Yes, random apps are incredibly hard to judge. But geared people with friends who can vouch for them? Why wouldn't that be appealing? I certainly can understand a person being willing to leave their guild to play with RL friends, especially if the guild was falling apart.
I'm 100% positive Ruro was only referring to complete strangers. Actual friends, folks with whom guildmates are intimately familiar, are an entirely different and acceptable group of people.
Oh yeah, apparently I can't read.
Either way transfer apps must be very appealing to guilds that need geared people more than they need to their guild atmosphere intact. We have 40~ transfer apps that I know of right now, and more come every day, and we aren't even recruiting! I can't imagine how many apps DNT gets, or a big-name guild that is actually recruiting gets. The thing that sucks about transfer apps is that you are very much rolling the dice when you recruit them, because if they suck they just wasted $25 and 6 months of their time, plus there is no past history. It is pretty surprising when raid leaders and guild officers put up apps though, so much for loyalty!
Before the rather nasty message I posted on our front page, that seemed to get the point across we were fielding around 30-40 apps per day. Since then thankfully, it's slowed to a trickle. At DnT we have a rather unique perspective on the scenario, seeing as we've been recruiting cross server for probably close to 3 months. Having exhausted the available on server talent, we decided to try out a few rerolls from other servers, most notably a few people we took on from the Bloodsworn (i believe) leadership. Almost all of them have worked out exceptionally for us.
As for your comment about raid leaders, and officer, honestly these are the people I look for. If you examined the way most mid-tier guilds function it's very few people (5-10) usually in leadership positions dragging the rest along. I've been in this scenario, when I was in Discordia for example. We had a small number of highly skilled and motivated people, pulling the rest through the instances. Thus the people a top guild would look for to be cogs in the wheel, would be the top people from a smaller, less advanced guild.
Before the rather nasty message I posted on our front page, that seemed to get the point across we were fielding around 30-40 apps per day. Since then thankfully, it's slowed to a trickle. At DnT we have a rather unique perspective on the scenario, seeing as we've been recruiting cross server for probably close to 3 months. Having exhausted the available on server talent, we decided to try out a few rerolls from other servers, most notably a few people we took on from the Bloodsworn (i believe) leadership. Almost all of them have worked out exceptionally for us.
We've actually been doing the same thing for months (7-8?) now, taking rerolls and re-gearing them, pretty much every one has turned amazingly for us. The vast majority have also had ties within the guild before they rerolled, so of course that helps immensely. I'm sure the ex-Bloodsworn guys in your guild could tell you more if you asked, heh.
Ironically though, when we least need cross-server apps we get a ton. I've heard some insane stories about rerollers who want to join you guys already, luckily our server is both full and terrible so we don't have to worry about that.
Though I think paid transfers are a good thing, I can't imagine apping for a guild I have absolutely 0 ties to and just know by name alone. Seems like you'd have a lot to prove as a recruit.
Actually a fairly fascinating thing a guild member of mine brought up is that with the current server transfers WoW is now in a short lived age of "free agency", where players, especially Horde players, are going to try to end up in the best guild for them cross servers. It's going to be interesting to see what happens.
I would trust a complete reroll much more fully than a transfer. It takes ~14 full days of your time and a complete risk to level a new toon on a new server. If you xfer you can always play with your gear in a lesser guild and bide your time, but a reroll is a naked player with no gear, no rep, and potentially no friends leveling by himself with no gold handed to him, no items to twink with. Its a very dautning procedure before you factor in the fact you still have to app to said uberguild and hope the class you rolled to join is one that is still desireable once you have completed your leveling. You may have to sully your rep to gear for the uberguild, or may accidentally offend a friend of a member or a twink...its just a much bigger variable as a reroll, a much larger commitment when untagged, and it carries much more weight in my mind.
A lot of people have taken the 'going mercenary' approach from the transfers. In the end, I see a lot less 'second best' type guilds being around, and the top guilds getting a lot stronger for it. Everybody is just feeding off each other at this point, as an officer I'm looking at recruiting the officers and 'class leaders' of guilds below ours.
In my guild, we've got 3 bosses down in Naxx and should have 5 down by the end of next week, but our server is dying because everyone left and yet the hardware still lags. We need to transfer, but we can't survive a transfer due to all sorts of issues. Despite the troubles, I'm really, really impressed with my guilds progress in Naxx so far from an officer standpoint. On the other hand, however, I'd personally love to transfer and join a guild like DnT etc. Being an officer of a raiding guild for over a year is tiring, and I'd love to just be a good little soldier again. I've got the best possible gear in the game for my class/spec right now, 99% attendance rate for the past year with my guild I'm in now, but I'd love to be in a guild that never had to set foot in MC, BWL or Naxx again if it didn't want to. So I'm quite conflicted.
Ultimately what it comes down to is that if I left, I know my guild wouldn't last out the month. I'm not gonna have that on my conscience. But if the situation were slightly different, I'd be posting apps for every major alliance guild there is, just like everyone and their brother is right now.
Server transfers are akin to the economic globalisation of the world economy.
'Protected' national (local server) industries (guilds) that fail to compete will lose talent/resources to the globally successful ones.
'Local' talent will be replaced with 'foriegn' talent that are more skilful/hardworking etc..
It may be a harsher (more competitive) environment, but those with the talent and the drive will have more freedom and flexibility than ever before.
That said, this is just a game, and sometimes I really wonder if Blizzard intended for it to be so difficult to get into the endgame, and so insanely demanding to manage an endgame raiding guild.
I am on an Oceanic server, so there really isnt anywhere for most of my server population to go, though apparently thousands of Aussies/Kiwis/Asians now want to transfer onto our already horribly overpopulated and lagged server. (We are the only Oceanic PvE server that allows transfers in)
Before the rather nasty message I posted on our front page, that seemed to get the point across we were fielding around 30-40 apps per day. Since then thankfully, it's slowed to a trickle. At DnT we have a rather unique perspective on the scenario, seeing as we've been recruiting cross server for probably close to 3 months. Having exhausted the available on server talent, we decided to try out a few rerolls from other servers, most notably a few people we took on from the Bloodsworn (i believe) leadership. Almost all of them have worked out exceptionally for us.
We've actually been doing the same thing for months (7-8?) now, taking rerolls and re-gearing them, pretty much every one has turned amazingly for us. The vast majority have also had ties within the guild before they rerolled, so of course that helps immensely. I'm sure the ex-Bloodsworn guys in your guild could tell you more if you asked, heh.
Ironically though, when we least need cross-server apps we get a ton. I've heard some insane stories about rerollers who want to join you guys already, luckily our server is both full and terrible so we don't have to worry about that.
Though I think paid transfers are a good thing, I can't imagine apping for a guild I have absolutely 0 ties to and just know by name alone. Seems like you'd have a lot to prove as a recruit.
The reason for that seems obvious: just look at the Naxxramas progression thread.
As hard as you find it to judge a recruit as a guild, its just as hard to judge a guild as a recruit.
07/10/06, 5:38 PM
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