In-depth Guide on Clan Creation and Leadership (work in progress)

With the recent clan rollback, it is now more difficult to create an official clan. Clan ownership is only reserved for those who are serious and passionate about their role. That being said, I’m sure many of you would still want to bring together an elite group of players and be recognized for your success all over BeGone (you should understand that this is still success in a GAME though). This guide will help you understand whether you are cut out for the founder job or be better off clanless/joining an existing clan, which is an alternative path to leadership that we will discuss later.

First, you need to be honest with yourself and ask yourself these questions:

• Can I dedicate a hefty amount of time daily to BeGone?
  
• Am I going to rage quit if the clan turns out to be a failure?
  
• Will I give up easily?
  
• Do I really have the charisma to lead a clan?
  
• Does being the founder of a clan matter that much to me?
  If you answer no to any of these questions, chances are you are not fit for the job. Don’t be discouraged, because most people aren’t. But if you passed them all, we can move onto the next step.
  

Type of Clan
Think for a moment and decide if whether you want a clan of all skilled players (normally that would require yourself to be one), or a noncompetitive relaxed group. There are clans that are a mixture of both elements, but generally those clans start out as the former type, then gradually evolve to accept more relaxed players – ultimately this is the most common structure among today’s elite clans.

Name and Tag
What do you want to name your clan? Having a professional and original clan name will certainly help with your clan image. Do you want to use a word? An acronym? It needs to be memorable and likable. It should also match the theme of the clan you are running. For example, if you are going to create a Tower based clan, perhaps including one of Tower’s location names in your clan name would be a good idea. Also, make sure the name is appropriate, having obscene words in a clan name may restrict it from having the best opportunities, such as a BB usergroup or even turning away heads of interested players.

Your tag should also be short and to be the point. If your clan name is too long, you may want to shorten it to its initial letter or a combination of letters. You can also break away from the tradition and make your tag something entirely difficult. Although this will win you points in the creative department, you also need to consider that this will set you back in in-game advertising, as players will not know the real name of the clan you are playing for. Common tag styles are [ ], |[ ]|, |{ }|…etc.

Amount of Members
Another important factor to consider is the amount of members you want in a clan. This is loosely tied to how high the standards of your clan are. Generally, today’s top clans have from 25 to 50 members. And I think this is really the sweet spot for clans, it allows for a certain degree of micromanagement while still maintaining a sizable number.

However, if you want to have a clan of only close friends, you may want to think about small clans with ~10 members. An advantage to this is that you’ll know all your members like the palm and back of your hand, and due to the small setting, your members will bond easier and closer. The negative setbacks are often not having enough members around for clan battles and clan practices. Also, if a leaving chain reaction occurs, small clans are like to become devastated due to the shortage of members.

If you have more than 60 members, you’ll definitely want to have a group of people managing your clan, it’d be nigh impossible to take care of yourself. At this stage, your recruitment standards really become questionable, and loyalty may be a problem. The creation of these clans may also be due to the clan’s not kicking of inactive members, which in my opinion is a low method of making your clan appear active.

Clan Structure Model
What will be the leadership structure in your clan? There are several existing models to choose from, of course you don’t have to follow any of them, they are just some common guidelines. Keep in mind that these do not have to be necessary called what they are listed as.

• Council system: One of the most popular and widely used systems. A Council system consists of a select few people chosen by the founder or elected by the clan to run the clan. Members of the Council should have equal power which makes this a democratic and just system where different opinions can be heard and taken into consideration. The founder himself/herself may be a Council member or a figurehead if he/she is still active.
  
• Single leader: As the name suggests, in this type of clan, only one person gets to make the final decisions. He/she may choose to have a Council, but their powers are limited to advising the leader, and the real power rests in one person’s hands. Among top clans this is no longer common. The lack of democracy is one of the major flaws of this system. Although viable and often used in the early days of clan making, it’s recommended that a clan eventually move onto a more equal structure.
  
• Fully democratic: Not only does everyone have a say, but also have equal power in this system. The reason why this isn’t widely used is because it’s not a very effective system. Stupid choices could be made as a group and some people are not meant for making clan decisions. It may be arrogance, softness or maybe just plain ignorance.
  

Recruitment Methods
Most clans have two ways of recruiting, namely by application or invitation. The former requires the interested player to fill in an application and also complete some kind of test hosted by the clan. It may come in the form of a duel, regular game, or even questions. This will help with the evaluation of the applicant’s skill. An invitation requires the clan to lead the initiative, you must be careful who you invite, because not only do those members automatically become members of your clan if they accept, but the frequency of your invitations also tell players how high your clan’s recruitment standards are.

Once your clan has grown to a certain size, you may want to consider adopting a training camp type of sub-section for your clan. You can send applicants that show potential but are not quite ready there, and after some mentoring by your clan mates, they are fine tuned to become full fledged clan members. Some clans have a lot of success with this system while others have abandoned it, see what works out for you.

You may also choose to have a clan that only send out invitations and completely do away with applications. The advantage to this is that you will not have to spend time testing applicants, which weeds out a lot of the crappy players. The downside is that the call is made entirely by the other party, and not by your clan.

Approaching Applicants
You need to approach your applicants in a professional and engaging manner. This will keep them interested in speaking with you. Be thorough and talkative when explaining the workings of your clan, and what it’s like to be in the clan. You should be honest because they will find out sooner or later either by hearing from other players or joining the clan. It’s important to not be stuck up, and be able to take a joke.

If there is something you don’t like about the applicant that keeps you from wanting to talk to him/her, have another co-leader do it, avoid rejecting that person on the spot, again – it’s all about the professional image. If an applicant is showing signs of being very annoying, you need to take a step back and refrain from characterizing this as just a ‘very friendly’ person, because that person may be sticking with you for a long time if he/she joins your clan, and it’ll be too late to regret then. You need to tell the applicant that he/she is being a bother if that is the case, hearing it straight from you or another clan member is the only thing that will help them mature, otherwise it not only lessens their chance of making it to the clan, but also creates a disturbance for you as well.

If you are looking for information on a player’s background, you can do so as early as your initial conversation. Personally I don’t like background check questions on applications. When speaking with them, keep the questions brief and not too specific. The wording of the questions is also important. For example, “Where are you from?” is more general than “Where do you live?”, little things like these will help the applicant become more comfortable, after all they’re probably very nervous talking to you.

Acceptance and Rejection
What does your new recruit have to do after being accepted into the clan? You should send them a message about all the services and websites affiliated with your clan. This includes organizations like clan alliances that the clan is a part of, as well sending an invitation to your NPlay group (assuming you have one), creating an account on your clan’s private forum, the ID to your RaidCall channel…etc. I suggest you include a personalized message that gives a warm welcome to the recruit once they are accepted, applicants tend to like custom messages that come from the heart much more than pre-made acceptance letters, even if they are less fancy in style.

You should have an after-rejection policy for your clan. How long does the applicant need to wait before he/she can be reapply? I recommend a time scale of 3 weeks to 1 month, if they can wait this long, it shows that they are really committed into joining your clan. Of course you’d have to check if they’ve applied to any other clans during the waiting period as well. You may want to list some things that the applicant needs to improve on in your rejection note, perhaps they will fix those mistakes the next time they apply, it will also show you as a dedicated clan leader and a friendly person. Don’t be harsh when rejecting someone, you never know what they will become in the future.

Rules and Requirements
Are there going to be requirements to join your clan? Perhaps you only want players who has been here for some time, in that case you can set a requirement on NPlay account join dates. Or maybe you have a kills requirement, which also reflects the applicant’s activity. A KDR requirement, however, is one that I don’t recommend. A high KDR can be obtained from noob bashing or even boosting (killing other account), most skilled players normally do not have KDRs exceeding 4 because they regularly play with other skilled players. Unfortunately, many people are misled into thinking that a higher KDR means a better skilled player, this is simply not true.

Here are some common rules that you should enforce in your clan, they are very generic and obvious:

• No hacking: If someone reports your clan member for hacking with evidence, not only will that member be banned, but your clan will also risk deletion, so apply this rule very seriously.  
  
• Be respectful to other members: You do not want your clan to be hated, a bad reputation will get you nowhere.
  
• No multiclanning: Your member should be loyal to only your clan, demand them to leave other clans if they have clan affiliations with more than one clan (I suggest kicking them). You may also want to look out for multiple accounts that the member may have, they could be using the new account to join other clans.
  

Ranks and Duties
Most clans have ranks in their clan system. There are many types of ranks, some are just ceremonial, and others mean business. Leader, for example, is one of the most common ranks, it’s obvious that he is the one who leads the clan, and so is therefore one step above other clan members. But to avoid a dictatorship, you may want to share your power with a few trusted members, this kind of co-ruling is also common and often prove to be better for your clan. Leaders should at least be able to represent the clan as a whole, organize official clan matches, and kick members out of the clan; the other powers can be democratic and be invested into members. Be very careful about who you promote to become leaders, you can also consider having rotating leaders by elections.

You may also have one or more ranks in between the leader(s) and the members, you can give those ranks to members who you think deserve more recognition than the average chap, but isn’t quite leader quality yet. You can also name the ranks after your clan’s theme. For example, if your clan is army-themed, the leader can be called Commander in Chief, next comes the Generals/Admirals, Majors…etc, it’s just something small that your members might appreciate. Besides, having Gen. in front of a member’s name sounds badass. Make sure to assign an appropriate amount of power to each rank, you don’t want your regular members to be able to reject applicants.

Advertising
Advertising is a very important part of clan management. It gets your clan name out there and attracts people to join your clan. There are many forms of advertising. You can make a video, advertise in-game with a clan tag, be clever and add a small clan logo to your profile picture… And the most common and effective method of advertising is by making a gorgeous clan ad. A clan ad tells a lot about how serious a clan is. It shows whether the leaders are committing their time and effort into perfecting a document that is essentially the clan’s entire PR department. You can use many elements to beautify a clan ad. The use of pictures, BBcode, HTML, clean layouts, and beautiful language...etc. But, despite having all these options open to you, many clan ads are still bland and generic. So break away from the norm, and make use of guides that teach you basic HTML or BBcode (I have one written) and they will make your ad appear much more professional. Common things that you may want to put in your clan OP are the clan’s legacy, ranks and leadership, roster, announcements, recruitment methods, and applications.

Although many do not realize this, simply playing in your clan tag is a big publicity boost your clan itself. If your clan has skilled members, or if your members like to play together as a group, the clanless players that they encounter will notice them and wonder if they can get into the same clan your members are in. If they ask how to join your clan, you need to have a quick link handy, services like TinyURL can shorten your clan advertisement link and allow you to easily share them in-game. Also, if you feel that your clan is powerful enough, you can challenge other clans to official clan wars and publish the results in a dedicated clan wars topic, make sure to include screenshots! But remember to not show any screenshots of unofficial battles (except in topics where you share fun games or in private), it is disrespectful to the other clan and will harm your clan’s reputation, especially in the eyes of more veteran players.

Testing and Reports
As I talked briefly about earlier, testing is linked to applications. You can test someone’s team work by playing on their team, and then telling them to switch later on in the game to see how they well fare against you. I feel that dueling is an inaccurate testing method because some people do a lot worse in duels. You should let them pick the map so they can show you what they are best at doing. The match should only last anywhere between 10 rounds and a full match. You may also want to tell some clan members to come watch or play, or even have them play under an alias so the applicant is unsuspecting.

If your clan is democratic and have polls on the applicant, you should write a report after each test. That way all the discussion on the applicant will be in one topic and it will be more detailed. This will allow your members or fellow leaders to have a sense of the applicant’s skill and attitude before voting. However, I do not suggest that you depend entirely on reports, your members will need to reach out to the applicant as well. Each member may have a different experience with the applicant, compare those experiences and you will learn how the applicant is really like. There will be times when members disagree on a member and argue, this is fine as long as it’s constructive. But if they start pointing fingers at each other and getting verbal, you need to step in and tell both sides to calm down. If you yourself are involved in an argument, remember to never go over the top and keep a cool head. You don’t want to break any friendships over a single poll. Respect their opinions, even if you think they are flawed.

Part 2 - Member Management

Core Members
I hope your clan has some core members. They are the ones who will never abandon the clan, either because they joined very early on, have a deep friendship with the clan leader or another reason. Having your core members around ensures that the clan will never fully die. You can classify someone as a core member if you feel comfortable enough to share just about everything in BeGone with them – any gossip you pick up, ideas that you have…etc. And they are the ones who have never and will never betray you. In a sense, they are the bare bones version of your clan.

Core members should occupy high ranks or leadership positions inside your clan. But don’t limit those ranks to just your close friends; running a clan requires different ideas and opinions, and it’s good to have an opposing voice close to you. The core members of your clan are often seen as the symbols of the clan, so people might connect anything they do personally to your clan. So hopefully they will know to be respectful publicly to not tarnish the clan’s image.

Troubling and Troubled Members
Down the road in your career as a clan leader, you’ll be faced with members who don’t act in the best interest of the clan. They could be disrespecting others, owning multiple accounts, having other clan affiliations, found hacking, or causing drama…etc. Although for more minor offences, it’s always recommended to talk to the member first; but there are serious offences like hacking that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Hackers need to be kicked from the clan immediately for the clan’s good. Following the rules you have set in your clan shows that your clan does not give up its standards, and those rules are not all talk.

There will also be members who encounter problems online or in real life, they may look at you for guidance. Be patient with them and hear their story out, and propose solutions or comfort them like you would do with people around you. Being with them in their dark times will make them more mature as a person and more loyal as a member. But sometimes you will find that they are not telling you the truth, and that they are only looking for attention. You should call out bullshit when you see it, don’t waste your time with stories, make sure it’s actually bullshit you’re calling out though. If you are unsure of what to do with a member, you can ask more experienced clan leaders for advice.

Conflicts Between Members
If some of your members don’t get along well, it’s best to talk to them as soon as possible. There shouldn’t be a rift between clan members, and if there is one, you don’t want it to grow any larger. Even if they can’t be friends, they should at least be able to tolerate each other and cooperate in clan matches. If a member snitch to you about other members, heed their warnings seriously but do not bad mouth the other member with them. Otherwise it will make them think that you are on their side, while in reality it is your duty as a leader to be nonpartisan.

After two members have an argument, there may be a short time where they will ignore each other. Although it will be awkward, it is a sign that they do not want to continue the fighting, which is good. I suggest that you let it play out on its own for a few days, and if they’re still avoiding each other, then you should speak to them about it. It’s best to know what the argument was about before approaching them. Even if you know one of the members is in the wrong, don’t just flat out tell him that, explain why what he thought was wrong. Conflicts between leaders must be resolved in private, you can’t bring down the leadership’s image by arguing in front of members.

Arrogant Members and Trust
Arrogance is a trait seen in many players. Although it is a sign of confidence, having too much of it will make someone disliked. These are the players who is always hawkish and warlike, who also talk a lot of smack regardless of being able to back up the words or not. They will sometimes harass other clans which turn into messes that you have to clean up. These are the members that you don’t want. But you must be able to distinguish arrogant members from people just don’t want to be bystanders when something wrong is happening. Attitude checks prior to recruiting someone is important.  

When someone points out that one of your members did something wrong, you should first fully investigate their claims and then decide if you should defend your clan mate or not. Blind trust is never encouraged, and it often gives other people the feeling that you are unreasonable and ignorant. However, you will want the member to think that you trust him, so investigate privately. If you find out that your member really was in the wrong, deal with him accordingly and have him apologize. If not, the person who reported him will have to owe you one.