Strong and selective recruitment has been and always will be critical to the continued success of Tactical Gamer. As one of the core strengths of this guild is our keen attention to the demands that real-life places on our members, we consistently face challenges in maintaining a full roster of active players in each of our 4 10-man squads and 2 25-man platoons. To address our needs in these areas in the short-term and to prepare ourselves to sustain our raiding progression post-BC, I will be implementing a multi-tiered recruitment strategy aimed at attracting and retaining the kind of talent and personality that has made
TG what it is today. As this is no simple task, Yotion will be actively assisting me in ramping up our recruitment efforts. But, to truly be successful in this endeavor, both he and I will need your help.
The most immediate needs will be to fill out our existing squads and platoons with the caliber and number of players needed to continue to meet individual goals. Resurgent is nearing completion of their progression through SSC/TK and is preparing to enter MH/BT once they have completed the attunement or post 2.4 when the attunement requirements are lifted. To continue the successes Resurgent has seen over the past few months, experienced and capable raiders are needed to fill out the sign-ups on a more consistent basis. Additionally, I would venture to say that the majority of Resurgent members are desperate to add a third raiding night to the schedule; as such, they will need individuals willing and able to commit to a third night.
Delirium simply needs a more solid core membership. They have been successful in progressing through Gruul’s Lair and have begun tackling Magtheridon, but remain dependent on participation from Resurgent members (mains and alts) to fill out their raids. It is reasonable to assume that at some point this dual-loyalty amongst some players between Resurgent and Delirium may end up being detrimental to the goals of either or both platoons; the best scenario will be to find candidates willing and able to join Delirium in their Monday night raids as exclusive members for their on-going progression.
Squads seem to me to be fairly self-sufficient at this point, at least as it relates to KZ runs. Alts are abundant in those runs, which seems to meet everyone’s needs. I am unclear, however, on the intentions/desires of the squads as it relates to ZA progression. Alts just are not viable as substitutes in successful ZA runs, so if the other squads are interested in that progression over farming KZ then there will likely be a need for additional membership in that regard. Non-raiding guild applicants will, of course, continue to be considered as well. I have no intention of turning away
quality candidates simply because they are uninterested in raiding.
An often over-looked aspect of recruitment, I will also be focusing attention on the retention of those members that we recruit. In addition to organizing the recruitment of new members to the guild and facilitating their placement in the various squads/platoons (subject to the consent of the SL), I would like to begin to put some structure around internal recruitment, or movement within the guild. Again, as we’ve seen in the past, people’s real-life schedules frequently change. This can open them up to increased raiding availability or restrict their availability; I feel it’s important to provide a mechanism to proactively deal with these situations to keep those players within our guild. If raiding one night a week with Delirium is no longer frequent enough for certain players, there should be a way for them to be
considered for Resurgent. Likewise, if Resurgent’s schedule is too rigorous for someone,
perhaps they could lend their talents and experience to Delirium in a more casual raiding environment. What this process will NOT be is a means for squads to pick and choose the people they want at the expense of other squads. This process, as I envision it, will always be initiated by a guild member interested in moving, not by any squad leaders, and will involve discussion with all squad leaders affected. More details on this process will be forthcoming as it is further developed.
We won’t be able to do all of this overnight, but here’s a
high-level summary of what I plan to have delivered to kick-start our recruitment efforts:
- Creation of a sticky thread in our forums detailing the specific recruitment needs of
TG. This thread will be updated periodically as our needs change. I am also exploring the creation of a dedicated
TG WoW forum for our recruitment efforts. I am anxious to get this thread created as soon as possible, though I will need feedback from our various squad leaders before I'm able to list many specific needs.
- Periodic recruitment announcements in game, via the GuildRecruitment channel and via ‘say’ chat in main cities. These will be brief, tactful and non-intrusive to support the positive image of
TG (i.e. no announcements will be made via ‘yell’ or ‘tell’).
- Recruitment posts in the most popular external guild recruitment forums, including Blizzard, MMO-Champion, Bosskillers, and others.
- High-level talking points that can be referenced when discussing
TG with potential recruits or that can give external readers a quick sense of what we represent.
- A detailed matrix to demonstrate our guild successes in end-game progression, posted and maintained in our forums. I have already compiled this list, showing when we attempted and defeated all BC raid bosses, to trumpet our accomplishments externally and remind everyone internally of what we are capable.
- Develop a retention process to properly manage internal recruitment and official movement between squads/platoons.
- Review and possible revision of our current application process.
I realize that many of you are enthusiastic about playing a role in recruitment and I welcome your assistance.
Here is what is asked of you:
- Reach out to your friends or past guild-mates and talk to them about
TG. Direct them to our forums to review our recruitment needs and our accomplishments and invite them to apply if they like what they see. The talking points that will be published should help you in this, so we’ll try to get that out sooner than later. Please do NOT try to badger anyone into joining, misrepresent what we are, or promise things that you aren’t in a position to deliver (i.e. guaranteed platoon membership). Also, please do NOT take it upon yourself to make general announcements that
TG is recruiting (i.e. in the GuildRecruitment channel); Yotion and I will be doing that with a prepared message at the frequency that we feel is appropriate.
- Bump those recruitment posts on the external forums. I will provide links to these posts once they are up so that everyone can easily navigate to them. In reviewing the Blizzard forums, people seem to bump their posts every few minutes to keep it on that first page. We need to compete with this practice to keep our advertisement visible to the widest audience. If everyone keeps an eye on our posts throughout the day, we have a much better chance of keeping it on that first page. Bump these threads frequently to keep them prominently displayed on page 1 of the external forums.
- Refer any candidates you come across to Yotion or me. Please make us aware of the candidates you come across either via PM or through in-game mail so that we can reach out to them personally.
- Continue to represent TG well in all of your dealings with the Thunderhorn community. This not only means exercising courtesy in your dealings with others, but also being on your game when you’re in a PUG. Don’t be the weak link in that group that causes the wipe. We don’t ever want anyone to walk away with a negative impression of
TG members, with respect to personality OR skill level.
With your help, we will grow this guild to meet our current demands and position ourselves very well to continue our progression into the Lich King content down the road.
