Applications

For the Officer

If you run a family guild, you need to screen people who want to join. If you let in just anyone, you're soon going to have a bunch of people who expect a different sort of guild on top of your family players -- players who, if they want a family guild, do not want these people. These people will trample their carefully cultivated social balance, and you're going to have to make a lot of rules to impress on these strangers in your guild that this isn't the guild they're looking for -- or you're going to have to clean up the mess you've made by gkicking a bunch of people and potentially getting yourself on WoW Insider's Guildwatch naughty list.

Also, if you have an automatic invite policy for friends, if you ginvite random people you don't know that well or trust, it means they can auto-invite their friends. And You Do Not Want That.

... As recruitment officer, I was considered The Gateway. I was our defense against people who would ninja the guild bank or use us as a stepping stone to a serious raid guild. I was not a defense for myself but for my guild. And if you love your guild and want the best for it, that is a sacred duty.

More than keeping out people who would ninja the guild bank, I considered it my personal mission to keep out the selfish, people who wouldn't break the rules or be "bad members" per se, but who would use our resources (be it items or people) without giving back. Which was very hard to detect, and I'm sure I sometimes erred on the side of caution.

The hardest part was the social aspect -- trying to decide if people would fit. More than protecting our guild resources, I had to protect our guild soul -- our community essence, which is our most precious resource, beyond anything we own in the guild bank. This meant determining if the player in question would be a surface-level player, someone who would be a decent member but never really invest in us the way we wanted, and thus protect the guild's heart from being broken when they found somewhere they preferred. I also had to try and detect if someone would be socially unstable, another hard-to-anticipate danger that we tried to circumvent by requiring member recommendations.

(Excerpt from my other WoW blog, Letters from Birdfall.)

A decent application is short and to the point. You don't want your best friend's wife to have to jump through hoops. It also covers all the details you're concerned about, particularly the player's expectations on coming into the guild.

We started recruiting raiders at one point and in the end that was a mistake -- they all left. They also had friends with applications I wouldn't have taken if they didn't know someone. For example, we ask in our application: "What do you understand to be the purpose of IVV?"

Wrong: "To share the best of raiding and an environment unoffensive to the modern day WoWhead."

Wrong: "To be a raiding guild that that caters to the needs of serious gamers who also prefer a mature, stress-free raiding environment."

We also had people who came at us from a casual standpoint, but who still made the mistake of calling us a raid guild:

Wrong: "establishing a friendly and caring space for its members, even though it is a raiding guild."

And answers I sighed in appreciation for:

Very Good: "Friendly family orientated guild that likes raiding and talking on the vent till 3 in the morning"

Perfect: "IVV is a family guild that cares about its members and wants to have a fun time progressing through WoW"

If someone has right answers everywhere else but doesn't know what a family guild is, you need to explain it to them. They're walking into a serious commitment and don't know it, and they should. It's as simple as that. If I had known enough, I would have explained to those with wrong answers "We expect you to stay forever if you join us. We aren't a raid guild, we're a family guild, and I know you think that means a TV sitcom where everyone is just more friendly than in other places, but You Are Wrong. We are not 'Everybody Loves Raymond.' We're 'The Godfather.' And if you're not willing to handle that, walk away. You'll be happier in a different guild."

It doesn't mean that we don't raid or that we're not friendly. We're very friendly. But some applicants thought we were just friendly, and that is an incorrect supposition. We love each other. We accept our new members without reservation, they get all of us and all of our hearts. And that's a lot deeper and a lot more binding than just being friendly.

Perhaps (and this is just a stray thought) instead of asking people to define your guild, you should ask them to define a family guild. Because most people applying to us (I finally just ignored the answers to that question, because almost everyone got it wrong, though many turned out to be lovely members anyway) really and honestly didn't know. They either thought "raid guild that tries to be nice" or "nice casual guild that tries to raid." And those are so wrong it hurts.

For the Applicant

As for the applicant, you get the benefit of my experience and my pet peeves.

Research. Know the guild's rules and purpose -- know if it's the right guild for you! I hope you take my advice to officers to heart and understand what you're applying to if you decide to join a family guild. Family guilds are different from each other, since the members are different, and different things will be expected of you. Know those expectations and take it slow and careful when you approach them -- get to know a few members before applying and ask them questions about the guild. Leaving a family guild is hard and it's better to be careful on the way in. It's also easier to get in if members see your app and go "Oh, yeah! He's been talking to me for, like, 3 weeks now! Let him in. :)"

Do it right the first time. Make sure all the application questions are filled in, have someone proofread them, and ask if you're not sure how to answer something. Do not make the person reading your application feel like you're wasting their time. That would make them cranky and cranky people reject you.

Use common sense. Having a good solid knowledge of the guild (research!) will help you tailor your app to fit what they're looking for -- for example, we've had people use foul language in their apps, and one of the questions is "We don't allow foul language in public channels. Comment?" /facepalm

Punctuate. There is a difference between typing fast in an arena and filling out a static form questionnaire. They should not have the same grammar and punctuation mistakes. A business CEO once said, "If you write poorly, you look stupid." If you can't help your grammar, or there's no one to spellcheck for you, feel free to acknowledge it with a note -- sometimes I smile when I see someone apologizing for their grammar, and it helps me overlook it.

Be yourself. Family guilds have great phoniness radars. Being fake is the worst thing you can do -- it will make people feel lied to.

Persuade. This is particularly true if you don't know anyone in the guild. Family guilds judge applications based on an obvious desire to be involved in a close community setting. We want to be assured that we're making a sound emotional investment in you.

Be prepared. Always assume you're going to get the recruitment officer on a bad day. Your application needs to put a smile on their face, not make them feel like it's another chore. Take your time to prepare it instead of slapping down the first answers you think of, and never skip ANYTHING!!! There was a big (private) stink once about me rejecting a guy's army buddy because he didn't answer "have you read our rules?" and caught me on a really bad week -- I had about 10 other applications to run through and just didn't have the time to deal with someone who talked like he expected us to help him level (and later, while trying to talk his way into the guild anyway in whispers, got huffy when I recommended the leveling guide I personally use, after he'd just complained for 5 minutes that he has very little time to play *rips hair from scalp*).

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Beth Blevins is a former officer in In Vino Veritas.

She's a writer, artist and avid blogger.

Beth's been married since her junior year of college.