Road to creating my own FC. (What's your success story?)

[Oksana]

PS: Terribly sorry if this is the wrong forum to post this thread in. I checked "Companies" before coming here but that forum looked for recruitment threads rather than guidance threads. BUT, if this is in fact the wrong forum, please redirect me to the right one.

So I've been contemplating of whether or not I want to go through with this just yet, so
figured I'd look for some guidance and insight from experienced and successful leaders before moving forward.
I once helped create an FC from scratch but as a member, then voted leader. Membership was my "specialty" while I also did the other instructed officer duties. I REALLY enjoyed it and got along with everyone, but eventually left said server. I've also once witnessed how an FC can crash and burn. (They had about 115 members and went down to 30 within a week.) Now I've never once been a leader, co-leader or had "higher" responsibility in an FC but I'd like to give it a shot now!

[Oksana]

I'm curious to know on what are the essentials to start an FC & have it turn into a 'success'? I know you need 5(4?) members in party before you can create it, but what comes AFTER that? How does one go about maintaining members if you don't have a house? (my server has no plots available atm & I don't own a personal house) What makes an FC die out? (I've seen ONE scenario happen, so I'd like to know what other possibilities could cause this and how to prevent?)

[Jynx]

I run a rather casual FC on Cactuar, We run anywhere between 10-30 active members depending on time of day and whatnot.



Being a company leader is only as stressfull or important as you want to make it on yourself. My companies main goal is to find other people to play and chat with, I'm not into raid progression but don't mind dabbling if it's with like minded people, so on and so forth. I cast a wide net for casual and hardcore players alike as I find community is more important to a company than a specific gameplay focus.

Be yourself and it will speak leaps and bounds about your company, the way you and your members interact with the game and other members of the comunity will have a big impact on if you can attain or even retain members. Owning a "Large" company isn't something that you aim for, the people will come with time and filling a company with bodies is never a good thing people are often scared when they see that a FC has 100 members and that like 4 of them are ever online.

Once you have a decent number of members you can always do things to keep people engaged like run community events, contests, craft/gather events for company projects or helping members through their crafts and whatnot. These things should come and happen naturally rather than be forced. That's how I run my FC I keep myself as available for my members as possible and strive to be able to provide them with whatever they need.

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What makes a FC Die out?

There are some very simple and logical reasons this happens.

• Members leave or go on break - This happens nothing you can do about it.
• Members leave for other companies and take others with them - If someone leaves your company and several members leave along them and you don't know why, that's your problem.
• Members leave due to infighting with other members - This ones touph but it's part of being a FC leader, I've had to cut a few members from my company because they refused to have basic respect for other members when asked to do so.

There are many others but these are basic issues you will run into with a FC, now I suggest start small before expanding so you have a solid member base to rely on with assisting with new members and whatnot.

[Oksana]

Thank you very much for your reply, I truly appreciate it.

The FC I am picturing is not one that has 200+ members. I've been apart of A LOT of FC's (Large and small) and always feel like I am not fitting in, despite my best efforts. Hence why I would like to start my own FC.

On the FC that I watched fail, I took mental notes on what not to do and what should be done in order to keep members. But I find myself hesitant to start because when me and my friends built our FC from scratch, a lot of our members left due to feeling there was no light at the end of the tunnel, even though our prime objective was to obtain a house. But once we were able to achieve that goal, majority of them came back. (we were an RP base guild)

I guess one of my fears is not succeeding if I don't have that house to provide for members. What is your input on that?

PS: I have a 1,000 word cap, so my replies have to be short. :<

[TheCurls]

It depends on what you want from a FC. I've been in big FCs and small FCs. Ultimately, I left those for various reasons. I began my own FC with just a few friends (there are now 6 people in my FC). We're all pretty easy going and have the same goals. Heck, we've even got every person in the FC with full admin rights to build, garden, airship, company chest, etc...just because there's so few of us and we're good people.

[RyuRoots]

A friend and I run an FC with 8 members. We have housing, an airship, and are Rank 8 and nearly max rank with the Immortal Flames and we didn't start it until about a month before Heavensward was released. You only need 3 people to start one, also. Only good friends are here, and we may expand membership if more friends become interested, but there are no driveby invites, no advertisements, that sort of thing. Everyone is really happy with it so far, and we've managed to do a lot. I WAS in a big FC a few times prior, and I hated how it just felt like I was in some crowd and I only really even talked to a small handful in them. The small FC is definitely better, and it's not like it limits your options that much. I know you said housing isn't an option, and that sucks. We kinda lucked out in my friend and her husband already securing one. Tho I'm pretty sure we'd all stick around without one because we're friends anyway. Not sure there's much to advise on beyond try to get people who like playing with each other and not just randoms to fill out the roster.

[Oksana]

@RyuRoots - I'm really glad it worked out for you! That's basically my dream FC. Having a house and it being runned by good friends. TBH, I have a good majority of friends online ATM (10 year known friends) and I have asked them if they like to help me but all have declined because they like being in their respected FC. Which is fine but makes this a little harder.

I'm having some ideas of posting a message on PF looking for officers to start. I don't plan on harassing people to join, I know how annoying that can get, so I do have my own personal approach when it comes to getting members.

But thanks everyone for all of your experiences/input so far, this is really helping.

[Galactimus]

The most important thing about being an FC leader is being an extremely active player. You have to be online everyday; especially during prime time. If someone always sees you offline they are going to leave. If a problem arises that you can't immediately respond to, they are going to leave. If you aren't activating buffs, changing ranks, and updating the roster consistently, they are going to leave.


Your ability to recruit players is also important. Brand new players are where new FC's should start. The way you should advertise is tricky; and /shouting in every zone is not the way to go. First impressions are important so it's better to be personal rather than shout-spamming obnoxious paragraph(s) that are cut & paste. Run a /search for all level 1-20 players without FC tags. Send them a /tell, apologize for bothering them, and ask them if they'd be interested in joining an FC that offers advice, dungeon help, free crafting, exp buffs, etc. The name of your FC will also be a factor when people decide to join or not. Not everyone will want a [BUTTS] tag next to their name either.


I recommend getting 60-80 people in this manner. Quantity is important for a brand new FC as its the only way to find Quality players. The majority of these players you invite will leave or stop playing after the first week; and there's nothing you can do about that. However, you'll usually end up with 15 to 20 solid members who log in everyday. This will give you a nice little steamroll effect where more and more people will enjoy staying as the FC becomes more active with familiar faces.

[Obysuca]

What makes an FC die out? (I've seen ONE scenario happen, so I'd like to know what other possibilities could cause this and how to prevent?)

Well, I started up a FC on 2.0 release. We had about 100 total members with maybe 40 or so on at a time. A little before 2.1 came out and shortly after, members started dropping like flies (not just my FC either, a majority of them), because they realized there wasn't much to do at cap. So me and a few friends stuck around, to see if maybe it'd get better. It didn't (3.0 is 2.0 all over again)
So slowly, my FC and most of the other FCs on my server were dropping down to about 5-10 people on total, sometimes if that. We tried to get new members, but most would join, never say a word, then either leave or quit the game entirely, usually anywhere from an hour of joining to a week. After a while we ended up with only maybe 15 members and like 5-6 on at a time. I had to take a break from XIV due to reasons for about a month and a good friend of 7 years convinced me to lend her FC leadership while I was gone, incase it was needed. Well, I get back and 2 other members had convinced her not to give it back, resulting in a huge argument and over half of the FC leaving with me to make a new FC. That now ex-friend and the two people who convinced her to do that, took all the gil and items, went to a new FC, bought them a medium house, somehow got leader of that FC a few months later, stayed there, left it, it died, they joined another new one this week.

Anyways, a year later now, my FC has dropped down to about 2-4 people online at a time, like most FC on Midgard, no one's hit over 10 members on at one point. Even the big 200+ member fcs have died down to about ~10 online at one point, with a total of maybe 30 people in the FC

Tl;dr - I think the reason for a lot of FCs dying is that XIV gives no reason to be social, so most people get on, never say a word, don't make bonds with people, then just quit.