Question 1

1.  Why are you called Tactical Strike Group 4?  What happened to 1, 2 and 3?

Accepted Answer

Our guild name is based off of the United State's "Carrier Strike Groups".  The U.S. Navy assigns the numeric designation of their CSGs based on their assigned Theater Of Operations.  CSG4 underwent a mission re-assignment in 2005-2006 and was removed from the list of actively designated CSGs.  Since Tactical Strike Group 4's name is based "loosely" on the USN's CSGs, an opportunity was seen to use the numeric designation "4" for our guild.  **NOTE: More info on Carrier Strike Groups can be easily looked-up on Wikipedia.

Additionally, our guild leader, Nocona, is Native American/Indigenous. Not only is his name a nod to one of his Comanche ancestors, Peta Nocona, but the number 4 is also considered a sacred number in Native American culture. Thus, the number 4 in our clan's name was created with willful "intent and purpose" for multiple reasons.

Question 2

2. Do you have an age limit to join your guild?

Accepted Answer

Why, yes.... yes we DO!
Tactical Strike Group 4 generally recruits only those who are 18 years and older (not just your body age... but your brain age, too! (also refer to #3 below)).  Regardless of age we do expect a certain level of maturity and professionalism in all members. Kiddies, morons, self-centered people, immature people etc.. do not have a place in this guild and will either 1) fail to complete the application process or 2) be removed soon after joining.

Question 3

3. What do you look for in new members?

Accepted Answer

The short version:  Be MENTALLY and EMOTIONALLY mature... and just don't be a common shit-ass.

The longer version:  We expect all members to exemplify the values of our guild. We are team focused ("Guild First!" is our core rule). We are friend focused. We never backstab each other. We aren't anti-social players. We are always unified. Always working in the best interest of the team and looking to have a good time. In addition, we expect new members to achieve some level of competence in the games we play. That competency varies from game to game. Personality wise and play style wise, we look for people that match ourselves. If your style or your personality or your way of doing things doesn't complement ours then membership here won't be fun for you or for us and therefore it does neither of us any good to recruit you.

Question 4

4. Do I *NEED* A Referral To Join... Or Are Exceptions Made?

Accepted Answer

For the games we are currently playing and accepting new members, our acceptance and entry into Tactical Strike Group 4 is very relaxed and is not requiring a referral.  However, in the future, we may establish an official presence in games that might require a more stringent membership acceptance policy. SO with that being said...

No exceptions are made to our requirement to have a referral to join. We only accept people we know, like and get along with. Requiring a referral gives us a chance to get to know you and you a chance to get to know us. We seek members of similar personalities, values and gaming goals to our own and the referral part of the process aids in finding the right members.

We do have a process whereby -SOME- people who lack a referral can be assigned a recruiter to get to know members more.  This pathway to membership is called the TSG4 Recruiting Process and is the best way to get to know TSG4, how things are done and what is expected of you, as well as  getting to know our members! So it is possible, if you don't already know members, that we can assign a recruiter to you and you can work through them to meet members and get to know us.

Question 5

5. Isn't your strict application process kind of "elitist"?

Accepted Answer

At the moment, our acceptance and entry into TSG4 is quite relaxed.  That being said...

We do not feel that "elitist" properly describes our strict application process. The dictionary definition of elitist is: The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources. That definitely does NOT match our recruiting processes. Said in the simplest terms: We recruit people that we get along with and are friends with. There is no overt or covert value judgment made as to being superior to anyone else. We simply seek people we are friends with.

It wouldn't do the new recruit any good if we recruited someone with gaming goals that our guild didn't afford them. They would be bored and thus we would fail them, as a guild. It is, after all, a two way relationship with the guild offering value to the member and the member adding value back into the team. It also wouldn't do anyone any good to recruit them if their personality wasn't compatible with those in the guild. That would just lead to tension and fights and 'cliques' forming which isolated people and ultimately led to them quitting. So our process is best summed up as: seeking people we are friends with. That is, after all, the essence of our guild: A team, or family, of friends.

Question 6

6. What about joining and then quitting and then rejoining?

Accepted Answer

We strongly feel that Tactical Strike Group 4 offers far more than other guilds do. That belief is reinforced that roughly 93% of all people who have ever quit us to join another guild have sought to rejoin us at a later date citing their experience here was far superior to those offered in other guilds. Also, roughly 95% of those who quit us for other guilds, end up quitting the game they are playing within 2-3 months since the grass isn't greener elsewhere.

As a result, our policy on rejoins is very strict. If you join and quit, in almost every case there will be no chance to ever rejoin again. We offer recruits one shot only. The only exception we make to that is if a member has to quit online gaming for real life reasons (medical, work, school etc..) and later rejoins online gaming and wishes to rejoin the guild. If they were in good standing before they left, there is a chance they can rejoin when they return to online gaming.

Question 7

7.  If I join, will you make me an officer? I'm a really good leader!

Accepted Answer

Tactical Strike Group 4 has been around since April of 2017 and is a very well established guild. We never recruit someone into an officer role. We always promote from within the guild based on a number of factors including time in guild, demonstrated leadership ability and related qualities. If you MUST have a leadership role to be happy, then this probably isn't the guild for you, and your personality probably won't match with our guild's. We are composed of "winners" who excel in everything they do but who also aren't glory hounds and must have promotions and leadership in order to be happy and inflate their egos.

Question 8

8. Do you have a public posting forum I can go read?

Accepted Answer

Naa, Nah, No, Nicht, Nope, Nein... and just plain Absolutely Not.

Tactical Strike Group 4 does not maintain a public posting forum. The guild's internal communications are not the business of anyone outside of our guild.

Conversely, we DO HAVE a comprehensive (and extremely active) *private* guild posting forum to which all members have access.

Question 9

9.  How do you communicate within the guild?

Accepted Answer

Currently we are using Discord for both voice and text in addition to the private forum mentioned in question #8.

Question 10

10.  You don't share much information about your internal workings on the web. Why is that?

Accepted Answer

Tactical Strike Group 4 is a private guild.  DUH!   This was also discussed in #8 above.

We do not feel the need to brag about ourselves on public message boards (i.e. you will not see our members bragging or engaging in flame wars on any public message board nor will we wave our guild banner all over the place in our public signatures). We don't feel the need to share private guild information with the public.

Question 11

11.  How is the guild organized and led?

Accepted Answer

We term our guild structure a 'Benevolent Dictatorship'. Said another way, there is one GM (Nocona) who is the final decision maker on all things guild related. There are a number of guild advisers that work with Nocona to help come up with the correct global guild policies. There are also a number of Squad Leaders within each game that we play that help create and offer feedback for game-specific policies.

Question 12

12.  Once I join as a Full Member of Tactical Strike Group 4, will I be just a number on a roster? I am really looking for a family type guild and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get that in Tactical Strike Group 4. Can I?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can! The primary reason that we have a VERY low turnover of members and very high unity and team focus is because we are a family type guild as stated in our motto. We are all friends. Everyone tends to know everyone else in the games they play. We joke around. We have a lot of fun together and we have a firm belief that every member is important. Our years of existence and very low turnover, we feel, are proof enough that we achieve that goal.

Question 13

13.  Just how low is your turnover?

Accepted Answer

Tactical Strike Group 4 averages 6-8 people leaving us each calendar year for other guilds. Of those, most attempt to rejoin at a later date, so one could argue that stat is really lower since they regret leaving and want to rejoin (but are not permitted to do so). We do have members retire from the game they are currently playing but they remain active in the guild waiting on our next big game to come along. And, while real life circumstances (such as health or job status) do force some people to quit gaming entirely, we lose almost no-one due to unhappiness and wanting to join another group. Joining Tactical Strike Group 4 tends to be a decision nearly everyone is happy with for their entire gaming career. Nearly the entire guild has been a member for many years.

One of the more amusing aspects of being a private guild is to watch morons and kiddies on public boards claim to "know" that our turnover is huge. They infer that because their guild has high turnover or because some Ex-member with a chip on their shoulder told them so. The reality is that our recruiting is very focused on only adding people with compatible values, goals, play styles and personalities that we know very well and that we feel will be here long term. By being that selective in our recruiting, we really do lose very few people. We do lose a few but we currently average less than .5 people leaving a month to join another guild (i.e. they are unhappy here). It is also funny to see people claim to be old members from years ago (back in 2017 and 2018 when we freely admit we had very poor recruiting practices and had turnover that matched those poor practices) assuming that since things were fast and loose during that time and that we didn't learn the lesson that strong recruiting = a stable and fun guild. It is unfortunate they live in the past but we definitely do not. The Tactical Strike Group 4 of today is a far cry more mature, stable and successful than The Tactical Strike Group 4 of our early years.

Question 14

14.  I applied but I heard nothing back. Why is that?

Accepted Answer

ALL applications are replied to in one form or another within 24 hours. If you didnt hear back from us, it is because an internet or email glitch occurred. Please either resubmit your application OR email (mailto:syndicate@urgentmail.com)the application information. Make sure you include a valid email address so we can reply back to you.

Question 15

15.  Are you a power-gamer guild?

Accepted Answer

No. We are not a power-gamer (PG) or tournament/e-sports guild. In other words, No... we are not a "balls-to-the-wall", push our members or "require" particualar activity participation levels (training, scrims, etc.) or particular individual stats (Stat Whores).  We feel that putting that type of "shit" upon a guild's members eventually creates a toxic, unfriendly environment that is simply "Not Fun... but work".

We do defeat the end game content in the games that we play but we do not power-game to achieve it. Whereas a commonly accepted definition of a PG guild is one that spends most nights of the week, and all weekend, raiding nonstop and will throw dozens of attempts at an encounter in a very short period of time, that is not us. We do have extremely skilled gamers in the guild and do defeat the end game content in games that we play but we do not raid every night therefore we will take more calendar time to defeat some encounters than a PG guild does. Conversely, nearly every PG and Tournament-focused guild eventually implodes and ceases to exist and we have been around since 2017 and will continue to be around for many years more. So you gain stability and membership in a guild where you matter and are important and are a friend...  and not just a "piece of meat" to be used for the guild's goals (while you strive to use the guild for your own before they kick you out or you burn out). So in a word: No. We are not a power-gamer guild and we are very proud of that fact and that we still do defeat the end game content in the games that we play, yet don't lose sight of what is really important (to us): our members and our friendships.

Tactical Strike Group 4

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