07 Apr
Keeping your gaming clan interesting
Posted by JohnnyLocke as Articles, Clan Managment | 0 Comments
If there’s one thing that can really sink a gaming clan it’s monotony. Members generally join gaming clans to break away from the monotony of gaming alone, and join in hopes of finding new partners to game with, and a new place to call home. But what happens when a member starts to feel those same feelings toward their new situation? They change soroundings. People (especially the young gamer crowd) are not always so easily entertained. Your first challenge is gathering the members. The second challenge is keeping them. Here are a few ideas for shaking things up:
Tournaments (Prized preferably)
Tournaments can really shake things up and make them exciting for your members. Whether you offer a small cash prize, a medal, or just recognition on your website, it gives something for your members to do that they don’t see every day. Try to switch up the types of tournaments you run as well. Maybe run a 1v1, or 2v2, or best of 3, or best of 5 setting.
Competitions
One thing that has worked for me on various occaisions is to offer a cash prize in a recruiting contest. The members are more obliged to recruit because there is light at the end of the tunnel, meanwhile your memberlist grows.
Hold Meetings (That involve all ranks)
Listen to your members. Whether most leaders like to admit it or not, the members usually see what happens day to day, and know the inner workings. Your members should be your most important resource when making decisions that effect the community as a whole.
02 Apr
Benefits Of Democracy in Gaming Clans
Posted by JohnnyLocke as Articles, Clan Managment | 0 Comments
The Benefits of Democracy
Running a democratic clan may be to your benefit. One of the hardest tasks in running an efficient clan is keeping your members happy. Often members will become disgruntled for one reason or another, and with any pull, will be able to persuade other members to leave and start their own clan.
To keep members happy, I’ve always thought it was best to set up a democracy of sorts, or at least a republic, with elected officials who call the shots. My favorite arrangement for this was to set up a “Council” who is elected every so often (be it every 3 months, 4 months, or 6 months) by the members of the clan in a clan election. Council members would then vote on all changes and future decisions for the clan.
This way, each game will probably have at least 1 reprsentative seated ont he council, to help further their game. It also gives your council members experience in leadership and decision making, in case you ever needed a replacement or someone to help you run your clan. The Council can be used as a tool, bridging the gap between clan leadership and its members. Oftentimes, these two sects may not have much to do with each other, but if a member feels he has 8 or 9 people he can approach with inquiries or ideas and suggestions, he may be more inclined to offer his feedback.
Remember, a clan is only as strong as its link between its leadership and members, and how happy its members are.
By JohnnyLocke
Clan-Man Staff Member
02 Apr
Open Recruitment or Invite-Only Clan?
Posted by JohnnyLocke as Articles, Clan Managment | 0 Comments
A Decision such as this is hard because of the obvious pro’s and con’s of both choices. Both Recruitment tactics will lead to two completely different types of clans, and atmospheres that sorround them. Let’s begin by taking a look at the pros and cons of both.
Open Recruitment
Pro’s:
-More potential for a larger community, thus, ussually a more active community.
-You won’t “miss” the potentially great members you might were you to run an invite only clan.
-With more members, comes more recruiters, allowing your clan to build on top of itself, creating tiers and generations. And lets not forget, you can always suspend recruit should your clan become to large to control.
-Just more activity both in-game and on the website.
Con’s:
-You will surely pick up a few bad eggs using this tactic. Badly mannered spammers and the like. Not to say they can’t be rooted out, thier just pests.
-ALOT more conflict between members. Leaders of clans such as this are usually as much of a babysitter as they are a leader.
-With the pro of more members, comes the con of more channel loadings, spamming, account stealings, and hackings.
-The skill level of your members in your game is definitly going to vary alot.
Invite-Only
Pro’s
-Helps insure that all of your members will get along, seeing that the new recruits have to be accepted by the clan as a whole before being added to the roster. You will also greatly reduce the bad eggs.
-The skill level of your players will be at whatever level you decide to set it. Depending on how strict your invite-only policy is, in most cases most of the active members will have met the person before they join, ensuring they are up to par.
-Easy to manage/solve disputes. More of a community then a clan.
-More than likely won’t have to deal with a complex ranking system or hierarchy.
Con’s:
-This tactic almost always ensures lower activity.
-Your potential for growth, and expanding to other games is very limited.
-Your ability to find great new members, and key leaders for the future is also limited.
It all really depends on what kind of clan you want, and what kind of leader you are. Obviously, an invite only clan is much easier to run. Oftentimes, all you need to keep an invite only clan running is a forum to stay in contact with each other. However, running an invite only clan requires a great deal of loyalty from your members, and these members are very, very hard to find from the get-go.
The only time a clan should be invite-only, in my opinion, is when it is in it’s in its “winding down” stages. Lots of clans I know of, who once boasted member counts well into the hundreds several years ago, are still surviving today with about 15 members who have grown up together, and still game, but not as much as they used to. I beleive a strong loyalty and bond between the members has to be established before the clan is ready to go invite only.
On a side note, I beleive all CoutnerStrike, and first person shooter based clans should be invite only. Especially if they plan to ever play competetively.
By JohnnyLocke
Clan-Man Administrator
