After browsing another thread and coming across a player who believes that one should spend a few hours on a guild application, I’ve got to say I’m amazed that there are really people out there who would expect this of a new applicant. Having just seen another duo leave my guild “because they’re not enjoying themselves” (though, it was fine when we were throwing items at them), I get to thinking that I may have to simply move on, or look to streamline my own recruitment process in order to start finding the right people.
First of all, here are my starters for ten:
- I believe that a website related guild application is a fundamental part of any guild recruitment process.
- I believe that the process should be made endearing and fun for new applicants.
- I believe that it should serve as a baseline delimiter for time wasters and guild hoppers.
- I believe that guild members should be mature and professional when responding.
- I believe that there are three phases; the application, the interview and the trial.
- I believe that anything more than an hour is pushing it.
As I get around the Internet and look at how guilds are doing their application forms, I see an awful lot of repetition; I think it’s abundantly clear that new guilds are just copy-pasting from other websites and making their forms do roughly the same thing. That said, I also note that there are so many questions that NEVER get brought up in an application once answered, or I just can’t see why they’d be there in the first place.
I suppose I’m curious as to what should be contained in a guild recruitment application, what you want the process to achieve, and what could easily be jettisoned with no loss of information. I’d like to start a discussion that helps to whittle down some of the long, painful and laborious applications and gets to the meat and drink of what a player wants to know, what a guild wants to know, and how best to present this information.
So, to whit, this is how I view the subject:
1) Please link the character you’re applying with, ensuring he’s in the relevant gear.
Obviously, this is the place to start as this is what you want to see first. But it’s assumed that the officers and guild leader will be going through this character to check their gems, reforges, enchantments, reputations, professions, achievement dates and current progression. As a result, asking something in an application that can easily be found via the character pane seems like a colossal waste of time. I would also leave any questions about optimization until the interview phase, because that way you’ll get an “on the spot” answer which, to me, is infinitely better than one that could have been copied and pasted from elsewhere.
2) Can you confirm that your hardware is up to the task?
This is a simple yes or no; I don’t need to know speed, I don’t need to know specs, I just need to know that their rig can manage what’s asked of it. Any problems on this front can be dealt with during the trial phase.
3) Why do you want to join <Guild>, and what will you be bringing if invited to join?
Potentially, the most important section. This is where a person can sell themselves to you and your guild members both “professionally”, and personally. If the response is a one-liner saying that they saw your guild on WoW Progress and they’ll bring a good raider, you’re not onto a winner.
4) Please provide your most recent logs; LFR parses are fine (in-game mods are unacceptable).
Utterly pivotal. I don’t see how you can form any kind of judgement of performance without logs. In fact, I’ve seen many a terrible application get approved because a decent set of logs accompanied it. Without them, I just can’t see how you can make an educated decision on how good a player is.
5) Can you confirm that you’re able to use TS/Ventrilo/Mumble/Raidcall in raids?
Once again, this seems pretty fundamental and tends to breed a lot of nonsense. “I can’t get Mumble to work” is a common issue I see, and one that almost always translates to “I can’t be arsed to download it”. If your guild uses voice chat, I think it’s fundamental that a person confirms they can use it.
6) Can you confirm that you are 100% in charge of your own playtime and can make all of our raids?
I feel this is maybe a better choice of question than “Are you over 18?” I completely understand guilds that have an over 18 policy, but I don’t think it’s part of a core application process. Essentially, we recently had a player whose dad frequently sent him to bed or just switched off his Internet. It was funny the first time, but became less funny when we needed him online or when it happened mid-pull.
7) Why are you unhappy in your most recent guild?
I think this is a core question. You’ll be checking guild history anyway and speaking about it in the interview phase, but a quick explanation can probably give you an inkling of what a person is like because it’s the first look at how they deal with other people.
8) Is there any other information you’d like to share that you think might help your application?
This is just a final section to ensure there’s nothing you’ve missed. Friends already in the guild, a theorycrafting blog or Twitter account, a bit of “fill the blanks” in a players history, or anything else they might want to chuck in just to endear themselves to what they hope will be their new guild mates.
That’s it.
I wouldn’t have any other questions in the application because I don’t think they’re relevant, or reckon they should be brought up during an interview (and possibly trial). I’m hoping that this debate can refine this process a bit and, just maybe, give guilds a better steer on creating a better recruitment process in future.
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Amendments:
Please link any significant alternative characters, either at current level cap or with previous raiding experience. [REMOVED]
There are a few reasons for this; it’ll tell you if someone’s rerolled, the role they seem most comfortable with when raiding, how you can potentially get a hold of them if they’re not on their main, and whether or not they’re raiding in other guilds on other characters. For me, this is a significant no-no. Whether or not the player can play these toons competitively is, to me, unnecessary. They’re not applying on these toons, so I don’t care if they can play them or not.