Guild Recruitment

There are a few forms of guild recruitment currently available to wow players. You can post a "classified ad" on the official forums or on a forum of some other well known wow-related website. There are the local chat channels in-game, where you can spam your ad 100 times a day, if that's the kind of game you want to play. You can make a "mostly guild" dungeon or raid run and bring along others (guildless or not) and attempt to recruit them away from their current status and into your guild. You can have people fill out applications, go through interviews, prove themselves in a trial run somewhere, take them into the middle of knowwhere blindfolded then leave them to find the quickest way back to your guild's secret hiding place in some obscure cave in Winterspring. Bottom line is there are many avenues to follow, and all with differing results.


But what if there were an easier way, a more streamlined way of recruiting people, while keeping the previous avenues open (because as we know, some people like to do things the old fashioned way or not at all). I have an idea which may be totally insane or somewhat useful, I'll let ya'lls decide.


LFGLD Tool
An in-game browser designed to bring people of the same server together. Functioning somewhat like the previous LFG tool, players searching for a guild would be able to list their names (which listing would not disappear upon logging off, only manual removal by player would work). The named players would designate their primary and secondary (if applicable) spec, their race and class would be included. Race because there may be somebody out there who wants to create an all-Worgen guild or something, who knows? There would also be the options to classify your primary objectives: Raiding, PvP, Social, Leveling, Trolling, Gold Selling, Goblinism, Hacking, etc. The player would be able to select up to two additional objectives, but the primary is the reason you seek to be recruited.

Meahwhile, guild leaders who seek to recruit can browse the system, filtering according to their needs. So let's say that a PvP guild seeks to recruit a max-level, Horde BM Hunter who's primary objective is PvP, they can filter by race, class, spec, and primary objective and BAM! They found a few potential candidates. From there they can choose to approach them in whatever manner they see fit. They can have them fill out apps, run live with them to test their skills in real time, whatever they want.

Purpose
I have spoken before about the position some players (not all, btw) find themselves in once they land in a guild, primarily raiding guild. They may want to run as one spec but are asked to perform a secondary role. I am not going to discuss that further in this post, but the reason I'm suggesting the implementation of this LFGLD tool is because I believe one of the solutions that would allow more people to play their preferred spec is more targeted recruitment by guild and raid leaders.

It's my opinion, targeted recruiting helps all parties involved. One, it fills the exact roles a guild is searching for AND it allows the person being recruited to play the spec he/she prefers and is most likely best at. This, I believe, produces an effective and happy raider, less prone to conflict and more likely to perform well due to their intimate knowledge of the spec they love the most.

Ugh, I can't believe I'm going to say this, but out of a disclaimer attitude I feel I must. I know there are tons of people who perform exceedingly well in their dual specializations, I myself was an excellent healer and melee dps with my Shaman, both became natural and comfortable. But like I said, I don't want to go too far down this path, so...

Will it Work?
Is this a tool that would work on a realm to realm basis? Would it only work if you could list yourself over your battlegroup, or is realm only sufficient? Would you use it if you were looking for a guild? Would it be better than trying to post in trade chat, "LF Guild", then getting mocked at by trolls saying, "Go make your own, noob!"? I really don't know, it's just an idea.

I believe that it would be a useful recruiting tool, and it would allow someone who's guildless to just list themselves then go along their merry way playing the game until somebody responds. At that point both parties can do whatever they want to determine if the union will be a good fit or not. Personally I would use it, and given the changes to guild structures upcoming, I think guilds could use a tool to help them recruit better than sending out random invites to a list of people they are told are guildless (happens to me all the time and I decline every one).

Please, feel free to share your opinions or demolish my own, I don't claim to know if this would work or not, but I'd be curious to hear from you.