SWTOR Guild Liaison: DavidBass

[Tbone]

I'm not sure how this one slipped under our radar. SWTOR has assigned a liaison to work with guilds, David Bass (DavidBass). His intro thread is here.

If given the opportunity, get to know this guy. If there would have been someone like this around when we first released our challenge, things probably would have gone much smoother. I sent him a PM introducing us:

Hi David,


My name is Tbone, leader of the Furious Angels. I wanted to take the opportunity to say hello and welcome, and also give you a chance to become acquainted with our guild.

I'm excited to see what SWTOR has in store for guilds, and the fact that they have assigned a community liaison specifically for guilds is a good sign!

The Furious Angels is not your average guild, especially in our recruitment methods, which is the main reason I wanted to give you information on us.

Our main site is at http://www.thefuriousangels.com ..but our "recruitment challenge" website is http://www.followthesignal.net

We've developed a complex, interactive flash-based challenge website for recruitment, completely in RP. We released it a few months ago, with a great deal of controversy and success!

We sent out a cryptic PM to a large portion of the active community members/leaders, which prompted this thread:
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=216980

Once it was revealed that we were behind it, we went official with our guild recruitment thread:
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=217630

So if you see us speaking cryptically, it isn't nonsense, but is usually subtle hints to our recruitment challenge! I started the Furious Angels in The Matrix Online back in 2004. We are big into RP and PvP, but we were also known for enriching the community and working with the mods/devs to improve the game.

I understand that the SWTOR community is and will continue to be much larger than The Matrix Online's community, but I hope that FA will still be able to earn the reputation of a mature guild with members who want to see the game and community thrive!

If you have any questions about the Furious Angels, our recruitment methods, or anything else, don't hesitate to ask. Here's the contact info:


Tbone
Leader of Furious Angels
http://www.thefuriousangels.com
http://www.followthesignal.net
thetbone@gmail.com
Alignment: Republic


Thanks buddy!


-Tbone

[Arawn]

Wow!! Im even more excited now!! Can't wait till it comes out!

[Anamodiel]

Good find!

[Broin]

Wow where was this guy when we released.... But damn that is very awesome for them to have someone on staff dedicated to guilds.

[Tbone]

I got a reply:

Hello!

Follow The Signal was you guys?! I didn't realize that! I'm a huge fan of interactive sites like that, it was extremely well done.

I've been reaching out to guilds recently just to hear a few initial thoughts from guilds like yours. For example, what kinds of features do you feel are absolutely necessary for guilds at launch of a game? What kind of support would you like to see? What can we do right now during pre-launch to help you and your guild out with recruiting? Any thoughts you have will be much appreciated.

Thanks again,
DB

So guys...

What features do you want to see? What about support? And pre-launch ideas?

I'm compiling a list here.

[NoCry]

nice.

[Tbone]

I sent in our list and got a reply:

Thank you to you and the rest of the Furious Angels for the excellent feedback! Of course, I can't comment on much of it right now, but we've got some exciting things coming later this year that I think you'll really enjoy.

If you need anything else, please feel free to let me know.

Thanks,
DB

[Broin]

I say we come up with the "... anything else."  so that we can contact him again....

you know I do seem to remember a few MXO dev's stopping by our TS server on an occasion or two.  Maybe we should extend an invite to our next Monday meeting.

[Anamodiel]

That's really good that some of the developers know about followthesignal.net.

If we were to invite him to next weeks guild meeting, we would have to have some serious stuff to talk about. But that would be awesome if he came on to our Teamspeak...

[Adad]

I say we come up with the "... anything else."  so that we can contact him again....

'Beta Invites'

Done.

[Fuse]

I was thinking about having them in TS as well...

[Tbone]

Whoa...whoa there Sally...just because he asked to copy your homework assignment doesn't mean he wants to take you to the prom. I wouldn't buy that prom dress just yet.

There's no reason to pull him into our TS and there's no point in asking him anything about Beta or the game. A few things...

-We weren't the only people who he was asking feedback from. In his "welcome" post, he invited guilds to send him a PM, so I did. I'm sure everyone who sent him a PM got the same response: "Hey, what can we do to make things better".

-There's no reason for a SWTOR staff member to be in our TS unless they are in our guild. Even the times that in MxO when we did have a staff member in TS, it was either mildly inappropriate (we all know Eris had a crush on me...lol) or for a very good reason (the staff used us as a scapegoat for their mistake and wanted to privately apologize to us without the rest of the community knowing). Both times the staff member initiated coming into TS, not the other way around. If we were to try to convince him to join our TS, it better be because the sky is falling and is headed for his house!

-Very few people get into Beta by asking. And there still isn't a Beta for this game yet. There's a private Friends and Family server and selected weekend game testing. As soon as you start asking about Beta or about details of the game, you come off as needy - helping only for your own benefit. It's much better to have someone else vouch for you (which is how we got in MxO Beta)

-We aren't gonna get any details. No sense in sending anything that says "Are guilds going to have...? When does Beta...? Will we be able to...?" As he stated in his reply, he can't give any information out.

So then how does this help us? Well, we have a Staff member who knows us. He's familiar with our recruitment and hopefully passed on some of our ideas and gave us credit for them, which means now perhaps a few staff members are familiar with us. If we have any problems on the forums, with recruitment, or anything else, this will be our go-to guy and we won't have to explain everything to him - he'll know that we're the guild with the cool recruitment site that gave some good feedback.

So when should we contact him? Well, I'd say if they come out with any new guild features (like registering guilds on the website, for instance) then we could drop feedback on the new system or ask a question about it. Other than that, you can stalk his forum posts and always provide thoughtful commentary on whatever he's discussing.

In terms of testing the game, a friend requested a list from me because he knows a guy who knows a guy. If the list ever gets into the right hands, perhaps someone in the room will remember us from our website or our feedback and then we are good to go! That's really our best shot at this point.

[Anamodiel]

I hate how smart you are.

[Arawn]

I have to agree with T... We can't go out and be asking NOR buggin staff members just cause he spoke to us once... He probably sent hundreds if not thousands of those emails, don't expect we are famous just yet... And to be honest... I rather be not known than be on the black list.

Seriously, don't wanna fall into his beggars/naggers guild list

[Adad]

Very few people get into Beta by asking. And there still isn't a Beta for this game yet....

My beta key comment was 150% a joke.