To all you successful FC leaders... How did you do it?

[Super_Bee_Brian]

I've been playing this game for about 7 months. Overall, I love my experiences, from the time I was first trolling shout chat on Ul'dah to the more serious stuff like dealing with people's weird drama. Overall, I like this game. I have no complaints...

Some months ago, I created a Free Company. I adhere to the philosophy of "choosing the battles that you can actually win at" according to Sun Tzu. So I decided to aim for a reasonable, non-ambitious goal for the whole thing. I'm a deep, religious man. Initially, everything was great. My Free Company mates were awesome, everyone was having fun, and the Free Company was BOOMING. And then...

And then there's the present time. My... Free Company... Is... DEAD. I would accept such misfortune as it can be remedied, but there's more to it than that. I've been experiencing a terrible, reoccurring pattern, which goes like this...

Me: Welcome to the FC!

Them: Thanks! This will be fun!

Me: Want some buffs activated?

Them: Yeah.

Me: (Buff activated)

Them: (Left with no apparent reason.)

I mean what in the seven hells am I doing wrong?? I spend time nurturing loyalty and THIS IS WHAT I GET?

People are the reason I play this game. I have friends in here whom I'm fond of. However, I can't deny the fact that people are also the reason why I'm tempted to leave. This is frustrating.

So now I ask you, with your wisdom and experience... How can I break this pattern? How did you and how does one create an awesome Free Company free of such instability and disloyalty?

Much appreciated...

[Vidu]

...arent you the guy who was proud of scamming people out of gil?

I also feel like you had threads like this before and the conclusion people seem to reach was: Even if there might be no apparent reason to you why people left, they probably had one - like not understanding or liking your humor or finding you overbearing. So just because you dont see a reason, it doesnt mean that they dont have one. Putting up a buff that they can get themself by sending their Squadron out isnt "nurturing loyalty" either.

To solve your problem, I'd advice you to first ask yourself: What kind of people do you want to recruit and what can you offer them?
People wont stick around if it isnt a good overall fit, so just recruiting randoms from the street wont really work.
On the matter of "what can you offer them": It has to be more than just an FC-buff, specially if you want to create a community. Think about what kind of community you want to create and find people that fit into that, aswell as supporting it yourself. Do you want to raid and form a proper static? Focus on crafting and gathering? Roleplay with being on Mateus? If so: What kind of roleplay?

Then: Try to get to know and befriend people with the goal, of just befriending them rather than binding them to your FC - and by "getting to know people" I dont mean asking for their real name, age, gender and adress. I mean: Getting to know what they like about the game, what they enjoy, what their goals are and how they want to achieve those goals - do they want to reach them by themself? Then let them. Do they want some help? Then offer it.
Be genuie about wanting ro have those people around - and not only to boost your FC-numbers.

Stay away from any trolling or inappropriate behaviour unless you are certain that everyone can handle that and actually enjoys that kind of humor.

Ask your FC-members what they would like instead of just giving them what you think they'd like.

Organise FC-events like a map-day, a "We finish our Khloe-book"-day, Ex-primal farms...

And dont think of people leaving your FC as "disloyal" - they owe you nothing. Maybe my opinion of you is a bit clouded by some of your threads that I've been reading through, but speaking of people like this isnt helping that image. They're playing this game to have fun and if your FC wasnt creating and enviroment that supported that goal, they have every right to leave.
You need to find ways to make this game even more fun for people - but "fun" can be very different for everyone of us. Thats why you need to ask yourself "What kind of 'fun' do I want to support here?" and work on that.

[Super_Bee_Brian]

...arent you the guy who was proud of scamming people out of gil?

I also feel like you had threads like this before and the conclusion people seem to reach was: Even if there might be no apparent reason to you why people left, they probably had one - like not understanding or liking your humor or finding you overbearing. So just because you dont see a reason, it doesnt mean that they dont have one. Putting up a buff that they can get themself by sending their Squadron out isnt "nurturing loyalty" either.

To solve your problem, I'd advice you to first ask yourself: What kind of people do you want to recruit and what can you offer them?
People wont stick around if it isnt a good overall fit, so just recruiting randoms from the street wont really work.
On the matter of "what can you offer them": It has to be more than just an FC-buff, specially if you want to create a community. Think about what kind of community you want to create and find people that fit into that, aswell as supporting it yourself. Do you want to raid and form a proper static? Focus on crafting and gathering? Roleplay with being on Mateus? If so: What kind of roleplay?

Then: Try to get to know and befriend people with the goal, of just befriending them rather than binding them to your FC - and by "getting to know people" I dont mean asking for their real name, age, gender and adress. I mean: Getting to know what they like about the game, what they enjoy, what their goals are and how they want to achieve those goals - do they want to reach them by themself? Then let them. Do they want some help? Then offer it.
Be genuie about wanting ro have those people around - and not only to boost your FC-numbers.

Stay away from any trolling or inappropriate behaviour unless you are certain that everyone can handle that and actually enjoys that kind of humor.

Ask your FC-members what they would like instead of just giving them what you think they'd like.

Organise FC-events like a map-day, a "We finish our Khloe-book"-day, Ex-primal farms...

And dont think of people leaving your FC as "disloyal" - they owe you nothing. Maybe my opinion of you is a bit clouded by some of your threads that I've been reading through, but speaking of people like this isnt helping that image. They're playing this game to have fun and if your FC wasnt creating and enviroment that supported that goal, they have every right to leave.
You need to find ways to make this game even more fun for people - but "fun" can be very different for everyone of us. Thats why you need to ask yourself "What kind of 'fun' do I want to support here?" and work on that.

Just to let you know, I don't scam people. They give me their gil of their own free will. I simply have the social skills to induce them into wanting to give it to me. That takes subtlety and finesse, which I have plenty of. Yes, I'm proud of having social skills. I'm NOT scamming people. Major difference.

[SigSauer]

Just to let you know, I don't scam people. They give me their gil of their own free will. I simply have the social skills to induce them into wanting to give it to me. That takes subtlety and finesse, which I have plenty of. Yes, I'm proud of having social skills. I'm NOT scamming people. Major difference.

In short, you are a professional beggar.

[Vidu]

Just to let you know, I don't scam people. They give me their gil of their own free will. I simply have the social skills to induce them into wanting to give it to me. That takes subtlety and finesse, which I have plenty of. Yes, I'm proud of having social skills. I'm NOT scamming people. Major difference.

Its funny, because part of the reason I mentioned that is to show you what impression you leave on people and that impression is important - I'm sorry to say but from all the foren-posts I read from you (I didnt read everyone) you're coming off as quite irritating to me - and not like a person that I feel I could trust or would want as my FC-leader.
I really dont want to be rude here, but I've gotten the impression that you're really focussed on yourself and not so much on the actual needs of your fellow players and potential FC-members.
Your behaviour often came off as trolling to me aswell - or at least as close to trolling as you can get without being actually acussed of it.

You asked what you can do to break the pattern... well, in my humble opinion you need to break that "funny" behaviour and use your social skill to act like a responsible an reliable FC-leader before anything else.

I cant read the minds of the people who left your FC and I dont know how you behave within your FC and specially within your role as FC-leader - from all that I've seen from the forum, I can only tell you that I would have left, because I felt irritated, not taken serious and almost trolled.

[ChiefDork]

Just to let you know, I don't scam people. They give me their gil of their own free will. I simply have the social skills to induce them into wanting to give it to me. That takes subtlety and finesse, which I have plenty of. Yes, I'm proud of having social skills. I'm NOT scamming people. Major difference.

I think you may be misinterpreting this, as it is more likely they give gil to resume their game without being graced your presence.

[Iscah]

Just to let you know, I don't scam people. They give me their gil of their own free will. I simply have the social skills to induce them into wanting to give it to me. That takes subtlety and finesse, which I have plenty of. Yes, I'm proud of having social skills. I'm NOT scamming people. Major difference.

You keep bringing this up like you're phenomenally proud of it, and telling people this will make them recognise you for the charismatic genius you claim you are.

What it makes me think, every time, is what the heck did these exchanges look like from the other person's point of view?

Did the person feel hassled by you? Intimidated? Did you hang around telling them how everyone else thinks you're wonderful and gives you gil out of the goodness of their hearts and the power of your persuasiveness, so why won't they hand over theirs?

If so, then they are not doing it because you've convinced them through your "superior" social skills. They're doing it because they want you to leave them alone.

---

I also find it hard to believe that people will join-and-leave your FC with only the conversation you described, unless it's because they're seeing the FC is totally dead and they'd rather find one that is more alive. (Or possibly they're the sort of people that join and immediately go to see whether the FC chest is unlocked.)

But is that really all that's said between you to cause them to leave? Or is your "time spent nurturing loyalty" (as you mentioned in the next paragraph) what's actually scaring them off? Because we've discussed this before. Repeatedly.

Over and over, you post about your ailing FC and how people won't stay in it. You get replies explaining that actually your displayed personality and approach to the situation might be having the opposite effect to what you want to achieve.

And then a month later you make another post showing the exact same attitude. "I'm doing everything right, why will nobody stay? Why the disloyalty?"

So, I've said before: stop talking about people like you only care what you get out of them - whether what you want is loyalty, gil, or their continued presence so you can be proud of your large, thriving FC.

Stop assuming you have wonderful social skills and charisma.

And for goodness' sake, stop telling everyone how much people are willing to give you gil for free.

[Enla]

You keep bringing this up like you're phenomenally proud of it, and telling people this will make them recognise you for the charismatic genius you claim you are.

What it makes me think, every time, is what the heck did these exchanges look like from the other person's point of view?

Did the person feel hassled by you? Intimidated? Did you hang around telling them how everyone else thinks you're wonderful and gives you gil out of the goodness of their hearts and the power of your persuasiveness, so why won't they hand over theirs?

If so, then they are not doing it because you've convinced them through your "superior" social skills. They're doing it because they want you to leave them alone.

---

I also find it hard to believe that people will join-and-leave your FC with only the conversation you described, unless it's because they're seeing the FC is totally dead and they'd rather find one that is more alive. (Or possibly they're the sort of people that join and immediately go to see whether the FC chest is unlocked.)

But is that really all that's said between you to cause them to leave? Or is your "time spent nurturing loyalty" (as you mentioned in the next paragraph) what's actually scaring them off? Because we've discussed this before. Repeatedly.

Over and over, you post about your ailing FC and how people won't stay in it. You get replies explaining that actually your displayed personality and approach to the situation might be having the opposite effect to what you want to achieve.

And then a month later you make another post showing the exact same attitude. "I'm doing everything right, why will nobody stay? Why the disloyalty?"

So, I've said before: stop talking about people like you only care what you get out of them - whether what you want is loyalty, gil, or their continued presence so you can be proud of your large, thriving FC.

Stop assuming you have wonderful social skills and charisma.

And for goodness' sake, stop telling everyone how much people are willing to give you gil for free.

To jump off of this, I don't know how it is on Mateus but on Balmung while my FC was still active we communicated constantly with other FC's to help spread and receive word of potential scammers. It would not surprise me if OP's name and FC carry a bit of reputation that someone might not be aware of. At least not until someone sees them join it and decides to give them the low down. Scamming and being an abusive shill were the top two ways to get your name passed around in warning.

[Annoynymoose]

Just to let you know, I don't scam people. They give me their gil of their own free will. I simply have the social skills to induce them into wanting to give it to me. That takes subtlety and finesse, which I have plenty of. Yes, I'm proud of having social skills. I'm NOT scamming people. Major difference.

... This isn't something to be proud of.

Sorry but, with your questionable attitude, I wouldn't want to have anything to do with your FC nor being 100 feet nearby :I

[Gemina]

Just to let you know, I don't scam people. They give me their gil of their own free will. I simply have the social skills to induce them into wanting to give it to me. That takes subtlety and finesse, which I have plenty of. Yes, I'm proud of having social skills. I'm NOT scamming people. Major difference.

ma·nip·u·la·tion
məˌnipyəˈlāSHən/
noun
noun: manipulation; plural noun: manipulations
1.
the action of manipulating something in a skillful manner.
"the format allows fast picture manipulation"
2.
the action of manipulating someone in a clever or unscrupulous way.
"there was no deliberate manipulation of visitors' emotions"

Just thought I would point this out ;p