Visit the Norrath Guild Recruitment Fair In-Game!

[Yask]

As a recruiting officer for my guild I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I am with this!

[Spyderbite]

Yaskel wrote:

As a recruiting officer for my guild I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I am with this!

Well.. keep in mind that I do think good intentions were meant by all involved in the planning. Could have been too many cooks in the kitchen, etc. But, there was an oversight. And, those do happen. In this case it was the overlapping of events on a Bonus Experience Weekend.Banners, tents, fireworks spouting from Grim's hands and a thousand naked midgets might have drawn a crowd.. but, probably not the crowd that Guild Recruiters would be looking for.There are no good deeds.. just good intentions.

[Tyanu]

I have to agree =( very disappointed...

[Calthine]

I'm waiting to hear that someone forgot to turn on the Fair.

[Rijacki]

I hope they listen to the feedback and have another one: not on a bonus weekend and with a bit of in-game flair.

[ke'la]

Rijacki wrote:

I hope they listen to the feedback and have another one: not on a bonus weekend and with a bit of in-game flair.

I agree it doesn't have to be Dev visits and such, I agree with Grimwell that, having Dev Visits would actually impead the goal of the Recruitment Fair, however having adding Tents and other in game flair would have made it stand out more and I think more fun. Heck, include a vendor selling Snowballs or some such.

[Pusska]

Well, I did as much hanging around the claymore in Antonica as I could handle and by sunday here (sat night for you U.S. types) I had completely given up.Permafrost turn up was close to zero. There was one other guild recruiter/member with me when it started and that was all I saw the whole time. I even did a few tells in chat to let people know it was happening, was anyone coming ... etc. The most common responses were 'Is there a fair?" and "Are there any special events?" I stood there, with my fireworks, bags, boxes and other assorted fun stuff and guess what? You all miss out! No freebies for you!Not that it matters, I am pretty sure there is no one left to recruit

[SugarGirl]

I would have loved to show up, but alas.. it was another event that I was at work for.

[Rijacki]

Elepian@Kithicor wrote:

This event was player run.

No, this event was not player run.  It was an CS announced event as part of Living Legacy for all the servers. It was not something conceived of and planned by -any- players (not counting CS as players).  CS announced it on the Living Legacy site first, EQ2Players second, and a scant few days before the event on the forums.  CS announced it, had a PDF of guild listings, a picture of a "bill of rights" mock-up, and tried to get momentum for it.  And then they completely dropped the ball by having nothing "event-ish" in-game.  There were no decorations.  There were no in-game announcements. There wasn't anything what-so-ever to show it was a special event in specific places in any way shape or form.  CS expected players to show up and run it but without being given any tools or even information or guidence to plan at all. Festival of Unity on AB is an example of a player run event.  The guilds involved (one of my alts is a member of one) begin having counsels on it and ask for volunteers to run various events for -months- ahead of time.  It really resembles a fan-run or fan-involved convention (like Baycon, Gallifrey One, etc -- only ones I can think of off the top of my head, I have friends involved in both). Festival of Unity is in its third year.  Each year the Players approach CS and ask for in-game decorations.  The first year were a few things in the designated spots for the events (lighthouse, Claymore, Windstalker village - if I remember rightly).  Last year was a bit more decorations including a stage in the village (which sadly couldn't be walked -on- 'cause the collision wasn't there).  This year, it got announced by CS as part of the Living Legacy and they (CS) went all out with the in-game decorations.  There were veritable villages at both the lighthouse and Claymore (I was out of town and unable to go to nearly all of the event).  The PLAYERS had various events planned for several different time slots which included various games for participants to play to keep them interested in.. umm.. participating.  It was not set up as just a place to stand around and do nothing but socialise.  The reason it was only on ONE server is because it was a player-run event.  It was run by players on AB. The Guild Faire could have had decorations at each of the designated sites to show there was something special going on there.  It could have had an NPC to give information, i.e. a listing of guilds or even just information on how to use the Guild tool. It could have had CS people showing up at various, even random, times of the day to offer activities for the participants (the recruiters and recruitees alike) to keep their spirits up.  The activities could have been trivia contests and other stuff that would keep the participants -there-. Heck, CS could even have asked the Guide programme to help out and given them special stuff just for the faire.  AND, CS could have scheduled the event for a day when they weren't also having bonus XP.  CS plans both events, not like a truly player-run event which is planned by players without any knowledge of what CS might plan for the same day. I really truly hope CS has another Guild Faire, even during the Living Legacy promotion, actually listens to the feedback, and actually creates and Event that players want to be involved with. There are a lot of players who really truly want CS, EQ2, and SOE to succeed.  So why doesn't CS show the same desire and interest in the players?(cross posted on Gameplay as a reply there)

[Jesdyr]

Rijacki wrote:

I really truly hope CS has another Guild Faire, even during the Living Legacy promotion, actually listens to the feedback, and actually creates and Event that players want to be involved with.

Without reading this entire thread ... (bad Jesdyr!) .. I just want to say the biggest problem with this event was the "All weekend"This should have been setup to run in a few 1hr blocks each day like - Sat Noon to 1pm  / 4pm to 5pm / 8pm to 9pm. Sunday 10am to 11am / 3pm to 4pm / 7pm to 8pm Who wants to stand around in the middle of nowhere alone waiting for no one to come? The time should have been limited and at least a guide should have been around at those times handing out milk and cookies.

[Razlath]

Here are my thoughts on the fair.

First, I would like to say thank you to SoE for giving something a shot.  It is unfortunate that it kind of fell flat, but hopefully mistakes can be learned from, and this can become a quarterly or yearly event with a bit more to it.

I spent a large portion of Saturday standing at the crossroads with Sinafe from Retribution chatting and advertising the fair in level chat.  Many people had no clue what I was talking about, but we did get a few to wander our way.  I did manage to meet an old friend from EQ1 who was a fellow guild leader / recruiter while there which was very cool.  However, I think we had a grand total of 5 newbies stopped by that actually responded to our presence.  We tried running events, we advertised, heck I even offered a free gobby spin to any unguilded person who just stopped by.  What I couldn't offer was something interesting to see / do that would get people into the area.

Here are my thoughts of what went wrong / improvements.  These are in the order of my personal preference for importance.

1)  The fair should not have been held on a bonus xp weekend.  This forces guilds to choose between recruitment and leveling their members.  Bonus xp weekends are a great chance to get out in the field with our alts, group up with others, and advertise guilds by virtue of being available.  They are also chances to help out those current guildies who need a boost in xp due to a re-roll, or new member.  For small guilds there was a definite choice between xp and recruiting this weekend and that is unfortunate.

2)  An instance built off housing rules would have been great for this.  Guilds could have decorated their areas and built booths.  Not every guild would care, some might just plop down a table and call it a day.  But others would take the opportunity to entice other like minded people by how they "built" their booth.  It would give you a great idea of a guild just to see what they did or did not do for the fair.  It is completely understandable that SoE could not do everything for us.  But they can at least give us the tools to do it for ourselves.  This would also have resovled the issue of crafting stations.

3)  Some kind of event centered around the Fair area would have been awesome.  Maybe a little mini-quest involving talking to some fair NPCs to get some electrified-frozen-blended-moo-cow (fried ice cream) or something.  Anything to get peeps to swing by.  I am sure there are a ton of great ideas around this in both the community and within SoE.  The point is a fair has stuff going on, and this one did not.

4)  Gold Text Messages every hour or two similar to what happens for the LoN events would have been great too.  Sure some would grumble, but things look a lot more official if SoE broadcasts an event than me hitting 1-9 every so often trying to convince peeps there really is something going on.  This was supposed to be a SoE sanctioned event, it should have been advertised like one.

Once again, thank you SoE for trying.  Hopefully next time you can take some of these points in mind and create something that feels more like the fair that was advertised, or give us the tools to do it ourselves (I actually prefer that option).

[Anordil]

I had hoped that the fair would've been more successful than it was. Unfortunately, at the various times I visited the Claymore here on LDL, it was primarily other guild recruiters standing around staring at one another like two cats. Various methods were used by folks to entice people to come out and visit the fair. In all, it was a great idea, but a bit of a frost. I concur with others who've said that it shouldn't have competed with a bonus XP weekend and that we really ought to have had something other than a few guild recruiters standing about looking bored and uncomfortable. Tables, chairs, tents, wild gnolls savaging grifters, something... anything.. would've helped make it more interesting and successful. I like the idea of a small mini quest or something for a house item. Anyway, I'd like another shot at this if there's a bit more substance to it. Just my 2cp worth.

[Isard]

Epic.  Fail.

At least a few in-game system messages would have been better than nothing.

I spent a couple of hours sitting at the Claymore on Saturday morning.  I got one tell inquiring about the guild, and another telling me how bored I looked.

One other guild was there for about 20 minutes, other than that it was a waste of time.

[Valsehna]

Now that the lemons have been thrown, its time to make some lemonade for next time with some simple, solid suggestions.

I will suggest, if it is done again, nicely arranged displays of all of the actual guild reward items, especially all of the beautiful mounts and horses.

Small tents and encampments could hold displays of many of the more "house" oriented items.

Mannequins could display the armor rewards.

Specially created and placed NPC's could proudly wear the various guild reward titles (Sir, Lady, etc..) and run dialogues upon hailing, explaining a bit about guilds.

Those are just a few.

[walaruss]

i really like the housing idea where we can place the stuff we need. we better repeat it when the next expansion is out, when we have our guildhalls.

[surepaw]

Grimwell wrote:

Easy now my friend. I don't think the sky is really falling from this one. Let's look at the realities of the Guild Fair and then sort out exactly what you would expect SOE to do.

1. The guild fair has been created with the intent of helping players find each other.
2. To join a guild people simply need to be able to communicate and then use the /invite system.
3. There is no authorization needed from SOE for anyone to join a guild. It's up to the guild and the person being invited.
4. Normal CS will be available during this time, as it always is. So if someone is causing a disruption it's just as easy as ever to get help in taming that disruption.

What's missing? People are being made aware of a specific set of places that they can go to if they want to find a guild, or new guild mates. If the Community team were to show up, we wouldn't be doing much more than handing out cookies, etc. We would not make it any easier to find a guild, or new guild mates. There is no system that depends on our presence for that. It's the weekend, and there are many servers, so the odds of us trying to show up and then be fair and show up on all the servers are quite low. Guides could certainly show up, if they want to, as could a GM at random, or even one of us Community folks... but it's not something that will be planned, and our presence would do nothing to enhance the event.The Guild Fair is about people finding people, and honestly me standing around shooting off fireworks would cause more of a distraction than a help. Same for Eovania on the EU servers... no necessity is met by that presence. So I don't see much merit in what you are trying to say here.Your comment about Fan Faire was good message board drama though.

Thanks SOE. I showed up, I shouted to the zone, I used the level chat, I offered prizes, I used Fireworks, I chatted with other guild recruiters, I sent out my own guild recruiters. I was there for the majority of the weekend, during a double XP weekend. It is amazing how many people did not have a clue about a guild fair, even with all the advertising SOE did. This is a guess, but I do not think most new players read the forums much. I am also guessing that most new players do not read the little pop up window that comes up when they log in announcing a guild fair. Just a wild guess. Having a guild fare on double XP weekend, pure genius I tell you. I could not have planned the timing better myself. I do not expect you to be out there waisting your weekend, like you had us do, Grimwell. REally I am not. But I did expect an in-game message every hour or so. I did expect something at the fair that would highlight the area a little, maybe a tent or two. I would have set up some games, but NO ONE showed up to play them anyway. I got bored at one point and a fellow recruiter and myself played "Headbutt" the void storm tornado, that lasted all of 5 min.We did end up signing up 3 new recruits. Got one from shouting about the fair, and then talking in tells about our guild, got another when a recruit showed up and I was the ONLY guild out there. and got a third when I gave up, went home, and a potential recruit from WoW sent me a tell after he ran out to the Claymore from Kelethin at lvl 10, dying many times on the way, to be at the guild fair. He got there and found no one there, no recruits, nothing. He went to SQ and asked a level 80 from another guild about it. That level 80 told him that he saw me out there most of the weekend trying everything in my power to attract people and have some fun, so for the guy to contact me. The fact that we got no support from CS in-game on this at all, and I do not mean showing up. There was no messages, banners, tents, nothing, just helped to make this thing fall on it's face. Thanks for trying, but with what little I can do in the game, at least I tend to plan my guild events a little better by sending in-game mail to all my guildies, sending in-game chat to the guild, and having the info on the website for my guild to see. I do not assume everyone has read the website.

[craghack]

Grimwell wrote:

Easy now my friend. I don't think the sky is really falling from this one. Let's look at the realities of the Guild Fair and then sort out exactly what you would expect SOE to do.

1. The guild fair has been created with the intent of helping players find each other.
2. To join a guild people simply need to be able to communicate and then use the /invite system.
3. There is no authorization needed from SOE for anyone to join a guild. It's up to the guild and the person being invited.
4. Normal CS will be available during this time, as it always is. So if someone is causing a disruption it's just as easy as ever to get help in taming that disruption.

What's missing? People are being made aware of a specific set of places that they can go to if they want to find a guild, or new guild mates. If the Community team were to show up, we wouldn't be doing much more than handing out cookies, etc. We would not make it any easier to find a guild, or new guild mates. There is no system that depends on our presence for that. It's the weekend, and there are many servers, so the odds of us trying to show up and then be fair and show up on all the servers are quite low. Guides could certainly show up, if they want to, as could a GM at random, or even one of us Community folks... but it's not something that will be planned, and our presence would do nothing to enhance the event.The Guild Fair is about people finding people, and honestly me standing around shooting off fireworks would cause more of a distraction than a help. Same for Eovania on the EU servers... no necessity is met by that presence. So I don't see much merit in what you are trying to say here.Your comment about Fan Faire was good message board drama though.

1. So what was created? How many people actually visit the boards? If uyou don't tell people in game a lot of people will not hear about it. I would guess the majority of people that post on these boards, on a regular basis, already have a guild and do not need this. 2+3. Yeah, but what does that have to do with the Guild Fair that YOUR team wanted to set up?4. Meh...How were people notified? again, you either don't know about your player base or are misinformed. If SOE set this up, then it would stand to reason that someone from SOE would at least show up and do a few things. To state that your presence would do nothing to enhance the event is just ludicrous. People run from zones away when there is a GM event or a GM standing around talking to people. There was a lot of potential but it all fell flat because SOE felt their presence was not warrented in an SOE planned event. Oh, nice mocking with the "board drama" statement. It really becomes you when you mock your paying customers.