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Updated: September '08
THE BASHandSlash.com CLAN HANDBOOK
If you are thinking about starting up your own clan, or you are looking to join one, this handbook is for you. BASHandSlash.com's Clan Handbook was written in an attempt to make the online community experience even better than it is. Prospective clan leaders can read about the do's and dont's of running your clan. For those that just want to play with like-minded gamers, we highlight the good and bad about joining a clan. This handbook has been compiled from the collective experiences of many of your fellow BASHandSlash.com readers.
Enjoy.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
BASHandSlash.com's 8 RULES FOR BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL CLAN
1.0) THE CLAN AS A CONCEPT
1.1 What are clans?
1.2 What is the life expectancy of a clan?
1.3 Clans are social in nature, I thought gamers were loners?
1.4 Why join a clan?
1.5 The Economics
2.0) WHAT MAKES A GREAT CLAN?
2.1 Avoiding failure
2.2 The sociology of a clan
3.0) TIPS FOR CLANLEADERS
3.1 Know your demographics
3.2 Why do clans fail?
3.3 The Clan Organization
3.4 Roles and Responsibilities
3.5 Set Standards
3.6 Set Basic Rules
3.7 Tags
3.8 Filter out your new recruits
4.0) TIPS FOR PLAYERS
4.1 How do you get selected to join a clan?
BASHandSlash.com's 8 RULES FOR BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL CLAN
1. THE CLAN AS A CONCEPT
1.1 What are clans?
On
line gamers tend to organize themselves into groups of like-minded
individuals to play their chosen game and more importantly, to
socialize. Typically, these social organizations start suddenly and end just as fast.
These groups are known as clans.
The word clan comes from the Celtic "clann", meaning children or family - which gives you the sense that there is a bond between members of the clan that goes beyond nationality or politics - or the game. It is no surprise that gamers use the word clan to describe their little cliques to try and instill a sense of "family" amongst their clanmates.
First and foremost, clans are about PEOPLE, the game is secondary. Clans are about socializing online - through the excuse of playing a game. If you do not accept this fact - clanning will not be enjoyable for you.
1.2 What is the life expectancy of a clan?
Typically, clans form suddenly and don't last very long. There are many reasons for this short life span, not the least of which is the fact that some of these clans are single-game clans and people get bored of the one game.
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Approximately sixty percent of all clans die in less then four months.
- Approximately ninety percent of all clans die in less than half a year.
- Less than five percent of all clans live longer then a ONE year.
1.3 Clans are social in nature - I thought gamers were loners?
Popular opinion seems to dictate that computer gaming is an anti-social
behavior conducted by lonely people, sadly tapping commands on their
keyboard all the while sitting in a darkened room in front of a glowing
screen.
However, human beings - even gamers - are social
animals by nature and playing in "multiplayer" games with other
individuals is a social thing to do. Wanting to play with other players
is therefore a natural impulse and it should not be a surprise that
people would therefore want to join a clan.
1.4 Why join a clan?
Serious psychological studies* show that FPS gamers turn to online gaming for: competition, interest, enjoyment, fantasy, social interaction, excitement and challenge.
Certainly, a clan atmosphere provides social interaction. Add competitive gaming in the mix and clans can provide competition, excitement and challenges.
The last reason gamers go online, "interest" - or "knowledge" can also be provided by clans. Doing well in FPS games can require a great deal of specialized knowledge. Given the competitive nature of gaming, this knowledge is difficult to find (*shameless plug*: unless of course you head to BASHandSlash.com). A great deal of this knowledge is hoarded by clans, having been amassed by their member's experiences. This information is usually doled out only to other clanmembers - so you have to join a clan to receive it.
*Jansz, J. & Tanis, M. (2007). Appeal of playing online first person shooter games. Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 10, 1, 133-136.
1.5 The Economics
Lease or buy?
A clan requires ongoing financial subsidies. This money goes to building infrastructure such as a Game Server(s), a Clan Website and VOIP capability (ventrilo, teamspeak).
As an alternative to buying your own dedicated game server, you can now "lease" a server. A 24 slot or 24 player server costs you about $50/month. This cost usually includes Webadmin (RCON) and VOIP (Vent or Teamspeak). Add a web-domain at $6/domain - and maybe even some advertising budget and you get to the $60/month level. Of course a leased server may be somewhat more laggy than owning your own server; however, the upside is that everything you need is provided by the gamerserver company.
Popular gameserver provider sites include:
Branzone Servers
High
performance servers with add-ons to make the life of a server admin
easy. These are available in all the usual North American hubs as well,
they have a UK server location.
Game Servers
We
have had some hand on experience with Game Servers equipment and
software and their set up menus contain the best user-interfaces in the
server market. For example, GS's Custom Control Panel will let you set
up a stock game easily, but you can even select from a number of
popular community mods that are currently in circulation (X4 for CoD4
is a great example). While these folks also have "pro-gamer" packages,
they tend to appeal to the middle of the road and for that reason,
their quality is mid-ranked as well.
Velocity Servers
Consistently
ranked at the very top by competitive players, Velocity Servers are
high-performance servers and tend to be rather expensive but you are of
course paying for quality. They have servers in California Viriginia,
Illinois, New York and Texas.
The "free alternatives"
Sometimes, websites will give away free access to gameservers and websites to get you to come to their site and provide site traffic.
planetcallofduty.com - an IGN company, you can get your own clansite here.
2) WHAT MAKES A GREAT CLAN?
2.1 Avoiding failure
As mentioned, clans form suddenly and don't last very long. The key to clan longevity may be found by discovering the secrets of some of the more successful longer-lived gaming clans. We have attempted this in this handbook.
Clan members typically meet either in their own specialized game servers and use text chat or voice communications to socialize or through forum postings on clan websites. Both servers and the websites can be considered what are called "third places".
A third place is a special term used by sociologists.
Let's take your home, for example. It can be described as a first place. A first place is a location where you can relax and be comfortable.
The so-called second place is where you normally are when you are not home. For example, work. Unless you are self employed and work from your home-office, a great deal of social interaction can happen at work, but usually these spaces don't allow you to relax and be comfortable.
A third place is somewhere other than work or home where you can both relax and socialize. A bar, a coffeeshop, Community Centers, General Stores, hangouts, sports clubs... you get the idea. It's a place where the best of both work and home come together.
2.2 The sociology of a clan
There is an excellent description of what the main characteristics are for a so called "third place" in an article called
"Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name:Online Games as "Third Places" - by Constance Steinkuehler.
The article suggests that the most successful clans create these "third places". Here are the characteristics:
2.2.1 Neutral Ground
Third places are neutral grounds where individuals are free to come and go as they please with little obligation or entanglements with other participants.
The key here is the phrase "little obligation or entanglements with other participants". Put another way. People who come to play on your server don't want to play head games or get hassled.
How many clans disintegrate because members forget this rule?
People come on line to forget the hassles they have in real life. The last thing most of us want is to deal with headcases.
2.2.2 Leveler
Third places are spaces in which an individuals rank and status in the workplace or society at large are of no importance. Acceptance and participation is not contingent on any prerequisites, requirements, roles, duties, or proof of membership. This statement suggests that people who want to socialize, and that's what gaming online is all about, want an environment without the importance of status. This is really interesting because there are quite a few clans that take organization to a very high level and even emulate both the structure and name of military units with ranks and positions.
I should also point out that most of these clans have not celebrated their second anniversary, which suggests that clans organized to stress rank and importance don't last very long. Why would rank and status cause problems in a clan? One word. Jealousy. It's human nature. Give someone seniority or power over someone else and you will not find the place a nice place to come to and relax. It sounds like what most people's workplace is like, doesn't it?
Good clans do not raise any one's stature above anyone else. There are many examples of defunct clans on the Internet that blew up because their membership started to splinter into separate elitist groups and it split their clan. Sometimes it's inevitable that the better players in a clan will want to group together to form a sub-group or an elite team for the purpose of say, playing in competitive scrimmages.
These players will find it irresistible to add an elite tag to their gaming names. As soon as you see these elitist symbols next to their names...you can start the countdown clock to that clan's destruction. It will implode because of jealousy and it is very important for any clan leader to stamp out any attempt at clan segregation.
2.2.3 Conversation is the Main Activity
In so called third places, conversation is a main focus of activity in which playfulness and wit are collectively valued. Again, we are talking about playfulness here and humor.
Wit is not about harassing players or calling people hurtful names. The best wit is humble. It pokes fun at yourself not other players. Humility will allow your teammates to be encouraging and create a family atmosphere. When you populate a clan with Type A personalities who all consider themselves uberowners you will find that there will be very little playfulness. Ego gets in the way. The successful clan will try to defuse conflict due to ego.
Ways to encourage playfulness is by having a very large humor section on your webpage. The clan leader should lend a hand here by fostering a playful atmosphere. De-emphasize scoring in normal clan gameplay. Emphasize teamplay instead.
Try not to create competition between clan members. Competitive juices should be applied to clan on clan scrimmages not to recreational intraclan battles.
2.2.4 Accessibility & Accommodation
Third places must be easy to access and are accommodating to those who frequent them. Servers should allow players to log on and off at will and activity should be allowed 24 hours - seven.occurs throughout all hours of the day. I have seen some admins actually shutting their servers down during the day. This makes access limited and you compromise the reliability your server should provide.
The server should be free. Support to the administrator should be provided voluntarily and passwords should be avoided.
2.2.5 The Regulars
Third places include a cadre of regulars who attract newcomers and give the space its characteristic mood. Hopefully you will have a group of fun, mature and responsible clan regulars who hang out on your server and provide this mood throughout the day and the week.
The last thing a clan leader would want are irritating or irresponsible regulars because those are the people a new player will most likely meet when they come to the server.
In essence you want regulars who are a cross between traffic cops, WalMart greeters and teachers.
2.2.6 A Low Profile
Third places are characteristically homely and without pretension. Any clan that tries to project a superior attitude will simply attract people with the same attitude.
Please note that this does not in any way suggest that the people you will attract ARE superior. Just the opposite. These people simple CONSIDER themselves superior. Deep down they are probably very insecure and are attracted to a clan that puts on airs in order to compensate for their own lack of confidence. You definitely do not want to attract a large number of insecure players. These folks typically have fragile egos and will create a great deal of emotional disturbance.
2.2.7 The Mood is Playful
The general mood in third places is playful and marked by frivolity, verbal word play, and wit. You want to encourage players to crack jokes during heated battles, perform goofy actions and lighten the mood when things get tense. Try to get people to have funny avatars that mock their appearance. Players should not be too serious about their gaming.
2.2.8 A Home Away from Home
Third places are home-like that is they give you a sense that you are rooted in something that will last, you have a feeling of possession, it gives you a feeling of spiritual rebirth, and you develop feelings of being at ease, and warmth. If they atmosphere in the clan changes from this home-like feeling to one that is very serious and puts a great deal of emphasis on competition you deviate from the concept of the clan and server as a third place. It becomes more and more like work. The end result is that while this may be desirable amongst a few of the members, you will find that the clan will not grow. New members will be difficult to find because the clan is not a home away from home. It is simply a place to come and compete.
3) TIPS FOR CLANLEADERS
What are a clan leader(s) main reasons for starting a clan? They should entail the following:
- Gaining leadership experience.
- The enjoyment of making others happy.
- Getting satisfaction from mentoring others and watching them excel.
- If you are in this for competition, creating a clan should be about
the challenge of assembling a winning team - while having fun and
playing fair.
3.1 Know your demographics
In general, FPS gamers are young males (average age 18). They play about 2.6 hours per day. Eighty percent of gamers are in or want to join a clan.
3.2 Why do clans fail?
Here are just some of the reasons why clans have failed in the past. Don't let history repeat.
I) Putting the "Dic" in Dictator
Answer this question honestly: Why do you want to form a clan?
Did you answer: "I want to boss people around."?
If you did...then, have I got a job for you in the Retail Business!
Seriously, if your answer was similar to the above, don't bother starting a clan. It will end in disaster - with everyone hating you with a passion. Instead - go buy a dog and play fetch with it.
Do not become power-hungry as a clan-leader.
- Share Power
- Dole out responsibility
- Allow your players authority if they earn it
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Make sure your clan-mates give you reality checks to make sure the "power" does not go to your head.
II) Lack of Commitment
Lack of commitment from all the membership can lead to overloading a few dedicated members. These few burn out. Worse, they can become resentful. This leads to other poisons such as hate and jealousy and your clan can literally burn up from the inside.
Workload must be shared.
Failure to take on a fair share of work must be compensated in other ways (including: monetarily).
III) The Cancer Within
Sometimes, a cancerous player gets into your clan. If you don't throw them out, their cancer can spread. You know who these players are. Controversy always follows them wherever they go. They should never have been in the clan in the first place but there they are. Rid your clan of these bad-apples before they destroy your clan by making your "good" members leave in disgust.
IV) Snuff out Fires
Conflicts in competitive clans are not uncommon. Some conflicts, if unchecked go from "brush fires" to whole "forest fires" - and can consume everything you have built.
Put out the small fires before they grow too big. Stop website flamewars. Punish insulting behavior.
Clan member fights should be resolved by having the members talk about the issue with a third, neutral party. The conflict should be resolved in a mutually acceptable way and bygones forgotten. Failure to do so should result in suspensions.
V) Lack of Funds
Share the financial burden of owning a clan with everyone in the clan. Voluntary contributions should be discouraged. Those who contribute will be jealous of those who do not. Set a clear contribution amount. As you gain members, the yearly dues will fall. For that reason, your members will see new-member drives as a very good thing!
VI) Lack of Members
Clan leaders must constantly recruit it is not something you do periodically. You must constantly be looking for people. Keeping a constant flow of members into your clan is highly important given the fact that there is a constant flow of members out.
It is not uncommon for a clan member to bail just before the year is up (usually just before dues time). These people have to be replaced or else you will find few people on your servers and very few people to man your competitive teams.
VII) External Factors
Be aware that you will have plenty of non-clan members playing on your servers. There probably is a reason why some of these players are not in clans. Do not let these players cause problems on your servers. If they harass your membership - your clanmates could leave. Do not be too slow to ban the IP of any non-clan member from your forums AND from your game server.
VIII) Too little or too much time building the clan website
If you do not put some effort into making a functional website (i.e. forums for your clan), you will not attract members. Hopefully, when they are not playing on your server, members will spend at least some of their time on your clan's forums, so they should be neat and attractive. Get player input along the way here. Ask members if the "look" of the website suits their taste. If the website turns them off, your clan will not use them and then communication will drop away as will your membership.
However, spending too much time on the website will take your attention away from the important thing: managing the clan.
3.3 The Clan Organization
There are many real-world examples that you can draw on to organize your clan - literally, there are thousands of ways human beings organize themselves. Picking one will be critical to setting they type of clan you will have.
The Top Down Clan
I) The Imperial model
More often than not, clans are started by one individual. That individual is usually the one that foots most of the clan's bills for the first few years (assuming they get that far). A natural organization that suits this situation is imperial rule. The "King" or "Clan Leader" anoints themselves as the boss. What they say goes. In this type of clan, success or failure is completely a function of the charisma of the King.
II) Dictatorship (also known as a Military-style clan)
Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
When the "King" goes over to the dark side, a dictatorship is born. Perhaps the Clan Leader, tired from the hardships of running the clan, begins making unilateral decisions without discussing them with his members. That is the way to tell if you have a dictatorship: you are governing without consent of those being governed.
You get the members you deserve when you run a clan...and a dictator will only get the members he/she deserves.
Running a clan in this manner will, in the end, lead to rebellions. If history is a guide, dictators who lose such rebellions quickly find their heads at the business end of a pike.
Be wary of using this as a model for your clan - and recognize the signs of dictatorships to avoid getting one!
III) The Oligarchy
One great way to lose friends is to form a clan with them (I am only half-kidding).
When friends get together to start up a clan, the usual style of governing, with all sharing responsibility, is deemed an oligarchy. In this system power in the clan is held withing a small elite group (the original circle of friends who started the clan). After all, it is this close circle that is paying the bills and doing all the work - at least initially.
While this is a reasonable system for creating a competitive gaming team, oligarchies can cause tremendous problems.
In an Imperial model, new members instantly understand who is boss: The Clan Leader.
In an oligarchy...not so much. When conflicts occur, some members will side with one member. Others with another. It is not uncommon to see the original group of friendships snap under this type of pressure.
The other danger is that, in an oligarchy, if one of the original members behaves badly, it is highly unlikely that they will be punished for their behavior. This will cause a tremendous decrease in morale amongst the non-elite clan members and poor morale will quickly sap the clan.
Sometimes, oligarchies form from the original Imperial model, as the clan leader brings new people into his close, inner-circle.
Be careful of oligarchies - unless you are very, very confident of your chosen elite.
IV) The Sports Team
Some clans are created specifically for competitive gaming. A really good system that works for this type of clan is one that is modeled after a sports team.
You have the owner who provides the team its operational capital. The owner hires a coach to train the team and provide logistical support. The team captain and strat-caller. The captain provides on and off field leadership and has a big say on who is on the team. The coach and captain's word is the law.
Membership is completely tied to performance.
Clans from the Ground up: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité
IV) The Corporate Model
The clan is run similar to a business. The people who pay for the clan are in charge - and operate as a "board of governors" for the clan. These people make up the "core" of the clan. The rest of the membership is somewhat transitory and pay on a voluntary basis.
The governors do offer the general membership the opportunities to partake in clan business and give them voting rights on certain matters (e.g. selecting map types and even games the clan will support).
This model is probably a good one to use for most reasonably successful clans with 50-100 members. Of those, you generally have 10-20 members who are very active and financially supportive.
V) The Presidential Model
This is a democratic model for governing a clan (listen up libertarians!).
In this model, everyone has a stake in the success of the clan. All members pay towards the clan so as to have the right to take part in clan business. One of the benefits includes voting in "cabinet" of individuals who will look after running the clan. All decisions that affect the clan are voted on. There is an ombudsman to handle disputes.
While this is a cumbersome way to handle a clan, it works really well if there are a large number of clan members and the clan has been around for some time.
3.4 Roles and Responsibilities
Once the clan begins to grow, roles and responsibilities will need to be delegated. While some of these can be shared, the important thing is to realize that one person cannot usually do all these jobs in a large clan:
i) The greeter
The Clan Leader generally takes on this role. The greeter is the public face of the clan and welcomes new players to the gameserver/website. Named after the infamous Walmart "greeters", these people should make the new players feel at home. New players are all prospective members - treat them as such.
ii) Business Manager
The clan leadership group usually takes care of this role: paying the bills.
ii) Website Admin
Looks after the website and moderates it. Encourage communication. Discourage flamewars.
iii) Gameserver Admin
Look after the technical aspects of running a gameserver. Implementing mods on the server is one duty. Another is being responsible for map rotation - perhaps the most overlooked and possibly THE MOST important role in keeping a busy gameserver.
For this reason I cannot recommend fpsadmin.com highly enough. Speak to Rudedog (the Admin). He will answer your questions and set you straight on any issues you may have in setting up your server.
iv) Scrim Coordinator/Team Leaders
Responsibilities: find other teams to play against, train the troops to play.
If your clan members play against each other too often, resentments can occur. Avoid having your members playing each other too often. Ensure there are enough competitions against other clans to create bonds within your group.
v) Discipline committee
Keeping the clan from disintegrating sometimes takes tough love. Discipline, in rare occasions, should be meted out. Too much discipline turns to resentment. Too little turns to chaos. A discipline committee should be set up with power to ban players - after fair hearings.
3.5 Set Standards
Set behavioral standards for your clan. Explain what you expect from your members when they are online.
As long as clan members wear their clan-affiliation tags, they represent all the individuals in that clan. Bad behavior reflects poorly on all the members. Doubly so, if the behavior is performed at a non-clan site.
The behaviors should not exceed what you, as clan leader, and your clan-mates are prepared to tolerate. Some younger clans have no problem with swearing for example. Older clans will ban you instantly for this. This is up to the tastes of the individuals involved.
Behaviors that are unethical, or infringe on basic human rights should not be tolerated at all. Harassment, whether its on the basis of race, sex, religion, or nationality should come with severe penalties and be treated swiftly and with significant care by a clan's authorities.
3.6 Set Basic Rules
Set up some fundamental rules for your clan. Here are a few to start you off:
DO
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Have fun
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Be friendly to everyone and treat people with respect
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Behave with dignity wherever you are - once you were the clan's tags you represent us.
-
Show up and participate in clan activities
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Treat your clan members like they were part of an extended family.
DO NOT
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Cheat
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Hack
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Swear or diss anyone on clan sites
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Bring your ego into the gameserver
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Be a sore winner
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Be a sore loser
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Be a braggart
As well, here are BASHandSlash.com's Ten Commandments of Gaming
3.7 Tags
Coming up with your clan's name is one of the great joys of starting a clan. Your clan's very character may depend on picking just the right name.
What type of a clan do you picture if it has the name: "The Immortals"? Probably not a lot of yucks in there, eh? How about "The Screaming Chickens". I bet the members of the latter are a hell of a lot more fun than those Immortal dudes!
Try not to pick a derivative name. There's nothing sadder than seeing a clan taking on the same name of a well known clan. Be original.
Keep your tags to no more than 3 letters if possible. Having only two letters is much better. The {DD} or the {KK} just trips off the tongue.
Personally, I would suggest using square-brackets "[]" for the tags...they look butchy and more established. For me, braces "{}" look great on female clans - not so much for the testosterone crowd.
Do you prefer: [BS] or {BS}? {BS} is just so damn sexy ain't it...those curves!
3.8 Filter out your new recruits
- Consider having new members being voted into the clan by the whole active membership. A clan member should sponsor the new prospect and be responsible for telling the others why they deserve to be inducted as a clan member.
- Clan-hoppers: those that have been in more than
a few clans. These guys are experienced trouble makers. Remember to
check a prospective player's history before letting them in the clan.
Google them. You can usually find a post or two that they have made
which will usually tell you what they are like.
- Quitters: if someone once quit your clan, consider against letting them back in. Statistics indicate that they will just quit again.
- Cheaters/Hackers: Background checks (...again, Google is great for this) should be made to determine if this person has ever been caught hacking or cheating.
- Temperament: Play for a few weeks (minimum) with the proposed recruit on your servers. Gauge their temperament. Are they sore losers? Sore winners? A mixture of confidence and humility makes the best clan and team member.
- Age: Clan members should have something in common to form a good clan. Age ranges should be considered to provide this common ground. A good rule of thumb is to take your age, halve it and add seven. This value should be the minimum age for someone in your clan. The maximum age is found by adding that difference to your age. If you do not want to set an absolute min or max...at the very least, most of your membership should fall into this range.
Example:
Clan Leader = 30 yrs old. The minimum age clan membership = 22. The maximum should be 38.
Clan Leader = 18 yrs old. The minimum age clan membership = 15. The maximum, 23.
3.8 Filter out your new recruits
Many of your clanmates will end up playing on your public servers. For this reason, you should monitor what goes on there and avoid trouble.
i) The Sore-Loser (teh pwned noob wit a attitude)
Players who come on and diss the clan, the
server, the map selection or you should not be shown any mercy. Ban
them right away. Failure to do so will embolden others on the server to
think that they can walk all over you and your clan. Bans can be lifted
if you misunderstood their remarks.
ii) The Sore Winner ( The "1337" Jerk)
There will be players who come on your server that will pwn your clanmates. At some point this will become really old - especially if those doing the pwning lack humility and rub you or your clanmates' nose in it. This can get very demoralizing. Let it go for a few weeks. If the person is recruitable, try to convince them to join your clan.
If there are complaints within your clan, you may choose to hold a vote to ban the individual.
The only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner.
iii) Constantly check for hacking
Enable PB screenshots. Join pbbans.com. Teach your clanmates what hacking is so that they can spot it.
iv) The homeless clanners
There are many indigent clanners out there without their own server. In some cases, some of the more pathetic of these will show up en-masse on your server and wreak havoc.
This is not such a bad thing - once in a while. It forces your members to act like a team and builds morale. If this happens constantly, look at them as potential sources for recruitment. If they cannot be recruited, or they do not meet your recruitment standards - shoo them along.
4) TIPS FOR PLAYERS
For a player, joining a clan should provide you with:
- greater gaming knowledge which will allow you to become a better player
- greater technical knowledge about your hobby
- friendship and fun interaction\
- competition and challenge.
If you are not a people-person, you probably should not join a clan. If your main aim is serious competition, ensure that the clan you join shares the same level of intensity towards competition that you do.
If you are looking for noobs to beat up on...you may want to go back to
"pubbing". Beating up on your clan-mates will only be tolerated for a
while. At some point people will ask you *your* secrets. Failure to
disclose what makes *you* good, could cause serious jealousies in your
clan.
4.1 How do you get selected to join a clan?
Most of the time, clans are begging for members. It's really a sellers market in this regard. If the clan you are trying to join is somewhat "elite", you might need to give them a reason to bring you aboard. You can try some of the following tips to help you get selected:
i) Don't brag about your 1337 skillzset! Good players don't brag. Anyone that talks themselves up will sound like dufus. Don't embarrass yourself. Let your deeds speak for you.
ii) Register on the clan's server and let the regulars get to know you. Don't ask for membership right away. Post a few articles. Be helpful.
iii) Play regularly on the clan's pub server. Get to know clan members. Quietly ask about joining. More importantly, ask the members what you could do, to be let in. More often than not, clans are just looking for "good people". A clan would rather have a funny, pleasant player than an unfriendly "pwnerer".
iv) Volunteer for tasks that will help out the clan membership. If you play on their servers regularly - contribute cash for the server. You would be amazed at the response you will get when you do so.
v) If you do not get asked to join, politely ask why. If the requirements are too steep - move on. Continued pestering will only get you the label of "clan-stalker" and believe me, clan leaders *do* talk to each other.
More Links to related articles:
The Server Admin Starter Kit
Ten Tips to Populate your Server
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