Looking for advice

Hello,
I don't know where to post this, but this is essentially an advice message, so I hope I'm not going to come off as a recruiter.

I am an officer in Warriors of Neversummer WoN. We have a group of about 18 members, and about half of us are active players. We tried GvG once and we lost the match. So, our rank is something like 4000! Many of us have finished the game with at least one character, and we would like to get into the PvP portion of the game.

I am wondering what other people think about guilds that are in my situation. What is the best way to get ahead? Should I be actively recruiting in towns in order to raise our member base? Or should I just sit back patiently and invite people one by one when I meet like-minded individuals. I ask because I don't want to just get random people who might turn out to be jerks. And on the flip-side, I have found that most cool people are already in guilds, so I don't want to talk them into leaving the group they are already in.

I'm just looking for some insight. You are also welcome to contact me in game. I am Yano Mirndon.

Thank you, and have fun gaming!!!

This looks a lot like advertising a guild to me, and that isn't allowed in this forum.

That's funny, it seems to me that I am explaining who we are and then asking for advice...............

If you PvP regularly, which I think you do (4000 x_x surely one match wont cost you that much @_@), then no, you don't need to recruit. However, you need to work on your strategy and builds. I dont think anyone can give you advice on that one if we have no input on what you do in pvp.

We just did one match. We lost maybe 26 points and our rating went off into the under 1000 realm. So, our rank is like 4001. (maybe i am using the words rank and rating wrong.)
Just want to know if other people have risen from a situation like this and what types of strategies they used to build a guild of like-minded people that would work for pvp when most people already seem to be in guilds at the high end.

yes ... unfortunately you politely come off (imho) as recruiting here ... states name, guild name, * leaves in game contact info plus a 1 paragraph speel about your guild etc ...

but along your inquiry ... I too am an officer ... we prefer the slow build of recruiting like minded individuals ... 1 key addition can out weigh 3 poor additions. I prefer to travel with people through a few quests maybe u/w or fissure to see what it is like with them first. Actively recruiting in towns is a terrible way to recruit. Ask anyone who does it.

As far as getting ahead, you already are ahead ... 18 members is a fair size, we try to keep ours low. ... we are at about 12-14ish.

What I think arnansnow means is that it could easily be conceived as an attempt at recruitment, which you could in turn have prevented by maintaining anonymity without sacraficing any substance of your topic.

That is, you could drop names and still be asking for advice without treading on thin ice.

Don't take the post with too much hostility, rules are set forth for all to obey, and ignorance is never a valid excuse. Whether you've broken one or not has yet to be shown, so that's a non-issue. Arnansnow was simply pointing out that you may have broken a forum rule.

Of which reporting the thread to a moderator to be dealt with accordingly would be more professional.

That being said, let's not address that any more.

As for recruitment, as a former guild leader on another MMORPG, I find that a small base of like-minded people to start out with will eventually grow on its own. Those people who are not guild leader will make friends, some of which will not have guilds, and they will most likely attempt to persuade their guildless friends to check out the guild, and them being guildless are likely to join, at least for a little. Membership grows in bursts like that.

However, membership doesn't look like the largest issue. 8 active players scheduled on at the same time is all that is needed to battle. If you have an active forum, consult with them and plan what chars the group will take into combat.
Start with the tombs to try a concept out. If you need inspiration for your team builds, simply browse GWGuru.
Practice, use tools such as Teamspeak or Ventrilo for greater coordination, and THEN Guild versus Guild.

Improving your rank accomplishes 2 things:
1) Shows your existing members your guild isn't a lost cause (For PvP-centric members, anyway. PvE won't care as much.). That with a little effort, you can garner victory. Not just luck.
2) Increases your value to potential guild members. Even if they do like you as a person, they may still wish to get into a guild that's going somewhere. If your guild doesn't fit that bill, you may have just lost a valuable member. Happens a lot. In other games, where the friends list means a lot more, this isn't quite so important. But in Guild Wars, it's not uncommon at all to lose touch completely with someone on your friends list.

There's one other major way to improve the amount of members in a guild I can think of off the top of my head without sacraficing quality: Finding a similar small guild of people you could get along with easily and merging. There're a lot of great people out there you have yet to meet that would choose friends and guild mates similar to your own given the chance, and if you find an entire pre-made guild, it may be advisable to merge. Of course, that can also turn disastrous, so think carefully before doing so. (Guilds are torn apart easily by one singly controversial person. Real life friendships have been broken by online friends.)

I don't know all the rules here for posting. If my original post is in the wrong, then someone should delete it or lock the thread or something. The little comments about the nature of my message are really unnecessary.

However, the input has been very helpful. Thank you all very much. I will check out this thread later and see what other stuff people have to say.
I appreciate the kinds words of advice.