How to Create a Strong Order

A lot of people get frustrated at their order. They find themselves contributing more than their fair share and their order leader doesn't kick the inactive members or those being carried. It can be a frustrating position especially if you don't have the time to start, recruit, and run an order.

When done properly an order leaders job is easy to accomplish and runs smoothly, if done improperly it can seem like an uphill battle of losing a great member for every new great member you get.

Well, it isn't as tough as it seems. Oddly it parallels running a business quite a bit. First this will be a guide on how to create a good order from the start. The second part will list ways to improve or maintain a strong order while keeping it fun.

First Steps:

To begin with creating an order its important to understand that with the high amount of recruits needed in high end orders, there is little reason for somebody strong to join yours. In fact, there is pretty much no reason for somebody to join yours. Understanding this is important because it helps you appreciate the members you do get. When I see new orders with three members trying to recruit people with 85k+ and required to spend 200HP, I laugh.

When creating a post on a forum for Order recruitment it's important to hit on certain things. Everybody is putting 75-90k base as a requirement. This means that there is a huge pool of players below 75k base who are strong active players not being given a chance. These players are probably pretty annoyed and discouraged and will appreciate an Order looking for members in their range. As these players ramp up in power, they will be more likely to stay. An 85k+ member will jump ship the first time you perform poorly, keeping you in a vicious recruitment cycle. Nothing is much worse than always having to look for strong members because your strong members keep jumping ship. Eventually people will pick up on this and just not want to join.

As people join your order its important to create a welcoming atmosphere, especially as a newly created order. You do this by answering questions as they ask them and participating in chat. (Something I don't do, but I'm not the leader :P) By doing this you foster an environment of participation and as new members ask new questions, lots of people participate. An order with no messages is bound to have people leaving.

Events can make or break a new order. A player a while back posted a comment, I can't remember where and there are a lot of places. He mentioned that sometimes spending the extra HP during a Holy War, even if you won't make it back in rewards, is worth it because it increases your rank allowing you to recruit stronger players. Your first few events should be run with this mentality. It increases confidence in the members that are there, and increases your chances of easily picking up strong members down the road. (it's inevitable that some of your members will leave or become inactive, keep an eye open for these and replace as needed). If you're serious about making a strong order you will push the first couple events.

If your first event goes well, chances are you will retain strong members and can purge inactive members. If first event goes poorly, you may have a lot of recruiting to do as people jump ship but its important to find out why you did poorly. Post in chat and ask who spent what, who wasn't able to participate, etc. You do this to check for participation and effort. If a guy with a rare deck with 50k attack and defense spend all 20 of his saved HP but didn't do well because he could only attack once, that's significantly different than the guy with 75k who bought that SR card before the event leaving him with 30HP to spend. You want people who want to get stronger as a group.

Finally, make sure you have outside chat apps like line or palingro. Its necessary for quick communication since the in game chat is so limited. It also builds community.

How to Improve/Maintain an Order:

If your order is strong, chances are it maintains itself unless a big hitter quits the game in which case you have a list a mile long of replacements. If your order is new or mid ranked it can be tough to maintain quality membership.

Don't be a dick:
Do not complain or rage at your members for not doing enough. Remember you are a leader and this is a game. People get treated like shit enough in real life without having some faceless turd bitch at them. Keep your criticism positive. Don't talk about what they didn't do, talk about what they can do. Chances are people know when their decks are weak or they didn't contribute enough HP. Let them know how they can make more HP, how they can improve their deck, and what times you will be pushing for attacks. It will cut down on drama, and increase your orders respect for you.

Participate heavy:
Not only in events, but in conversations. An order that talks a lot, generally maintains members. People build connections and feel bad for leaving. It's a comfort thing.

Wtf happened to contests?:
Back in the days of Ultima Online guilds ran contests/events regularly. As games progressed it seems that the need for contests has disappeared. Instead of focusing on community, games focus on progression, gear, ranks, whatever it is, it really is a shame. Contests and events within an order though are still one of the best ways to build community.

Pay attention!:
I had an order on my alt account that didn't notice that 12 members were completely inactive for over three weeks. I had an Alliance I recently left on Marvel that had six accounts that were level 10 for a week. Your order members notice things like this. They notice people who don't contribute, they notice people that aren't playing, they notice that you don't notice. It makes you look like you don't care about your order, and if you don't why should your members?


If anybody else has any other tips, I'm sure people would be happy to hear them. That's all I have though.