The Bit Players play on the World of Warcraft Lothar server. Ours is an unusual hybrid guild, combining features of a casual group, the sort a small group of friends would start, and what most people think of as a hardcore “raiding” guild. That is to say, we do run many successful 10 and 25-person raid groups (see our raid progress here), but we're really mostly concerned that our members are reasonable, mature, drama-averse people who always treat each other well.
We don't care at all about your gear, level, or raiding experience. We figure those things can be gained easily enough, but personality is forever.
If you're thinking of playing along with us, please consider:
If you think this sounds like a group you might like to join, there are a few other things you need to know:
Whether you are a guest or a guildmember, we require Ventrilo (speakers or headphones are necessary, but not a microphone) if you want to come on one of our raids.
Inquiries about joining the guild are still welcome as long as you understand that we invite very slowly and carefully. While we're forced to take class into consideration, since too-severely unbalanced groups don't work, none of this trumps our primary criteria: personality.
The only way we'll know if you're a good fit for us (and the only way you'll know if we're a good fit for you) is if we play together. Hence, we tend to invite people to the guild only after we've been grouping with them for a while. There are two ways we try to make this easier. First, go ahead and sign up for our forums on this site (click the Backstage link at the top of this screen). Let an officer know that you're interested in joining and you'd like to be marked as a 'friend' of the guild. This will let you see an additional forum, and also will let you register for our guild events on this site's calendar (please bear in mind that guildmembers get priority invites to guild events, though). Even if you're not so much into planning when you'll play, in game type /join bitfriends. When we can't find Bit Players for groups, we usually ask in the bitfriends channel next, and it's a good way to get to meet us.
If you're looking for a guild that has a demanding (or even compulsory) raid schedule designed to grab as many server firsts as humanly possible, if your only objective is to acquire loot in the shortest possible time, if you believe that progression > everything else, and you're willing to group with jerks as long as they can play well, you will probably not enjoy being a member of this guild. We assume that World of Warcraft is a leisure-time pursuit, not the primary focus of its members' lives. "Life > Game," as we always say. If you aren't comfortable with that statement, you probably won't be comfortable here either.
That's not to say that we aren't driven to succeed. The Bit Players field several highly efficient and organized raid teams that are making significant inroads into end-game content, and doing so in a small fraction of the time that many "hardcore" guilds take to meet the same challenges.
But more even than play skill, we value common courtesy (not as common, unfortunately, as the name suggests) and maturity among our members. If you are truly motivated to treat people, not just guildmates, decently, if you actively try to avoid offending people or hurting their feelings when possible, and if you are searching for a group of mature people for cooperative play with a minimum of drama, this may indeed be the guild for you. This doesn't mean we're prudes - we do risqué humor as well as anyone. But, if you are of the opinion that courtesy and consideration are unimportant, if you believe that it is your absolute right to say whatever you please without any regard for what anyone else thinks or feels, or if you enjoy arguing simply for its own sake, you will not fit in here.
None of this should be taken to mean that you must check your opinions at the door. In fact, the exactly opposite is true. Instead of the typical "top-down" structure of most guilds, where officers dictate the rules to the membership, all Bit Players are welcome, even encouraged, to participate in open discussions of virtually all guild policies. Our rules are typically enacted by guild-wide vote, with guild officers receiving one vote apiece, the same as everyone else.
However, to make that system work, we need members who can maintain a calm, respectful demeanor, especially when they disagree, and who can accept the result of a fair vote without resentment. We are not interested in recruiting people prone to making ad hominem (personal) attacks, slinging insults, or who are going to bitch and moan whenever a vote doesn't come out exactly the way they wanted. We engage in reasonable, intellectual debate to establish fair policies everyone can live with, then we vote. At the end of the day, we all understand that direct democracy is inherently fair and accept that, outside of an absolute dictatorship, nobody always gets their way (all officers, including your guildmaster, get precisely one vote per issue, the same as the new member invited yesterday, and it works beautifully). If these ideas don't appeal to you, you should not apply.
If this hasn't scared you off and you do go on to apply for membership, please send Balton a personal message thorugh this site that reads "I like pie!" as soon as you do! (That lets us know you really read this :))
Yes, but not in the traditional sense. We run successful raid teams, but you do not have to raid to be a member in good standing. The guild is about comradeship and having decent people with whom to play. That includes, but is not limited to, raiding.
We run many "premade" raid groups, where a group of guildmembers meet at certain set times throughout the week to raid. We have multiple 10 and 25-person groups. New groups form all the time as people with the interest form them, and we encourage this. Even if you're not a member of a "premade" group, there are frequent opportunities to substitute in and play with them when, for whatever reason, a regular member can't make a raid.
However, a /ginvite doesn't come with a guarantee that you will immediately be invited to become a permanent member of one or more "premade" raid teams. Apply to join this guild only if you our basic philosophy appeals to you. That way, you will be happy here both before and after you find a spot in one or more regular raid groups.
As of this writing, The Bit Players is the largest guild on the Lothar server.
That having been said, we represent less than 1% of the server's Alliance population. We are selective and we do not issue /ginvites to the vast majority of the people who inquire. We really do insist upon quality over quantity.
No, not really, but we still issue /ginvites occasionally.
By that we mean that we are not actively seeking new members. However, when exceptional people express a desire to join, then go to the effort to get to know and even impress (positively, of course) current guildmembers, we do issue /ginvites.
Our application is posted on our Public Access forum. If you'd like to apply go ahead and read it, read about the guild on this site, and then post an application. In order to post an application you'll need to sign up for an account on our web site first.
Click the "Backstage" link and then follow the instructions for creating a new account. You will need to provide a working e-mail address to verify your account. Don't worry, we run a WoW guild, not a business, so we don't sell or trade your information to anyone. We hate spam at least as much as you do, and you won't get spam as a result of signing up for our site.
Some people assume that it's just a matter of time between when they submit an application and when they get an invitation. Because our application is only a small piece of the puzzle, the passage of time isn't actually the issue here. You might get in within a week or many months later (or never), depending on what you do next.
Even more important than the application to us is the impression that you make on our current members, upon whose opinions the guild officers rely when deciding who to invite. In short, applicants are invited to join the guild only after current Bit Players start talking to the guild officers about the applicant, posting good things about the applicant in response to their application, vouching personally for the applicant's conduct, and suggesting that this person would definitely be "Bit Player Material."
Put another way, it will take until you've impressed several current members (not just one or two) sufficiently to make them talk to officers about bringing you aboard. If you are always online and actively trying to connect with current Bit Players, if you make friends quickly and impress people, it could happen fairly soon. If you are a more private, quiet, reserved person, or if you play relatively infrequently, it might take slightly longer for you to get to know us and vice-versa.
Get to know current guildmembers.
Type this in game:
/join bitfriends
Done!
Bitfriends is our recruiting channel, so our members sometimes advertise there to round out groups. You should feel free to say 'hi' and engage in friendly chat, not necessarily about the game, as long as you're not disruptive. Get to know folks there.
Please do NOT use bitfriends it to recruit for or promote other guilds (yes, people have actually tried this, despite the channel name) or as a substitute for the trade channel.
First, you need to make an account on our site. Once you've done that, click the "Calendar" link in the Backstage area and look for events with little green squares next to them. Click the events, then on the registration drop-down menu select that you'd like to register as a Friend.
Bit Players get priority invites to Bit Player events; that's just a perk of being in the guild and you'll appreciate it once you're in. Even so, signing up as a Friend means we'll look to you first if we have room.
Please be patient. If you have one or more friends in the guild, encourage them to talk to an officer about your application or perhaps even post an endorsement to your application thread directly. No matter how many friends you have here, the officers are going to take a little time to chase them down and solicit opinions. Anyone can rattle off a list of current guildmembers and claim they are friends (this happens a lot, and it never works). We need to hear it from the guildmembers, not you.
Although there is no hard-and-fast rule, we like to get a broad cross-section of opinions before we /ginvite. That usually means at least three, and usually a few more than that unless those three all know the applicant very, very well and are really willing to put their reputations on the line to vouch for the applicant's good conduct.
Unless your family member lives under the same roof with you, having a relative here is like having a very good friend in the guild. We will certainly talk to them, and we will take that person's recommendation very much into account, but we're still going to ask around and try to get more opinions.
While no one is guaranteed admittance, if your significant other/spouse/child/parent/sibling is already a Bit Player, lives under the same roof with you, and will vouch for you unconditionally, you'll probably get in very quickly. To benefit from this you have to fall under what we affectionately call "the newspaper rule." By that, we mean that if you were to get into the guild and then conduct yourself badly, the related person who got you in would have to be able to whack you with a rolled-up newspaper over the breakfast table for being such a dork.
We allow alts over level 21, as long as you play them (no bank alts, mules, etc.) You may bring as many as you like, but you are not required to do so when you join with your main character.
We get a lot more applications than we can easily process, and every so often one slips between the cracks.
The best (translation: least pushy) way is to talk to a Bit Player who you know fairly well and ask THEM to petition a guild officer on your behalf. Since we need to hear recommendations from current guildmembers before we /ginvite, this is helpful to the poor folks saddled with the (completely unenviable - trust me) task of trying to make (to us) important decisions based upon frequently incomplete information.
Alternately, you might ask a Bit Player friend to post a reply to your application, which will bump it to the top of our forums.
However, if you set out to take that advice but can't think of any Bit Players you know well enough to feel completely comfortable asking, think again: it's a safe bet that THIS the reason you haven't gotten a /ginvite yet. You should probably focus your efforts on getting to know some guildmembers before you assume we've lost your app.
Please note that a Bit Player to whom you sold an enchant through the trade channel does not qualify as your "friend" for this purpose. Neither does the person who sent you to our web site when you asked about the guild. Randomly asking Bit Players who do not know you to say nice things will prompt awkward conversations like this, instead:
Officer: How well do you know the person?
Guildmember: Well, I think we ran the Blood Furnace together, but that was a while back. Seemed ok, I guess, didn't say much, but didn't wipe the raid either.
Officer: Well, do you feel comfortable vouching for the person's conduct? Would you say they are definitely "Bit Player Material?"
Guildmember: I really don't have a clue. I don't know them that well. I'm just telling you to get them off my back.
Officer: Ok, noted!
This gets you nowhere.
Likewise, name-dropping a bunch of Bit Players who barely know you (if at all) will just send an officer off on a wild goose chase because we DO follow up on such things. Eventually it'll be discovered that those folks aren't willing to vouch for you and it won't advance your cause.
Really, post the app to let us know that you are interested, use the tools provided (bitfriends channel, guild events calendar, guild forums, and in-game /who) to get to know some current members, and the rest will take care of itself.
Personality.
There's nothing wrong with being young. If you're reading this, it's safe to say that all of us were younger once than you are now. Many of our guildmembers have children and get along with youngsters just fine.
But we do look for maturity, because adolescent angst leads to drama, which we shun. In our experience, the average fifteen year old thinks they are far above average in terms of maturity. We don't have a cut-and-dry policy against young folks, but if you're young, you'd better be really, really exceptional.
No. Personality matters. Equipment is easily gained.
No. Personality matters. Raid experience is quickly and easily gained. You don't need to be a video-gaming prodigy to be a Bit Player, but you do need to willing to work as part of a team. This is part of the whole cooperative, mature gamer thing we're looking for.
No. Personality mattters. Levels are easily gained.
Although level doesn't matter to us, but it will be harder for you to get to know many Bit Players if your characters are all low-level. (Most of our members are approaching level 70.) This isn't our doing - it's a feature of Blizzard's game, which does not present challenges upon which level 20 characters and level 70 characters can reasonably collaborate. Either the lower-level folks gets slaughtered or the 70s doze off at their keyboards.
No. Personality matters. As of this writing, we are a little DPS-heavy and a little lacking in tanking and (to a lesser degree) healing. While it will be easier for you to get into a group (and, therefore, to meet people) if your character does one of the things we need right now, that is a feature of Blizzard's game, which requires class-balance, and not the result of a decision we have made to favor certain specs/classes. Moreover, this changes over time, as our roster changes, people respec, and so on.
No. Personality Matters. We have many guildmembers of both genders. In fact, our officers are split about 50/50.
If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to talk to any guild officer (anyone listed as a Producer, Director, or Director Alt on our cast page) or else send regular e-mail to Balton.