Difficulty with recruitment

[RykerStruvian]

I was just wondering if any other outfits are having problems recruiting people. My outfit is relatively new, nearing about a month old now. The problem is that the initial recruitment was successful and I had about 15 active people. Now, the numbers been bumped down to around 4 daily active people. I understand its the holidays and such, so that isn't necessarily an issue.

What is an issue is that I'm having a lot of difficulty recruiting people. I have posts here and on the main PS2 forums. I've been talking with other outfits as well and they have been having problems with recruitment. Is recruitment currently in a decline? I don't have any data yet (I'm starting a spreadsheet at least for my outfit) and I was curious on how I might be able to encourage recruitment.

[bpostal]

As hamma said in his latest Instant Action, alot of players are already in an outfit and those that aren't, are not exactly looking for one.
Couple in all the disincentives to play in a small outfit and you've got one giant shit sandwich.
Personally? I offer free blowjobs for every new recruit (but I don't mention the herpes) Your results may vary ;)
GL!

[james]

As bpostal said, 90 percent of people who want an outfit are already in one. On the activity front, the honey moon phase of the game seems to be over and the new game feeling is starting to go away. The game when you sit down in look at it, lacks a meta game, has some serious balance issues, and right now its a crappy bf3 times with 2000 players, where no one wins. Then add some major stability issues. So seeing pop number drop is not surprising.

[Tooterfish]

As bpostal said, 90 percent of people who want an outfit are already in one.

Agreed. Not sure why you added all the other stuff though.

[Rolfski]

Bpostal is hitting the nail here. Crappy blowjobs and already having an outfit is what makes people reluctant to look for a new one.

[DirkSmacker]

I don't know your specific situation apart from what you mentioned, but merging with similar outfits could be a solution.

[Sledgecrushr]

Ok so I looked at your website. I looked at your promo on the official website. Your website needs some love man, its hard to take a group seriously with a "under construction" sign on your website.

Also if you are going to advertise for new recruits then you should try and keep your outfit on the front page. I noticed the last post on the recruitment page was a week ago. Show humor and excitement in your posts and the new recruits will feel that as well. A halfhearted attempt and a lack of effort bringing in recruits will hamstring you from the start.

Good luck, and finish your website and keep hammering away at your http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?categories/outfit-recruiting.43/ page. Make funny videos!!!

[james]

Agreed. Not sure why you added all the other stuff though.

Less people playing equals less people looking for outfits. Plus i think in the beginning he said how his outfit only had 4 people active vs 15 normal

[StumpyTheOzzie]

give it another month and we'll start to see the generalist outfit amalgamations. Then you'll get 3-5 big zergy outfits per faction and the "specialist 1337 ninja blackops" outfits who are really just RL buddies making alliances.

[Graywolves]

We just list our squad and put "recruiting" in the description. Got a few decent guys over the course of the week.

[Rolfski]

On a more serious note, Sledgecrushr is having a point here. Profile is everything, make sure you stand out. Publishing high quality Youtubes is an excellent way to make people interested in your outfit.

[Hamma]

Sledgecrushr definitely has a point as does bpostal. It's hard recruiting for an outfit right now especially with the game essentially supporting huge outfits that are already well established.

[robocpf1]

If you're up to the challenge, just start sending people without outfit tags /tells and ask them if they'd be interested in joining.

I did that for years in PS1 when the game was in decline and managed to swell our ranks enough to keep us alive. I did that even when my outfit was one of the most well-known outfits in the game. For the years between 2007 and 2011 I talked up almost every No Outfit player I saw.

As a new outfit looking to expand, you cannot afford to wait for people to come to you. Go out and grab them.

Other than going out and actively hunting down No Outfit recruits, take the other advice in this thread. Clean, smooth website, a couple of good videos, "recruiting" squads, etc - but I'm telling you, while those things will certainly help, as a new small outfit there is no substitute for going into the field and recruiting people yourself.

[TheMarz]

out of 137 total members Ive only seen max of 10 on at a time if that for the last month or so.

[OCNSethy]

I generally play for a few hours once a day or every two days... as time allows. From my perspective, Im am not time rich. I enjoy hooking up with a squad with the insert function but here is why I havent joined an outfit.

Given my time constrains, I feel I would not be adding any benefit to an outfit. Im on at weird times and when i have to log off... I really have to go. I dont think that is fair to the outfit. I would seldom be able to be online during major ops or training given the times they are usually run.

Maybe some outfits would be okay with that, maybe not. I like being part of something bigger than just me but I would not like to be thought of as being inconsistant or unreliable.

I would suggest there are many people out there in the same boat as I am... Just my 2c worth as a 'pub / zerg' player.

[Helwyr]

If you're up to the challenge, just start sending people without outfit tags /tells and ask them if they'd be interested in joining.


Please don't do that.

[robocpf1]

Please don't do that.

Why would you tell him not to recruit for his outfit? It's not like I'm telling him to blind invite everyone he comes across, I'm telling him to start talking to people and recruit them the way people join groups in real life - through social interaction.

Some people don't want to trudge through pages of outfit ads on a forum. The majority of players aren't on the forum to begin with.

If he wants any of those players, he has to actively recruit - send them a /tell, start a conversation about his outfit and what they do, and see if the person is interested. Most people are not going to go to an external website, they are recruited in-game. Every time I've joined an outfit it's been through in-game interactions, not searching through the Classified ads on the PS2 forum.

[PhanttoM]

Well, I have no direct advice, but before myself and a buddy started our own little "friends of friends" outfit, I was browsing through the various outfits during beta.

The major difference with Planetside 2, is that people are expected to join outfits from the get-go, with zero chance of first getting to know anybody like you had to in "the old days" of joining clan/guilds.

Therefore, what I found most lacking on the offical forum recruitment pages, was a good description of what an outfit expected of people, and most importantly what kind of personalities they have in their outfit - These are people that you are gonna be spending your leisure time with, so IMO you absolutely must know if they are the type of people you can enjoy being around.

[Helwyr]

Why would you tell him not to recruit for his outfit? It's not like I'm telling him to blind invite everyone he comes across, I'm telling him to start talking to people and recruit them the way people join groups in real life - through social interaction. [...]


I don't want spam /tells from recruiting Corps while I'm playing anymore than spam Corp Invites. I'm sure many non Outfit players feel the same, if we want to join you we'll let you know. I cannot recall a single group in online games or of non gaming I joined from some random invite by /tell, email, call, or anything else like that.

[Hamma]

Then ignore them.. :p

[Wang]

I really didnt think it would be this hard...

[RykerStruvian]

I've tried running in-game squads where my outfit members and I could interact with pubbies. It wasn't bad but a lot of them just didn't show any sort of interest beyond being in a squad it seemed. Which is fine.

I guess right now there really isn't too much of an incentive to join a squad as opposed to joining the zerg. But even so I made some changes by making more elements public on my site and even started to build a screenshot slideshow :) Did get one new recruit overnight.

[Sledgecrushr]

Good job Ryker. The more interest, work and time you put into your outfit the faster it will grow. You almost have to be obsessive to make it all come together.

[SGTalon]

I think the biggest problem is just not enough people are sticking with the game. Of my outfit from PS1, we had at least 50 people log in for the free last month of PS1.

Out of all those guys there were about 10-15 that even made it to launch day. I brought in a bunch of RL friends that never played PS1 but they all want to play the new WoW expansion or World of Stupid Tanks.... I got a couple to log in ONCE!

It is very disappointing.

As it stands right now there are about 6-8 people from the old Outfit that play on a fairly regular basis. Have recruited a few guys that know of Virtual Hitmen from PS1 that are now in and I have recruited a about a dozen pubbies that actually stuck with the squad and were helpful in battle. But the best we have ever done is a single squad of Outfit members.

Usually we can bump that up to a 2 squad platoon by opening up to pubbies but it is hard.

I have started working on Training type squad stuff. Move to a base, use some actual tactics, talk about Sunderer placement, where to put people, work on communication etc. But we need to get people to quit wanting to just Zerg all the time. Work on Tactics. Work on overall continental tactics, don't just follow the current zerg to the big bases just to get the xp.

I have gained quite a few people in the last 2 weeks by trying to run the squads in an intelligent, organized way and they like the idea that there is more to the game than just the Zerg.

But the big problem is retaining those people and keeping them playing. If we can't get our longtime members to play the game, how do we get the pubbies to keep playing?

I still love the game. Every night that I log in, I have a great time. I love taking a continent that my side has abandoned and pushing back the lines while the enemy gets bogged down in the big bases. Next thing they know, we have taken back 30-50% of the continent and they didn't even realize it.

[Fear The Amish]

Good website, Pump the recruitment forums, Tweet Planetside2 with info, Video's, and most of all Open Recruitment squads. When running an open recruitment squad don't be obnoxious about it. Lead well communicate and when you achieve an objective just a simple "hey we are X we do this every night to join X i will put info in platoon chat". I pickup on average 3-4 members a week from the Recruitment forums, 5-6 from recruitment squads, Other methods maybe 1-2 a week. You need to make it a full time job.

Also to retain people you need to offer them stuff they can't get elsewhere. I make sure that we do event's like VIP night (split into 2 teams each team has a VIP, VIP moves at own pace have to keep him alive longest.), Death Races (race from point A to point B in a specific vehicle), Iron Man (like a death race but in a max suit). Those are just the general fun ones but also make a habit of setting a time and date for Organized and Effective squad play (people will show up for just those and not other stuff). Also if you are a smaller outfit try and settup alliance's with other small outfits and start working together to artificially inflate numbers (looks more impressive and makes these events more fun).

[kaysio]

Your not alone bud,

I finding myself in the same position.
Many of my new players, have gone back to BF3 or COD

I just cant seem to keep their interest in Planetside 2.

[SGTHACK]

My problem is, I work evenings and weekends. This is the time, outfits expect their members to play. I am off on Thurs. & Fridays. I usally play late at night, after midnight EST. So, it wouldn't be fair to an outfit or me to consider joining one. Sad state of affairs if I say so myself.....But, I do watch JennyBoo play in the early afternoons on twitchtv before going to work. She hammers for CDL flying or ground pounding....