Cabal recruiting, some thoughts from Inc.: LINK to original article here.
As a cabal manager* the most important thing you can do is recruit. The nature of MMOs is that there is a constant "churn" of people who come in, play for a while, and move on (more on that here, here, here, and here). Some estimates are that 5%-7% of the player base quits every month (source).
Let that sink in a moment.
5% loss a month, every month.
You have to look at everything through that lens - nobody is forever. In a cabal of 60 people, that's 3 people a month gone forever. In a cabal of 20 people, that's just 1 person a month gone forever, though even if that doesn't seem too bad, over one year, on average, a game loses just over half of it's players. Those statistics are for a-level MMOs (like World of Warcraft), so it's not unthinkable that churn is higher in a niche title like The Secret World. Many of us have known someone that quit the game after the first investigation mission, right?
So given that churn is a thing, how does one deal with it as a cabal manager?
There are (at least) two potential strategies to deal with this.
1) Recruit all the things.
Set the bar to entry very low and let people in without too much of a hassle. This way, your membership numbers are always high. However, this is going to lead to high turnover, high churn through your cabal. This means that all the time you spent getting to know your cabal mates, helping them through the game content, building up RP stories with them... just gone. Effort wasted - other than the enjoyment you got out of it while you were doing it.
2) Retain your people - slow down churn.
Another strategy is to retain the people you recruit - which brings us to the real point of this post.
Focus on recruiting people you can retain in the long term.
Therefore, how does one recruit? Here are some thoughts, translated from the world of business, that might help you look at your recruits and decide which ones are best - long term - for your cabal.
Look for People Who Enjoy the Same Things Your Cabal Does
This seems simple, but it's really not. Take a good hard look at your cabal. Think about the percentage of time spent on PvP, PvE, RP, and socializing. If you're running a heavy RP cabal, and someone is more interested in just finding people to chat with in voice while questing, this person isn't going to fit. If you're a hard-core progression group there might not be a lot of room for a PvPer. Decide or determine what your group does, advertise that honestly, and look for candidates who groove like you do.
Sometimes, as a cabal manager, you may not be sure what your cabal does. Or you may think you do - and you might be wrong! Definitely talk to your people and ask them how they see your group. You may find doing an anonymous survey (free via Survey Monkey or Google Forms) very helpful in understanding how your group sees itself.
Let that sink in a moment.
5% loss a month, every month.
You have to look at everything through that lens - nobody is forever. In a cabal of 60 people, that's 3 people a month gone forever. In a cabal of 20 people, that's just 1 person a month gone forever, though even if that doesn't seem too bad, over one year, on average, a game loses just over half of it's players. Those statistics are for a-level MMOs (like World of Warcraft), so it's not unthinkable that churn is higher in a niche title like The Secret World. Many of us have known someone that quit the game after the first investigation mission, right?
So given that churn is a thing, how does one deal with it as a cabal manager?
There are (at least) two potential strategies to deal with this.
 |
| This is one way to deal with churn (From memegenerator.net) |
Set the bar to entry very low and let people in without too much of a hassle. This way, your membership numbers are always high. However, this is going to lead to high turnover, high churn through your cabal. This means that all the time you spent getting to know your cabal mates, helping them through the game content, building up RP stories with them... just gone. Effort wasted - other than the enjoyment you got out of it while you were doing it.
2) Retain your people - slow down churn.
Another strategy is to retain the people you recruit - which brings us to the real point of this post.
Focus on recruiting people you can retain in the long term.
Therefore, how does one recruit? Here are some thoughts, translated from the world of business, that might help you look at your recruits and decide which ones are best - long term - for your cabal.
 |
| Decisions, decisions, decisions... (From Funcom's media library) |
Look for People Who Enjoy the Same Things Your Cabal Does
This seems simple, but it's really not. Take a good hard look at your cabal. Think about the percentage of time spent on PvP, PvE, RP, and socializing. If you're running a heavy RP cabal, and someone is more interested in just finding people to chat with in voice while questing, this person isn't going to fit. If you're a hard-core progression group there might not be a lot of room for a PvPer. Decide or determine what your group does, advertise that honestly, and look for candidates who groove like you do.
Sometimes, as a cabal manager, you may not be sure what your cabal does. Or you may think you do - and you might be wrong! Definitely talk to your people and ask them how they see your group. You may find doing an anonymous survey (free via Survey Monkey or Google Forms) very helpful in understanding how your group sees itself.
Look for People Who Fit Your Culture
Wait, what's "culture?" While there are multiple definitions (here, here, and here) in short, the culture of your group is the expectations of the people within it. It's an amalgam of what's acceptable and what's normal and what's expected.
As a thought experiment, think of something your group thinks is really funny. Picture the most recent in-joke that your group is still chuckling about. That in-joke is part of your group culture.
This is just a small example of group culture, but it highlights the importance of culture. You're going to want to find people that are also amused by that sort of joke. Someone who is terribly offended by that joke, or just doesn't get it, is not likely to fit into your cabal very well.
Look out for Jerks!
As a thought experiment, think of something your group thinks is really funny. Picture the most recent in-joke that your group is still chuckling about. That in-joke is part of your group culture.
This is just a small example of group culture, but it highlights the importance of culture. You're going to want to find people that are also amused by that sort of joke. Someone who is terribly offended by that joke, or just doesn't get it, is not likely to fit into your cabal very well.
Look out for Jerks!
Seriously. Wheaton's Law rules all. If you can, observe candidates RPing out in the wild, or approach them on an alt they don't know so they don't know they're being observed. Alternately, look at the character's Twitter stream, or fiction the player posts online.
Is the character a jerk? Is the player a jerk? Is it hard to tell which is which?
In the immortal words of "Sam" from the movie Ronin (skip to 30 sec in), "Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That's the first thing they teach you." If you have any doubt, then wait and consider the candidate for a while longer.
If the candidate you're looking to recruit is a good one, they aren't going anywhere. "Hire slow, fire fast," is business advice that's been around a while (here, here, here, and also here.) As a cabal manager, make "hire slow, fire fast" work for you and invest the time on the front end to try to make sure that recruit is going to stick around.
* Cabal manager is an inclusive term that indicates a cabal leader, a cabal officer, or a cabal veteran that is widely looked up to even without a formal leadership title.
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Outside comments:
"To me, the recruiting approach for a guild is one of the more important decisions that you'll make. And, as you point out, it isn't as easy as one might think. Some of my more successful guilds have had fairly rigorous recruitment processes. They might involve applications, multiple interviews (IC and OOC), and were often designed to require a time commitment on the part of the applicant. It was not uncommon for me to have 60-75% abandonment rate on applications because people weren't willing to wait for the amount of time it took.
Thankfully, since many of them had been through my long recruiting process, I also had members who were able to understand that "quick fixes" weren't likely and they stuck with it."
Jonray - The Secret World Forums, 12-02-2014
Is the character a jerk? Is the player a jerk? Is it hard to tell which is which?
In the immortal words of "Sam" from the movie Ronin (skip to 30 sec in), "Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That's the first thing they teach you." If you have any doubt, then wait and consider the candidate for a while longer.
If the candidate you're looking to recruit is a good one, they aren't going anywhere. "Hire slow, fire fast," is business advice that's been around a while (here, here, here, and also here.) As a cabal manager, make "hire slow, fire fast" work for you and invest the time on the front end to try to make sure that recruit is going to stick around.
* Cabal manager is an inclusive term that indicates a cabal leader, a cabal officer, or a cabal veteran that is widely looked up to even without a formal leadership title.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Outside comments:
"To me, the recruiting approach for a guild is one of the more important decisions that you'll make. And, as you point out, it isn't as easy as one might think. Some of my more successful guilds have had fairly rigorous recruitment processes. They might involve applications, multiple interviews (IC and OOC), and were often designed to require a time commitment on the part of the applicant. It was not uncommon for me to have 60-75% abandonment rate on applications because people weren't willing to wait for the amount of time it took.
That was fine with me. I always wished them well, and if asked, would even refer them to other allied guilds that might suit them better. Part of the reason for the time consuming process was to see if they had the maturity and dedication to make it through.
However, if they did make it, I had very low turnover. Less than 10% annually in most cases.
The drawback was that it could feel to my members like we weren't growing very quickly. For some types of content (like dungeons / raids / pvp) it helps to have a larger population of players. I'd have to continually encourage them that we were going to make the progress to get there, it was just going to take time.
Jonray - The Secret World Forums, 12-02-2014
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