You joined, and you want to help Ethical Retinue grow by recruiting new members? That’s enormously appreciated, and this page is here to help you! There’s even a carrot: for every person that you recruit, your eternally thankful Leader or Commissioner will give you an extra 15% from his or her cut on your next heist. The following provides some guidance at how to go about recruiting, along with some message templates to help you along.

The aim of our crew is to set up a healthy community of “ethical” players, i.e. players that align with our crew identity. We wish to attract people whose company brings mutual enjoyment with the crew. The focus of our crew is on attitude, not on skill. In this way we set ourselves apart from most other crews on Social Club.

We wish to attract the best of the best, in terms of attitude. Given the wide variety in attitude among players in GTA Online, we prefer to be rather selective. So how do we go about identifying the right people?

Say you meet a new player, and you have this rather inexplicable feeling that this person might really enjoy the company of our crew, and vice versa. They may be particularly communicative, help out other strangers, be particularly cooperative, or anything else that points to being an ethical player. What is a good way to recruit this player? Here is some guidance:

Do not…

Do not just send a crew invite out of nowhere! This is important. Good recruiting is like good sex: talk about it, and take your time

Approach the player

Say, at the end of a session, send the player a personal message over Social Club, such as:

Hi X, I really enjoyed playing with you and very much like your style, especially the way you *INSERT SPECIFIC EXAMPLE HERE*. Perhaps the Ethical Retinue crew https://www.ethicalretinue.com/about/ is something for you? We’re a bunch of nice players very much like you, and I think you’d fit in perfectly. What do you think about it?

You can of course also discuss this over in-game chat. However, always send them a link to our crew description over Social Club. Make clear that you expect them to read it over the next few days and to get back to you with their opinion about it. This ensures that we only recruit players that are truly ethical. For example, sometimes you meet players that seem nice but that are modders/cheaters.

Await the response

If the player does not respond, well, you’ve tried. Give yourself a pat on the back. There is a small chance that they missed your message, you can check it up when you see them online again. However, most likely they are simply not interested for whatever reason.

If the player says no (this is the most common scenario), thank the player for at least considering it:

Yes, of course I understand your view, thanks very much anyway for considering it!

Profile statistics check

If the player says yes, check their profile statistics; if their profile is private, ask them to temporarily open their profile first to allow you, and lieutenants/commissioners, to check. If the profile statistics seem off, inform a lieutenant/commissioner over DM (not publicly) and ask them to flag it to the lieutenant/commissioner team.

Confirm acceptance of crew rules

Send them a link to the rules https://www.ethicalretinue.com/rules/ and ask if they are happy to accept these.

Formal invitation

Once they have accepted the rules (this is a hard requirement!), send them a crew invite for the Muscle class, along with a personal message, such as:

Hi X, as we discussed, I’ve just sent you a crew invite for ETCL. I very much hope that you accept! If you haven’t yet read our crew rules please take a moment to do so: https://www.ethicalretinue.com/rules/ but briefly: be kind and don’t mod/cheat.

Welcome

Post a message on discord (or ask a Lieutenant or higher to do it on your behalf):

A very warm welcome to our newest member, X!!

Also send a personal message to the player about things they might want to do to engage with the Ethical Retinue community:

Welcome to the crew, X! I’m so pleased that you accepted the invitation. There is some stuff you may want to do to engage with your crew, see: https://www.ethicalretinue.com/first-things/ Looking forward to playing with you again!

Cash in your bonus

Your eternally thankful Leader or Commissioner will give you an extra 15% from his or her cut on your next heist. Be sure to remind him or her! 😉