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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPatch 4.1 introduces guild finder feature
by Mathew McCurley 
Apr 23rd 2011 at 2:00PM
The new guild finder feature is available to leaders of established guilds and guildless players, making communication between prospective recruits and leaders easier. Only guilds that are actively looking for new members through the finder will appear in the guild finder interface. Guildless players can browse recruitment ads, while guild leaders are given the option to choose playstyles, types of content the guild is interested in doing, availability of members, and an optional comments section to discuss specifics. Hit the jump for the full announcement.
Patch 4.1: Guild Finder
In patch 4.1 we'll be introducing the Guild Finder, a new system designed to enable easier and faster guild recruitment. Guild leaders and players who are looking for a guild to call home will use the Guild Finder to meet one another and begin communications that can lead to a prosperous membership.
The Guild Finder is intended to act as an in-game bulletin board for guilds that are actively recruiting. Previously in World of Warcraft, your options were limited. You would have to publicly post on your realm forum message board, or speak to other players directly via private messages or the chat channels. That can be a time consuming process. Guild Finder will allow your "looking for new members" message to work 24 hours a day, accessible to all of the characters in your faction, from anywhere in the game.
A new Guild Finder button will now appear on your Micro Menu if you're either a guild leader or currently unguilded.
As a guild leader, you will indicate one or more of the common guild interests (such as PvP, Raids, or Role Playing), a general time of the week availability you're looking for (Weekdays or Weekends), and which class roles you seek from new members (Tank, Healer, Damage). The Comment field is where you can say anything you like about your guild and/or the sort of members you seek. Do you only accept female orcs? Is your guild slowly transitioning from 10-person to 25-person raiding? Perhaps you'll only accept new members who are available to play on Thursdays at noon? This is the place to say so, and help potential recruits determine whether your guild is what they're looking for.
From the perspective of an unguilded player, the Guild Finder allows you to browse through a list of the guilds currently looking for new members. Just launch the Guild Finder, tell it about your availability, class role, and the sorts of guild activities you're looking for, and then click "Browse Guilds." This will take you to the second tab, where you'll see a list of recruiting guilds that fit your profile. Here you can read about them, and if you like what you see, submit a request to join.
Requests submitted to recruiting guilds appear in the Requests tab. From this third tab, guild leaders can examine potential recruits and proceed with the final steps toward new membership.
Whether you're a guild leader looking to fill your ranks or a player looking for a guild that meets your strictest requirements, the Guild Finder provides an easy way to make new friends!
The Guild Finder is intended to act as an in-game bulletin board for guilds that are actively recruiting. Previously in World of Warcraft, your options were limited. You would have to publicly post on your realm forum message board, or speak to other players directly via private messages or the chat channels. That can be a time consuming process. Guild Finder will allow your "looking for new members" message to work 24 hours a day, accessible to all of the characters in your faction, from anywhere in the game.
A new Guild Finder button will now appear on your Micro Menu if you're either a guild leader or currently unguilded.
As a guild leader, you will indicate one or more of the common guild interests (such as PvP, Raids, or Role Playing), a general time of the week availability you're looking for (Weekdays or Weekends), and which class roles you seek from new members (Tank, Healer, Damage). The Comment field is where you can say anything you like about your guild and/or the sort of members you seek. Do you only accept female orcs? Is your guild slowly transitioning from 10-person to 25-person raiding? Perhaps you'll only accept new members who are available to play on Thursdays at noon? This is the place to say so, and help potential recruits determine whether your guild is what they're looking for.
From the perspective of an unguilded player, the Guild Finder allows you to browse through a list of the guilds currently looking for new members. Just launch the Guild Finder, tell it about your availability, class role, and the sorts of guild activities you're looking for, and then click "Browse Guilds." This will take you to the second tab, where you'll see a list of recruiting guilds that fit your profile. Here you can read about them, and if you like what you see, submit a request to join.
Requests submitted to recruiting guilds appear in the Requests tab. From this third tab, guild leaders can examine potential recruits and proceed with the final steps toward new membership.
Whether you're a guild leader looking to fill your ranks or a player looking for a guild that meets your strictest requirements, the Guild Finder provides an easy way to make new friends!
Personally, I am a huge fan of this system. Joining a new server on a whim is a headache sometimes, especially if your WoW friend base is relatively small. Joining up with like-minded people to level and play together could very easily transition into a capable and coordinated endgame group, plus the experience and reputation bonuses that come with guild leveling are excellent bonuses.
WoW Patch 4.1 is on the PTR, and WoW Insider has all the latest news for you -- from previews of the revamped Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub to new valor point mechanics and new archaeology items.
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Saeadame Apr 23rd 2011 3:24PM
After you get the experience bonus perk, most leveling types are willing to give you a try. I think the XP bonus is level 6? That's not that hard to get to. There are other guilds I know that have managed to get to level 10 for the heirloom cloaks, and they seem to do pretty good recruitment-wise. It's about billing other things than the perks. You know, organise guild runs of low level dungeons, or even regular max level dungeons and heroics for undergeared players. Make sure your members are helpful people who will help someone with a quest, stuff like that. Offer free repairs. There's lots of pluses to being in a friendly guild that is only level 6, versus being in a behemoth guild of unhelpful strangers that's level 25, you just have to pitch it properly.
Hor Apr 23rd 2011 3:26PM
@Stella - Guilds that are active should be hitting their GXP goals, my own guild is a 25 man raiding guild, we don't have more than maybe 40 active players and we're about to hit the level cap. I imagine 10 man guilds might have some difficulty, but it's the tradeoff for getting the same gear as 25 man guilds. We have a harder time recruiting in general 10 mans have a harder time getting perks, which if I read the rabble rabble correctly, amounts to basically the same thing.
busuan Apr 23rd 2011 3:46PM
I am having mixed feelings about the in-game match-making feature, LFG, group or guild.
In the old days (yes, I hold many secrets...) one had to constantly tell or yell in channels to set up a dungeon run. And when a tank or healer left in the middle of a run, one had to teleport back to a city to recruit. Such human interactions built up a culture of the realm, which was what really kept players.
In-game match-making feature allows fast or even instant gratification, while cutting away more chances for humans, particularly strangers, to interact.
Mister EDgAr Apr 23rd 2011 4:18PM
Wow! Can smell the fail from here! Blizz really needs to stop trying to come up with over night fixes for all of their failure and just remove what doesn't work.
guunt Apr 23rd 2011 4:55PM
I am also angry and insulting about a reasonably useful utility that will barely affect me.
Mister EDgAr Apr 23rd 2011 7:52PM
Aww look at you being all witty and stuff. I'll see you in 3 month when no one remember where that random guild thingy actually does.
Rhyndo Apr 23rd 2011 5:07PM
While it's a nice feature, it seems too simple for the advanced user. As someone who can only raid at a "niche" time on my realm, it potentially leaves a challenge looking for those guilds with the raid times I prefer with the lack of options built into it. Furthermore, not being able to access the panel while in a guild further makes it a bit inaccessible because I would not want leave my guild to use this feature in order to look up the information.
Either way, it seems like the old-fashion ways of posting in Trade and the realm forums aren't dead if you consider this.
Saitenyo Apr 23rd 2011 7:09PM
I think this is a really nice feature, personally. Sitting in trade chat and writing down guild names that seem interesting to look into later is not ideal, and not many guilds advertise of the realm forums on my server.
Even if actually finding the right fit requires some more detailed information (like specific availability times for raids) this is a great starting point to at least give people a list of guilds to look at and narrow down that are potential good fits.
Saitenyo Apr 23rd 2011 7:12PM
Some people might just pick based on level, sure, but that's not what everyone is looking for. If I have a choice between a level 1 guild that seems like a good fit for my interests and personality, vs. a much higher level guild that isn't as good of a fit, I'm going to go with the better fit, regardless of their level.
Noyou Apr 23rd 2011 7:32PM
I think the possibility is always there but generally those types of people looking for the BBD (bigger better deal) will do so regardless of the new looking for guild feature. What this will do I think it make it easier for unguilded people to hook up with a guild based on similar interests. I'm quite looking forward to it as a GM of a small social/leveling guild.
kurnos Apr 23rd 2011 8:10PM
its a good idea but i think it need 2 things to be really used well.
1. It need to be able to be seen by not only gm's but by a officer rank as well. In our guild we have a bank alt as the gm toon and we use 5 people as actual gm's. So for all of us to be able to see this would be awesome. ( WTB blizz make it so more than 1 person can be GM)
2. You need to be able to browse without leaving your current guild. A lot of people want to see whats around if they are not happy where they are but don't want to loose all the guild xp and perks etc just to look. until this happens, trade chat will still be full of guilds recruiting.
i hope it doesn't end up like the in game voice chat but it has a good chance of it till its made more available.
Noyou Apr 23rd 2011 9:33PM
I agree with your main point. It you should be able to have a co-GM. I will also say that having a "bank alt" as your GM is a horrible idea. In my guild I have 2 tiers of officers. Aside from this new feature they can do everything I can do. I think in medium to larger sized guilds having only one person be able to go through hundreds (possibly thousands) of people inquiring/applying to your guild would eat a big chunk of your time. It could potentially turn out to be as much of a suckfest as organizing the guild bank.
omedon666 Apr 23rd 2011 8:23PM
To the people complaining that you can't "shop around" while guilded, I have no sympathy if you joined a guild that you'd want to leave so soon.
Screen the guild before you join in the first place so you won't likely want to leave?...
Honestly, people are too quick to join guilds and disrespect their own time. The player-end screening should be just as intensive as the guild end. When people start respecting their own time more, these "shopping around from within" ideas will just be obsolete. That's possibly why there's no "shop from within the guild" feature: you're not meant to.
Take ownership of your time and your guild, but not before screening them as hard as (or harder than) they screened you.
Find out who's recruiting using this tool, seek out the officers, and have a HUMAN CONVERSATION.
There is no guild dissatisfaction issue (for worthwhile guilds anyway) that can't be solved in this way... not many of them anyway.
kvanje Apr 24th 2011 2:18AM
Of course there can be good reasons to want to look for a new guild without leaving your current one. Guilds evolve, sometimes in directions that take you away from the direction you wanted. Some guilds suffer from recruitment or burnout problems, and end up unable to perform the activities they'd hoped to. Screening a guild doesn't guarantee anything down the road, and I think it's silly to make people leave their friends just to browse.
omedon666 Apr 24th 2011 2:23AM
If they're you're friends, why are you browsing?
omedon666 Apr 24th 2011 2:31AM
My point is, every problem you named can be solved by taking ownership and showing some initiative as a member of the guild to organize what you'd like to do, including content and recruitment. A group of friends is worth the effort.
Wolfcat Apr 24th 2011 5:43PM
Amazing. I have a lvl 1 guild (59% to 2) that I've been trying my dangdest to recruit for and only have 23 members so far. If I could maybe get people without the possibility of annoying them via trade advertisements, that'd be awesome.
stevenshearing198807 Apr 26th 2011 12:46PM
This don't help the low level guilds much already many players are telling guild master no i wont join unless its at least level 10+.
One guy Ive come across is trying to start his own guild, his been trying for just under a month keeps getting whispers back saying "go away i don't want to join a level 1 guild" this is bad. He said that the only players he can seem to get into the guild are new players to the game and once they learn about perks they ask how do i leave, shortly after a few hours or so these players are gone and join better guilds.
The bigger problem he gets is when one finds out about perks they tell everyone in the guild chat and bang lots of members leave around 5 at a time.
Guessing low level guilds are not worth it , what happens when the other guilds fill up then ?, well that's simple the guild master kicks the lowbies under level 10 and Free's much room.
No more level 1 guilds would even have a chance, down with new guilds!.
Really this needs fixing or no more new guilds will come.
SumDuud Apr 25th 2011 7:27AM
Why is it so hard for them to offer checkboxes for raiding/pvping times? Could havethr days of the week and then the hours of the day. I know you can post it in the comments but to me weekdays/weekends as the only options seems like a waste of a field.
Elvgren Apr 25th 2011 12:52PM
Today's guild's are much more complex than this system will allow for.
Just taking my guild:
I am currently the designated GM of but do not "run" the guild. We have a group of officers who share the task. No support for that.
Unguilded only can view? Are there REALLY that many unguilded players? Not on my server. Absolutely should be open, both so people needing to change can look without losing all affiliation, and so guild leadership can be aware of what other guilds are offering folks.
We have a mix of casual, have fun, raider types, dungeon runners, a few pvp'ers, etc. So we'll just check everything? If we, and most, are checking everything ... then they haven't thought out the granularity of the choices very well.
Weekdays and Weekends? Again ... way too minimal a choice set. So minimal it's pretty useless. Every single option will require an explanation.
Basically this new feature shows the least possible work needed to get it in game. For all intents and purposes we'd be equally served by a "We are Recruiting checkbox on a text field.
Disappointing.