Suggestions for guild application?

[ZeroX982]

Since searching is disabled for now, I was hoping to get some input on the guild app that I drafted up for the guild I'm currently in. Any critiquing would be greatly appreciated =)

The website we use already tells us their general stuff (Class, Race, Armory, etc)

And I did take some awesome questions from some threads I saw on the official forums.
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1) What's your main spec in raids? Any offspecs that you play often?

2) How long have you been playing WoW or any MMO in general?

3) How's your average performance in ICC? (And I guess your health / avoidance if you're lame and play a tank =P)

4) What's your experience in ICC (Be specific between 10 and 25)?

5) Any other notable raiding experience?

5.5) If you're fairly new to raiding, what are some other notable achievements that you have (We like PvPers =D)?

6) Our raid leader's (the GM) voice just cracked during raid, what do you do?

7) Our raid times are generally from 7 PM server to 11 PM server. How do those times work with your schedule?

8) Why are you applying to our guild?

8.5) You said you have friends here didn't you. Yeah I can read minds, who are they?

9) What are your expectations for this guild?

10) So what guilds have you been in, and if you're in one now why are you leaving it?

11) How did you hear about TDT? Do you have anyone already inside who could reference you in a good or bad way? (Who?)

11.5) So yes number 9 was kinda redundant and I only asked it to ask this BUUUTTTT...If it's in a bad way, what methods have been selected to dispose of them before they can affect your application? If you don't know anyone, pretend you do, and describe how you'd eliminate them. This question is not optional. Do your worst. (Bonus points for creative stories that involve the following... Parachute pants, Money, A drawing of Nelson Mandela, and a toothbrush)

12) So enough about what we can do for you, what do you bring to our guild? What would make us happy that you joined us?

13) Tell us a little bit about yourself.

And these are the important ones...


14) We're doing Lich King and the first Defile came out and ate the entire platform in an instant. Raid morale is high and everyone is laughing their ass off. What's the first youtube video that comes to mind? Explain.

15) Can you say melee right? (I'm looking at you Specs...)

16) Cake... or pie... Choose your words carefully (And no "the cake is a lie" without being creative)

[Deleted]

You should perhaps let us know the 'main' goal of the guild. As it is, the application form seems like a mixture of pvp, pve and social, with no special appeal to a player who is interested in either of them. Based on what your guild focuses on, I might give suggestions, but as it is, sorry to say, it doesn't impress me much.

[Syntic]

Add this question (or something similar to it) so that you know your applicants know their class.

Something along the lines of:

"What stats do you feel are beneficial to your class and spec and why?"

[Deleted]

Oh and I meant to say this:

3) How's your average performance in ICC? (And I guess your health / avoidance if you're lame and play a tank =P)

I'm curious to know how exactly would you answer that point yourself. How does one describe their 'average performance' in an instance with 12 different bosses with 12 different tactics? What do you expect here, "I'm doing ok" or "I'm doing great" or "I'm top'ing meters", or?
Also, with that kind of comment about tanks, I don't really see any coming your way any time soon (unless they're lollers). You might think it's funny, and I'm sure you didn't mean it as being offensive, but it really isn't funny for someone who plays a tank and might consider joining. And it shows a sheer lack of consideration towards a person's choice, biased opinion regarding a class, and childish approach to anything really. You don't need to ask someone's 'health' in an application form, that's just being silly and lazy, can see that on the armory very well, plus there's a lot of stats that come into account there. Not to mention class specific perks.

[Memory]

I kind of agree with the criticism. I wouldn't apply to your guild based on the sole application form. You should specify what kind of guild it is and what kind of players you will to attract. And do you really need to ask so many useless neither funny questions?

[Irony]

"Draw us a picture using MS paint."
P.S. You best be casual.

[Zapgreen]

1) What's your main spec in raids? Any offspecs that you play often?
2) How long have you been playing WoW or any MMO in general? Does it really matter?
3) How's your average performance in ICC? (And I guess your health / avoidance if you're lame and play a tank =P) based on this I'd assume you're not serious as a guild and walk away (figutrativly speaking) as hard as good tanks are to find, its not a good idea to be calling them lame
4) What's your experience in ICC (Be specific between 10 and 25)?
5) Any other notable raiding experience? This is another question where I wonder why you'd even ask, who cares if you raided junk in BC or whatever... this is wrath, put the past behind you
5.5) If you're fairly new to raiding, what are some other notable achievements that you have (We like PvPers =D)? So now you want pvper's?
6) Our raid leader's (the GM) voice just cracked during raid, what do you do? Laugh and make fun of his 13yr old voice
7) Our raid times are generally from 7 PM server to 11 PM server. How do those times work with your schedule? you don't ask what times they want to raid, you tell them. it should be in the guild description/website, and implied if they're applying to guild
8) Why are you applying to our guild?
8.5) You said you have friends here didn't you. Yeah I can read minds, who are they? no, you can't read minds and thats a filler question to make the application look longer, they will anwser it above if they have friends.
9) What are your expectations for this guild?
10) So what guilds have you been in, and if you're in one now why are you leaving it?
11) How did you hear about TDT? Do you have anyone already inside who could reference you in a good or bad way? (Who?) see above
11.5) So yes number 9 was kinda redundant and I only asked it to ask this BUUUTTTT...If it's in a bad way, what methods have been selected to dispose of them before they can affect your application? If you don't know anyone, pretend you do, and describe how you'd eliminate them. This question is not optional. Do your worst. (Bonus points for creative stories that involve the following... Parachute pants, Money, A drawing of Nelson Mandela, and a toothbrush) ...if somehow I had made it this far in the app, and I saw this... now I would really leave
12) So enough about what we can do for you, what do you bring to our guild? What would make us happy that you joined us? you never said what you could do for me
13) Tell us a little bit about yourself.
And these are the important ones...
14) We're doing Lich King and the first Defile came out and ate the entire platform in an instant. Raid morale is high and everyone is laughing their ass off. What's the first youtube video that comes to mind? Explain. no
15) Can you say melee right? (I'm looking at you Specs...) no
16) Cake... or pie... Choose your words carefully (And no "the cake is a lie" without being creative) no


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The blue questions are the questions I personally would keep, and everything else I would scrap (but that's just me)

you may think the comments/questions are "cute" but i don't think anyone would take you seriously, a lot of the questions seem pointless and just to make your app look longer. keep in mind Wow is a game, not a job, the app should be short and sweet. the point is to find out what YOU want to know. you can't find out anything by asking random questions like "cake or pie"

if you want to know if they have a sense of humor, simply ask "do you have a sense of humor?"

Thats just my thoughts on guild apps though, do it however you think is necessary .

[ZeroX982]

I probably should have been a little more clear then, so my mistake there.

The guild is one of those casual raiding guilds that does what it can. Whenever we refer people to the site we're fairly clear on what the guild is and we touch on most of what you all have pointed out so far.

Lucky
Thanks for the input, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess you're in more of a hardcore raiding guild, judging off the title. In regards to the whole lightheartedness of the guild, like I said earlier in this post, it is more of a casual thing so we would prefer people who are comfortable with that type of atmosphere. While our guild is by no means on the forefront of progression, it isn't bad for a casual (11/12 with HMs thrown in on 25m).

Zaraxiel
As with Lucky, thanks for the input. Despite the fact that we're casual, our officers are through with questioning the applicants through the website we use and through in-game PMs.

Memory
I'm sure I sound like a broken record at this point, but again thanks for your thoughts. I won't argue that the funny questions and side comments really do nothing for the application itself, more or less it's just a way to see if applicants have a sense of humor. I may have been a little liberal with throwing so many in, but after our last surge of people joining our guild, we had many who didn't really fit with the way that our community worked.

To everyone else, all your comments and thoughts are really appreciated. This application is by no means done and all of your comments are helping more than you all know =)

[Kaminío]

Personally i'm with Roangut.

Many of the questions seem pointless and / or silly.

[Checksmix]

11 and 8.5 are basically the same


15 is uneeded. It is (im guessing) a inside guild joke, ask if they are good at spelling. because i know i am not.

[Telm]

Not bad but i have seen better ones.
In my opinion there is too much questions and some of them are kinda pointless.

[Memory]

5) Any other notable raiding experience? This is another question where I wonder why you'd even ask, who cares if you raided junk in BC or whatever... this is wrath, put the past behind you

It's very very very far from being useless. I'd like to know what kind of raiding experience somebody has more than I wanna know how many bosses he killed in ICC.
General raiding experience can be spent anywhere. ICC experience only in ICC.
And yeah, if he only raided junk in the BC, sucks to be him. But if he has always been at the forefront of BC progression, it's good credentials.

---------- Post added 06-19-2010 at 06:06 PM ----------

Memory
I'm sure I sound like a broken record at this point, but again thanks for your thoughts. I won't argue that the funny questions and side comments really do nothing for the application itself, more or less it's just a way to see if applicants have a sense of humor. I may have been a little liberal with throwing so many in, but after our last surge of people joining our guild, we had many who didn't really fit with the way that our community worked.

You should assume that potential applicants might be as unimpressed as I am.

Even tho you say you had issues with new recruits that couldn't fit with the way your community works, you might wanna point out your trend with more sober questions like: What is your favourite song and why? - Are you easily offended? I don't know whether they would serve your aim or not, just examples. And actually, this question about the song (which I really read on some casual guild's template) might tell you something about the kind of person you're gonna hire.

[Zapgreen]

It very very very far from being useless. I'd like to know what kind of raiding experience somebody has more than I wanna know how many bosses he killed in ICC.
General raiding experience can be spent anywhere. ICC experience only in ICC.
And yeah, if he only raided junk in the BC, sucks to be him. But if he has always been at the forefront of BC progression, it's good credentials.

True. I suppose It's just something I don't particularly care for. In a progression guild being up to date and on top of things as they come is important, but for a casual raid guild I just don't think it's necessary to know. whenever people rant on about how they lead so and so guild into BT or whatever it was, I just say "good for you, but we're in ______. get with the times"

I agree how it can be important though.

different stroke for different blokes...

[ZeroX982]

Yeah the whole deal with other raid experience kinda ties in with the PvP thing. Although we're definitely a casual guild, we would prefer to have a smoother raid filled with above average players. Making a note of saying... "Yeah I used to raid naxx in vanilla, but now I don't have the time for hardcore raiding" or "I have 2300+ arena teams" just feels like another way of proving that you have situational awareness and other qualities that are generally looked for in good raiders.

[Saliz]

I like the no template style. Creativity goes a long way.

[zaruz]

I'd change my mind upon reading the first few questions.

[sctrojans1112]

Ask "If theirs a funny "anal" discussion going in trade do you talk or do you be quiet be honest."

[CptAwesome]

If you are looking to recruit retards with a retarded application form then you've hit the nail on the head. If you want to recruit players that aren't dogshit, you need to rethink.

[Brittany]

My guild (top 300) has three categories each with questions. It's a template copied and filled in.

General - this asks age, sex, name, character name, race, spec, days played and achievements. We ask for previous guilds + reason for leaving, ui screeny and an armory link.

Raiding - We ask for best moments in WoW and a brief summary of raiding progress as well as any logs. It states our raid times and asks if any problem with these. We ask them for their keybinds.

Questions - We ask about their computer, their job/studies, their goal in WoW, do they know anyone in guild, why they chose us and what they expect/want from us. Then we let them put any comment.

It's a pretty good format. You can tell the great ones and the poor ones from the application. Only problem with it is it's not so good at telling you about the average ones if they post logs from a good fight or something. So before our officers approve it, someone from that persons spec/class asks them a few detailed questions about their application (usually about their spec/gemming or boss encounters) and any guild member can ask them questions. Usually you get a jist of whether they're suited.

We have relations with every major guild on realm so we can always talk over an applicant with their ex-gm. If it's X-realm our officers usually go over on an alt and have a chat before they make the switch.