Well the issue is you say that for once you want to see people join and help out. I am not sure if you really understand the mentality of "what do I get out of it?" (but if you do then enough said. 
)
I think that it's a great idea that you have this motivation and you want your VG to be a success but the issue is people aren't going to sign on for anything unless they get something out of it. Simply helping you create your SG is not enough of a reward (even though helping someone in itself should be one.)
And yes, people are quitting the game for other MMOs but this is something I am hoping time and Rogue will help to fix. My thoughts are a lot like yours. It is hard to run something like that by yourself and the mentality of people joining and quitting when it's not some majestic and amazing VG would frustrate me too. I had a SG going or a while but it was hard to run by myself, and the people I entrusted to help me were more concerned with their personal in-game interests.
I helped to run a 1500 Member gaming community in Guilds Wars, Warhammer, and Age of Conan so I'll let you know some things that I learned. Recruiting has to be a constant. You have to get a bunch of people that are just as motivated as you to get new people in there and make them feel at home. But keep in mind that people will join and seem really cool or seem like they're going to stay forever, and then leave....and the bad part is it's going to be a dissapointment every single time. But you know what, deing dissapointed when they leave just means you care. That makes you a good VG leader.
Also, don't depend on the game alone to keep people interested. Talk with the members on a personal basis and form a friendship with as many people in your group as possible. (If you have vent that works great too for keeping people interested. Even if they are not in game they'll still be on vent hanging out and this improves their odds of coming back to YOUR VG when they take up CoX again.)
Also, come up with events and allow the members to participate and donate and even vote on events so that way they know they're part of a team and not just a number.
The most important thing of all (other then recruiting) is the atmosphere. Make your VG a nice place to be by promoting people based on their contributions AND personality. Something that I took with me from the gaming community I use to help run is that you never let someone who has obvious personality issues in a position of power because believe me when I say this: "They WILL take down members in their wake as they destroy the atmosphere you have worked so hard to create." People log in to have fun not deal with drama. If the VG has drama people will leave so fast you won't even know what happened. So, you want to focus on quality over quantity (no matter cliche it may seem, it's absolutely right.)
That's about all I can say about the issue. I really am sorry that you're having troubles with your VG and I hope that everything works out great for you. It sounds like you really care about the game and your VG. There should be more of you around
(If you wanted to discuss anything further please feel free. I'll subscribe to this thread for you and of course you could always send me a Tell in-game or a Message on the forums.)
My Global Chat Handle: @The Dreaming Shadow
Well thanks for that, honestly it's not all about my VG alone, I've joined a few that were up and comers (and still a part of them as well grinding out prestige to help them get along) and I see it all the time, not just mine but all the others. We have vent, but its not on a stable server so I don't advertise it much. We have a site that I put over 40 work-hours into to set up, redesign and code modules for it so we have a VG roster and application process.
Kinda reminds me of how much work I've put into my Social Networking site. I'm used to doing ALOT of things solo... Doesn't mean I enjoy it. >.>
Well, you mentioned this issue on my LFSG/VG post, so I feel it's fair to reply here to your discussion.
I have found that small groups expect their early members to be leaders; to recruit, to build, to create teaming and stories, and so on. I, myself, am not a leader. I can be an excellent follower -- I roleplay decently; even creatively. I put a lot of effort into my characters, and people often enjoy being around them in my company. I can play often, and can earn large amounts of prestige. I don't like seeing new groups I put my heart into dissolving because they couldn't get up to critical mass. So, my criterion for joining a SG/VG is that it meet a threshold of consistent activity. Once there, I can add to it; I can play a lot, I'm creative, respectful, and while I absolutely will not lead, I can be a good, supportive team member.
The stage of a group where it needs to grow is one where you need certain kinds of players; people who enjoy, or at least tolerate, those early development roles; and are willing to risk the group not making it. Some of us just aren't those kinds of people.
I can not speak for anyone else, but in my experience I just don't like being part of largely inactive SGs/Guilds/Societies, etc. I have a limited time to play each day - if I have to spend literally half of my time either forming or looking for groups then I am not having fun and not getting my money's worth out of the game.
That said, I've been part of new groups before and I find that the experience is either very rewarding or very antagonistic. Not much grey in between the two, in my experiences, which is a shame.
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Yeah, I don't consider myself leadership material, however I am a motivated individual (got the whole base up and going with full teleporters before even recruiting my first person in it) But yeah, alot of people are pretty much 1 of 3 types, 1. Looking for the "Easy" way to get teams and level, 2. Wanting something active, a decent amount of chatter and a team here and there to join. or 3. Looking to be the helpful foundation to move another SG/VG up the ranks on the boards.|
Originally Posted by Ardrea
Well, you mentioned this issue on my LFSG/VG post, so I feel it's fair to reply here to your discussion.
I have found that small groups expect their early members to be leaders; to recruit, to build, to create teaming and stories, and so on. I, myself, am not a leader. I can be an excellent follower -- I roleplay decently; even creatively. I put a lot of effort into my characters, and people often enjoy being around them in my company. I can play often, and can earn large amounts of prestige. I don't like seeing new groups I put my heart into dissolving because they couldn't get up to critical mass. So, my criterion for joining a SG/VG is that it meet a threshold of consistent activity. Once there, I can add to it; I can play a lot, I'm creative, respectful, and while I absolutely will not lead, I can be a good, supportive team member. The stage of a group where it needs to grow is one where you need certain kinds of players; people who enjoy, or at least tolerate, those early development roles; and are willing to risk the group not making it. Some of us just aren't those kinds of people. |
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Originally Posted by Psychoti
I can not speak for anyone else, but in my experience I just don't like being part of largely inactive SGs/Guilds/Societies, etc. I have a limited time to play each day - if I have to spend literally half of my time either forming or looking for groups then I am not having fun and not getting my money's worth out of the game.
That said, I've been part of new groups before and I find that the experience is either very rewarding or very antagonistic. Not much grey in between the two, in my experiences, which is a shame. |
Yeah, just swamp myself with having to set up another website, build another base, recruit more members.... Ok, I'm not doing that. screw that. lol Moving on!
And yeah I've tried several tactics to recruit as well (cept doin the whole gargoyle thing, I won't stoop that low) And nobody is biting. Even the people inside the VG have been on here and there but besides staying on CoH for a full 24 hours to try to catch someone online, I can't seem to grab anybody.
But oh well, perhaps soon I might end up with a flood of members I don't know what to do with sometime in the future.
As for all the people that join S/VG's on ANY server and leave within a few minutes... You need to stop being so picky. I once joined a starter before, I was number 3 in the roster and kept going at it. By the time a month was up, the entire roster was full, the base was huge and there was no less than 15 people online at any given time. So you never know people, that up and comer may be the next big thing. (Not me of course, Mine is gonna always suck because I ended up typoin the name upon creation. Villians instead of Villains and the GMs can't fix it)And Psychoti, I'm shocked you would even post on this. Your too cool for this school. XD
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I go where I am needed most, my son.|
Originally Posted by GibberingLunatic
....And Psychoti, I'm shocked you would even post on this. Your too cool for this school. XD
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/sarcasm
Seriously though, it's the activity that interests most people more than the size of the base and anything else.
And truly, I'm surprised I posted too - I thought my account had died earlier today.
I've joined a lot of start-up SGs/VGs. (Because I have a lot of alts, and I don't have a regular SG/VG.) I generally encounter things like:
- The supergroup leader being a new player simply disappears after a few months (or even a few weeks), because they got bored with the game and went off to the next MMO.
- The supergroup's members, which were recruited through spamming broadcast, all go inactive. (I'm guilty of it too, sure.)
- The supergroup members are members in name, so they are on the roster, but none of them wants to team with you, and try to avoid teaming with you. Same with whoever is on the coalition.
- The small SG/VG keeps telling me to make prestige, put on SG/VG colours, whatever, so they can build up. I do play in SG mode but I don't like people getting anal about what I have to do.
- And I play at weird times so everyone in the SG/VG is offline when I play.
So at the end of the day, I see a start-up SG/VG become a dead SG/VG, and then I just quit and go back to my 2 person "SG", where at least I know is quite comfy and has lots of space to dump my stuff 
"Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty." -- Plato
Playing Gods (51106) - Heroic Lvl 5-20
What Rough Beast (255143) - Villainous Lvl 40-50
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Hey Freem, Wanna join a VG? XD Honestly theres nearly 10 places to dump salvage, a place to dump insps, IO's and SO's or whatever, I don't require anything really, don't need SG mode on (its helpful though as I just expanded the bases building area recently) But I tend to grind out most of all the prestige needed for about anything myself. |
Originally Posted by Freem
I've joined a lot of start-up SGs/VGs. (Because I have a lot of alts, and I don't have a regular SG/VG.) I generally encounter things like:
- The supergroup leader being a new player simply disappears after a few months (or even a few weeks), because they got bored with the game and went off to the next MMO. - The supergroup's members, which were recruited through spamming broadcast, all go inactive. (I'm guilty of it too, sure.) - The supergroup members are members in name, so they are on the roster, but none of them wants to team with you, and try to avoid teaming with you. Same with whoever is on the coalition. - The small SG/VG keeps telling me to make prestige, put on SG/VG colours, whatever, so they can build up. I do play in SG mode but I don't like people getting anal about what I have to do. - And I play at weird times so everyone in the SG/VG is offline when I play. So at the end of the day, I see a start-up SG/VG become a dead SG/VG, and then I just quit and go back to my 2 person "SG", where at least I know is quite comfy and has lots of space to dump my stuff |
Or if you don't... Know any suck....I mean Villains who might want to?
And Psy, its VBulletin, Your @Global may be suspended however anything like removing you from the boards would need to be done manually. So your pretty much here to stay until the forum gods get bored of you. XD
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Don't leave me Psycho-chan!!! |
Originally Posted by Psychoti
And truly, I'm surprised I posted too - I thought my account had died earlier today.
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My Global Chat Handle: @The Dreaming Shadow
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This sounds a lot like my experiences. I have been in a good SG like last year at this time but it ended up dying; it was even in the server's top ten when I joined it.|
Originally Posted by Freem
I've joined a lot of start-up SGs/VGs. (Because I have a lot of alts, and I don't have a regular SG/VG.) I generally encounter things like:
- The supergroup leader being a new player simply disappears after a few months (or even a few weeks), because they got bored with the game and went off to the next MMO. - The supergroup's members, which were recruited through spamming broadcast, all go inactive. (I'm guilty of it too, sure.) - The supergroup members are members in name, so they are on the roster, but none of them wants to team with you, and try to avoid teaming with you. Same with whoever is on the coalition. - The small SG/VG keeps telling me to make prestige, put on SG/VG colours, whatever, so they can build up. I do play in SG mode but I don't like people getting anal about what I have to do. - And I play at weird times so everyone in the SG/VG is offline when I play. So at the end of the day, I see a start-up SG/VG become a dead SG/VG, and then I just quit and go back to my 2 person "SG", where at least I know is quite comfy and has lots of space to dump my stuff |
I don't think I caused that... O_O;
Myself, if I found an SG that had members on at my hours and who'd team with me, I'd happily enlist every toon I have in it, or at least be more than happy to say something like "I have a Bots/Dark MM who could really help us here, want me to go get her?" or something. Here's why: one thing I've seen in a couple of the SGs I joined was that they tended to be "Here's me, all my alts and all the alts of two or three of my friends, plus some lowbie nobodies we recruited via broadcast and rarely speak to," so I'm not sure about the "enlisting all my alts" thing there. I wouldn't want to be part of that sort of set-up.
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Almost the same deal with mine currently, just me, a few of my alts and another guy I recruited at one point when I first started thats stuck around for quite awhile and some of his alts just to stave off the drop in bonus prestige incase more members flee for the hills. But thats about it. Got a small coalition started and working on more, figure if we have other VG's in a Coalition with us that would = More people to team with (hopefully) and the plausability of more people joining my VG might increase. Though somehow I highly doubt it.
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Originally Posted by Clave_Dark_5
This sounds a lot like my experiences. I have been in a good SG like last year at this time but it ended up dying; it was even in the server's top ten when I joined it.
I don't think I caused that... O_O; Myself, if I found an SG that had members on at my hours and who'd team with me, I'd happily enlist every toon I have in it, or at least be more than happy to say something like "I have a Bots/Dark MM who could really help us here, want me to go get her?" or something. Here's why: one thing I've seen in a couple of the SGs I joined was that they tended to be "Here's me, all my alts and all the alts of two or three of my friends, plus some lowbie nobodies we recruited via broadcast and rarely speak to," so I'm not sure about the "enlisting all my alts" thing there. I wouldn't want to be part of that sort of set-up. |
i never say my group is active because i would rather have friendly people who choose to play the game rather than be forced to meet some prestige limits by deadlines. My sg has always been filled with great people that mesh well together and its a melting pot of races,religions,sexual orientations and age and it has worked. As always there are those who leave the sg but if its not a fit i wouldnt want them to stay and feel like they didnt want to be in it anyway. If they ask if my group is active i tell them at least five other groups that are more active than our group is and usually they are coalies that are more active but at least that way they find a fit.
I'm fine with joining small "start-up" super groups and actually prefer them to the mega active "top 100" groups. I enjoy groups with a small enough roster that I can actually remember who's who, and I like earning prestige that will actually be of help rather than just dumped in a gigantic pot of unused millions.
The problem is that just as many players demand active groups, many groups demand active players. I play 10-15 hours a week, but I play many different alts on several different servers. So any given toon that joins a group may get parked for weeks before it gets played again. Some groups are not okay with that and will dump the toon for inactivity.
What's your policy on inactivity? You mentioned an application process, which to me sounds like you take your group pretty seriously and probably except a certain level of commitment from members. Or are you okay with more casual players? If so, I think I'd be willing to join your group. Did you say which server you're on? I have villains without group membership on Champion and Guardian.
I find it funny how everybody wants to join a "Active" SG/VG and nobody wants to join the lowly startups.
). But just once I would like to see people willing to join a small-playerbase VG just to help it grow, not because they just want uber teams so they can hit that 50 and rarely ever sign into that toon ever again.
I've worked well over 2 months on my VG base, have been selective of recruits and not so selective doing open recruiting in Cap with a few replies and invites with them leaving a few days later because its not "active" enough for them.
Heres the problem, a SG/VG will never gain that fabled "Active" status if people join just to leave because its not active enough! Join the SG/VG and stick around! Grab some of your friends perhaps, pull them in too! I mean jeeze, When everybody has the ability to recruit they should DO SO! (I'm not talking from my own experience in my own VG alone, I mean the SG's I'm in and the VGs I'm in on several servers. I like helping the up-and-comers unlike most people I've run into)
Honestly this is insane and immensely stupid. This is why some people give up on having a SG/VG. Heck some people quit the game because of this (not me, I love it too much
Anybody elses thoughts? (And yes I'm recruiting, Yes I have a small playerbase, but a rather large VG base with all the grinding and inf from the BlackMarket I've dumped into it at horrible exchange rates for prestige to build the dang thing.)