MyGameMug.com: Filtering out the asshats

Perhaps you've tried your hand at guild recruiting before, but things didn't exactly turn out as expected. You've found what you believed was the perfect tank, but he developed into a nightmare guildie. He had all the skills, all the experience, but who knew his emotional state would have the stability of a Twitter server.

This is where WoW Headhunter comes in. WoW Headhunter works in the realm of guild recruitment, making it easier for guild leaders to find qualified candidates based not only on skill and credential but also on personality. This works both ways, for guild leaders seeking the perfect members, and for players seeking the perfect guild fit. Not sure how something like that could happen? Keep reading after the cut below for more info and exclusive guild leader interviews explaining the service.

At GDC this year, I bumped into Darren Allarde, the Director of Community Relations for mygamemug.com, the host site for WoW Headhunter. We briefly discussed his site and the potential it has to become a more refined version of other guild-seeker websites that exist currently. Their main selling point is the customizable personality tests that filter other players according to your unique requirements. WoW Headhunter is the site's first game-specific incantation of the service, with more for other games in the works. Check out Darren's interviews below with two top WoW guild leaders and also be sure to check out an extensive demonstration video of WoW Headhunter over at Gamespot.

Interview with Matticus

Matticus is an Alliance raiding Discipline and Holy Priest. He's the leader of a progression-oriented guild. World of Matticus is his healing and guild leadership blog. In addition to that, he contributes to Massively's sister site WoW Insider.

What are the top 3 things that you as a guild leaders look for in order to recruit the best candidates for your guild?

Attendance - Are the people we are recruiting going to be able to make the majority of the raids? While it'd be awesome to pickup a really good player, if he or she can only do 1 or 2 raids per month, they're kind of useless to me and the rest of the guild since they're never actually there.

Knowledge - Often times, knowledge translates to in-game skill. I need to know how you play your role with your given class and spec, things like, when do you end up using your spells and if you use them in the most opportune times.

Personality and Attitude - WoW has a lot of challenges. We're going to try and accomplish big things and that'll lead to wiping over and over again. We need candidates that are going to tough it out and make their sacrifices. They have to have the right attitude and personality to want to get better and to help their guild out. They need to be able to stick with it even when times are bad.

How they react to losses is just as important to me as how they react to wins.

What is your recommendation with what candidates should put in their application when applying to your guild?

I care to see well-thought-out responses that are honest. I want to know why you want to join our guild out of the billion of other guilds out there.

Things I don't want to hear are:

"Uh, I want a free ride to get gear for my character because I want to look good in the game."

A good answer is an honest answer that's relatively in-line with what we are trying to accomplish.

A recent applicant responded to a similar question with, "I am looking for a progression oriented guild that is willing to push its individual members to perform to their best of capabilities that this game has to offer. I would also like to experience end-game content since I have never experienced it before."

I really liked their answer because it shows specifics to the type of guild he is trying to join, how he can contribute to the guild, what he wants out of the guild and most of all, he was honest in his application by telling me he's never experienced end-game content before.

Does personality really play a role in guild recruitment?

Personality is extremely important since you're playing with other people. You're playing an MMO and in a guild, cooperation is a must. It's absolutely necessary to play with people that you get a long with because if a person doesn't fit your guild chemistry, they become detrimental to the guild.

How can WoW Headhunter help you find the best possible candidate for your guild?

Our guild has been heavily involved in the testing of WoW Headhunter. We're very excited about the idea of a centralized location to go to for guild recruitment.

I'm especially interested in the fact that they've built a system that makes a realistic attempt at identifying the personality and attitude of candidates. It's a great filter for us.

It's really a centralized location you can go to join and recruit for guilds - kind of like a hub for guild recruitment. It's really becoming the source to recruit and join other guilds. It's great because it automates certain types of information and manages your application process carefully. You know what a guild is looking for and you'll also know what a player is looking for in a guild. WoW Headhunter really speeds up the process recruitment process a lot.

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Interview with Kree

Winston G. Limauge is the GM of No Vacancy on the Drenden server. He also runs the WoW Twitter guild aptly named Twitteratti on The Scryers server.

Winston is the writer of Kree's Blog, a site which talks about his experiences as a Guild Leader. He has been featured on WoW Insider as well as other WoW related blogs. He can also be found as an active member of the WoW Twitter community.

What are the top 3 things that you as a guild leaders look for in order to recruit the best candidates for your guild?

For us, the three things we look for are:

Experience: I look specifically at what they've done and what they've accomplished in the game. Since our guild is well versed and experience, we aren't recruiting anyone who hasn't experienced end-game content before. So we really look at what they've achieved in the game so far and how they've gone through some of the end-game content.

Our first question is, "What is your overall raid-experience?" In some cases, it's also fine if you haven't completed all end-game content, we care more about if you experienced it. We can then gauge where they are in relation to the rest of the guild - It lets me figure out how much to the guild will need to teach them and if that is worth our time.

Readiness: I want to know whether they're prepared or not? Just showing-up to the raid isn't good enough. If you show up late, you don't know the content, you didn't equip the right gear or have the right items - All of this really leaves a bad impression.

Dedication: Here's the thing, we want to know about the candidate: How dedicated can they be to the guild? If things go bad one week, will they stick around? Are they willing to put in the hours and the resources to wipe and wipe?

In order to really figure this out we really delve into their info: Firstly, I talk to them to find out what their experiences are and then I look them up on the armory to analyze their gear and experience. Since the armory has the achievement system it's really helpful to research and find out about a specific candidate.

In some ways, dedication is something I still struggle with in identifying early on with our candidates. I'm still trying to figure out creative ways to phrase this question in order to determine whether or not they have the dedication in their personality to commit to the guild. It's just difficult to identify. The challenge is to phrase the question in a way so that people don't feel so inclined to answer the question biased. People that are applying to a guild are typically going to answer in a way that they think I want the question to be answered. Applications are like a resume for a job. You are going to reply in the way that you feel the employer wants so you can get the job, not necessarily how you really feel.

One of the questions we ask is, "How do you support a guild?"

Answers like, "Give money to the guild bank" or "Help out in a raid" are safe boring answers that aren't going to catch my attention.

That doesn't necessarily mean I'm looking for a full-blown essay response. Here's an example of a person who I felt answered the question well in 1 sentence. His answer, "You support a guild by showing-up and raiding. And the guild supports you by allowing you to raid, and to give you a raid spot." Slightly safe, but honest.

Another question I ask is, "How does a guild support you?"

Bad answer, "By letting me loot."

Good answer, "By being fair and respectable and having a loot system that gives everyone a fair shot at getting loot. By having a GM who is knowledgeable about fights and helps members understand new fights completely.

I want people to answer honestly and truthfully. To really capture how dedicated they are to a guild - the personality of the candidate. It's really something that WoW Headhunter can help me identify.

What is your recommendation with what candidates should put in their application when applying to your guild?

Originality. The application has to stand out, just like a resume. If it's too-safe or boring, it's difficult to stand out from everyone else. Let your personality out in the application.

Also, read the question completely! I asked a question about how people plan on utilizing dual spec and one of the responses I received was, "Maybe". This doesn't even make any sense! It shows that the person didn't really read through the application.

Does personality really play a role in guild recruitment?

Totally. We had an applicant the other day that applied: Great application, has the experience, has the gear, but we had hesitation to even respond back to them because it was obvious that they wouldn't match with our guild personality.

At the end of it all, WoW is a game: Yes we take raiding seriously, yes I get upset at people for doing stupid things and messing up in raids, but the real end-goal is to have fun. If anyone is taking anything too seriously, it just won't work out with our guild.

Conversely, if people don't take things seriously enough when it comes to raiding then they also won't work. It's finding the right balance of people who are having fun but are willing to concentrate and put in the effort to get the job done that is the challenge.

How can WoW Headhunter help you find the best possible candidate for your guild?

Well, we've been involved in the WoW Headhunter project since private beta.

It gives us the ability to filter out, people who are more inclined to "stick with it". Really tackling the issue I mentioned above which is to help determine their dedication level for a guild. It's really important for us to filter the bad candidates out, those that would be more inclined to jump ship.

We can really tell who wants to be there and who doesn't and WoW Headhunter can play as a valuable tool throughout our recruitment efforts. At the end of the day we want to spend less time recruiting and more time playing.