Making a new FC this hard?

[Vynym]

/snip

I think this is logically sound advice, however, in practice this late in the game it's not very practical in application (no offense intended). This is *exactly* what our group did. We started as scatter friends. Built a linkshell. From there, developed the free company around our raid group. But sadly, it's pretty much still just our raid group because we can't seem to grow any further. We've tried everything from various recruitment posts on various sites, spamming zones with catchy recruitment messages (not the standard blah blah rank 8 blah house type), we pug spots in coil sometimes to meet new people, recruit in PF, and we even have hosted "no experience newer lvl 50 coil runs" in an effort to meet new raidable people, teach them the ropes in coil, get them some gear, and hopefully entice them into joining. Still, no luck at growth.

While it would seem logical if you follow that advice, and it IS logical (in theory), and it may very well have worked in the past or works for your fc, it doesn't cut it for most.
The first question I'm asked 99.9% of the time is "How many active people do you have?" While numbers IS important, it doesn't determine the worth of a free company or its members. But so many DO use that as a gauge to measure an fc's worth, which creates a catch 22 for a lot of us. We can't get/keep members with low numbers, but we can't gain in numbers without having the numbers in the first place. Crazy. If there were more "fresh meat" to net from, maybe this would improve, I dunno. I could theorize all day.

But here's what I know FOR SURE:
The people that we DO have in our little FC are dedicated. They work hard. They are skilled. They are loyal. Honestly, it's kind of a blessing, this whole struggle to recruit because the members we DO retain are real keepers. The ones that jump ship to become another warm body in a larger FC weren't the sort we would want to have in our house anyway. We're looking for invested people, not those that just want to use us for personal gain/progress, but real team players willing to work for common goals. So, in essence, we win in the end for all the recruiting struggles. Having said all that, I DO wish we could snag more of the "right" sort of person.

[Namasu]

snip

While it's great that you have a set goal on creating a super tight knit small FC built around your original raid group, I think you just have to accept the difficulty that comes with it. I feel that most players want to stay social to some degree and joining a slightly larger FC is just what they need. The more decent players they can group with during their play time, the more they will feel committed to staying.

Suppose you recruit the "right" sort of player, if their playtime doesn't match well with the FC over all, they will probably have a hard time completing game content and more inclined to leave. I've told many of my own FC members that if they really need to leave the FC to join a static I would not hold it against them. It's just unfair for them if I hold back their game experience by tying them down just because they are in my FC.

I know you don't want to merge but really think you just need to find another tight knit group that are willing to get absorbed into your FC so there is enough players to support the current and future content. Try to join other LS and network your way to find potential members. There's also no shame of trying to snag away good players from dying FC as well. You won't accidentally turn your FC into a zerg group unless you really want to. Just do what you always do and take it slow until people come to you.

[Wulfyn]

The FC I formed with friends is small, 7 of us with 5 of us being most active and the 7th member being a new player to FF. We managed to round up the gil for a small house on a prime plot in Lavender Beds. Then we managed to get the permit with in a week. Most of the gil was from out of my and my wife's crafting. A portion came from friends. It is possible. We will probably never become a large FC, as it seems that most of the types of members we don't want gravitate towards the bigger FC's. Personally we don't want members who are user's and don't contribute crap to the FC other than drama.

Our one friend had previously been in 2 other bigger FC's that ended up not panning out. Big FC's aren't always cracked up to be what someone may expect so keep chippin away towards your goal.