recruitment
Latest
Guildwatch: Dodge this
Sorry for the low resolution on the pic above, but we thought it was still funny enough to share -- the guildleader of the guild (unfortunately, we weren't told the name or server) was a little unhappy when one of the raiders decided to leave a "whipefest" on General Vezax, and he decided to pull off a WoWBash-style /gkick.Lots more drama, downed, and recruiting news in our weekly Guildwatch column, which starts right after the break below. Have a tip for us? Send it along to guildwatch@wow.com, and you might see it right here next time.
Guildwatch: Paydirt in the drama mine
Picture it: you're raiding along with a PuG run by a guild called, say, Logos et Ethos. Things are going well -- your first piece of loot drops, and people start rolling on it. But then the master looter from the guild throws this in guild chat: "we will begin the bidding at 100g." Yes, apparently it's an auction run, and they didn't tell anyone. The scene above unfolds -- people curse out the guild, leave the raid, and Poemaster pulls out the caps lock to try and keep his guild's secret fundraiser going.That drama and more in this week's Guildwatch, along with stories of downed bosses and recruiting from around the realms. Send us your tips (especially drama, we always love a good chat screenshot) to guildwatch@wow.com, and click through the link below to read more.
Guildwatch: System error beep bop
We have no idea why Coridane is so against Warlocks getting made fun of in the game (he must not be a fan of our very own Warlock-hater, Christian Belt), but apparently it's serious -- serious enough for him to kick you from a raid. We do especially like that the need to assault downed Warlocks is actually a system error ("beep bop"): we would just have assumed that was normal protocol. It sure is in our raids.More drama like this, along with downed and recruiting news, in this week's Guildwatch. If you have tips for us, feel free to send them in -- just drop us a note (please keep it short, sweet, and clear) at guildwatch@wow.com, and you might see it here next week.
Guildwatch: We're not even in his guild
Ulduar is getting toppled, guild by guild. We've heard about quite a few Yoggy downings already, and everybody else seems to be working their way around six or seven out of fourteen. There are still definitely a few guilds still working on Naxx and Malygos (nothing wrong with that -- my guild has Malygos on notice), but we'd say the majority of folks are finding Titan treasures in Ulduar. Which is probably just the way Blizzard wants it.Lots more downed news, not to mention both drama (a Downfall parody!) and recruiting notices from around the realms in this week's Guildwatch. Click the link below to read on.
...is now recruiting
I've been reading the comments from some of our recent posts and realized that there is quite a bit of mismatch between players and guilds. There are casual players in hardcore guilds that find themselves being passed over in content. There are hardcore players in casual guilds that don't get to move on to things they want. Some players need a higher level of maturity.There are usually a handful of guilds recruiting in the Guildwatch column, but I think, for today, we can do better. If your guild looking for more take a moment to comment with the nitty gritty. If you're interested in putting up a little advertisement take a moment to copy/paste and complete the following form:
Ready Check: Progression Recruitment and Roster Churn
Ready Check is a weekly column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Ulduar, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. This week, we're LF24M Yogg-Saron hard mode PST.It's interesting to watch the flow of players into and around hardcore guilds, and how it changes during farm, progress and the area in between. Why are so many of these guilds recruiting, and how does it change the meta-game?There are two reasons for a hardcore guild to recruit: to expand the roster and gain flexibility, or to replace players who are leaving the raiding squad. But what effect does it have on the guild? Let's take a look.
Protesters to march against Army's use of video games for recruitment
Right at this very moment, protesters are organizing in a small church in Philadelphia, preparing to march on the Franklin Mills Mall. However, these activists don't have beef with Old Navy -- their destination is an Army Recruitment Center set up in the heart of the mall, which uses PCs and 360s (equipped with first-person shooters) to try to capture the attention of prospective soldiers who may be waiting in the Cinnabon line.The anti-war protesters are expecting several hundred bullhorn-toting Phillies to come out in opposition of the Army's use of video games to boost recruitment. GamePolitics will be covering the protest via Twitter -- we suggest checking it out, so you can voice your support/proclaim your disapproval of the event with even greater accuracy.
Breakfast Topic: Does the guild recruitment channel work?
Many guilds recruit rather religiously, often having a couple people assigned to constantly ensure there's an adequate number of people to run dungeons, raids, and PvP teams. There are essentially four ways that people recruit.The first way is through the official forums, both via the individual realm forums and the multi-realm guild recruitment forum. Often times this means making a detailed and professional looking post and ensuring that it's bumped to first page of the forum several times a day.The second way is through unofficial sites and forums. The process is similar to recruiting on the official forums, but recruitment generally is more directed towards the site's (and ideally the guild's) audience. For instance the guild recruitment forums on MMO-Champion are a great place to find hard core raiding guilds. Our Guildwatch column is another great tool.
Ready Check: Ulduar and Burnout
Ready Check is a weekly column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Naxxramas-10 or Naxxramas-25, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. This week, we look at people who are leaving raiding despite Ulduar being imminent.It's that time of year again. We're hardly as jaded by farming tier 7 content as we were back in the days of Black Temple and Hyjal, but burnout has been rearing its ugly head lately, putting raiding guilds in a difficult position. Ulduar approaching will obviously put a stop to the problem - but for how long?When all the 25-man content is cleared in a handful of hours, nobody has any reason to run 10-mans and the drop-of-a-hat PTR testing schedule means we're entirely at Blizzard's whim as to when we can poke new content, it's no wonder people are becoming bored. Arguably, it's better that we don't get more than a few limited hours a week on the PTR, in order that the content is fresh when it actually hits. However, the actual effect of this drip-feeding has seemed to dampen enthusiasm for Ulduar rather than heighten it, especially as one of the most available bosses is unfortunately Flame Leviathan.
Breakfast topic: Poaching
I'm working on growing our little guild. I've met with some success. I don't spam trade chat to advertise our guild bank, vent, website or or smokin' hot tabard (all of which we have). I like to get to know people a bit before I bring them into the fold. The best way that I know how to do that is to run instances with them.Since we're small, I PUG a lot, so I'm introduced to many players. I'm looking for folks that are both good at what they do and would be a good fit for what we've established. I've found that many times people pug because even though they're in a guild they can't seem to get the assistance that they need. I find that some are actively looking for a change and others just generally enjoy the experience grouping with my comrades.
Employers screening WoW players during recruitment?
Would you consider your MMO-gaming habits to be detrimental to your performance as an employee? Lucky for us, we here at Massively are kind of expected to be invested in the MMO world, but it seems that it may be best to keep your playing a secret when looking for other lines of work. Raph Koster picked up on a thread at the f13 forums in which we learn that a recruiter in the online media industry has been told by employers numerous times to straight-up avoid World of Warcraft players. The original poster, who was chatting with the recruiter in question, mentioned some of the positives that can come from playing MMOs, but the recruiter said that none of that mattered to the employers he dealt with and WoW players would not even get a second look.Some of the reasons cited for the rejections include bad sleeping habits, and an inability to give 100% due to a wandering mind -- presumably wandering to the next Azerothian adventure. Poor WoW has been taking all the heat lately, but it's doubtful that the fans (nor Blizzard) care too much about the bad rap. When it comes to your next job-hunt though ... we're not going to tell you to lie or anything like that, but just be a little wary of the chatty interviewer when they ask if you've checked out the latest WoW expansion, kay guys?
We're feeling the love: Blogger application deadline is tonight
We asked, and you answered. Over 150 of you have already sent in your applications to join the TUAW team, and we're happily plowing through the entries now. It's been a real delight to see the enthusiasm and geek cred of everyone who has turned in sample posts... while a few of you might have benefited from additional proofreading of your submissions before hitting 'send' (ahem), the overall level of quality and insight is quite amazing. Amazing, and also very daunting -- since we can't take all of you, the process of winnowing this bushelful of excellence down to a few candidates is going to involve a lot of hard choices, grim faces and possibly some yelling. We're heading into our undisclosed location this weekend equipped with all the latest decision support technologies and we hope to have answers for all of you soon. The deadline for applications is midnight ET tonight, Friday 11/7. See the original recruitment post for details. We do have far, far more qualified applicants than we have slots for contributors, so please don't be discouraged if we can't tap you on the shoulder this round.
Want to write for TUAW?
Let me just say it: we're looking for a few good geeks. Do you have a love for all things Apple, tempered with a healthy dose of skepticism for the power of the RDF? Are you eager to share your favorite tips and tricks with Mac users everywhere? Is your iPhone development mojo so strong that it deserves an iSoapbox? Are you, in short, TUAW material? If you think you're what we're looking for, why not apply to blog for TUAW? Write about what you love and get paid to do it... seems like a good idea. Here's what we need from you: A brief biography. Tell us about your history with Apple, how long you've been a Mac user, etc. 3 sample posts written in TUAW's style. One should be a review of something (Mac app or accessory, iPod gear, iPhone app, you get the picture), the second should be an opinion piece, and the third can be whatever strikes your fancy. NOTE: please do not give us links to previously published material in lieu of post samples. We're glad to know about other places your work has appeared, but we need three freshly written and unedited posts. Your current Mac and iPhone/iPod setup. Your contact info (email, phone, IM, anywhere else we can find you) Send this package of "how I am so awesome" to us at apps@tuaw.com as a plain text email; no attachments, please. You have to be at least 18 years old to write for TUAW (sorry, not our choice), but we welcome applicants from all parts of the world -- in fact, we would love to bring some contributors into the fold who are in timezones far away from EST. If you've got specialized Mac interests (scientific computing, video/audio, education), that's fantastic, but generalists welcome too. Our deadline for this round of applications is Friday, November 7 -- so get down to it!
PvE to PvP transfer impact
Since PvE to PvP transfer option became available, I've kept a close eye on my own realm to see if there'd be any discernible change to transfer patterns both on and off. As far as I can tell -- no. I've seen a few people transfer off but there doesn't seem to be any more so than usual. Only a few players did so purely for the purpose of PvPing on a different battlegroup, and most of them, like Zach Yonzon, had previously been PvP-realm transfers or rerolls anyway. The flood of high-level PvE to PvP transfers gloomily predicted by many doesn't seem to have materialized. People who'd rather play on a PvE realm are doing just that, and most of the people who'd rather play on a PvP realm were already there (never saw that one coming, eh?). I thought at the time that Blizzard's decision would probably have its biggest impact, not on PvP players, but on PvE raiders who had previously been restricted to recruiting PvP-to-PvP, PvE-to-PvE or (much less commonly) PvP-to-PvE only. If you've ever been in a raiding guild which found great recruits from the "wrong" kind of realm, you're probably familiar with what a headache that was.I play on a medium population PvE realm that launched when Burning Crusade hit. Since we're not really at the cutting edge of either PvE or PvP content as a result, mine is probably a bad sample size as we're not a hotbed of transfers either way. So, I'm not sure if my own experience is representative. If you're playing on a medium-to-high population realm, either PvE or PvP, are you noticing any difference to the traffic patterns, on or off? If you're on a low-population realm, has your situation improved or worsened?
Breakfast Topic: Class vs. content
Responding to a shared blogging topic over on Blog Azeroth, Aendi from the roleplaying blog Voodoo Ventures recently wrote an entry on how to choose a class. This is certainly a subject that's gotten a lot of play in the WoW community, but Aendi's is an unusually thoughtful look at the problem that results when a player's poured a lot of time and effort into a class that might be a bad choice given the player's goals in the endgame. In one of most succinct and painfully accurate points I've seen on the subject, Aendi asks -- is seeing endgame content so important to you that you're willing to play a class you enjoy less, or is the class you play so important that you're willing to sacrifice a possible shot at content?It's no secret that classes and specs are not the same when it comes to the likelihood of getting Gladiator or raiding all the way to Kil'Jaeden. You may love your Hunter, but arena's not that kind to them at present. Your Warlock might be endless fun to play, but the guilds on your realm are probably swimming in them. And if you've ever cruised past the recruitment forums, you've probably noticed that they all seem to want the same thing: healers (and lots of 'em). If you were the sort of person who sat down, looked at the content in the game that you wanted to see more than anything else, and picked your class and spec solely with that goal in mind, your path forward would be fairly clear...but you might also become one of those people who logs off their primary toon as fast as they can after raid, or after their 10 games for the week, and goes to play the alt they'd secretly love to be playing as a main.Ideally we get the perfect intersection of a class we love to play that's able to accomplish its goals in content we want to experience, but it doesn't always happen -- and if you have to choose, the decision is a pretty personal one. So I ask you: class or content?
Arena Junkies releases Arena recruitment functionality
The Arena Junkies have been pretty active lately. Last week, they published insight to Gladiator class break-downs from the first three seasons of the Arena. Now, Arena Junkies has busted out a brand new tool -- its new Arena recruitment functionality. The goal is to provide someplace for Arena fighters to locate others of similar goals, and recruit one another for teams. ArenaArc was probably the first of this kind of channel, but Arena Junkies is definitely home to all things Arena. According to Tyveris, there's a couple bells and whistles that will help appeal to harder-core Arena enthusiast. First, the listings expire, so you can be sure the current listings are up-to-date and valid. Second, high-level Arena players can restrict searches to return only players who have 2,000 or higher ratings. Third, Arena Junkies will fill out your resume with information they already know from the Armory. This tool should be pretty useful to AJ's forum members, and maybe even to folks who are struggling with an up-and-coming team. And as always, the AJ team is already being very responsive to their customers, and updating the tool to meet feedback. So, go check it out, read up on some strategies, and good luck in the Arena.
Forum post of the day: Broken records incoming
Although at times contentious, the current recruitment promotion has certainly sped up leveling. The triple experience point bonus comes to mind first, but the ability to give levels at a rate of one per two gained is also a real boon. The rule is that the levels can be applied to a character lower than the givers current level, capped at level 60. Theoretically someone who has reached level 60 could donate enough levels to raise another character from 30-59* in a matter of minutes. This new mechanic is pretty easy to use and potentially abuse. Málfurion of Wildhammer is not happy with the change. To quote "I just saw a Warlock go from level 31-59 in 10 seconds in front of my eyes... The new recruit a friend is bull > <.... NERF NERF NERF!" The post was met with some disbelief, but it clearly is a possibility. Some players indicated that they have something similar in mind. Abilene of Aegwynn believes that this practice ruins the game for some.
NCsoft City of Heroes developer team LFM!
Remember that sense of 'something big around the corner' that we mentioned? We're getting it again. NCsoft had assured players that there was going to be some serious reinvestment in the City of Heroes IP. They weren't kidding. With competition coming up from at least two angles, it looks like they're stepping up their game.We've already seen a tantalising survey, which (despite being nothing but market research) has City of Heroes players drooling at the thought of what they might conceivably get. Now, we have the news that the CoX development team, which has already taken on several new people since the days of the Surviving 15, is looking to recruit even more. Of the job opportunities listed on NCsoft's page, eight positions relate to City of Heroes development. Zombie Man, forum regular and developer tracker extraordinaire, has listed them.
Forum post of the day: Idiots, children, and oldschoolers. Oh my!
At one point in time or another, most guilds face at least a little bit of drama, from loot distribution, to relationships, to guild bank robbery. Zeida of Tichondrius has created an list of guild member archetypes for folks she does not want in her guild. The list of stereotypes covers the first four posts in the thread so there is a considerable amount of reading. The list includes newbs, n00bs, trolls, elitists, and many more. The original poster went into detail on each of these archetypes. Here's the short version:
Forum post of the day: Retroactive recruitment
Blizzard does not particualry appreciate petitions on the official forums. This does not stop players from starting them. Lyccan of Ner'zhul started a petition in the Suggestion forum to make the Recruit-a-Friend benefits retroactive. At this time Blizzard has announce no current plans to give these rewards to folks who have brought players into the game in the past. Most of us are pretty open about our love or World of Warcraft, and many of us have invited our friends and family to join us in WoW. In the past, the joy of sharing the game and a potential game-time buddy was enough to bring our friends into the game.
