The birth of a Clan – Part 1

I’d like to dedicate my first blog to Paul Cornforth who sadly passed away this time last year in a motorcycle accident. He was a valued member and friend at Project Echelon, and is sorely missed every time we play Gears of War.

So, to business.. Having been a gaming community leader for a number of years now, I felt I’d heard and seen most weird and wonderful things that could take me by surprise in a gaming environment. That was until someone asked for advice on running a ‘Clan’… So why did it catch me off guard? Well firstly it was nice to be considered as someone knowledgeable about such things, and secondly it felt really good to be in a position to help someone in a subject I enjoy very much. Thinking back though, it was a challenging start, but a valuable learning curve, and every minute has been worth it.

My intention here is to offer a guide to setting up your own gaming Clan, and I guess this can be adopted by any multi-player gaming system, not just Xbox as is my experience. I expect this write-up to be quite extensive so I’ll be spreading it over a few blog entries so as not to get lynched by the powers that be.

Why die alone when friends can take bullets for you…?

Once upon a time, there was a group of like-minded people…

Okay, so you’ve decided you want to start a gaming group or Clan, either your own idea or shared with a friend(s). This may be inspired by a particular game you play and enjoy online. Of course a gaming group could also be for local area network play as well, like a youth club for example so doesn’t necessarily need to be on-line like Xbox Live. As long as you can have a multi-player aspect to your games, you can form a Clan or club. I used to organise a small gaming group for young carers of families affected by Multiple Sclerosis, and we’d meet every Saturday morning for LAN games in Aliens V Predator and Quake2. Happy days 🙂 What brings a Clan/group together? – essentially a shared interest, circumstances, and usually influenced by some game. Just look at what Halo2 did to inspire Clans!

What’s in a name?

Now you know what you want to do, you’ll need a name to declare your presence. Too often I see folk coming up with the stupidest names because they’re gaming ‘just for a laugh’. That’s all very well and good, but if you intend to function as a Clan and want people to take you seriously (even if you game for social fun rather than world dominance) for goodness sake pick a name that reflects your group, your gaming ethos, your console type, your game influences, etc. Draw inspiration from bands, games, animals, colours, weapons, vehicles, military references, etc. That’s not to say you can’t have a fun and funky name of course as often these are very catchy and funny, but put some thought to it before you’re stuck with it. My own Clan name came about from a variety of influences – some game related, some from work, etc.

That’s all for now, and in part 2 we’ll look at things like Clan Leaders and Recruiting members. Further blogs will cover having an on-line presence like a website or forums, setting rules, and organising matches against other Clans.