What Guild "Tests" do you use for Raiding Applicants?

[Thelxi]

I look at how well someone understands their class. I used to be able to tell a whole lot just from looking at their talents, gemming and how bis their preraid gear was but now everybody just runs with whatever mrobot shits out and bis preraid gear is a thing of the past with weekly lockouts and layers of luck plastered over everything. So what I do now is try to judge the dps/hps for their current gear and how little attention they require/how few wipes they cause. Generally I think the whole application process via forums is a load of self important bullshit. Best people I've found are with a little chat and inspection, not counting poaching.

[Virulina]

When I was a GM there were a few pretty simple rules that I followed when looking for new raiders and I could ascertain most of this in a few minutes with a pretty good success rate.

1. Could I have a simple chat with this person over ventrillo. I was not fussed about age/gender or anything like that but I needed to be able to follow a simple conversation the person about something normal.

2. I would then normally run something like a heroic with the person while casually talking to them over voice chat. I could then base don their reactions and engagement work out if they were going to be someone that would fit into our raid group.

[MrKnubbles]

Yea, I would never participate in any of that crap. It's a game, not a job. Play with me and you'll see how well I perform.

[Deleted]

It's funny, I have been on several guilds(bad,average and good guilds), most of the examples you give seem way to elaborate. Never really encountered them.

Hell it even seems like a story you create just to have something to write here.

I doubt even the best guilds in the world do anything more than a regular trial on the player.

[Lord Pebbleton]

Ahahah I would laugh in the face of half the guild's trials mentioned here!
Battling with other people to get a spot? Solving a quiz?
Even talking over Ventrilo is going too far for me. I wouldn't try this hard even for a real job.

[Pabzi]

Hell it even seems like a story you create just to have something to write here.

Nope. Really, I have seen solving math problems and make us laugh as "required" or we won't consider you.

Its just the way some people like to run things.. although.. I would just go the usual route as "Send me World of Logs"

[Deleted]

Nope. Really, I have seen solving math problems and make us laugh as "required" or we won't consider you.

That is amazing. I would be happy not to join you xD

[Pabzi]

Ahahah I would laugh in the face of half the guild's trials mentioned here!
Battling with other people to get a spot? Solving a quiz?
Even talking over Ventrilo is going too far for me. I wouldn't try this hard even for a real job.

Guilds start off pretty lenient. UN-dedicated players, no-shows, loot and scoop, type of players kinda ruin it though.
bad applicants lead guilds to go another route. Its the game before the actual game x.x

[badaku]

I applied to a realm first guild in WotLK and the officers told me to tell a joke first time I logged on Vent, and I told them to go fuck themselves. They also disenchanted a BiS trinket in front of me. I didn't say a damn thing and I got promoted to a member!

[Deleted]

I can understand if a guild is demanding about applications, it's not even a matter of understanding it. IMO it's a must. Especially the effort you put into it and the information on itself is really something that can show a lot about the player in question.

I can even understand those "joke" trials and stuff like not taking the game too seriously.

When I apply, either to a casual guild or a more demanding one, I always do my best effort to explain how I fuction as a player and as a person. It's mostly a matter of respect to the people who are considering using their time ingame with me, I would like the same. At the end of the day even tho it's a game, playing a game is something that uses real life time.

But when a guild asks me to do math problems or something wierd like that, that isn't being demanding, that is plain being picky. I'm not even sure if picky is the right word, but it's something along those lines..

It's not funny and doesn't really show anything about the person, it's not relevant to anything related to the person/player. It's just being picky, in a bad sense.

[melodramocracy]

There's a strong correlation between the amount of effort put into an application, and how much effort someone puts into raiding itself.

Is that your experience? I'd think that someone who is responsible enough to be competent, timely, and prepared for raids would be offended at the notion of having to apply for anything in a video game.

When you actually pay me for my time, you can ask me to apply.

None of this should be all that difficult. Have recruiting nights open to anyone who's interested. Judge folks on when they show up, whether they need anything, purposely have a few folks already in the guild do things incorrectly to see how people react when things go poorly, fraps the whole thing and watch later. It will be extremely clear who plays well, and who doesn't. (and all of that will be more telling than text).

[Paula Deen]

As a joke my guild for a bit was, not even kidding, recruiting people based on how good they could read certain wikipedia articles or if they could read a Children's Story IE Dr. Seuss. It was pretty funny.

[Sixnalia]

Our guild does a tolerance test to new members in Flexes or Normals.

We have designated "Trolls" that will cause wipes, whether as a joke or by "Accident". Generally we see how tolerant these players are and how they deal with problem players.

We get plenty of failures, but those that stay? Those who whisper one of the officers about it privately? They're accepted and we consider them ready for progression in our core team for heroics. It's good to us, because everyone can have a good laugh even through a wipe, and deal with issues in the group rather than blowing up on someone.

[baldcore]

Typically one of my guilds I use to be in would take you through a 5 man and ask you to do multiple things at the same time such as dps and cc at the same time, while dodging shit, and still doing comparable damage to everyone else. The better you were able to keep up the more likely you were to make it to raid member status. Typically I would be head and shoulders above several of my guildies so I often was given top tier status with the raiding. The only down side is my gear progression exceeded the speed of my own guild so I often out geared content before my guild ever got the bosses down. In the end I just got tired of the endless grind and left wow to play other games with less grinding involved.

[Brilynn]

You basically just have to be able to cope with the weirdos.....

[Pabzi]

Our guild does a tolerance test to new members in Flexes or Normals.
We have designated "Trolls" that will cause wipes, whether as a joke or by "Accident". Generally we see how tolerant these players are and how they deal with problem players.

really good idea. Kudos <3

- - - Updated - - -

Typically one of my guilds I use to be in would take you through a 5 man and ask you to do multiple things at the same time such as dps and cc at the same time, while dodging shit, and still doing comparable damage to everyone else. The better you were able to keep up the more likely you were to make it to raid member status. Typically I would be head and shoulders above several of my guildies so I often was given top tier status with the raiding. The only down side is my gear progression exceeded the speed of my own guild so I often out geared content before my guild ever got the bosses down. In the end I just got tired of the endless grind and left wow to play other games with less grinding involved.

Really? you do realize that WoW has some of the most easiest grinding out there....

Try playing Korean MMO's or a lot of other games XD

[Jibberjabber]

have to post pics. i only raid with cuties ^_^

[Durantye]

Guilds will always require such needs like... always being on time, coming prepared, do your Class specific homework, and finally, Have time to raid.

However, over the years... some recruiters have had obscure needs before they can accept you into their raiding team.

Like one time, there was this guild that required you to solve a really really difficult math equation. (If you couldn't solve it, you failed.. and I think you had to explain it on ventrilo too)

Others, you needed to make them literally Laugh out Loud with a joke or a funny video that they've never seen before.

What type of "tests" have you heard about or seen?

O.o that is really odd, the math equation part surely couldn't have been very difficult or they wouldn't have had a raid team :P

I personally believe if a guild puts stupid requirements like that in their app process they will get stupid apps, I personally wouldn't even app to a guild that 'requires' something like solving a math equation or joke to get in, even if I knew how to do the math equation. Now I'm fine with them adding things like that to the app process but not 'requiring' them, a person could be a Mathematics Major yet suck donkey penis at raiding.

I've been in guilds that do the pretty common 'MS Paint' portion where they just ask you to draw a picture in MS Paint to kind of break the ice and see if the person is social or not.

[Brilynn]

Our guild does a tolerance test to new members in Flexes or Normals.

We have designated "Trolls" that will cause wipes, whether as a joke or by "Accident". Generally we see how tolerant these players are and how they deal with problem players.

We get plenty of failures, but those that stay? Those who whisper one of the officers about it privately? They're accepted and we consider them ready for progression in our core team for heroics. It's good to us, because everyone can have a good laugh even through a wipe, and deal with issues in the group rather than blowing up on someone.

Clever, indeed, but I'd be really afraid of recruiting someone who is actually a very good player and making our guild look absolutely incapable in their eyes. Take care as to not lose yourselves a raiding asset that way...

[Floopa]

people who make a big deal about UIs are idiots imo.

each person uses their own UI differently, that's kinda the point. i hate it when people question my UI by saying "ah but you dont have icons for ReM" - "no i have fucking timers for it you imbecile"