooting. People didn't believe that girls game, especially three totally different KIND of women characters. It's amazing now that so many letters we get are from women who game, thanking us for giving them a voice. Half our donors who help us film through Paypal donations are women. So I like to go "Nyah nyah" to those people who said they didn't exist. I knew they existed because I'm a gamer myself :)

Kim: New media is changing the landscape of entertainment at such a rapid pace right now, it's no longer a matter of people telling us it won't work--it's now a matter of "how is it going to work" and "what's the best way to work this thing?" We have so many viewers and yet so many of those 10 million that you mentioned still aren't aware of the show. The reception has been overwhelmingly positive. Now it's just a matter figuring out the best way to get it to more people.

TDQ: What's it like standing behind the camera and producing The Guild? How much time do you have to invest in the process? Could you describe some of the stuff you do?

Felicia: Well, the shooting process is like herding cats. Getting a weekend where we can shoot a few episodes in a row, coordinating 15 people's schedules (for free) is hard enough. There's equipment rental, locations (that are personal houses in general) and food to buy as well as phone calls confirming everyone etc... We shoot very quickly and I write too long to shoot on our schedule :) So we're always rushing to get things in the camera. It's quite a relief to realize at the end of the shoot we got everything that was on the page :) Afterwards the hard work comes, maintaining the website, all the social networking pages, emailing fans, commenting on all the blogs that mention the show, thanking donors for their donations, adding people to mailing lists. And then there's the email that we get in 15 different places on 15 different sites. We try to answer everything personally but it gets tough. Also, I do all the graphics stuff, most of the website programming (although thank goodness for fans to help me out of sticky Wordpress situations :) ). I'm constantly looking to improve the site, to link the show places, to get press articles done on it, because the internet is so vast, it's hard for an indie project to get ANY press at all. Summarize it up: Lots of sitting. :)

Kim: Felicia is a mad woman when it comes to the Internet. She's one of the savviest people I know when it comes to the web, which either means she's good or I'm just old and don't know that many people that use it the way most kids use it these days. Either way, so much of post production time is web-based. It's a really good thing we're both fast typists. The Guild has the audience it has because Felicia sits in front of her computer 8, 9, 10 hours a day and posts things and answers email and makes sure the website looks great and everything is up to date. I help but she's really the main one who does all that stuff. Aside from that, pre-production is all about scheduling and wrangling props. Felicia has been known to drive across town to borrow potted plants from studio lots for the weekend. Our directors tend to be in charge of assembling their crews, which helps. But there are always a million little details that would just bore you to tears if I listed them. It's definitely a full-time job though.

TDQ: Of course, every series has its gag real and The Guild is no different. What are your most memorable mistakes or pranks? Is there anything you look back at over the course of creating The Guild that makes you laugh?

Felicia: When Zaboo squeezed my face and said "I gotta drop my kids off at the pool". That was so hard to get on film, we kept breaking the tighter he squeezed my face. Also, the awkward silence at the end of episode 4 was almost impossible to film. I told Jeff Lewis (Vork) to start clearing his throat and groaning a little bit in the silence. It was so freaky no one could keep a straight face. I bit my cheeks and thought of dead puppies to get through the take.

Kim: There is a bit in the unreleased second gag reel where Jeff Lewis (Vork) is supposed to say "our 2 p.m. raid" but he kept saying "2 a.m." in take after take. And the brilliant part was that each time he was completely unaware that he'd gotten it wrong until the director would yell from behind the camera. The hard thing about our show is that we're always on such a tight schedule so we don't really have the luxury of reveling in stuff like that. Once Jeff got it right it was just like "OK on to the next thing" rather than the traditional group laugh and applause that one might expect in a situation like that. It's rather genius all strung together though.

TDQ: Are there any plans to bring The Guild to a format like straight-to-BluRay/DVD or newer formats such as downloadable media in the near future? Is it something fans can look forward to?

Felicia: We'd love to be able to sell the show on itunes, but that will have to wait until we partner with a big company. We are preparing a DVD of the first season now for release this summer, and for the next season we'll definitely be shooting on HD to provide a great viewing experience on other platforms. One of the reason we're talking with people about funding partnerships is the distribution arm, which is near impossible to do independently on any large scale. And it's an area in which we could use help and expertise.

TDQ: What can we expect from The Guild over the coming episodes?

Felicia: Well, the season finale is coming out in a few weeks, hopefully people will enjoy that. I will only say that The Guild will continue to play online together, but relationships will form/grow and other unexpected outside characters will invade their lives, online and offline.

TDQ: Lastly, do you have room for a nerdy, long-haired, short, English blogger on your cast? Seriously. I've been told I do an excellent rendition of Star Wars…

Felicia: Haha. We have a lot of offers for people wanting to be in The Guild, but that character..oh wait, Kim's trying to tell me something.

Kim: *whispers to Felicia* Tell him we've already got one.

At least I know I didn't lose my part because they didn't want me. They never said they didn't want me...

Thanks to Felicia and Kim from The Guild for the interview. Remember to keep an eye out on The Guild website for all the latest episodes and news from the guys!

An Interview With: A'a Netjer - SGW Guild

Indelible — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:12:32 GMT

Earlier this year, we interviewed Kevin Balentine – PR Manager at CME – about the upcoming MMO, Stargate Worlds. He told us a lot about the title, including bits about combat and crafting in the game and also shared with us some exclusive screen shots. What he didn't tell us is that behind the development team at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment is a bustling community of people waiting and watch for Stargate Worlds to be released.

Not only is there a large crowd of people from all sorts of backgrounds contributing ideas and duking it out about the upcoming MMO, there is also a large group of guilds and clans – commands as they will be called in SGW – forming in preparation for the expected release of the MMO later this year.

One such group is the guys at the newly formed multi-gaming guild A'a Netjer. A'a Netjer is currently looking for people wanting to enter three upcoming MMOs – Age of Conan, Stargate Worlds and Earthrise – in order to form a multi-gaming family that has a wide spread over multiple titles. The leaders of A'a Netjer are veteran MMOers having played such titles as Star Wars Galaxies and they have decided to set up shop with this years generation of titles.

Currently, their largest section is their interests in Stargate Worlds and this is reflected by not only the posts on their own forums but also the amount of active members they have on the official SGW forums.

I decided to sit down with the leaders of A'a Netjer and ask them what they were expecting form the upcoming MMO as well as a little about themselves. After all, it's not often that the community get their pre-launch say.

The Daily Quest Interviews A'a Netjer

TDQ: Firstly, could you tell us a little about yourselves as individuals?

Neith - My name is Devon and I live in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho as of now. I was born and raised in Seattle, WA and lived there until I went into the military where I spent 7 years all over the World. Things I do outside of gaming; teach MMA, wake board, snowboard, cliff diving, riding motorcycles and anything that involves adrenaline really. ;)

Desy - My real name is Alex I live in Northern California and I am one of the three leaders of A'a Netjer. I have been playing MMOs hardcore for a while now last one was WoW. In real life I am a soon to be college student starting up at Academy of Art San Fransisco. I like to sail and go to LAN parties.

Shamash - My name is Chris I am also one of the three leaders of A'a Netjer. I am a Game Art and Design Student at the Art Institute or Portland. Been a gamer since Doom!

TDQ: When did the guild form? Where did its roots come from?

A'a Netjer was formed on 14 Jan 2008 for the upcoming MMORPG; Stargate Worlds. We worked on creating a name that would fit not only SGW, but any game we may play in the future together. We started to do some research on the Internet and came to an Egyptian language website. We carefully chose the name of our Guild to have an actual meaning; A'a Netjer means True Gods in the 'old language'.

To gather more attention to the Guild we worked on creating a website, which is currently being improved and overhauled to fit the future expansion of the Guild. We will publish the site in the near future.

We also wanted to make sure our Guild was open to all styles of play. We separated the leadership into the two main functions of any MMORPG; PvP and PvE. We believe that RP is a persons choice and we support RPrs, but because most games do not have any RP functions or support, we decided to leave that off our or Hierarchy. We will perhaps add a RP Council if this style of play gains more interest.

TDQ: Your aim is to be a multi-gaming guild, supporting upcoming MMORPGs. What made you decide to aim for several titles and not just an individual title?

At first, we wanted to create just a Premiere Guild for SGW, but as more members came to the Guild the more we discussed other games. In this discussion we started to talk about playing them together. One of the things we have seen in the past is that people form bonds and friendships, only to leave one another to play other games. We decided to open this up for other games so we could not only get to know one another, but become a gaming family or Syndicate as others call it.

We decided to open up more opportunities to our members and leaders to actually lead in other games as they choose. We put a few requirements out there if they want to gain our support. 1) If a member wants to start a Guild with our support, they just need 5 other people that have an interest in that game. 2) Bring their proposal to the leadership 3) Follow our goals and our Code of Conduct.

We believe by opening this up to our members, there will be no reason for them to leave us if they want to lead their own Guild. They will be the Officer/Mod to their specific game and we will add their game to our list for all A'a Netjer members as well as add it to our website and create a place on our forums for them.

TDQ: What made you chose Stargate Worlds as one of the titles you wanted in on?

Stargate Worlds is one of the best title/story ideas that we have seen in the MMORPG genre. It will bring not only the fans of Stargate, but the ex-fans of Star Wars Galaxies, Sci-Fi fans, and Gaming fans together. We can't think of a better storyline to follow. Using the Stargate in an actual virtual environment leaves us with so many opportunities in-game and we look forward to using those Stargates to stop the oppression of the SGC and take back the power that is rightfully ours.

TDQ: What are your aims, as a group of people, for SGW? Do you have a specific goal or are you playing it by ear until you get into the game?

We wanted to bring together all of the dark aligned species together; Human (Op-Core), Loyal Jaffa, and Goa'uld. To do this, we wanted to make sure we included a reason for them to gather together. We are currently working on a storyline for the Guild but here is what we have so far:

Goa'uld Back-story:

The Gathering

Jacob and Samantha were wrong in their assumptions. They believed they had destroyed the Nameless Queen with C-4, however, Neith knew that if he were able to get the Nameless Queen to safe grounds, that he would be able to use her to create his own army. He gathered forces together and was able to create a 'look-a-like' clone before her destruction. They made the switch and brought her to an unknown place, a place of solitude and safety.

Because of his actions, she now works in collusion with Neith to spawn more symbiots.

In the past, the nameless Queen spawned symbiots for Anubis and she did not pass on genetic memories to its spawn. She felt that leaving them as non-intelligent slaves open for mind-imprinting for Anubis would help him in his battle for power. She assisted Anubis into creating the Kull Warriors which were grown originally from an unknown kind of aqueous material. She believed that they possessed comparatively more powerful musculature. (taken from SGW-Wiki) .

Her downfall was spawning them with no genetic memories. She is now acting in collusion with Neith to spawn more symbiots to create more powerful warriors with their genetic memories attached. They will be even more powerful than before. Although they are not open to mind imprinting, they feel that the destruction of most of the System Lords is enough to attract the Army needed for vengeance.

OP-Core back story:

OP-CORE

Many SGC members used the gates for personal gain. These ex-members of the SGC were tracked down and policed by the SGC for posing as Gods much like the Goa'uld. The abuse of the gates by these members was an illegal offense and as such, these members that were caught, were taken the SGC prison; The Castle. Many of these members believed that they were in the right. They were at times acting as saviors of small villages and their intentions were to help these villages by bringing medicine and cures for common illness. Others did in fact break the law, by using their education to read prophecies given to them by the Goa'uld in the past in order to capitalize on their ignorance and make a profit or gain prestige in these communities. Other Op-Core members were known for pillaging communities and taking over areas by force and enslaving the communities at hand to gain power and control.

Neith knew that if he were able to gain an alliance with the OP-Core that they would be a great addition to his current power. He was able to gather System Lords, the Loyal Jaffa, and now he would work on getting the OP-Core to work with him, This would be a force unheard of by any of the SGC and it would help to have the OP-Core by his side, as they are all ex-SGC members and could reveal their technology and tactics to A'a Netjer.

Neith started sending messages to Desy from inside the prison walls. They planned a break out and Desy gathered all the OP-Core that would remain loyal as favor for their freedom.

Neith sent the Ash'rak to create anarchy around The Castle and freed the OP-Core. Now, willing to serve the Goa'uld in their struggle for power, the OP-Core work together with A'a Netjer.

Loyal Jaffa back story:

Loyal Jaffa

The Jaffa Resistance and the destruction of the System Lords gave birth to the Free Jaffa Nation, with the planet Dakara as its new capital. The new nation immediately became a major power, inheriting part of the fleets of the System Lords, partially filling the power vacuum left by their defeat. In an elaborate ceremony marking the official founding of the Jaffa Nation, Teal'c and Bra'tac were knighted Blood kin to all Jaffa, the highest honor that can be bestowed on any Jaffa.

The nation was initially ruled by the Jaffa High Council, on which votes were appropriated based on unconfirmed military assets, the nation is divided between at least two major political factions: the opposition progressives who support Teal'c and Master Bra'tac's vision of a representative democracy and the ruling traditionalists who support the military oligarchy with Gerak at the head of the High Council.

With the arrival of the Ori, things began to become difficult for the Jaffa Nation. The nation was initially committed to resisting the spread of Origin and its attendant Priors; most Jaffa were horrified at the idea of worshiping false gods once more, as the resistance of the Jaffa of Kallana showed ("Beachhead"). However, Gerak was converted to Origin and as a result the Ori gained a powerful ally in the form of the Jaffa loyal to them.

Other Jaffa however, did not follow Gerak. They felt his conversion to the Ori were signs of weakness and that things were better serving with the Goa'uld. These Goa'uld believed that there should be no power struggle and the Jaffa should remain symbiotic with the Goa'uld. Changing their symbiotic relationship would affect not only the Goa'uld, but the Jaffa that served them. These jaffa were know as Loyal Jaffa. The Loyal Jaffa were lead by ______ and they serve the Goa'uld of the A'a Netjer. To get things back in balance, these Loyal Jaffa are willing servants to A'a Netjer.

To read the full story you will have to visit our forums.

TDQ: What elements of SGW are you most looking forward to? What specific elements that have been announced so far can't you wait to see?

We are looking forward to so many aspects that SGW has to offer so far. One of the key elements that particularly strikes us as original at this point in the creation of SGW is combat and how the classes are not your typical Trinity (Healer, Tank, DPS). They have a different approach and most combat will be ranged combat. According to the SGW Wiki site (http://www.stargateworldswiki.com/wiki/Combat) "Choosing a weapon will no longer be about which has the most DPS (Damage per Second) but will depend more on what you want to do with it." This is a very nice refreshing outlook on Combat.

As any fan of SG-1 or Atlantis (Further expansion) we can't wait to see the storyline and participate in the quests that drive that storyline in SGW. As Stargate Wiki explains "Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment are constructing an elaborate and complex questing environment. Quests will be an essential facet of Stargate Worlds in that they will be the primary vehicle that drives the game's story line. These quests will take place within the storyline that the developers have created around the Stargate SG-1 story and will take characters all over the universe and answer some questions that the show never did."

TDQ: I personally am a little worried about how CME are going to handle personal time lines and maintain an expansive feel to the story as well as continuity. What elements are you dreading or, at least, a little worried about and why?

One of the things we fear is failure to create a game that meets our expectations. We all want a perfect game, but what is perfect for them or you, may not be perfect for us.

One of the discussions we have had lately is about instances. A game that is full of instances is not an immersive game to us. We do not mind instances for certain quests that may take place, but if the World is instanced in areas of the open World then it takes away the meaning of MMO and it becomes a RPG. We want a large land mass and areas to explore and fight in. We do not want to sit in a portion of the land with 12 other people, but we want massive warfare. In order to do this, the land or planets can not be instanced, but more seamless.

We have played games where the land mass in the open world is instanced. We do not want this to take place in SGW. We want planet PX148 to be planet PX148, not Planet PX148 instance A and planet PX148 instance B, etc. We are hoping that planet PX148 will be open for all and that they do not place people in instances of that same planet. (made up planet name)

TDQ: What would you like to see added to the game before it hits release later this year?

I would honestly like to see Command/Guild Structures created before release.

TDQ: Lastly, if you could say one thing to CME right now, what would it be?

A'a Netjer members all want Beta! :D

On a serious note, I would like to thank them for their hard work and staying involved with the community. One of the things this Guild has been working on together is creating official polls (5 so far) for the community of SGW on the official forums. We received a PM from the developer Aruspex asking us to send him the results of the polls.

We actually gave Aruspex the username and password to get the actual results of our polls. So with each new poll, we know that the developers are actually looking at the hard work we are doing in trying to gather information of what the community wants.

It was a serious surprise to receive a PM from a developer asking us to send them the results. It may or may not change the shaping of this game, but we feel we are adding our input and helping the community add their input even if it is just to see what we feel as a whole.

A'a Netjer look like they are resolved to see Stargate Worlds right through to release and beyond and hopefully, in a years time, we will see them going from strength to strength as one of the first guilds to enter the universe of Stargate Worlds.

You can visit A'a Netjer here where you can stake a look at the games they are entering as well as join up to their forums or to one of their sections.

Thanks A'a Netjer and hopefully you'll be back when SGW is out to tell us all what it is like!

WoWosphere Weekend Warmup

matticus — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 03:02:29 GMT

I'm retiring my 3 stars. There's simply too much blogging material and not enough stars to hand out! Starting on Saturdays, I'm going to be summarize what's been happening here with me, my blog, and my other fellow bloggers out there.

1 In Game
2 World of Matticus
3 The WoWosphere at a Glance
4 Blog Spotlight

In Game

We've had a wall with raiding recently. Last Thursday, one of our MT's had DSL issues, our Paladin's hard drive crashed, another healer has retired, and we're losing a rogue to the US Army. I knew the holiday season was tough, but holy moly. As far as I know, we're going back in on Sunday.

I've acquired a whole level of respect for Paladin tanks. We set up an on-the-fly run with a friend of mine and he literally tanked the whole instance by himself. We brought in a DPS Warrior for off tanking duty because we didn't expect him to tank as much anyway. 3 hour Karazhan runs are ridiculously awesome. We downed every boss with the exception of Netherspite (due to execution, in my opinion).

World of Matticus

5 Gaming Lessons from Matticus: I got tagged the other day by GMW. The concept here is one blogger comes up with a list, then "tags" other bloggers to come up with their own unique lists. It doesn't even have to be a list! They're just tagged to "do" something. In this case, it was a list of lessons that I've learned from WoW or gaming.
WoW Bloggers <3 Wordpress: This is just something I noted last night. A lot of bloggers are switching platforms from Blogger to Wordpress.
Why Do You Play WoW?: This is a guest post from Leiandra. I didn't want to leave my blog completely dry so I sent out a plea for guest bloggers to help me out. Thanks again for responding!

I've got a larged sized to do list which I can't get started on just yet. 1 exam down, but I still have 3 more to go.

Complete blog design overhaul
Mag strat and overview
Tips for WoW Bloggers who just moved to Wordpress
Getting my other blog underway

The WoWosphere at a Glance

Veteran Hunter blogger BigRedKitty has switched! Be sure to update your bookmarks and RSS feeds accordingly. He's also opened up some new forums! Fellow blogger Pike is also considering the switch.

Matt's Reaction: I love the forums! I'm even debating opening one of my own soon. I also think Pike should switch =).

Fate has a great post up effectively summarizing what the trends seem to be in class issues. You'll remember a few days ago Blizzard put the call out for feedback on what players felt to be the problems with their class. They even created threads on every class forum.

Matt's Reaction: One of the points Fate made was that each class seemed to be complaining that every other class was imbalanced and should be nerfed. If that's the case, then Blizzard should sit back and do nothing because if every class complains that other classes are overpowered, would that not then imply that every class IS balanced?

There's been some recent blog discussion on the gender of your characters on WoW. Nothing's wrong with players playing a character of the opposite gender. Some play it to express themselves. Others play it to avoid being cliche'd. The rest do it for the ass (or so they claim).

Matt's Reaction: I chose a Dranei and Human females purely for performance reasons. I need as much possible real estate as I can get on my screen. I'm not the only one who feels that way.

GMW and her Guild discovered a neat way of adding colour to your Guild MoTD's and Guild Notes!

Matt's Reaction: Instead of the usual green text, now you can color code your messages for importance. I haven't quite discovered a practical use for it yet, but I'm not an officer and I don't have the authority to alter my own Guild Note. But, I think by color coding Guild Notes, it would be easy to tell at a glance what kind of specs certain players are in the Guild without having to repeatedly ask them. For example, tanks could be blue, healers would be white, and DPS would be red. This way, there would be no confusion as to whether Paladins were prot or holy (or Priests shadow or Holy).

Nibuca at Mystic Chicanery created an excellent list of fun Pally tricks to try!

Matt's Reaction: I like tip 3.

Blog Spotlight

I've spent a lot of time reading Rohan's Blessing of Kings. One of his recent posts addressed the topic of welfare epics (AKA PvP purples). There's been some discussion about the skinning differences between PvP and PvE. Another point that was brought up is the seeming lack of progression that the PvE aspect has. The only thing stopping alts from going into Hyjal/BT is attunement. That is a barried that PvP doesn't really have except for rating brackets (even then, at 3 AM you might find a 1500 team playing a 2300 team and by sheer luck/disconnects steal 40 points off of them)In PvE, it's possible to directly skip over T4 and go straight for T5 (Remember the attunements were lifted). In fact, several months ago on my resto shaman, I raided with a group of friends into Karazhan while wearing a combination of greens and blues. In June, I sported +600 healing! That number is far below my minimum recommended stats. But my friends were extremely geared and my lack of healing didn't really hinder progress. In one run, I replaced my greens with purples (T4 gloves, Curator shoulders, Chess Shield, Netherspite's Chest, Attument's bracers, Moroes' Belt, Opera trinket). Should I have to go through that chain of progression again? I don't think so. My Priest did most of the work learning the encounters and helping my friends get gear as well. I had a good support network in place and good contacts. I think this debate sounds akin to having a level 70 running you through Scarlet Monastary. Different application but same principle. So in PvP, I don't think there's anything wrong with characters in blues getting epics. They're still putting in time and effort to get it. An S2 geared player will acquire S3 gear far faster then a blue'd character with little resilience. My Shaman took six months to get the entire S2 set. This is just the armor alone. I did not purchase the weapon, shield, or totem. That's a long time just to get the armor. Don't forget the fact that this was during the summer before the AV changes. I had lots of time which I piled into the AV queues earning 7000+ honor per day. Obviously with school, it is no longer possible. But winter break is nearly here, and I've already picked up the Vindicator Bracers... About the visualizations of the gear, I think they should be kept the same way. I know I'm definitely a minority in this for sure, but hear me out for a moment. Most of us don't have the time to armory other players to determine what they're wearing or what spec they're playing (having a macbook by your side lets you do that). But information and intelligence is key to any kind of warfare! The more information you have, the better off you'll be! One of Sun Tzu's famous quotes:
So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will fight without danger in battles.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself

A key piece of information is the level of gear that your opponents are wearing. One glance at a Priest with dark wings, and what does that tell you? He's wearing S2 shoulders. Like it or not, we rely on visual cues to inform of us what's going on around the world. If PvP and PvE gear models were drastically changed, that's more information we have to know. Out in PvE land if the models were to change, a new player with absolutely no idea of what PvP models look like could check out a player and find out the hard way that this is NOT a player they want to pick a fight with.
Lastly, to change the models and textures would require more work to do on the part of Blizzard. I'd much rather have them work on new raiding content then armor which I will replace anyway. I'm paying 15 bucks a month to solve hard encounters, not appear on an Ironforge's Secret fashion show.

Again, I wanted to apologize to everyone for my reduced blogload this week. It's crunch time for many students. I've got 3 more next week so expect similar activity. Wish me luck =(.

I started this piece at 9 AM. It is now 1 PM.

Like what you're reading? Matticus runs his own blog over at worldofmatticus.com. Come by, check it out, and drop him a line!

Guest Post: Why Do You Play WoW?

matticus — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 04:31:19 GMT

Matticus' Note: I posted a small, but brief plea yesterday for help with my blog. Leiandra has helped me answer my plea. My exams conclude on the 15th of December, therefore my personal posts will be drastically reduced while I'm busy ~~raiding~~ cramming for my finals. But I don't want to leave my readers hanging. I'm looking for some guest posters to help me for the next week or so. If you have your own WoW blog, chances are I've read it or ran into it. This is a great opportunity for you to expand your viewership and receive exposure. Your posts (if I like them) will appear here and on Curse. Simply drop me a message via curse. I spend 2 - 4 hours a day blogging and I cannot sustain that kind of effort for the time being. Anyways, here's Leiandra!

With Matticus being busy with finals, I volunteered to help him out with a post or two so that he could hopefully pass his classes :). Just a few, quick comment about me for those that don’t read my blog: My mage’s name is Leiandra, and I am a Guild Master for a raiding guild on the Bronzebeard – US server. I’ve been in guild leadership since I first starting playing MMO’s (only with the release of EQ2), and have been playing Wow for about 2.5 years now.I’ve been the GM of Primogeniture for about 2 months now, but have been part of the final decision making process for much, much longer.

The latest inspiration for this post comes from a recent person that I have been recruiting. Most of the Bronzebeard raiding guilds tend to start around 5 or 6pm server time. Our raid times start at 8:30, so we get a lot of people that want to join because of work shifts or just general night owls (vampires as one of my Raid Leaders calls them). This recent recruit registered for an account on our forums, but never filled out an app. He then contacted me in game to find our more about our guild. His work schedule had changed and he wouldn’t be able to raid with his current guild, hence the conversation he had with me. He sounded like he was interested, but told me he had to think about it. A few days later, he told me that he just wasn’t being fair to us, because he would only raid with us until his work schedule changed. I thanked him for his honesty, and we put each other on our friends’ lists in case we ever needed anything.

A few nights back, I needed another member for a 5-man run. He was online, and I asked him if he wanted to come. After a fairly successful run in which he did a great job, I was curious if he still maintained his loyalty to his guild. He told me that it was really only one raid leader that he was still loyal to, and that person was actually okay with him leaving.>He filled out an application on our forums, and then again, decided that he wanted to stay with his guild.

Some people might consider this frequent changing of one’s mind quite annoying, but I completely understood. Sometimes people move on from the game. Sometimes people change guilds. The only thing that’s constant is that each guild will change. I think the successful guilds generally roll with those punches, adapt, and move on. But when is it right for you, the individual player, to move on?

To answer that question, it takes some deep introspection on the part of each individual. Questions like “Why do I play WoW?” should be addressed. What is most important to you? Is it important to be with friends? Is progression your big thing? Are you just in a guild that nobody is online when you are? Sometimes there’s drama or fights… that can happen to. Do you just want to play solo for awhile? How much are you going to regret leaving your guild, if at all?

When I first starting playing Wow, I did so to play with my best friend and his brother. The three of us started a guild because we were tired of random guild invites. The guild grew as RL friends and relatives joined us or transferred servers. We were never huge, but at our height, right before the expansion, we were getting in to Zul’Gurub. A lot of us also PUG’ed and participated in other guild raids in almost all of the dungeons (I think Naxx was the only one not on our lists). With the expansion, and me being a night owl, a few of us decided that we’d break off into a more structured raiding guild and have more than just one guild run per week. It was a difficult decision to leave my guild of friends. I knew a few of them would come with me, and hoped others would follow. We had all been together for so long that I knew I’d still talk to them often, and hopefully group with them regularly as well. Well, the grouping thing hasn’t happened as much as I had originally planned, but I still talk to most of them nightly. My priorities, at the time of our new guild, were based around progression and seeing new content. I have a whole list of new, online friends, and I enjoy being in the guild I am.

My priorities are aligned with where my toons are and the guild they are in. Sure, there are ups and downs. It’s not like I always get my way, even as GM, but I’m happy where I’m at. Are you? Is it time to move on? Is there something better on the horizon, but maybe you’re just too scared to make the change? Or are you exactly where you want to be with the people you want to be there with? I hope most of you can answer “yes” to that last question. It’s just a game. Have fun. Be happy.

So did you like what you read? Then head on over to Leiandra's blog. While you're there, don't forget to subscribe to Leiandra's RSS.

Getting Your Leadership Skill to 375

matticus — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 11:01:22 GMT

Here's yet another reference to the business Guild model of WoW. Some would argue that a Guild is defined by it's players. I would argue that excellent leadership defines how well a Guild performs. Unfortunately, leadership is not something you can go to a skill trainer for. I've been in my share of numerous Guilds. I'd like to think that I know what is good leadership and what is bad. I've seen Guilds crash and burn, or flourish and thrive. Similar to my column on valued traits for a Priest, here are 6 of the valued traits in a Leader no matter what class they play.

Edit: Again I am beat to the punch by Kirk.

Patience

"The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher." - Tomas Huxley

No one likes to wipe. But true leaders expect it. I commend real leaders for their outstanding patience whether its in dealing with new raid bosses or frustrated guild members. No matter what the circumstance may be, they are able to weather the storm of angry guild members or angry raid bosses (I'll let you decide what is worst). The goal has been set and the challenge has been issued. Now it's up to the players to respond. Throughout it all, they maintain a face of dignity and passivity knowing that things will improve with time. I think <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolph_Giuliani">Mayor Rudy Giuliani</a> is a great example of this. He was the face of the city after the 9/11 attacks. There's a reason why he was one of Time's Man of the Year.

Knowledge

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." - Peter F. Drucker

This ought to be self explanatory. Any leader be it class, raid, or Guild will have done their homework on whatever they are responsible for. Raid leaders know the fight and are able to convey the strategy effectively. Class leaders know how to play their class and teach others to optimize themselves better. With that being said, leaders are humble enough to acknowledge that even they cannot possibly know all there is to know. The world is in a continuously evolving state with patches, changes, nerfs, etc. They realize that even though there is a lot to know, they are quite willing to learn even more.

Inspiration

"One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." - Arnold Glasgow

In a way, this is related to Social Skills but I wanted address something else. Your leaders are people that players turn to for advice and guidance. With responsibility like that, they're expected to know how to convey information. But in order to do that, they do two things which any player can accomplish: Plan and set goals. They are able to focus the Guild in a certain direction and layout the steps necessary to accomplish it. They already have solutions to every problem that comes up because of their planning and anticipation. This is the kind of player who is not afraid of pulling the trigger when $&%@ hits the fan. They already have a Plan B and a Plan C in mind in case Plan A goes horribly wrong. No one likes to stand around and mindlessly die in case something bad happens. Every raider wants to try and salvage the situation. A good example that comes to mind is when our MT Lang ate a blow which caused him to crumple, Maeve was second on aggro since he's been building up enough threat to stay just below him on the list. The moment Lang was down, a half second went by when Maeve bellowed for all of Lang's healers to switch to him as he was tanking. Had he not made that call, we would have stood around not knowing what to do and we would not have gotten the satisfaction of the Guild first kill on Fathom-Lord.

Social Skills

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it." - Theodore Roosevelt

There's a lot of excellent players who know their material and the class inside out. But when it comes to talking to other people, they just don't have a friggin clue. I think having some degree of emotional intelligence helps. A key skill, not just in WoW but in life, is your ability to interpret the other person's words either in text or via voice. You have to know how to handle the other player as a player instead of just a random NPC. One of the things I admired about Warack was his tendency to check up on players every now and then. He'd whisper them randomly or just jump into a channel and talk to them for a while, see how they were doing, and try to "get a feel" for the over all guild mood. Think of it as taking a temperature of the Guild. With the pickup of solid players, they also know how to refrain from telling them to exactly what to do. My understanding is that I rolled a Priest from 1 - 70 and I should know the basics of it. I don't want to be told how to heal, when to heal it, and who. That kind of thinking comes naturally. I love it when tanks often tell me to keep them alive. You worry about holding aggro, and you let me worry about keeping you alive so you CAN hold aggro.

Confidence

"The spirited horse, which will try to win the race of its own accord, will run even faster if encouraged." - Ovid

It all boils down to one word: Belief. They believe in themselves and they believe in others to achieve the objective. The aura of confidence comes from their high knowledge of play and how to get it accomplished. I feel reassured knowing that I can place my character under the command of someone who knows what they're doing as opposed to a raid that is being led by a headless chicken. Even if they don't know what they're doing, they can at least pretend. The point is not whether you down the boss or wipe horribly. The point is that someone had the confidence to get the raid going and try it. If that player doesn't have the skills themselves to pull it off, they're able to point to the person that does.

Authority and Respect

"The country is full of good coaches. What it takes to win is a bunch of interested players." - Don Coryell, ex-San Diego Chargers Coach

Props to guys like Blori and Harth. They really know how to get the raid to shut up and listen. Everytime you hear either of their booming voices, you know it's their time. Why? Perhaps it's their age and maturity. Every time they speak, they command that aura of authority and respect. When you hear it, your back automatically straightens while your ears latch on to their words. Unfortunate that this isn't a trait that can be learned or gained. I once listened to a raid leader who sounded like he had nasal issues and sounded like your typical four eyed Urkel. No one would take him seriously at all because of the way his voice sounded. The bottom line here is that not only must you be willing to voice your commands, but your Guild must be willing to listen to listen to them. Former Vancouver Canucks Head Coach Mark Crawford got fired because he lost the locker room and players started to tune him out. One of these days, I'm going to record ventrilo during a raid night and put a snippet up here so you can get an idea.

Clearly there are many more traits that I have yet to identify. I'm merely setting myself up for a part 2 further down the road. The next time you go raiding or PvPing or whatever it is that you do, listen to your leaders and see how they are. Do they or do they not possess the traits I have listed above? If not, it might be time for a scenery change.

Quotes are courtesy of askmen.com and About.com.

And for you young Guildmasters out there, every chance you get to use the term "Brouhaha" you take it (Don Tayyyylorrr!!!!).

Matticus just finished watching Ian McKellan sacrifice himself to preserve the lives of his companions. You can read more over at http://www.worldofmatticus.com.

Raid Member Selection, a Rant

matticus — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 02:20:00 GMT

BC raids mostly consist of 25 players. Gone our the days when one or two guys could sit in MC afk and accumulate DKP by wanding and not doing anything (Alterac Valley is a shadow of what it was like then). Most Guilds either have under 25 players and struggle to fill raid spots, or have over 30 players and are placed in an unfortunate situation where they need to choose.

Hockey teams are no different. The NHL season is starting up soon and training camps are underway. The point of the camps is to determine who gets to suit up for the big leagues and who gets to sit in the press box watching or play in the minor leagues. Players who are too lazy on the backcheck get released from camp.

As a Guild, you want to bring the very best possible players to your raid. How do you determine that? You could base it on gear, skill, talent, personality, and so on. But consider another point: consistency.

Players should be fighting over raid spots. I’ve seen lack of dedication and consistency mean the difference between a guild invite and a guild boot. What, I ask, is the point of being in a raiding guild if you don’t raid? Bloggers blog, runners run, beer drinkers drink, analysts analyze. You obviously applied for a raiding Guild with one purpose in mind: to raid. Would you want these kinds of players in your 25 man raid?

The Druid tank who decides to show up 30 minutes late and hold up the whole raid to finish up a non-heroic Merchanar.

The Priest who decides not to raid one day for some stupid reason and comes back the next day whining why he’s not allowed to raid.

The Paladin who refuses to raid with a “weak” Kara team because they can’t clear it in 3 hours.

The Rogue who is frequently AFK for a ready check because he’s too busy occupied watching Naruto reruns.

Seriously, who the hell are you people and why are you here? A better question is what do they all have in common? What one trait do they all share? They want better loot without having to work for it.

Thankfully, life does not operate that way otherwise Communism would have succeeded a long time ago. You need to earn the right to play. You have to compete to win. I’m very glad Blizzard trimmed the raid instances from 40 to 25 because it truly separated the men from the boys.

There are 25 raid spots that are open. Most guilds have 30 active players. Do the math. Some players will get the call up, some players will get benched. It astounds me how people expect a free ride. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch as my dad always told me. WoW is no different. I find it hilarious when players don’t want to do something when a Guild leader asks them to do it, and then begin to whine about not getting a raid spot. Well no kidding, moron. The boss doesn’t have a reason to. You were asked to be more responsible and you turned it down. You are aware of when the raid time is yet you make a choice not to show up. Do not be surprised if the next time you show up, you don’t get the invite. If you can’t handle something so minor why in Zeus’ name should you be given more responsibility that you clearly are unable to handle?

Performance and attendance is the key here, people. If you want to raid, the first step is to show up. You can’t clear Kara with 3 players (yet). I don’t care how geared you are. I don’t care how good you think you are. I don’t care how much you pay me. If you don’t show up once, you don’t get another chance. No I’m not referring to excuses with medical emergencies or academic reasons or what have you. Those are understandable. Sometimes life deals you a pair of Aces and you get beat with a Flush. These things happen. The important part is that you’re not afraid to buy in and ante up. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves.

Alain Vignault is the coach of the Vancouver Canucks. Last year he turned a struggling Canucks team at Christmas break into a Playoff contender. Why? Because he would start players that would perform and bring their A game. His philosophy is this: It doesn’t matter what name is on the back of your sweater, if you are there, you will see significant ice time. During games, he gave more ice time to players who he thought was performing. You see, he doesn’t play favourites. He plays whoever shows up.

Jeff Cowan, a 4th line grinder, got to play on the top line because he was contributed energy and his presence was felt.

Coach Vignault also won the Jack Adams award. That means he was widely considered as the Coach of the Year.

The next time you start your raid invite, pause for a sec and think to yourself if the names you want on your list are really the ones you want. If you’re a person whose sitting there scratching your head wondering why your Guild pulled someone outside into the raid of inviting you, it’s because you’ve proven to him that would not be useful in anyway.

Now Hiring: How to Recruit Players to Your Guild

matticus — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:58:36 GMT

There's quite a few Guilds out there who are always on the lookout for new players to help augment their ranks but are not quite sure how to pull it off. I'm going to assume you have been assigned by your GM to look for more players and that you have no clue how to do it apart from spamming trade. If so, then this column is for you. By the end of this, you should be able to pick up players with no problems at all. Grab yourself a cup of coffee, this is one of my longer pieces.

There are many places a Human Resources officer in a Guild can go to start looking. The first thing is to set up a "Help Wanted ad". But like any newspaper or wanted ad, you want to specify exactly what spots your Guild needs filled. So before you start looking and posting in trade chat or the WoW recruiting forums, ask yourself the following questions:

What kind of Guild are we? Do we tackle progression raids only? Do I need a position filled on our PvP teams? Figure out the purpose of your Guild before doing anything else.

Next, figure out the role that you need filled. Are we short on healers? Do we need competent spellcasting DPS? Are our Druid tanks stupid with no ideas on how to tank? Once you have that sorted out, narrow it down even further. Of those three categories, which class do you need the most? What class can you use but already have enough of? You may already have 3 Priests and no Paladins but need another healer. You would really like a Holy Paladin or a Restoration Druid, but chances are you will not turn away another Holy Priest if they apply because it fills the need of another healer.

Where is your Guild on progression? Now you need to begin specifying gear requirements. If Carnage was looking for a tank, our needs would be vastly different from a Guild just starting to go into Karazhan. After sunday's game, it's Obvious the Dallas Cowboys have a different need then the Giants (It's also obvious that I live in Canada with no idea on what team is good in the NFL but would really like to learn, therefore I will continue to make oblivious Sports references with absolutely no idea what I am talking about). For us, the ideal tank should have about X HP or Stamina, Y Defense, with Z Frost or Nature resistance. But a tank looking for a Karazhan group can get away with having less then that.

If your Guild is working on Mag with Gruul down and on farm, then be sure to mention your progression. Going back to our tanking example, you will want to pick up a tank that has done similar encounters with similar experience. Ideally, you don't want to have to train a tank on an encounter but sometimes it must be done. I understand it is hard to find a perfect player which matches your needs, but it does not hurt to say where you are on progression.

List your raiding times and other requirements. Carnage only raids on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday in the evenings. Therefore, it would not make sense to pick up a Warlock who lives in Australia with a 9-5 job. If a person cannot make th time, then they will not bother applying. They don't waste your time and you don't waste their time. There might be some software or UI requirements that you should mention. Carnage makes heavy use of Ventrilo and KLH Threat Meter. If you don't have those two, then you don't raid with us period. My old personal policy when I was tasked with recruiting was this: If a player is not willing to follow the simple instructions of downloading and installing an addon or program, how do I know they will obey and follow instructions when it really matters in the raid? I will automatically assume they won't and immediately write them off. I don't care if they're decked out in all T5 or however geared they are because I value a person's ability to willingly follow instructions over gear they have. Gear can be acquired by any button mashing monkey. But attitude and personality are learned attributes.

Finally, be sure to mention any other quirks or rules that need to be said. Mention any age restrictions or beliefs that you want. I would not allow players under the age of 18 into my Guild mostly due to the type of conversation that goes on. I don't want to go through the effort of having to censor myself or others. I won't get started on attitudes either.

Creating the Post

Now you create your Guild ad from all the above questions that you have answered. Keep a copy of this at all times somewhere in your computer in Word format or on your Guild recruiting forums for easy access. I'll write a hypothetical ad about Farmage (Note that we're not actually hiring and dates or times listed are different).

Server: Ner'Zuhl (West Coast, PvP, PST Server)
Guild Name: Farmage
Website: http://www.farmage-guild.org/
Raiding Schedule: Tuesday, Thursday: 5:00 PM - 11:00 PM, Sunday: 1:00 PM - 8:00 PM [Note that times are subject to change]
Faction: Alliance
Progress: 4/6 Serpentshrine Cavern, 1/4 Tempest Keep (Voidreaver)

What our Guild can offer:

A relaxed, fun and CASUAL raiding environment

Adult, mature players to interact with

A great sense of community and belonging

Ventrilo

Ideal Candidates:

Are mature, over 16 years

Possess a working microphone and are not afraid to use it

Possess a stable internet connection and a raid capable computer that will not explode

Skilled Player – Skilled in the class that you play

Excellent Attitude – No negativity. A positive personality that synchronizes with the rest of the guild is an asset

UI Requirements:
KTM

Once again, contacts: Send in game messages to Mallet on Ner'Zuhl. Alternatively, you can create an account on the website, and post on the Recruiting Forums at: http://www.farmage-guild.org/

Now that you have your template post made, the time has come to focus on the real work of actively looking for players. There's three different ways to go about finding the players you want:

WoW Forums

Yes, the WoW forums are a mess but it still does not mean a lot of players don't use it. There are two boards interest: Guild Recruitment Forums and your Realm Forums.

Check your Realm forum first. It would be great to find a player that matches your need who is already on your server. If not, it's time to check the Guild Recruitment Forums.

Now the Guild Recruitment Forums are one of the top places I go to in order to pick up players. Still have that ad handy? Good, keep it in your clipboard (Ctrl + C). If players are smart, their topic will contain their faction, name, class, realm, and server type. When I started doing this, I sifted through the first ten pages. Everything after page 10, I safely assumed that player had already found a guild otherwise it would have been bumped up to page 1 or 2 by now. Take the time to click on posters of interest and read their own application. Compare it to your shopping list and see if there are any similarities. Scroll down the reply list and see if the original poster has responded to any of the Guild requests or he's withdrawn his WoW Resume.

If he has, press the back button and continue sifting through the pages and repeat the process.

If he's still a free agent or has made no signs showing that he's signed with a Guild, then post your ad, press back and continue sifting anyway.

Here's how you can bring your Guild to the top of his list:

If that player has posted additional contact information, use it. Send that person an email or add him on to your MSN list. Want to take it a step further? Make a new character on that player's server and try to send him a tell. If he's not online, make sure you rolled a mage or warlock, kill a few boars, and send him an in game mail saying Hi and leaving him your contact information saying that you are very much interested in speaking with him.

If you're an Alliance Guild, I recommend rolling a Human because Stormwind is so close. Im unsure about the Horde side. Undead perhaps?

Why would you do this? Why go through all this trouble for a player?

Chances are, there are a lot of Guilds vying for that player. Make every effort you can to get noticed. The key is to attract his attention. Player's are not likely to apply unless they know you exist. But on the other hand, if you show initiative, I think most players would be flattered. At the very least, you will be noticed first. Think abut it for a second. If you're jobless and you get a call from a company asking you for an interview, wouldn't you be excited? I know I would be. A Guild isn't so different from a business after all.

The next method is ingame recruiting. Post a message in trade chat outlining your needs but be sure to cut out the stuff you don't need. You want to include the class you're looking for, your progression, and your website. I personally believe raiding Guilds need to have websites so they can maintain a presence of some sort and remain competitive if they need to recruit. I don't know how else to explain it. There's just a sense of professionalism between Guilds with a site and a Guild without. Anyways, the reason I said post in trade chat is because th Guild Recruiting Channel isn't automatically joined by players who are already in Guilds. If a player is interested, they should theoretically message you asking for details. Again, here is an example of an in game ad:

Farmage is looking for Paladins. Must be equipped to handle SSC (4/6). Have vent, website, PST for details

The last method is the most tiring but allows you to evaluate the individual skill of a player. Unfortunately, I'm also wrestling with the ethical dilemma of it: Running instances. At the end of the run, let the other players know that your Guild is recruiting. If they have any friends who are interested, tell them to send them your way. With any luck, they will pass the information on to their friends and you will have skirted the unethical practice of poaching players from other Guilds. You've indirectly said to tem that you are recruiting. If they're impressed with you and your Guild, they'll check you out. You cannot get accused of stealing players because thy did it voluntarily, right? After all, it is not like you directly said to them "Hey, our Guild's doing this and we need players. Interested?" But alas, that is a discussion for another time. The point is to generate player interest via word of mouth.

Now that you have a solid set of applicants, the time has come for the interview process. This can either be done in game or on vent. I refer ventrilo. I like to hear a person and hear how they answer my questions. If you're speaking to a player off server, it is absolutely doubly important since transferring characters is not cheap. Ask them a question even if it's already been answered by tem in their application or such. If there is a discrepancy between answers, alarm bells should be going off in your head and you need to make sure it's clarified. If he posts one thing and says another, be sure to follow up on it. Here's a few sample questions that you can ask:

What's your raiding experience?
When are you able to raid?
What kind of gear do you have? (With Armory open)
Do you know anyone in the Guild?
Why did you pick our Guild?
What are your professions?
Do you have any questions?

The last question is important because you want to give that player an opening to help dispel his or her concerns. Such topics may include loot distribution, raiding frequency (backup or starting raider), etc. It would suck for a player to transfer and then immediately regret it. It's just common courtesy. The point here is to ensure that the Guild is a good fit for the player and vice versa. If he aces your interview and you think he is a good fit, then tell him to transfer and sign him immediately.

If not, and here is were I find things interesting, then just let him know. For some reason, there re people who exist who do not seem able to or are unwilling to say no. Jut tell them that "Sorry, you don't match what we're looking for in a player. Good luck to you!"

There you have it. A start to finish guide on how to pick up and recruit players. I hope my experience as a recruiting officer helps and hopefully you'll pick up the players you need to succeed in higher end content. Now get back to raiding!

Matticus is currently enduring a boring lecture regarding Statistics in the Social Sciences. For more, check out his blog at http://www.worldofmatticus.com