How to build a good FC (looking for tips)

[Zarabeth]

I've run an FC now for over 4 years. Making the FC is easy and keeping it going is also fairly easy. The trick to it is to be picky about who you invite. If you think someone is a good fit then invite them. One way I do this is by having a linkshell that I invite people to first. Then get to know them a bit before inviting to the FC. Obviously you will hit it off with some people instantly and that's fine.

Just make sure to have different ranks with different levels of privilege. Keep the housing furniture privileges for those you trust. Same with promote/demote and chest access. in my FC everyone has chest access to all but the gil. But my fc is for helping people get started so they are welcome to anything in there. You may not wish to have the same rules.

In the four years I have had this FC we have only had one person who ended up not fitting in at all. If this happens to you, don't wait, politely tell them they are not a good fit and ask them to leave. If they don't, kick them. You will be saving yourself a lot of hassle. I made the mistake of letting this person stay and even allowing them back in to the FC after they had gotten upset and flounced. HUGE MISTAKE. One month and a lot of drama later. they were gone and told never to return and now things are back to normal and everyone is happy again.

People are right about putting time in to the FC. If you really want it to last you have to put time and effort into it.

Good luck with your new FC and I hope it works well for you!

[Voltron_HD]

You need a good base to start, see if you can interest friends. If you recruit do not blind invite and do it when you have a few players on so a new person does not assume "its dead"

This is the single biggest thing that will help the FC grow. I had all the other things when I made my FC, except this one. My fc was 3 people and it made the FC seem "dead" as apposed to young. As a result we got maybe 8 players that quickly turned tail because of this assumption. The FC went belly up and I left the carcass (and all the Gil I sunk into it) to rot. Ive since joined another FC, but I regret mine was doomed.

[Vivi_Bushido]

Here is my advice, and use which ever part is most helpful for you. I'm going to break it up into sections to organize as much information as possible.



Section 1) Recruitment:

A) New recruits and trust:
For many people, recruiting is the most difficult task. Personally, I find recruiting to be quite easy. Preventing your newly recruited members from leaving is the true struggle. You need to make sure your members are happy but NEVER cater and bend over backwards to anyone. Never give into demands solely for the sake of increasing your numbers. For example; if someone asks you about gardens or airships before joining, chances are they're only using you to have access to those features; and might be seeking to control those areas of your company. Be very careful of this! Letting members have access to these things is okay, but if that's what makes or breaks them from joining in the first place, you probably don't want them at all. It's okay to have good faith in people, but be very VERY careful about the motives of new recruits. Don't trust everyone!

This however does not imply to never trust them. New recruits should always under go some kind of one week trial before getting promoted and granted permissions. New recruits should not have be able to see what's inside of your company chest at any given time, ESPECIALLY GIL. Chest thieves are a very real and scary thing and Square Enix will do absolutely nothing about this if you are stolen from. Remember, at the end of the day, they're still a complete stranger and trust has to be earned.

B) Recruiting members:
Recruiting members into your company is rather quite easy, all it takes is confidence and patience! All forms of recruitment are fair methods but never do anything that the public might find irritating or annoying. This will quickly give you a bad reputation for being a nuisance. Here's my dos and don'ts list for recruiting methods.




Don'ts:
-Do not blind invite. What is a blind invite? A blind invite is randomly sending a person without a tag a free company invite. People hate this. This is the fastest way to recruit untrustworthy strangers into your company and just outright irritates everyone else. You'll find more players will overall blacklist you for this than accept your company offer.

-Do not spam shout chat. To a degree, this is almost just as bad. While it's okay to shout once in awhile, do not make a habit of this. Do this to much and you are no better off than a gil bot spamming their advertisements to folks; and thus you will find yourself blacklisted.

-Do not lie. Do not lie about things your FC does not actually have. Do not make false promises to players. Do not make promises you do not believe you can keep.

-Do not change your companies focus. If you're recruiting for a casual, midcore, hardcore, or roleplay FC, it is never a good idea to change your companies focus when recruiting. You should always keep the focus consistent as soon as you begin the advertisement process. This is a good way to lose those you recruited as they will start to feel they joined a company they did not sign up for.

-Do not force recruits to sign up for websites or discords as a requirement. Social media is a great way to bond and stay in touch outside of the game but not everyone has access to these. Never force someone to join them. You're likely to make them uncomfortable and scare them off.

-Do not do recruitment drives with prizes. Enticing your members to do a mass recruitment drive with a prize reward for most recruits will easily open all the doors for the previous things suggested.


Dos:
-Do use the party finder to recruit. Using the party finder is possibly the least spamful way to recruit. Do not be afraid or ashamed to use the party finder to recruit. A lot of people would much rather you use the party finder to recruit than shout in chat. Just make sure you're recruiting on your server and not across worlds!

-Do ask players without a tag if they would be interested in joining your company. It is perfectly acceptable to send a private message to someone if they would be interested in joining. To further increase the chances of getting them to say yes, you should try to build a friendly conversation with them and talk about them or the game before asking. If they say no thanks but the conversation still went very well, you may have just made a new friend instead!

-Do ask your friends, family, and teammates if they know anyone looking for a company that fits your focus.

-Do try to ask and be extremely helpful with new players. New players can be some of your most loyal members since you might be the first friend they met!

-Do take care of your FC's reputation! This matters a lot and everyone wants to feel proud about the company they selected to be apart of!



Section 2) Ranks:

A) Rank Icons and organization.
Ranks are very important in the growth of an FC. The first thing to do is to recognize the special properties of a rank. As a previous poster had mentioned, this rank here:



The one with this icon, SHOULD ALWAYS BE THE NEW MEMBER RANK. The game recognizes this as the new player rank and will always assign new recruit to this Icon. In my opinion, this should be your lowest ranking rank besides either a rank for alt characters or an MIA rank. (Missing in action)

The second most important rank is the leader and the blue shield. The leader rank can never be demoted or kicked unless they willingly give the rank to another player. Once they give it up, they can't reclaim it unless promoted back. Only one person can have this rank at any given time. The blue shield rank should be your officers. This icon is bright and pretty, and it stands out. Making it easy for members to tell who the FC moderators are if they need to get in contact with someone.

Once you have all your ranks made, properly organize them. Make sure your leader ranks are the highest on the chart and the recruit ranks the lowest on the chart with the filler ranks in between. Everyone likes a nice clean ranking chart. Make sure your rank names make sense! Inconsistency between rank names will leave your new members confused and might not take your FC's hierarchy very seriously. Do not give players their own "joke" ranks. This makes your roster look clunky and like a mess. Have a clear understanding of how members should earn promotions and do not give every promotion out solely based off of how long someone has been within the company or just because they talk more than others. Make sure ranks are fairly earned and deserving! Take your ranks very seriously!

B) Assigning permissions:
Always double check and make sure your permissions are exactly how you want them to be. Do not allow your officers the ability to adjust ranks as they might make changes without your consent! This also gives them the power to assign permissions to themselves that they otherwise did not have! Becareful with who has the ability to promote as well! Someone could promote themselves to a rank with the ability to adjust permissions and do all kinds of damage to your company! Make sure that only the leader has access to promotions and rank adjustments! While you are at it, make sure nobody else has permissions to destroy your company house or your company workshop! Seriously, why does anyone even need the rights to those? They don't!




Section 3) Ranking up your Free Company

A) Free Company Credits
Your free company ranks up based off of how many total free company credits it has acquired. It takes roughly 200,000 total credits to reach Rank 8. But the road to rank 8 can be a struggle for some new companies. There are some tricks to speed this up. First thing to note is that basically everything in this game adds company credits but all with different values. FATEs have some of the highest point yielding values. Go figure. But crafting and grand company turn ins are also great. Always trade gear into your grand company. Only High Quality crafts will earn any company credits. However you can speed up the process by crafting HQ turn ins. This way you earn points for your craft and the turn in! You can also double and even triple your points per turn in! It's easy too! As stupid as this sounds, this is the God's honest truth. If you are the only player online when you trade in your items, you will earn triple the company credits per trade in! If there is two players online, you will earn double instead. If there is 3 or more players online you will earn the basic value of points. Everything you do when you are the only player online will yield triple the points. Use this to your advantage!



Section 4) Handling troublesome members and complaints:

A) Drama:
First thing everyone needs to realize is that there is no such thing as 'Drama Free". Reality just won't allow it. Everyone and everywhere will have it's own fair share of drama. Your job as a leader is to reduce the drama as much as possible when it comes around. Because it will! Becareful with the number of chances you give a player. If you have to keep a 3 strike rule on a sheet by your computer, do so. There're plenty of people that aren't worth the trouble. This does not mean to give up on somebody the first time there is an issue. Never neglect a member of an issue. If they feel they have to bring it up to an FC leader, take care of it right then and there; and do not shrug it off. If they bring it to your attention that means it's already an issue and you need to fix it. Keep a closeful eye on the company chat conversations as well. If you see something getting heated, step in the middle and tell people to take it tells. Do not let them duke it out in public chat. Take them into a party and solve the problem and make them aware that is not cool to get that way in the FC chat. If someone leaves because you gave them a warning, don't chase after them. Let them come back to talk when they have cooled off. Remember, use your best judgment.

B) Foreshadowing problem people from joining:
As I read this forum, I have noticed some posts say to avoid cliques and couples. To elaborate more on why they say this; this is more that players that join in groups generally stick to that group like glue. This is not everyone but most times they do not socialize outside the circle they came inside with. However the ones that do make great additions to your company! Your FC activity sky rockets off of them! However it can come with a price. If one person in the group leaves, it's a likable chance that the rest will follow after. Resulting in multiple people leaving at once. This makes it look like your FC had a falling out to new recruits that join when they see the FC activity and then they begin to question if they made the right choice. Remember, these things affect your FC's reputation. As for couples, some people feel that they will bring their drama into the company if they should have a couples argument and break up. Generally with one of them rage leaving. While these're all risks, they aren't intentional; and you should never deny a clique or couple entry into your company over some fears you may have.



Conclusion:
This is my advices for you running an FC. Good luck and I hope this was helpful! Tried to give as much helpful advice as I could think of.

[Kerii]

Since we're sharing failure stories...

Sometime ago I tried to start a free company with my girlfriend. I gave her a "Co-Leader" position of authority and recruited an officer or two who presented themselves as having experience from other games. At first things went well. Myself and one of the officers took shots at external recruiting, and my girlfriend tried to recruit people in game. I also expressed an interest in my girlfriend providing basic crafting services (ARR leveling gear) to members who were new players for free. I had hoped it would serve as a way for her to bond with them since XIV is her first MMO. A bit more time passed and I noticed that the small flow of gil we had been receiving, that wasn't my own input, suddenly dried up. When I asked, several members stated that they weren't comfortable giving money any more because they didn't like how my girlfriend was using it.

This spurred me to dig into the situation further. I discovered that she had started making backdoor deals with members requesting "extra" crafting services and was pocketing large sums of gil in the exchange. When I called her and the worst offender out on it they claimed that they wouldn't do it anymore. Privately, I asked her to at least put the money in the company chest. A few weeks later, when I thought things had calmed down, our main officer suddenly abandoned the FC wholesale. From what I gathered he ditched us for a more raid focused FC who was trying to poach our members, only to quit that one a week in.

As I investigated the fallout from these two situations, I came to realize that the shifty officer and my girlfriend had all but sabotaged the good will I had worked for two months to build with my members. Some had been given conflicting stories, some found themselves in entangling alliances, and some were just let down that the FC wasn't working out as intended.

In the end I found myself in a bad situation. I would either have to kick my girlfriend from the FC for misconduct like I would any other member, or find a way to deal with her melodrama without involving the other members. After calling a meeting and discussing it with all but one of the remaining members, I came to the conclusion that the best way to solve the problem was to let my girlfriend see exactly what her handiwork would produce. I turned the master rank over to her and left the company. Over the following weeks every single member of the company messaged me to inform me that I had been right. The FC was a husk, she never even spoke to them, and that they were each leaving for better groups. A few joined the FC that had been poaching our members, some simply quit the game for good, and some broke ties with us entirely after that.

The moral of the story here is that there is only one guild master. Whether you want someone you trust to help you, or want something more like a democracy, the guild master always has the final say. Members who don't agree with you will leave, and those who can acknowledge that fact will stay. Not only that, but as many of these stories remind us, always vet your officers and trusted members. If I had been more diligent about that flakey officer I could have prevented a lot of that situation from happening.

As for my personal advice...

Quantity doesn't equal quality. A 512 member FC where only 5 people log in isn't appealing to most players. In the same vein, a small FC that feels like a clique who excludes new members entirely is just as bad. You'll have to strike a balance for yourself as leader to have the kind of group you want.

A guild is a reflection of their guild master. If you are friendly, active, helpful, and welcoming then your members will be too. If you're only in the FC for irrelevant bonuses and superficial reasons then they will be too. Establish your goals and rules early. Set up a simple website you can direct new members to. Make sure the information provided there is correct and that they can see your activities. Be willing to spread a wide net when looking for members and embrace the ideas your veteran members have. There's nothing wrong with trying and failing, but the same can't be said for people who only give their attempts a partial effort.

[Rokke]

not so much a guideline but a general tip:
Run content with your fc! Be sure its not just your usual fc friends every time too, try to invite the shy/new folks along. Silly little things like glamour or mount farms can be fun icebreakers and are an easy way to make people feel included.

[KaivaC]

Thank you all for your suggestions and advice. Looks like I have plenty of work to do, but I will definitely be using all the great help that you guys have given me.

Again, thank you to everyone here. Wish me luck

[Reykr]

not so much a guideline but a general tip:
Run content with your fc! Be sure its not just your usual fc friends every time too, try to invite the shy/new folks along. Silly little things like glamour or mount farms can be fun icebreakers and are an easy way to make people feel included.

This is vital, been in a few Guilds in other games and being ignored doesn't make for a fun experience.

[Elsebet]

As one half of a married couple that plays together I do understand and empathize with the "No couples" advice. In my husband I have a built-in friend and we almost always play complimentary roles so we can fill out a team easily. I feel hesitant to join groups if my husband can't go as well, so it can be hard to just get to know one of us since we're usually joined at the hip in that regard.

There are some aspects where couples/groups can cause drama. For example if you have a static group and one member of the couple is doing poorly, it might cause an issue to sit/replace one member of the couple. Loot can be a problem too for the same reason. A malicious duo could try to manipulate things in their interest due to them being a group. This isn't limited to couples, a clique could have the same effect.

I would say you need to set clear guidelines, then vet and monitor couples/groups in your FC but don't rule them out entirely, you might miss some really valuable additions.

[Anienai]

There are some aspects where couples/groups can cause drama. For example if you have a static group and one member of the couple is doing poorly, it might cause an issue to sit/replace one member of the couple. Loot can be a problem too for the same reason. A malicious duo could try to manipulate things in their interest due to them being a group. This isn't limited to couples, a clique could have the same effect.

Pretty much sums it up.