Tribe Gaming FC - Elitist D*cks - OR - Experienced Gamers Willing to Help?

[Sharess]

Hi there, for those of you that don't know me my name is David and I manage Tribe Gaming's FFXIV Chapter on Leviathan. I go by ingame names of Liono Dragonstar, Sharess Dragonstar, Luna Dragonstar, and Dragonmaster Dave. I have been the Chapter Leader for this chapter for the full year and 8 months of it's Tribe Gaming installment.

It's come to my/our attention that we are perceived as having a 'toxic' or 'elitist' tone to our gaming community and or our Free Company. I just wanted to take a moment to lay the cards on the table and open up to any discussion points people would like to discuss. I would like to request that people if they have issues, questions, concerns or points to make that they make them as noninflammatory as possible and to the point to keep a proactive flow of communication going. I will not be engaging in any form of verbal diarrhea or personal attacks but I will address the points/queries/comments being made by being as transparent with my replies as possible.

Synopsis
We have an application for a reason, there was drama, the drama is gone the individuals/groups, etc were removed or have left. We are rebuilding with the intent of learning from our mistakes and we want friendly, active people (Casual as well as progressive raiders) who are willing to grow with us - not just in final fantasy but in future games as well. When it comes to raiding (not required of members) in all of our chapters we provide constructive criticism and hope that people have done their homework before raid unless raid is planning to go in blind. When people express a want to raid we express that we do have a 7-8/10 attitude with progressive raiding and some people can't meet that dedication/level of play. That's in a whole what Tribe Gaming provides, a larger community of like-minded gamers to experience what FFXIV and other MMOs have together.

Why we have an application requirement to joining Tribe
I like many of you am a longtime gamer, starting MMOing with MUDS like Medieva and Knights of the Round, onto Meridian 59 and then Ultima Online when it launched, followed by every other big release to date.

Tribe was the first guild back in 1.0 that required an application of me to join, I was hesitant to say the least. I had never had to fill out an application unless I was hardcore raiding in games and those applications were pretty elitist in attitudes so I didn't relish the idea of applying to a community as a general member.

I quickly found out that Tribe's Application is not a typical guild application, they get to know you as a person behind the pixels, it was refreshing and nice to get to know my future guildies, to learn about the community before I agreed to join. In doing this Tribe tries to weed out the people (trolls and offensive people) that would not fit well with our members to help ensure that our members enjoy their time while gaming in Tribe, which leads me to my next discussion point, avoiding unnecessary drama.

How we deal with Drama in Tribe
By its nature in all Tribe Gaming chapters (and this applies to FFXIV's chapter as well) Tribe tries to have a low amount of drama. Lets face it, most of us gamers don't like having uncomfortable times gaming, we enjoy gaming with the game in question and with the people around us. Most of us don't spend time outside of life issues/work to instigate or be involved with more drama when we try and relax and game.

Drama issues are dealt with on a case by case basis and are typically handled by a discussion and a resolution formed from that discussion without any administrative or penalizing events occurring.

Has Tribe Gaming's FFXIV Chapter had it's fair share of Drama over the past year and 8 months in Eorzea? Sure we have, we've had issues like; Raid groups forming and breaking apart, Groups going unofficial and back again to official, We've put people in leadership positions based on willingness to help and current disposition with Tribe to support the chapter only to find out later that they were misguided/lost their way and began sending the wrong message to our members.

If a member is found to have drama issues that discussions can't fix then we part ways and wish them the best with other FC/LS/communities. Some members see the writing on the wall after or during our discussion and decide to leave Tribe in a 'Fireball Style' trying to cause as much damage to the community, it's members and Tribes reputation as they can, others leave knowing that they weren't happy with the way Tribe was and wanted to seek other like minded individuals.

Membership Levels and Current Tier Lack of Progression
At it's peak we had 240 active members and 10 raid groups. Out of those 10 raid groups we've always had 2 active raid groups pushing for server firsts or obtaining top 2-4 server progression.

This last tier of content we entered with only 2 groups pushing content and one of those groups had 1 member outside of Tribe so they had to claim their progression as a LS (Blame Canada) and not under the Tribe tag even though 7/8 were Tribe members. After T12 was cleared Blame Canada took a break raiding for the remainder of the content to focus on RL events and prepare for a Heavensward push.

Our remaining static (which I help manage as well) group remained raiding. Our raid group has been hit with an amazing amount of bad luck when it comes to replacing the 1-3 members continuing to game, fitting with our members, or unable to perform. Recently we're down to looking for 1 static dps member and are hopeful that we can continue to push T13. Running with 1-3 new members each week has been frustrating as you don't get that same level of synergy that is needed to push coil turns.


That is the background & in depth explanation of how we've gotten to where we are and what we are looking at for the future of Tribe Gaming in FFXIV. I encourage anyone that has misconstrued ideas of what Tribe is, has done or is doing currently to discuss with me here.

Thank You.

~David

[Maero]

I think while you guys do seem like a good group the multiple recruitment threads (and come on admit it there is a few and they get bumped frequently) and shouts in games this be the reason people are put off by you guys?
Not trying to sound like a ass just giving you a perspective that other players may feel as well, so please don't respond harshly. I do know you guys have done good stuff on Levi before
The real Elitists in my opinion on Levi have been a certain hunt ls but i will not name them here....

[Sharess]

Thanks Maero for the hit and being the first to reach out and offer something to discuss.
There are a few recruitment threads, we have a recruitment thread on this site under Leviathan Server and the Companies thread. We also have 1 recruitment post under FFXIV Realm Leviathan thread, MMORPG and Reddit. We try and do a shout every now and then for recruitment which isn't out of the ordinary I don't think as far as FCs go. What might be an issue is that we have members willing to help with recruitment so they might unknowingly over right a recruitment msg I posted 5 minutes later or something like that giving the impression of spamming or over saturation of messages.

[NorthernLadMSP]

I had specific dealings with you, and if you care to hear my opinion, here it is.

If you are looking to have new members join your guild, you need to re-evaluate the recruitment process. You force them to register for your website, you force them to fill out an application, and you force them to answer follow up questions, as if they are interviewing for a management position at a new job. Then, you leave them hanging with no communication, often for a week to two. I think when I was jumping through all of your hoops, it was a full straight week or more after I had completed all of your requirements, and never heard a word until I contacted you for another follow up.

Then, when I contacted you in game and the conversation got the slightest bit heated, you talked down to me as if I was a child being scolded by their parents. You called me high maintenance even after all of the fluff you required of me to complete just to join a new group of potential friends. Honestly, if you treat every one of the new prospects as you treated me, it really doesn't surprise me that your numbers have dwindled significantly. People want to have fun in a video game, not be bombarded with attitude, procrastination or extensive requirements.

[Sharess]

Thank you for reaching out regarding the application process Bianca. Currently we're doing a bit of a different kind of application process while we figure out what is going to work best for new members and our community alike. Currently the application process is looking like this. Interest in joining Tribe>fill out application on Tribe Website>Arrange a mumble interview to discuss membership/compatibility and same mind goals *Versus the prior approx week we had for member review, all of the time which people were encouraged to obtain an invite in the guild so they could play with us etc*>Approval.


So yes currently it is approximately a 2 step process for someone to be interested in joining Tribe. Before it was also a 2 step process but they were left with Applicant status in the guild *No official difference between applicant and member other than access to FC chest and Gardening rights* for the week from member review. Sorry if we had a "heated" disagreement before, but I agree, people want to have fun with a video game. People for the most part I find also want to progress so we try and align our interests with applicants to make sure we're all after the same or like minded things.

In regards to our numbers "Dwindling significantly" there are a few reasons this has happened as well. Our Wildstar Chapter launched and approx 40-50 members left to launch with that game, some members unsubbed directly, some left for our ESO Chapter, with WoW's expansion we also lost approximately 40 members. We did lose approximately 40 members to drama related attrition though and that's what I'm here to let people know is that the drama is gone and we are really in the business of helping and having fun ingame while also being progression minded in Raiding.

[ViciousDreamer]

Tribe used to have a process where applicants had to ask 3 people in the guild to support them. So you basically had to do stuff with people (which is fine) and then hassle them to back you (which is annoying) on top of the already long application process. The short time I was with Tribe they stole loot from me more than once. I had a friend that was in Tribe for a long time and they wouldn't let him raid with them because the leader thought his voice was annoying. He ended up raiding with me for the first time after he left Tribe and had a lot of fun and he was good at it! I've done PUG farm groups with Tribe members and have been disappointed by their lack of skill and many times we were unable to clear content that they were supposed to have on farm. I can't recall a time that I had a good exchange with Tribe members.

[Brightsayge]

I had specific dealings with you, and if you care to hear my opinion, here it is.

If you are looking to have new members join your guild, you need to re-evaluate the recruitment process. You force them to register for your website, you force them to fill out an application, and you force them to answer follow up questions, .

no one forced you to do anything. if you were interested and you didn't like the steps involved then you could have stopped at any time.



as for his attitude I don't know him to say otherwise, but you sound kind of whiney.

[NorthernLadMSP]

no one forced you to do anything. if you were interested and you didn't like the steps involved then you could have stopped at any time.



as for his attitude I don't know him to say otherwise, but you sound kind of whiney.

Knowing what I know of you and your personality, you have absolutely no room to talk about anyone else.

Thanks and have a good day.

[Kaztiel]

I actually know a member of the Tribe, and u guys helped him help me through my first few relic weapon raids. U guys have always been one of the elite gaming fcs in my book. I never applied simply because this is my first mmo and I don't have as much experience raiding or time to practice to become what I feel is you guys' level of expertise. You all have never been anything but helpful to me and my fc mates so yea... dunno who's got beef with ya, but they may just be envious? I'm sure every fc has their resident asses, and maybe that's just other players rushing to judgement based on limited exposure? U guys are aiight in my book

[Sharess]

Tribe used to have a process where applicants had to ask 3 people in the guild to support them. So you basically had to do stuff with people (which is fine) and then hassle them to back you (which is annoying) on top of the already long application process. The short time I was with Tribe they stole loot from me more than once. I had a friend that was in Tribe for a long time and they wouldn't let him raid with them because the leader thought his voice was annoying. He ended up raiding with me for the first time after he left Tribe and had a lot of fun and he was good at it! I've done PUG farm groups with Tribe members and have been disappointed by their lack of skill and many times we were unable to clear content that they were supposed to have on farm. I can't recall a time that I had a good exchange with Tribe members.

I am sorry that you had a negative experience. The application issue has been addressed. Stealing loot and not letting you raid because "his voice was annoying" I highly doubt, if it was I was never informed of it. What kind of details were there? Name of friend? Name of raid leader that wouldn't let you raid? I'd like to help you get to the bottom of it. I am very willing to address real issues but not fabricated ones and I can't help get to the bottom of things without specifics.

I actually know a member of the Tribe, and u guys helped him help me through my first few relic weapon raids. U guys have always been one of the elite gaming fcs in my book. I never applied simply because this is my first mmo and I don't have as much experience raiding or time to practice to become what I feel is you guys' level of expertise. You all have never been anything but helpful to me and my fc mates so yea... dunno who's got beef with ya, but they may just be envious? I'm sure every fc has their resident asses, and maybe that's just other players rushing to judgement based on limited exposure? U guys are aiight in my book

Thanks for that!