Poaching of players should be banned

[Deborah M]

On the bright side, most high demand fellowships are happy to embrace you when you have the time, happy to let you go if you want a break, and happy to welcome you back for visits. As long as you don't get all dramalicious or actually make them boot you.

Good thing too. i just looked at the top ranked FS I left 2 1/2 years ago and there are only 4 members still there since when I left. WOW! I figured there would be some differences because I know of top players who have left but I was not expecting that.

 

[Lelanya]

Wow @Concho Star
Is there a chance that this player is impacting your enjoyment of the game? I seem to recall a rule about that.

 

[Concho Star]

He did at first, but he hasn't messaged me or anyone else in my fs that I know of since I told him nobody was interested in joining his fs.

 

[Darielle]

I have mixed feelings about this. I have had a few members poached from my FS. It is very disheartening when someone we have really tried to help advance their city gets poached. I do count myself lucky that most of our members are long-term so I don't worry about it too much. The funny one is that other FS have tried to poach my husband's city a few times. That's not all bad. It is a compliment to him even if there isn't a chance of him switching FS. On the other hand, it really was a big benefit to my game when I was poached a couple of times. Had I not been poached for the #3 FS and then the #1 FS on Elcy way back when, I'm sure my game, priorities and game style would have been very different. Sadly, my first FS doesn't even exist anymore.

My feelings mesh with yours, and I'm sad that my first fellowship no longer exists (although I am very happy that 4 members of that long ago group are in my current fellowship.)

Poached members who were never meant to leave often come back happier and more dedicated to the group than before they left. There's something about your "true" home that calls to you no matter how far you stray. And if they don't come back ... well that just means they found their true home elsewhere. Better to find that out sooner rather than later, because restless players make for a restless fellowship. Just search for the one that's a perfect fit to fill that slot. There's always another Deborah or Darielle or any of our best players out there, no matter how hard it is to find them. We just have to keep plugging (an endless task, I know.)

 

[Ashrem]

If people are content, they won't leave. If they leave, they were not content. Messages from other groups might be the trigger, but they are almost never the cause of someone leaving. Attaching too much of our feelings of enjoyment to how the fellowship we are running is doing is probably relying too heavily on external validation.

It's a game. In Elvenar, for some people, attracting better players to their team is the game. The devs created that by making fellowships integral to certain categories of success, so they are unlikely to (and to my thinking, shouldn't) interfere in that.

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

people are of a varied mix, morality and ethics comes in a vast array and used (or not) in degrees suited to the situation they are dealing with,, i could keep going but...

 

[BrinDarby]

Poach me plz ..... (sinya)

 

[SoggyShorts]

One of my members sent me the email and it was very deceptive, making promises of rewards that are not guaranteed, such as getting 125 diamonds every week from the spire. He didn't tell the members that they have to reach that goal themselves to get those rewards, even if the fs as a whole reaches that level.

To be fair, that's just a basic mechanic of the spire, and when I invite someone and mention the 275 diamonds they'd get from joining a Gold Spire FS I don't mention that they need to pull their weight to get it, I assume they know that.
The rest of your post I agree with though, that guy sounds like he sucks.

 

[Myne]

Good thing too. i just looked at the top ranked FS I left 2 1/2 years ago and there are only 4 members still there since when I left. WOW! I figured there would be some differences because I know of top players who have left but I was not expecting that.

a good fellowship is a lot of work. Maybe they got burnout.

 

[Mirai]

Being arch of a team of about 18 folks, we're always recruiting, because in real life there's going to be a little churn - last January we were smaller and took in all of a smaller fellowship, one of whom, bounced because it was "too busy" (at the start of the January FA), and a couple of whom faded from playing over the next few months, but the core 3 of whom are good players - who have been playing for years - without having seen the Pits of an FA before, or that tenth chest in Tourney.

It's not hard to recruit solo players - one finds them on the World Map, just up or down from oneself in the stats list, here in the forums, and some few on Elvenstats (though the latter offers way too many dead accounts to be really effective, alas). But as to inviting smaller fellowships: we've just invited a group of three to *all* join, as we did with that FS of six in January. We don't care if they're small, and the comradeship of folks who've alreay been playing together just adds good things to the connection in the larger groups. Seeing someone light up over what it means to get that tenth chest in tourney, who has been playing for years before seeing it at all, is awesome.

I guess what I'm musing is, why would folks poach when they can throw the doors wide open to welcome all of a smaller group?

 

[defiantoneks]

I guess what I'm musing is, why would folks poach when they can throw the doors wide open to welcome all of a smaller group?

finding GOOD players is hard. when you open the doors and let anyone join what seems to happen most is that you get some newb who joins on day 1 or 2 of playing, then vanishes. and you wait a decent period of time to see if they're coming back, boot them, and start again with some random newb joining. if you "poach" a player from somewhere it's because you see they visit often, are active, maybe they trade with you, you've checked their history. so you're figuring you get a good solid regular player instead of a spot filled continually with inactive people who were just fiddling around.

 

[Deborah M]

I tried leaving our FS on open to join. It was exactly as @defiantoneks described. After a disappointing revolving door of brand new players I had to give up. I’ve never poached any players so I just wait for a message or request. So far so good We have 22 solid members so no complaints here.

 

[Myne]

Being arch of a team of about 18 folks, we're always recruiting, because in real life there's going to be a little churn - last January we were smaller and took in all of a smaller fellowship, one of whom, bounced because it was "too busy" (at the start of the January FA), and a couple of whom faded from playing over the next few months, but the core 3 of whom are good players - who have been playing for years - without having seen the Pits of an FA before, or that tenth chest in Tourney.

It's not hard to recruit solo players - one finds them on the World Map, just up or down from oneself in the stats list, here in the forums, and some few on Elvenstats (though the latter offers way too many dead accounts to be really effective, alas). But as to inviting smaller fellowships: we've just invited a group of three to *all* join, as we did with that FS of six in January. We don't care if they're small, and the comradeship of folks who've alreay been playing together just adds good things to the connection in the larger groups. Seeing someone light up over what it means to get that tenth chest in tourney, who has been playing for years before seeing it at all, is awesome.

I guess what I'm musing is, why would folks poach when they can throw the doors wide open to welcome all of a smaller group?

I have offered that too. The acceptance rate seems to be even smaller than individuals. The secret to using elvenstats is to go about 10 pages down from your fellowship in the listings and start looking by entering the fellowship into elvenstats. You might be surprised. As I said it's a lot of work. But then, team building always is.

 

[Myne]

finding GOOD players is hard. when you open the doors and let anyone join what seems to happen most is that you get some newb who joins on day 1 or 2 of playing, then vanishes. and you wait a decent period of time to see if they're coming back, boot them, and start again with some random newb joining. if you "poach" a player from somewhere it's because you see they visit often, are active, maybe they trade with you, you've checked their history. so you're figuring you get a good solid regular player instead of a spot filled continually with inactive people who were just fiddling around.

GENERALLY when I open membership, I only leave it open for a few days, then close it no matter how many I get. I recently had to do that due to some retiring from play. I got lucky this time and only got 2 newbs, which have turned out well so far. I also got two players above chapter 8, so it worked better for me this time.

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

i wont approach (i really just realised how close the 2 words are) a fellowship that is all active no matter what the amount of members are, but if it's half to a third inactive, some are scoring some are not, i'll chat up a player or two there .. when i am looking
as previously stated it's kinda hard to keep a full set of active players no matter how good the fellowship, i am speaking of fellowships who like to get the spire, tournament and adventure rewards

 

[MEGHANN1965]

When my FS is inviting people, I check to see when the last time they played was, what their boosts are, and whether they stay for any length of time. I don't particularly care if they jump from fs to fs, but I'd like to think that they'll enjoy the stability of our FS.
I also check to be sure the person/s aren't already affiliated with a fellowship because it's easier for us to offer them help if they're not already at the top of the food chain.

 

[Muttmommy]

I was in a fellowship for over a year that was not a good match for me. I stayed because I liked the people; we had some good chats. But, the frustration was always there as I would spend huge resources to do way more than my share in the tournaments and still couldn't get blueprints because not enough members cared to do their best. The frustration finally got to me and I began looking for another fellowship, though with limited time to play, had not found one yet. So, when a good fit offered me a place, I moved. I would have eventually moved on anyway. Much happier with the game now and though I've been offered other moves, I'm staying put. Thing is, if I had been happy in that first fellowship, I would not have left.

 

[Dew Spinner]

I was in a fellowship for over a year that was not a good match for me. I stayed because I liked the people; we had some good chats. But, the frustration was always there as I would spend huge resources to do way more than my share in the tournaments and still couldn't get blueprints because not enough members cared to do their best. The frustration finally got to me and I began looking for another fellowship, though with limited time to play, had not found one yet. So, when a good fit offered me a place, I moved. I would have eventually moved on anyway. Much happier with the game now and though I've been offered other moves, I'm staying put. Thing is, if I had been happy in that first fellowship, I would not have left.

Unfortunately, too many AMs don't understand this basic concept and think they "own" players. Players are free to move on if they are not content with their current FS. I have moved on from a few for the same reason you stated, I got sick of expending tons of troops and goods for other FS members to jump on Tournament and drop 30 to 300 pts to get the same prizes.

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

if it were easy to keep a fellowship viable everyone would be doing it .. we started with the "we play for goodies as a team" from day 1 and grew .. the top 1-5 fellowship would constantly try to poach members (and still do btw), because they knew we built good players, the only people i have ever seen poaching are the fellowships on page one because they are ocd rank freaks (had to clean that word up) who are to scared to drop from 3rd to 4th or 4th to 5th etc and to lazy to develope their own players

 

[Deborah M]

if it were easy to keep a fellowship viable everyone would be doing it .. we started with the "we play for goodies as a team" from day 1 and grew .. the top 1-5 fellowship would constantly try to poach members (and still do btw), because they knew we built good players, the only people i have ever seen poaching are the fellowships on page one because they are ocd rank freaks (had to clean that word up) who are to scared to drop from 3rd to 4th or 4th to 5th etc and to lazy to develope their own players

Ranking really does matter to a lot of players. Just not most of the players on the Forum. Why would they want to be on the Forum? I've always heard that many feel like the Forum is way, way too insulting to top ranked players and players who spend real $ and have a play style that is so poo pooed here. Take "ocd rank freaks" for example. FYI, they are not "scared". They just have a goal they you all don't seem to grasp or at least don't value. Just sayin'. This I know because for years in what was then #3 ranked FS and then long time #1 ranked FS, I was the one who passed on Forum information and answered questions that I could find answers to on the Forum. The truth of the matter is that to a large extent they can't really develop newer players and maintain their Spire, Tournament, growth, etc. expectations. It is also true that quite often players who are approached by a top ranked FS are more than happy to jump ship from the many FSs made up of players who do not value their ranking growth.

You all need to ask why all games have rankings. At least every game I've ever seen. The negative attitude here toward ranking growth makes it pretty easy to poach a lot of players.