Years ago some very nice members setup this blog for me to reach out to the team from time to time and share some insights or lore or history etc. It's been a while since I posted here and I wondered if I hadn't had the keys taken away! Well, here's the article, so read it while it lasts... I am forever a rebel at heart, and imagine some of the things below may be construed as incendiary and taken out of context. But, i sense a dramatic change in our society and gaming experience as a whole and wonder where TAW is headed? A recent request has made me ponder these bigger cultural and societal settings with respect to our little community.
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Recently, a member contacted me looking for the venerable list of "maxims" that I and some others generated years ago. I only know a very small fraction of you these days. So, many don't know me personally or my line of work. I work as a systems engineer at a major OEM and a part time university instructor, and now know with hindsight that these items are not "Maxims" but are in fact Heuristics. i.e. "Rules of thumb" They are behavioral instructions predicated on some unwanted situation... like unruly or disruptive members. Back then i didn't know what to call them and thought Maxim sounded cool and fit the description.
This raggedy-old-list had entered the TAW lexicon years ago through the training program instituted shortly after I left my time as the Commander-in-Chief. The list was my attempt to succinctly and concisely capture many lessons about the ugliness of people and their desire to take out life's inequalities on those of us trying to build something lasting, positive, and beautiful. I'm being intentionally melodramatic to illustrate the real elan or esprit we felt back then.
As an organization, and one of the largest of its kind, we were constantly under attack from many directions and on many fronts... or so it seemed. After looking these over I really chuckle with the wisdom and hindsight of the victor, and marvel at the real PTSD that those of us who were trying to husband this community into a more healthy and practical life-cycling state all viscerally felt then. I find it very intriguing how this list has survived and been used as a touchstone throughout the years. For the episodes of organizational violence, rebellion, and even the infrastructure-needs are either gone or radically different now than they were back then.
This list was compiled over about a two year period after we had survived some of our most tumultuous struggles. This was around 2007-2008. It was the time when Omega and I had realized that in order for TAW to survive as an idea and as a real entity that lasted beyond the interest of her progenitors, beyond the seemingly inexhaustible ability of people to expend energy destroying something creative and positive, we had to get a system in place that both destroyed and renewed us as a community in a controlled and understood way. This "struggle" was the idea of "closing" a division. This was a radical concept that seemed counter-intuitive, yet was as revolutionary as TAW's original concept of expansion into multi-games. The first division we closed was the original Delta Force division. For without the ability to "burn-down" the stagnating parts of ourselves, we would forever carry that weight and it seemed we would be dragged down by the negative forces that natural "stagnation" brings with it. This was an interesting multi-year debate and prototyping period for Omega and I.
I look at this list and wonder what today's young minds think of it and also if it has any value still? The fact that it is being requested tells me there must be some nuggets of truth buried in its syntax still. Yet, I know that the techno-societal landscape is completely different today then it was just 5 years ago. To think that members of TAW are around today that were not born when I joined in 2003 (no i was not an original founder but joined shortly after we expanded out of our original game) really blows my mind. For this was the vision we cast... to manifest a real brotherhood that had a set of values that the organization tries to uphold is lofty ...and was unattainable for most all communities. The graveyard of fallen clans and communities is a testament to veracity of this vision. Many of these systems we developed are probably obsolete and may even be dragging us down now? Or, maybe not. But I know that the infrastructure problems that generated maxim 1 no longer exist and are not even questioned now... So what about the rest?
Enjoy this ancient (in internet years) document and fire away!
Link to a copy of the original Fox's Maxims
Breakups in a virtual-gaming team aren't any easier than personal breakups between two people in a relationship. If you've been part of any gaming teams for any amount of time, there's a good chance you've witnessed or been a part of a break up.
Breakups in any circumstance are never a fun experience, but examining the inherent negativity of the topic is an important step in overcoming them. My true hope in writing this is to help you prepare for your journey as a leader in this community. As a leader, you will need to handle all types of breakups. From the simplest parting of ways to a vitriolic showdown.
THE BREAKUP
When the time comes that someone on your team wants to break off their relationship with the team, the best outcome would be that everyone involved remains friends and the relationship continues in a different way. However, in my experience this type of amicable outcome is uncommon.
Although I've witnessed some amicable breakups that eventually flowered into productive, competitive relationships, these are rare. Most often, both parties move on in separate directions in life and gaming without having much interaction at all.
Sometimes, breakups can get ugly and be filled with major drama, name calling, infrastructure attacks, malice, and disillusionment. If this type of drama goes unchecked, it will most likely lead to further breakdown of team morale and members will become despondent and apathetic. In the worst case scenario a team can implode.
My goal in communicating with you about this not-so-fun topic is to 1) let you know that you are not alone and commiserate with you, and 2) help you by providing a proven process to minimize damage to your team from people who want to tear down your good work.
ENTITLEMENT
Over time, I discovered the root cause of these breakups, and it allowed me to develop the leadership culture and processes to counteract it. Like a three-act play, there are many repeating patterns of behavior in these episodes; many of the same character archetypes and responses.
As we dig into this subject together, I want to let you know that despite any and all preparations against these breakups, they still happen. Why? Because the root cause lies in the heart of members who have a deep sense of entitlement about their team, position, or goals. I think of them as "Burger King" members...they want it their way.
I've been part of six major breakups during my years in TAW, and none were ever easy. In fact, I will tell you that my first major breakup while I was a division leader was downright emotionally painful. Even though we can never truly eliminate people's sense of entitlement and avoid breakups, there are some steps to be taken to minimize the pain for you and your team.
ROCKY FOUNDATIONS
Over time, TAW as a whole learned that despite all we did to achieve consensus on decisions, sometimes no amount of compromise would prevent someone from attempting to destroy what we were busy building. Over a decade ago, TAW's founder, Omega, relayed a principal from Sun Tzu's The Art of War to me that I never forgot:
"the attacker simply needs to find one weakness while a defender needs to discover and cover them all"
Since its inception in 2001, TAW has experienced tremendous growing pains that resulted in a series of cultural, structural, and procedural changes that are still happening and are a major contributing reason for our continued existence today.
Back in those distant foundational days, we spent a tremendous amount of time and energy shoring up those holes in our defenses. In the midst of the growing pains, we also consciously cast a vision for ourselves to be the most professional and premier gaming community in existence.
Here's the backdrop: It was late 2002, I applied to the the fledgling Battlefield 1942 division and received a boot camp in early 2003 right after Christmas break. At that time, BF was the largest division TAW had fielded with over 65 members. Internet technology was still very new and most members used dial-up landline connections. Online gaming and virtual communities were a very new phenomenon.
Within my first 30 days, a multidivisional contingent of people decided they didn't like how things were going. They convinced many people that TAW was doomed and their team concept was better.
We had three large and stupidly-expensive Battlefield servers that were paid for and managed by a couple members who also decided to leave with the herd. All of the sudden, the BF division had no servers, and the roster of 65 members dwindled down to 12. They succeeded in convincing most members to break off and form a new team. For many days after, flame wars broke out in third-party forums, game servers, and TeamSpeak, etc.
Due to the massive exodus, I was a quickly promoted up to executive officer and called out by Omega to declare where I stood: Was I with TAW or was I against TAW. This so-called "dot org" struggle was TAW's first large-scale break up. From 2003 through 2008, we experienced a few more.
Omega's iron will coupled with experimentation, hard work, hundreds of hours of talking, and vision-casting carried us through all of the attacks. His determination to create something truly good and lasting pulled us through our baptism by fire.
THE SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEPLE
I have often witnessed that members who intend to break your team down will typically launch their attack at a time of change. They will use some existential trigger; some reason to begin their program of destruction, and work to sell members on their vision while contriving arguments about how such-and-such situation is your fault.
Often, a coup might be launched after a major event like getting a new battalion officer, or division commander, or possibly after a fundamental change in the game type your team supports, or some other change in the vision, direction, goal, or personnel of the team. These changes can produce a feeling of distrust or uncertainty in some members and will be exploited by the perpetrators.
I have found that most often there are typically one or two ringleaders behind any organized effort to break down or steal a team. These are the ones making the loudest noise, having all the back-channel discussions and enticing members to leave by selling their new guild or clan.
They will ply members with their scorn on how horrible a particular situation is and how their new guild will be Utopia! They will attempt to buy members by offering positions of leadership and prestige or by changing their plans and goals if they think people will more easily leave with them.
Unfortunately, there are always casualties in these exchanges, and I want to make you aware of the collateral damage: The people who get caught in the no man's land between the struggle of wills. These members, caught in between, who allow themselves to be lead away or become disillusioned, are the sheeple.
Sometimes they go with the new group, happy and content, but inevitably, some will snap out of the fog-cloud shrouding their mind and ask to rejoin us. But, the real casualties are the members that become so discouraged by the drama and nonsense that they never want to be a part of a gaming community again.
I have another story about one of these incidents. It didn't happen to me directly, but happened to one of my officers. At the time I was volunteering in a senior management role on the team. At this point, we had 10 game divisions each with many members, and we had recently launched the Vanguard Task Force. Two Task Force Operations (TFO) members, Audie and HUNTER, developed the idea and guidelines around establishing baseline requirements for games to become a division, which we began setting up.
When World In Conflict (WiC) was released, we had a huge influx of members, which we did not anticipate. We were caught off guard because we had tried to launch a few RTS games previously and could never get them to go, but WiC broke all the rules because of its team friendly, in-game infrastructure.
Central Command decided that WiC needed to be one of the teams to start in VG even though things were already set up as a full division. This had no effect on how the team played or how the team worked. It was a simple administrative / reporting change.
A small group of members, lead by one boisterous outspoken member, decided they didn't like the change. They felt they owned the team. They then proceeded to give my officer and I an ultimatum: Give in to what he wanted or else we should discharge him from the roster.
This player was a well-respected leader on the team, was of consummate skill and had great influence. He was gambling that the threat of his departure would cause us to "shake in our boots" and we would give in to his wishes because he felt we needed him.
Several sheeple did indeed follow his piper's call, and the officer was totally shocked and felt horrible, like he had somehow let the team down. My officer was green and was ready to capitulate and give in to several of his demands. I, on the other hand, had already been through a few of these showdowns.
I councilled the officer to do a few things: First, immediately discharge the boisterous member from the team roster as he requested, and make sure to kindly thank him for his service. Next, cut off all communications and instruct the rest of the WiC to do the same, and make it clear to the defector that we were moving on. The defector did not expect this exchange; things were not going how he planned.
He then proceeded to send us a gigantic email after email talking about how if we didn't let him back he was going to take all of our members. He was going to tear the team down. No one responded to him.
In the end, our team went on to live the whole length of the game cycle. The game continued until the developer shut down their servers. The officer built a large and successful team, while the group that flamed out ended up fizzling up and dispersing within 90 days.
Later, I realized that the guy did us a favor in revealing his true nature sooner rather than later. It was better he pulled this stunt before the team become truly large.
POSITIVE ACTION PLAN
So what can you do? When someone decides to target you, there's not much you can do because they will be working behind your back. But once they strike, there are some simple techniques you can put into action that have been proven time and again to staunch the flow of discord and drama.
These techniques don't ease the pain, but like an antiseptic, they cleanse those wounds and allow the healing to begin. Note that this is a model of action, and every situation is different.
1. Encourage anyone that wants to join the dissenters to step up and leave with them
Omega calls this the fly-paper effect. Believe me; you want everyone that is even considering leaving to go now. You don't want to get past this episode and begin rebuilding only to find out there is another cell of dissenters that actually wanted to go but weeks or months later decides to take action and go. Sweep them out now.
Gather up all the dissenters, be nice, cordial, and help them out the door. Why be nice? Because some of them are being led by the nose and don't know it. When they snap out of it, they will come back realizing their mistake.
2. Cease all communications with those that leave
Spread the word among your teammates to cease all communication with the people that left or are leaving. I'm speaking specifically about ceasing communications with those who squawk at you and your team.
Unfriend them in all social media and chat interfaces. You may have people on your forums and in your game server harassing you and your members. Ban them. Don't respond to any attempts to goad you into a hot-headed response. Rebuke members that respond to the stupidity.
In short, get on with the fun and gaming, and work hard to blackout the drama. This drama saps energy from your leaders and players. Work to cover them and keep it away. Don't respond to those that left except with your silence.
3. Recruit new members.
Get out and work like never before to get new members in the door. Nothing cures the bad feelings you're having about the whole thing like having a new member see what you have going, and talk about how cool it is and how much they can't wait to get started. This cures a lot.
The nature of turnover in games means that the collective memory of most units is short. In a few months of healthy recruiting, most of the members won't even remember what happened. Also, when there are big losses, it's easy to get into the trap of wishing that things were like how they were before the event happened. If you recruit, those losses are blunted significantly.
IS EVERYONE HAPPY NOW?
While examining the heart of the matter, you will hopefully come to realize at some point that you cannot make everyone happy. If you burn energy trying to satisfy all of the ideas and people on your team individually, you will be run ragged and will end up becoming a tool of people's whims.
Without a clear vision and a set of goals, you allow yourself to be pulled from one idea to another. That's what really matters at the end of the day:
What is the goal and mission of your team?
If your decision is in line with your team's goals and vision, then it is the correct decision. (By the way your decision didn't cause the breakup, they used your decision as a trigger.)
ANTISEPTIC
I have been there with you, despairing about players that left. But, I didn't give up. I pressed on and found more players in the end. What happened to those teams that left like they did? Not one single team is still afloat today. TAW? We're still going and in fact stronger and larger than ever.
This is the only solution I have found to get past these episodes of nonsense. It is brutal and blunt, but it works. The immutability of this action-response will wear-out your detractors. If you have a vision or goal, and a clear sense of direction and purpose, you will be able to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and continue on.
It's a very good idea to inform your chain of command (CoC) when one of these events begin. First, because you need someone to talk to about the event; you should not shoulder the weight alone!
Also, it can be really difficult for officers who are involved to have the objectivity they need to act in the moment, and especially in the aftermath. Having CoC support can bolster confidence and assist in rebuilding as well. A mutiny can be very heart-wrenching and emotional, and it helps to have the backup of someone who is not as emotionally invested to help you see things clearly and have the authority to act decisively on your behalf.
Why does this really happen? Every situation is different, but I believe they happen from time to time because some people don't have the courage or ingenuity to build something themselves, they just want to tear apart what you have built and believe they built it themselves.
Most of them will find that when they build something on a foundation of hate or dislike, the negatively-charged emotional foundation will pass, and they will be left without a cause, and their team will dissipate into the electronic aether.
Carry on, soldier.
Follow your purpose.
Don't give up.
In the first article of this series, I told you how crucial it is to identify who your ideal teammate is, and in the second article I talked about some ideas on where to find that person and how to carry yourself in dealing with people. These were not idle exercises. This last article in the series brings these two ideas together in the form of your recruiting pitch or call.
Are you seeking newer players or seasoned veterans? Is your team an open community more focused on fun and relaxation or possibly more interested in competition and training? Are you running a strictly PvP or PvE team or possibly both? Or, maybe you’re only focusing on a particular in-game faction. Whatever qualities, skills, or interests you would like your teammates to have, you must write them down somewhere. Once you have that figured out you must turn those characteristics into a pitch, and once you have your pitch you must play Johnny Appleseed and spread it around.
I have a pitch that I have been working on for years. I have honed it, polished it, changed it with the changing games but at its core it attracts the exact type of player I look for.
First, I state what kind of attitude I am seeking in a player. Second, I state some minimum requirements for entry (attitude is part of this) such as a microphone, age, etc.. Third, I give some brief points on the types of activities a prospective member can expect to find themselves participating in. Lastly, I tell them how to join or where to go to find out more information about our team. That's it.
It's very simple and short but what it does is creates a desire in the person with those qualities and desires (or someone who wants to be part of a team of players with those qualities) to find out more.
Many players will hunt around different forums looking for a team to join. This is great because we can typically create a small ad and post it in the proper place for those prospects to see.
There are some generalizations that I employ when crafting and posting my team sales-pitch (sorry, that is exactly what it is). Some of you will take these gems and put them to use while others will skip past them… consider yourself forewarned.
So you now have your pitch and are ready to spread it around for players join your team. But where should you put it? This is going to take some time in the beginning but once you get it setup it's usually just a matter of maintenance. You need to find the official website(s) for your game and as many unofficial fan-sites as you can find. Find all the competition (i.e. ladder, leagues, etc…) websites you can, and any generic game forums too. Some examples of generic game forums are IGN, GameSpy, or FPS Admin. There are many more out there.
Be careful where you post. Most forums have rules about posting and in particular are fussy about teams recruiting players and where you can post it. I have been banned from forums for not reading their posting rules. This exercise usually takes me a few days of searching and sifting through candidate websites, but in the end I usually come up with a list of 2-10 website forums where I post my pitch.
Make sure when you post that you specify that you want to be notified of any replies. Some boards have this feature defaulted to off. I've often had people post questions or comments in my thread and if I didn't have notifications turned on I would have never known about it.
Keep track of where you post and tell your teammates where you post. Some might actually pitch in and help keep your recruiting threads bumped.
After you have posted your recruiting ad you have to stay on top of it to get the maximum benefit. For the first couple days you should revisit the forums where your posts are at. Is your post still on the front page of the forum? If not, you need to bump it. Be careful and be sure to know each forum's bumping policy.
In time it will be apparent which forums are getting traffic and which are not. The ones that get heavy traffic should be looked at and bumped frequently. Why? Because if you're recruiting post is not on the first page of the forum your chances of recruiting players from it goes down significantly.
As I mentioned above, you should notify your current team members of where you posted so that they can also bump threads and help keep them on the front page. I typically do this by creating a post in my own forums with links to each post that I've made. This makes it easy and accessible to all your members.
Also, if possible you want to use something like Google Analytics to see which threads are bringing traffic to your website. You want to be double sure you attend to the websites that are coming from your most highly trafficked posts. You will only know this if you have a way to see how people come to your website.
You cannot out run the Law of Diminishing Players. Like taxes and death it is here to stay and will never go away no matter how long your team has been active or how large it is. It is simply a matter of whether you are engaging your airfoil (recruiting) or not. Are you rising above, using the Law as a touchstone to future greatness? Or, are you stagnating by not recruiting new members and allowing your player base to dwindle away? There is no in-between, no grey, only black or white. If you are playing a game or games that are dying and the community is small, then you may want to consider moving to a newer more vibrant game. There is only so much you can do when a game is in its final phase.
It is vital that you determine exactly who you want to join your team then craft a pitch for that player and entice them to visit your website or game server. It is vital that you are active and are active in server. If you don't have regular team activity yet, then you must stubbornly resolve to create it yourself. Time and again you will hear me preach how you are the key to the success of your team. No one else. Your daily positive actions are what separate your team from glory and from becoming digital dust.
Maxim #17 - Enthusiasm for your game mixed with initiative produces the fuel that fires growth in a team.
Maxim #32 - No one here gets paid, we are a volunteer army. Therefore, there is absolutely no room for "primma donnas."
Maxim #34 - 80% of the work in TAW is done by 20% of the membership. Always try to improve these odds.
Sometime after I developed my Maxim's 1.0 I realized a proven tactic for recruiting massive numbers, at the same time as others were learning this same idea... When I first wrote this article I didn't include the tactic, and I thought it was so powerful that I should put it here in case you don't know about it. I know that some of you reading this know it, so this is not for you. :) Here it is...
Often times, in a game's forums there will be clan recruiting sub forums or threads. Sometimes admin's are nice enough to even divide sub forums into CLAN RECRUITING and those LOOKING FOR A CLAN. Here is the point... when someone expresses an interest in joining a community, usually the first team to respond to the person that is looking will recruit that person.
So, in practice, the team that contacts the prospect first will most likely recruit them... Another way to say it is the faster you can talk to the players who just posted that they are looking the greater the odds of bringing them into this team rather than another. And coupled with this idea is the fact that the faster you can get them into Teamspeak the greater the chances of them sticking around.
If your desire is to have a successful and thriving team, you need to read this article through to its conclusion. Much of the content in here is common sense, but I've tried to organize it in a way that is (hopefully) fresh and with some new insights. My hope is that this article transmits the true sense of weight behind the concept.
In my previous article in this series I talked about the law that governs every clan, guild, or esports team. It is the Law of Diminishing Players. It affects all teams at all times, even teams that have been around for ages and seem to have a large stable member base like The Art of Warfare. All teams are subject to The Law.
Thus far, man can never truly break free of the earth's gravity while on the surface or in the atmosphere. But man has developed a tool to counteract the force of gravity and in fact uses gravity with the atmosphere to take flight. It's called an airfoil. I'm hoping that this article coupled with your determination and action will be your airfoil. Because no team can ever truly break free of the Law of Diminishing Players, you can only counteract against it. The moment you stop caring about the effects of the Law is the moment your team stagnates and begins to decline.
The tool I am presenting is no surprise, its called recruiting. Duh. I know, sounds stupid to say this right? It's completely obvious. But mark my words, recruiting new members onto your roster can have the potential not only to counteract the Law, but also to remedy a host of maladies that can often plague teams that are in the latter stages of the game cycle. On the average team, only 1% - 2% of members actively recruit, if at all. If it is substantially more, then you are an anomaly and I'd like to know your secret.
The first dose of reality is that you may be one of the only people on your team who is the most interested in recruiting new members. More succinctly, you're probably one of the only ones who will do the things necessary to recruit new members consistently over an extended period of time. So if you have trouble getting other members to take your orders, or your request to recruit new members, don't feel alone. I'm right there with you and so is 99% of all the other team leaders out there.
I have established teams where I found members who were very passionate about recruiting new teammates… and one team in particular I had an individual whose passion for recruiting new members surpassed mine… we had to run 4 servers to contain all our members.. but he and people like him are an anomaly.
At the end of Part 1 I talked about what you need to do to start taking positive action. You need to have your mission/vision/goals established and you need to know who your ideal teammate is.
In marketing this is called identifying your customer. Who is she? Is she an adult? Is he a beginning player, or is he a top-of-server raider?
Does this person need to have disposable income to support a server or some other infrastructure? Who ever that person is you need to figure it out. Because you will attract exactly who you put the call out for.
If your call for players is not precise, you will get aimless players (no pun intended!). If you appear like a clan-noob, like you are a beginner, then you will attract beginners or no one at all, or maybe possibly people who will try to take advantage of you.
This leads me to another concept that I want to bring to you that you may be familiar with. Either way, you may already have this concept down even if you don't realize it, or you may not even be aware of it. In embarking on establishing or running your team, as the leader, you must have the correct posture. I'm not talking about how you sit in your chair, or how you stand, etc.. I'm talking about your mental or spiritual attitude.
When you are recruiting new members the correct posture to have is that you will take the people on to your roster that you are specifically looking for, you know exactly who it is you're looking for, and no matter what an individual claims they bring to the table, you don't need any one individual. Does that make sense? I'll repeat that last bit: You don't need any one individual.
A key ingredient of the correct posture is to have a healthy dose of skepticism at your command. Be skeptical of words, but pay close attention to actions. If your in-game recruiting messages or your forum posts sound whiny or like you are desperate for members, you're opportunities to attract quality players is much lower.
BE SKEPTICAL OF WORDS, BUT PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO ACTIONS.
I used to believe that the success or failure of my team would hinge on certain people. I thought that my success hinged on an in-game pilot who owned the skies and really helped my team achieve key victories, or a maxed out healer that brought all the right gear and had a massive amount of gold at her disposal. You know what I found out over time? After those people left the team, we carried on and had a great time.
All the things that I got stressed about that wouldn't happen when they left didn't come true. There were others that eventually came onboard and filled their roles either immediately or over time… but only because I persevered to counteract against The Law of Diminishing Players.
Whether you are recruiting in game or on a forum don't chase after players. If you chase after players you are in a state where you believe yourself desperate. And, by “chasing players” I don’t mean to not actively try and engage potential teammates. On the contrary, my greatest personal successes in terms of team building have come from when I personally engaged players and worked to become their friend.
I am talking about stalking after players to join your team after you have delivered your message. Remember, if you have a mission or goal, and you know what your ideal teammate is, then all you need do is conduct the search and your message will draw in the players you are after.
In-game recruiting is your bread-and-butter medium for finding new players. There are so many games and so many variations of in-game interfaces and mechanisms that I cannot go into the details in this article. Each game could probably contain its own article full of information. But, there is one key principle that applies to all games that I can speak about with total authority. The principle that applies to all games is very simple, it's activity. I know, another "duh!" moment… you're probably saying, "like why are you wasting my time with this? It's common sense!" But, like most "common" sense it is not commonly practiced.
If you want people to be interested in what you are doing to the point that they sign up with you, then you must have mucho activity. Every game has different types of activities. Some universal teamwork-based activities are:
Be online playing and logged into the Teamspeak server.
Work together with other players whenever possible.
Compliment other players when they do well.
Help others freely and without expectation of recompense. (Particularly lower-level or newer players)
Give players items they need without expectation of recompense.
When people see you doing these types of things, it will attract them to you. Most players are only out for number one. i.e. themselves. They never think about or care about what other players are dealing with. It is most players' chief goal to level-up or rank-up their player and that is usually all they care about. Will people take advantage of you for behaving in an open and helpful manner like this? Of course. People are selfish by nature, but when you provide help to a person who recognizes your helpful posture and is not so selfish, they will become your friend, and maybe a teammate.
Throughout my many years of gaming I have always enjoyed helping newer players who were cool, and friendly versus getting a teammate that is totally absorbed in their leet-ness and only looks to see who worships the ground they walk on. These latter primmadonnas really repulse me.
One more point on this… think about the person looking at your team. Typically, people join a team to be a part of something bigger than him or her self. They are looking for an experience that will provide entertainment, and camaraderie beyond what they can find running around by themselves in-game. If they come to a team where there is no activity or very little activity they will most likely not join or won't be there for long if they did join.
I have ran several teams in the past where this method of recruiting was actually my most successful path. For my Battlefield 2 & 3 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars teams I had forum posts out that I bumped (posted on) daily and they produced hundreds of members for each team. (Bumping is simply replying to your own forum posts so that they remain near the top of the forum topic listing.)
For each game-team I had well over 200 members each at any given time. Over the life of the team this number ran into the thousands. And, in each case there was primarily one forum for each game that produced the vast majority of the members.
In the third installment of this article I will dig a bit deeper into recruiting in forums, but before I get into that, let me point out a few areas you can recruit new members that you may or may not have thought of…
Maxim #25 - The most important activity for all new units is to focus on the first game-cycle phase, Spin-up. The second most important activity is to prepare for the Critical Mass phase.
Maxim #53 - The chance of losing a recruit for good increases exponentially every day they have to wait for a bootcamp.
PRESENTS...
There is a reality to running online gaming teams that I have called The Law of Diminishing Players. This law may not be obvious if you are fairly new, or if you’ve been around online gaming teams for a while you may already have experienced this phenomenon.
The law is pretty simple to understand but the effects, if not dealt with properly, can be devastating, and while its effects are consistent, the diminishing rate of your players is not consistent. What the heck am I talking about? I first "discovered" this law about a year after I started up one of my earliest teams back in 2003.
People who had joined my team a week previous, or even a month previous would have some type of conflict with school, work, spouse, (you name it) and they would say to me, "I have this thing to take care of…" or "I have to concentrate on school right now…" and they left the team.
95% of the time they say, "I'll be back just as soon as I take care of this thing." Over time you will hear some colorful "reasons" people leave the team. I wish I would have recorded some to get a laugh!
Did I believe them? Of course I believed them. I do-what-I-say and hold myself accountable to my word, doesn't everyone else? After about a year or so I started to get the picture:
But, that is just not reality; most will not come back to the team. Only a very small percentage, 1%-3%, will actually rejoin your team, and that assumes you have an excellent environment with no drama or very little drama among a host of other challenges.
I don't believe they want to lie to us. It's just that we typically don't like letting others down. Of course some will be straight and tell you they don't like your team, or your team is not what they are looking for, but these types are rare. There are still others that want to take your team from you and strike out on their own, but this is a topic for a separate article.
So what's the point to this? If you're interested in keeping a team going you need people.
The Law of Diminishing Players is this:
This means if you stop recruiting new members, you will eventually end up back at square one with only yourself on your team. I don't make this up. I wish this wasn't true! But, unfortunately it is the reality of online gaming teams.
You may have the perfect mix of players formed over the last six months, but unfortunately, the chances are that someone or several players will be leaving your perfect team.
Note that I speak of the average length of time of membership. Reality is that players will come all across the spectrum of commitment levels. You will talk to people who will ask to join your team and you will never hear from them again before they ever officially join, and at the other end of the spectrum you will find the opposite; you will find people who will remain steadfast and be a supportive team member for many years, but these last types are rare.
The good news is that once we embrace this law we can choose to operate in reality instead of living a fantasy. Whether you choose to ignore or heed this governing principle you will get what you sew. We can decide to take positive action and maintain a team that is moving forward and not stagnating, or we can ignore it and end up with ourselves and maybe one or two other players. Like gravity, taxes, and death, we cannot wish away nor ignore The Law of Diminishing Players and expect a positive result.
The Law of Diminishing Players logically leads to the following mode of thought:
There is no point in developing plans that includes former (or missing) members and those who have yet to join the team. Plan in the now.
If you have been a part of a team for any length of time you probably recognize this principle I've been talking about. In fact, you may have recognized it before but didn't think about it until now. So now that you recognize it and are willing to take positive action, what's next?
If you've made it this far into the article I will assume you are interested in building a lasting team. Regardless of the game-type, you can build a team that not only survives all the way through a game's maintenance phase, but one that also moves on to greater accomplishments.
The most important thing you can do right now besides inviting someone to join your team is to think about and write down the perfect potential member of your team.
Here's some items to jog your brain and get it flowing, and I encourage you to consider additional criteria:
What experience level are you looking for? New players? Hard-core elite players?
Are you looking to compete against other teams? Or form internal competitions? Both?
What kind of availability? Be realistic. 2 evenings per week? 5 nights per week?
What expansion packs should they have if applicable?
Should they be ready to donate to support a server?
Does attitude matter? If so, what kind of attitude should they have?
What else?
You need to answer these things for yourself and your team. There is no one perfect answer for all. There is a perfect answer for your team and it is up to you to figure that out. The answer for what type of player you want to recruit is closely linked to the mission or direction for your team. In fact, they go hand-in-hand. In part two, I will discuss the importance and application of this brain-jogging exercise.
Maxim #44 - Recruiting new members raises a unit's morale. Recruiting members is a basic & critical activity of all 3 phases of the Game-Cycle.
Maxim #49 - One should wage war with the soldiers that are here and now. Not the ones that have been and are gone, nor who have yet to be.