Free Company Recruiting tactics, what do you prefer when being recruited?

[MOZZYSTAR]

Most of the time, FCs have a decent grasp of what works when it comes to recruiting, but every so often we get the group who doesn't. xD Out of curiosity, how do you prefer being recruited were you ever in the position to be recruited?



Recruited via /tell


Recruited via /shout


Recruited via FC Invite feature without communication


Advertisement or something on Youtube or other platform


Stumbling across FC that you like and apply yourself


Other

[SturmChurro]

If I am on my main, I didn't join anything. Nor do I respond to the paragraphs of copy and paste, "welcome!". I am in an FC and so is my alt. My mains FC is just people I have known for a very long time, well actually I only know the leader, the other people are his friends. It's even some dumb name from some anime game. Might as well not be in an FC. Before I moved to Excalibur, when I was alone on Hyperion, I just wen't guildless, not interest in FC's in this game. Utterly worthless, I guess some of the buffs are kind of okay? At least in ESO, we had a guild trader and gigantic instanced housing, but they also made me pay a fee to be in the guild, and I would have to make a certain amount of sales a week.

On my alt it's different, I only log into it like. I only log into it and actually play maybe, hmm maybe every 100 something days? I just join whatever doesn't sound ridiculous in the spam invite. If I get kicked for inactivity whatever, if I don't whatever. I don't interact with them at all. Most random invite guilds like that are largely dead anyway.

What tactics do I prefer? Personally, if I am actually taking it seriously, I don't like being recruited at all. I'd rather join up with someone I have known or played with for awhile, in other games and or this game.

[Rasikko]

Sending me a tell is almost a sure way to get me to join, as it happens so very rarely. I imagine a lot of people are like that.

Shout-based recruiting are standard and have existed since FFXI, so I'm fairly open to this method.

Random freaking invites with not a single word from the person = instant ignore.

That said I prefer the first 2, and I joined my current FC from the second.

[Sebazy]

If I want to join your FC, I’ll approach you. This is how I found my feet in FFXIV’s beta after doing a few dungeons with some fun people. I never have and never will accept or even consider a blind invite from an FC that has no idea who I am or what I’m like. That’s just not a good way to cultivate a good environment. It shouldn’t be about padding out the numbers.

[Tlamila]

Recruited via /tell and Recruited via FC Invite feature without communication I consider spam worse than gold sellers and get an immediate blacklisting from me. And you're basically forced to join an FC because when you have none you get that kind of spam every few minutes if you're in town. Horrible. Also, to do that an FC has to be very bad to be so desperate for members.

Recruitment via shout is cool, it lets everybody know they're recruiting without being invasive.
On other platforms too, I especially like those who make the effort to make a topic on the forums to recruit, writing all the details and everything. That's actually how I chose my current one. Any form of other advertisement outside of game too is cool.
Of course making friends in game and joining their FC is also very common and positive, although in the end you may like those persons but not the FC itself.

[MOZZYSTAR]

Sending me a tell is almost a sure way to get me to join, as it happens so very rarely. I imagine a lot of people are like that.

Shout-based recruiting are standard and have existed since FFXI, so I'm fairly open to this method.

Random freaking invites with not a single word from the person = instant ignore.

That said I prefer the first 2, and I joined my current FC from the second.

Yeah, I'm the same way kind of. I definitely prefer a /tell invite over a /shout, but I HATE random FC invites. I had one group invite me every single day - no word or anything - just a random invite. Finally sent them a /tell to stop and then blocked... only for their second in command to invite me in the leader's stead. :'D Those types of invites are the worst.

Sometimes, if I'm actively looking for an FC I'll do a reverse /shout by shouting that I want a certain type of FC to join. I've had a few shout backs and then I usually picked among the ones that shouted back or I ended up not joining if none of them "felt" right. xD

[monk-dps]

Talk to me, ask me questions. Lets have a convo and be people. I have adblock for a reason.

[goob]

"Stumbling across FC that you like and apply yourself"

Even if someone contacts me and is super nice, I still won't join just because they contacted me. I was in one and only one linkshell in FFXI. It was a great fit and I had spent probably a few months looking for one that I'd enjoy. The wait was worth it. When I came to FFXIV I spent months looking for a FC I'd enjoy and found one that was a good fit but then RL took over a few years ago and I was booted for inactivity (understandable). I changed data centers and will probably be FC-less for a while as I look around.

I don't get why people send out invites without contacting anyone. I understand people might be desperate to grow their FC, but showing desperation isn't the way to get people who WANT to be in your FC.

There seem to be few FCs that focus on one thing or another. Ads are often cookie-cutter ads. "Our FC looking to expand. Whether you're a casual player or someone who does hardcore raiding, our FC is perfect for you. We have a large rank 8 house, crafters who will make you whatever you want, people who do all of the end-game raids, people who will help you with content, and an active discord. Join today!" You could almost take a random FC ad and replace the name and reuse it for most FCs that advertise. A unique ad will probably get more attention just because it's different. When you see the same ads day after day they kind of just blend into the background.

[Bonbori]

Stumbling across FC that you like and apply yourself

This is the only one I find acceptable. I personally avoid any FC that don't have a well-defined focus (Raiding - on what schedule, which roles are currently needed, how is the roster rotation handled for the purpose of weekly clears and loot? RP - what genre, what schedule, how is it organised, what themes and topics are explored? Other forms of content - what kinds, what schedule, how is it organised?) a clear-cut target demographic (timezone/availability, areas of interest) and an application process that allow the leadership to judge whether a prospective applicant fits in or not.

In my experience, when a guild in an MMO advertises itself as "casual, friendly, social, open to everyone, many active members" and bothers random people with out-of-context whispers, it is invariably a ghost town where even with 50 people online at any given time, nobody ever interacts or plays together, nor do they have any incentive to because their interests, personalities and schedules are all over the place. If the FC isn't dedicated to anything, its members won't be dedicated to it.

And on top of that, one always has to consider whether an FC that doesn't care who it lets in even treats its members like members rather than bots passively generating company credit income. Usually, the answer is no - access to convenience features like buffs and the bank is often either mishandled or restricted to a small clique/one person who uses it for expanded personal storage. At that point, non-clique members who are there only to farm company credits they don't even benefit from would be better off staying FCless.

"Recruitment", in my mind, should be a filtering process that eliminates poor fits and ensures that the roster maintains a desired quality, compatibility and cohesion, not something that only serves to inflate the roster size. Once an FC has enough members to function for whatever purpose it was created, the number of members should be its lowest priority.

[MistakeNot]

FCs that advertise (via /shout, or on forums, or on youtube, or wherever) and then let people apply in their own good time is my preference.
Of course, any /shout adverts should not be done so often it becomes spamming.

Blind /invites will always have me declining them - I am of the firm opinion that no good FC will send out blind invites, and those who do must therefore not be any good.

I am not a fan of invites through /tells but they are not so bad as long as people are willing to accept a no, and don't try to invite you multiple times per day.