Is it paranoia, burned too many times situation or just reasonable...

We get a few recruit applicants a day, some days 0 some days 7

And we don't really have an unreasonable process! By BDO standards

We check their application (you can write a small message if you want, most write nothing lol) and then, if that looks problematic and sometimes it does!

We'll look them up in the database and dig up some dirt to see if they are toxic or not

Another red flag, ironically, is if they have high "energy" or "contribution point" levels. Or a character that's 65+ that they are using to apply with

Energy is gained from knowledge, you kill a mob, you might get knowledge about the mob. Or if you do a quest, you'll get some know-how on whatever the quest pertained. Or maybe you wanna chat up an NPC, they might share knowledge with you. More knowledge=More Energy

Contribution points is an ongoing reward from quests and life skilling byproduct exchanges

Point is. If they have high energy/cp then they've been around a long while

600+energy/400+cp, that's a veteran

Keep in mind, levels aren't a big deal on BDO. There's no max level so the only reason we care if they are level 66 or higher is because some players HUNT players on the exp leaderboards

A lot of players purposefully transfer exp off a high level character so they can avoid these leaderboards

SO ANYWAY. We have to look into veterans and we have to look into level 66s because~

1. They might be a spy! I wish I was joking.
2. They are likely set in their ways, they might not get along with a casual guild
3. If they are from a pvp guild and want to "retire" they still could be problematic because they are so used to toxic trash talking environments

So we interview them! Which gives us a chance to see if they are impatient, ill-tempered, pushy or my favorite, rude

YOU WOULD BE SHOCKED how many rude af people apply

And how big my block list is because of it

I've also been threatened mid-interview

"Lemme join or I'll hunt your guild"

Really?

The interview is just "What content do you like" and "What are your expectations with us"

That's kinda it

Sometimes they ask questions, sometimes they uno reverse "I thought you were casual, why the questions"

WHICH I LOVE THAT because good, we're all paranoid here. Love it

And we've had times where we are lied to by the player!

AMAZING

One time, a veteran applied and when asked he said he was from a lifeskill guild. But then he was very impatient about joining

There's a 24hour cooldown when you leave a guild. Mostly so you have to think before you backstab

Anyways, he was a bit pushy and impatient. I checked him on the database. The database isn't super fast to update. If you just left a guild it takes a bit of time to refresh. He was not in the guild he said he was by an extremely toxic pvp guild

I bring this up with our Gossip King and he was in that guild long ago and still knows some present. Gossip King contacts them, asks after this applicant

And when a toxic af guild calls another player toxic af, you know there's a problem

So we had to block the guy. He was so persistent

It took 2 weeks to shake him

Honestly, because I was like "It's probably fine" so I offered an invite after the cd ended

Only to be like YIKES and ghost him lmao

So some persistence might be my fault for mixed messages but good grief

Oooof

It is astonishing how some people act I swear

Idk if it's just like the ASIA server or if NA and EU have the same nonsense