Active RP FCs [Balmung]

[Faye]

I would agree. My only problem is having to apply on a website to join. I mean, I can just tell them I have an RPC wiki for my character so that sort of kills the entire point of applying. Not to mention that I have to sign up for the website to apply and that clogs up my email.   @_@

 

Most have you apply on a site because the site is mandatory/strongly encouraged because it's useful, if not necessary, for relaying information about events, character biographies, or even just chatting and getting to know your FC-mates. There's only so much information that can be posted and relayed in-game with the FC message having a short character limit and some people still not even bothering to look/read it. Also, most applications are OOC so having a Wiki profile doesn't help much!

[Yune]

I tend not to view this process as a waste of time, and a large part of my character's backstory revolves around how she didn't fit into a number of groups before finding a couple that she did - which in turn changed her in very profound ways.

 

This being said, I do sympathize with that mentality of just wanting to get to the 'destination' without the frustration and effort of the journey. Everyone wants to find their niche and it isn't always easy. FC's have ongoing storylines and when I stop and think about our own I realize that it keeps me busy to the point where I often don't get to RP with folks outside the group as much as I would like (and will be more proactive in "branching out" in the weeks/months to come as well because as much as I love our FC members, I know there are a lot of awesome RPers out there beyond our own borders).

 

Egh, I should've worded things a little better than I did. lol

 

I, too, value the journey more than the inevitable destination. I think my words were a little warped after my experiences on a non-RP server where I had some trial and error with an FC or two, and, as I mentioned, it was a land of constant and anonymous random invites where there literally was no effort involved whatsoever. Hence my natural apprehension of just signing onto one here. I still have to get it in my mind that FCs here function much differently and have different goals than they did over on my non-RP server.

 

I apologize for the confusion. I suppose I can see it both ways. Applying and going through the recruitment process is part of the journey to find your inevitable destination and can really benefit your IC development. Yet at the same time, I can also see meeting people naturally and one thing leading to another all ICly is also helping the journey. Two different paths of equal effort, all for the same benefit.

 

Again, I apologize. Just wanted to make sure I was conveying myself correctly.

 

Also to something you mentioned, Eva - Players are usually alright with unaffiliated people wandering the residential areas? I've thought of wandering a few times just to look at the effort people have put into their estates, but I always talk myself out of it for that feeling of not "belonging".

[Eva]

I would agree. My only problem is having to apply on a website to join. I mean, I can just tell them I have an RPC wiki for my character so that sort of kills the entire point of applying. Not to mention that I have to sign up for the website to apply and that clogs up my email.   @_@

 

Most have you apply on a site because the site is mandatory/strongly encouraged because it's useful, if not necessary, for relaying information about events, character biographies, or even just chatting and getting to know your FC-mates. There's only so much information that can be posted and relayed in-game with the FC message having a short character limit and some people still not even bothering to look/read it. Also, most applications are OOC so having a Wiki profile doesn't help much!

 

I agree with this! It's a pretty important medium to convey news, open discussions, and has a lot of benefits. To expand just a little on what Faye has said - and what I have done because I share your concerns about the email clutter - is you might create a separate email account for your character. It seems a little silly, but it has been especially helpful for us, and allows us to effectively compartmentalize things. Anything pertaining to our characters/game (including forum sign-up stuff, the RPC, art commissions, etc.) is all routed to that email address and it has made the "real life" email (which still gets more cluttered than I would like) a bit cleaner and easier to manage. Maybe setting up something like this may help.

[LiveVoltage]

I still find it incredibly unreasonable and ridiculous, regardless of the reasoning.   :I

[Faye]

Also to something you mentioned, Eva - Players are usually alright with unaffiliated people wandering the residential areas? I've thought of wandering a few times just to look at the effort people have put into their estates, but I always talk myself out of it for that feeling of not "belonging".

 

Most people are perfectly fine with strangers wandering around and taking a peek around their houses or listening in to their role-play, especially if it's a prospective member.  FC's have the option to close off their estates to the public, after all, so if they don't take that option they're at least in theory welcome to guests.

 

Edit: And in response to the website stuff, there are times when people can't get into the game at all (server maintenance, broken computer, expired subscription, away from home, etc.) so it's nice to have a website where members can still stay on touch, and still receive updates about the going-on's of the FC. I don't find signing up to Enjin websites and the like often results in much spam, but as Eva suggested, having multiple e-mail addresses is very helpful.

[Eva]

Also to something you mentioned, Eva - Players are usually alright with unaffiliated people wandering the residential areas? I've thought of wandering a few times just to look at the effort people have put into their estates, but I always talk myself out of it for that feeling of not "belonging".

We aren't always on-site, but we do use the place as a kind of hangout, and often train on the side yard. (Lavender Beds, Ward 1, Plot 15 - if you're ever interested or bored and want to see what we're up to). It's a small property (which we prefer) with individual rooms set up for those of the members who wished to sign up for that perk. The upstairs is set up like a lounge and the downstairs is a meeting room and office.

 

As a mercenary group, one of the facets is recruitment, so we're not turning folks away who are looking for honest work and stuff and "drive-bys" would seem natural. We get some non-RPers coming around just wanting to see the layout or whatever. But we have some members who have friends in other companies who visit. And it would make sense for prospective mercs to stop by to inquire (we did charity work before this and sort of earned a reputation ICly that way). That said, if folks from other companies had work for us, we're available in that capacity as well. In either case, the building is open to any who would want to take advantage of those services we offer. I envision most FC's with any sort of mission statement (e.g. not some kind of insular club or whatever) work in a similar fashion where prospective members and customers are welcome and encouraged.

 

The only thing that might ICly get you a hand slap (along with an OOC /tell explaining that it's only IC possibly!!) would be if you went downstairs to the meeting room or office, since that's usually reserved for company business.

 

TL;DR: Yes, we like visitors!!!!

[Melkire]

I still find it incredibly unreasonable and ridiculous, regardless of the reasoning.   :I

 

Not every RP FC has an application / application process, not every RP FC has a website, etc.

 

There's a wide variety of RP FCs out there. It's on the individual to go look for and find one that suits their preferences and needs.

 

Best way to go about it? Ask. Just... send people /tells and ask. I know it's hard as hell for shy people, but... this is the internet. No one knows who you are. And if your character / your RPC handle happens to gain a bad rep or something along those lines, you can always discard and draw.

 

In-game, look for people with "walk-ups welcome" in their Search Info. These people are usually very accommodating to begin with, so asking them about their FC, what they like about it, etc., should be fine.

[FreelanceWizard]

Also to something you mentioned, Eva - Players are usually alright with unaffiliated people wandering the residential areas? I've thought of wandering a few times just to look at the effort people have put into their estates, but I always talk myself out of it for that feeling of not "belonging".

 

To echo Eva's sentiment, we're not always around, but the Mysterium office (Mist 5, plot 24) is a place where you can drop by, announce yourself, and if we're there, we'll come RP with you. Like Crystalline, the Ivory Tower is an actual organization that does stuff, so prospective members and clients are welcome to come by.

[LiveVoltage]

@Melkire

Yeah, I know that. Im not internet shy, I just dont like having to go through a lengthy process without a guarantee that I will get in, but thats just me.

[Melkire]

@Melkire

Yeah, I know that. Im not internet shy, I just dont like having to go through a lengthy process without a guarantee that I will get in, but thats just me.

 

Oh, that bit about shyness was just in general, not directed at you specifically. :thumbsup:

[ArmachiA]

(One again I speak for the Night Blades and not for any FC on the server who isn't the Night Blades)

 

For the Night Blades, the forums are exceedingly important. Since we're large and also do endgame, saying stuff in FC about wanting to do stuff is going to get drowned out by all the chatter about how a Pirate is Free

 

http://www.nightblades.shivtr.com/events - is our Calander that people sign up to Raid with. We have people sign up so we know they CAN go. There's just nothing like that in game. As you can see, we do a lot of raiding (Team Gridania was taken down temporarily to reschedule it), 4/5 nights a week with different people, so it's the only way to keep that organized.

 

http://www.nightblades.shivtr.com/forum_threads/1816418?post=9697765#forum_post_9697765 - This is our Raid Schedule thread, where everyone puts their Ilvl, what they want to raid, how often, and what their schedule is. Again, just not possible in game and back the officers more aware of what people want us to set up.

 

RP events are also posted there, discussions of plot and lore, getting people into the guild ICLY. Without the forums, we would certainly drown and I encourage all our members to join it because without it we have no record of what they want from US. And that's important. It's our jobs as officers to get people where they want to go, and we just can't without people telling us in a place where we can see it.

 

Forums are very important for larger guilds, they're almost a necessity.

 

We use Shivtr, I've never had a spam email from them and I've been using it for like 5 years

~~~

 

ON RECRUITMENT:

 

We're actually fairly laid back. We have one major rule for getting into the Night Blades that some people might find "Elitist" which is sticking to lore - we're very into making sure no one breaks lore, but other than THAT we don't really have any set rules in place whether or not you can come in.

 

I know some RPFC's have an approval process that can take weeks, but ours will at most take days and that's only if I have to ask you a question about lore. To date, we've only turned down one person - because their character was blatantly lore breaky and they refused to work with the officers to help make it more lore appropriate. This doesn't happen often though, as a lot of our recruitment is word of mouth - the members enjoy being in our guild, they tell others to join our guild or people enjoy roleplaying with us in the community and they decide to join us that way - so they already know how we are so it's generally not an issue.

 

Honestly, looking through the "Big name FCs" in this game, none of them really have a lengthy recruiting process or seem that hard to get into. What great about the High Population FCs is that all the themes are different so they aren't even competing with each other and the smaller FCs seem to have very niche themes for people looking for something specific. It's pretty great, really.

 

ON HOUSING:

We have a lot of people who come hang out in the mansion of the NB (Plot 6, Ward 5 - Lavender Beds) who aren't in the NB. Some of them wait around and roleplay with us when they see us in the house (Since, with some exceptions, inside is generally considered IC). We welcome it! A few people have gotten into the NB that way, just walking in and roleplaying with us. We like people outside our FC. We even have an OOC LS for people to talk to us. Like the others said, we may not always be there, but if you see us, feel free to be like "So this is the Night blades HQ?" all in character.

 

Maybe FCs seem more intimidating then they are? We're really just a bunch of dorks...

[adam86]

In fairness most guilds use enjin now so multiple registrations are obsolete. Besides every application I did took no more than 15min. As a GM in various games I find website applications to be best. It makes monitoring applications easier, conveying information 10x easier, creating a warmer community and help address applicants RP and Lore knowledge  - Besides every online application usually requires a ingame meeting too

[Kellach Woods]

Maybe FCs seem more intimidating then they are? We're really just a bunch of dorks...

Can confirm as a shy person, across multiple games.

 

It's really dumb sometimes but I'd be more comfortable if I could actually do the application process in-game. I know why there's websites and all but I dunno, it'd be more comfortable for me. Like, if after that I have to join another forum for info or whatsits no problem but for the initial app? Eh.

 

just mah 2 gil is all.

[Yune]

It's really dumb sometimes but I'd be more comfortable if I could actually do the application process in-game. I know why there's websites and all but I dunno, it'd be more comfortable for me. Like, if after that I have to join another forum for info or whatsits no problem but for the initial app? Eh.

 

I can also understand the necessity for websites and such, and feel as you do in terms of the in-game process part of the application. I guess I just feel it's a bit of a courtesy or just being polite to actually allow the people in whatever FC in question who it is exactly that they're dealing with. Meeting up in game is pretty much the closest any of us will get to being face-to-face.

 

I'm sure once I find a decent FC that I'd like to try to get involved with, I'll go through whatever process is necessary because participation with said group will mean enough to make it all worth it in the end.