Founding a New Clan, need adivce

[Bengalmin]

I have decided after nearly 18 months in game that I'm fed up with clans
forming and disbanding and never quite doing what I want to do. So I've
started thinking about forming my own clan and I'm asking for advice.

I am the very definition of a casual gamer. I don't play that often, and
quite alot of the time I just logon, see who is about and if no one I know
is on, I log off. What do people think of forming a clan with specific
active days and times.

E.g. the clan is active on Wednesdays from 6pm until 12am, with 9pm being
'event' time; or Saturday afternoons 12 till 6pm (just an example)

Do you think there is demand for this type of clan? Where you know that if
you log on during that time you will have plenty of people to play with.
Outside of those hours you can do what you want, but those hours are clan
time for ops, cave runs or levelling noobs.

Would this also be good for solo players looking for a bit more to do?

I am prepared to spend some time out-of-game planning things to do, possibly
running a clan site/forum to help communication, but my game time is limited
to only an evening (or 2 at a push) a week due to other commitments. Is this
enough to run and hold together a clan?

I would be looking for more help 'at the top', and if the clan grows then
other people could run other nights if enough people were interested.

As a general concept, would this sort of clan work? What is a good level of
people to get it going? I'm guessing if you had 10 people turning up on Clan
nights it would work, and you would probably need 2-3 times that in members
to guarantee that turn out?

Looking forward to some input, and I'll try and reply from work, but depends
how the firewall is feeling today

[Babes]

A casual gamer should not be a clan leader. A clan leader really needs to be around alot of the time.

One week you log on and find out your at war with someone for that last week which started 2 min after you logged off.

You'll never hold a OP for more than 5 min -- If you can even take one.

You members will probably drift away over time.
You loggon one day and find everyone gone etc etc etc.
In summary without almost constant leadership you clan will fall apart.

IMHO unless you have some magic formula or your clannies are IRL mates.

Although aswell a Forum you should consider a Teamspeak server. We somethings have people talking on TS that are playing across Diffrent servers and sometimes Diffrent Games and when there needed they log where required if they can.

[Willisit]

Gotta agree here. Plus, since the game isn't tied to one country you'd find it almost impossible to maintain.

Being as casual as you are you're better off being part of a larger clan yourself - help someone else out. ;)

[Original monk]

make a clan and use alot of words like: nib, L337, Pwn, ownage, sex, SEX, 1oneone111one11, nuff said, haXXorz, onoz

and everything will work out yust fine :P

[QuantumDelta]

You will be forced to give up that active time almost instantly, you will need a compotent 2nd/3rd in command, or "other admins" or whatever - someone to keep structure and order, while you are not there, someone you trust.

You will need to be charismatic with that much away time, MMORPGs don't have much room for the casual gamer, none of them do.

About clan;
If it's not clear what you stand for when you start, you will stand for nothing at all.
Pick a side, tough it out.

Everyone loves an underdog too, if you want to do anything special with your clan.
Recruit Quality not Quantity, ALWAYS. Several clans I could name have made this STUPID mistake and it's cost them a lot of themselves every time.
Unless you're starting a clan that has no morals anyway...

Oh well, that should be enough to get you started.

[Bengalmin]

I wasn't really asking about running a 'normal' clan part time, but running a part time clan.

is this just a daft idea? there must be other players who have limited game time but want to be more involved in clans

[Cytaur]

Well, there's a thread (http://neocron.jafc.de/showthread.php?s=&threadid=87841) you might want to refer to

[Prodigious]

personally, i like it, it means people can do what they want when they want and be part of something to

think about it, i have trouble with finding a rare or whatever, i know wednesday night i will get help, or whatever

need to lvl, no rush no point risking my belt to some team belt grabber in caves, ill wait till wednesday, i can go with clan,

you can attack ops for fun even tho you know you wont hold it, does it matter if the fights fun?

eventually you will get people you can trust and if you want to let it grow, eventually, if you want it to you can let it grow out and have sub-leaders etc, but does it matter if you know on wednesday you can do that small fun cave run?

or how bout this, you help people level, help people cave run, go rare hunting etc, then let them move on, to a different clan etc, you could be like a school with openin hours etc (personally i think that mentioned above would be a great non-faction clan but thats gettin off topic :D ) then you can watch these runners who gain a name for themselves and say, " i helped him level")

if you put the out of game effort in like you say i think this could be a good idea, a neocron school =D

[MrBiggles]

Just FYI, as a member of a casual guild on UO, it SUCKS ASS trying to schedule times when everyone can be on.

Casual gamers don't really like to be tied to set play times, which makes it hard to schedule a guild outing. We'd have about half of the members show up for guild stuff, about half of the time. Plus, the time spent waiting from the first person who logged in for the event to the last person everyone was waiting for was like 2 hours.

It just didn't work out too well for any kind of group outings.

The thing that would solve this is to have a VERY large guild of casual gamers, where 5-10 people were pretty much guarenteed to be on at all times for group stuff. But I don't really see casual gamer and large guild going being mutually inclusive.

[QuantumDelta]

Originally posted by Bengalmin
I wasn't really asking about running a 'normal' clan part time, but running a part time clan.

is this just a daft idea? there must be other players who have limited game time but want to be more involved in clans If you're going to be that close minded I'll answer in one word.

No.

[ezza]

Originally posted by Original monk
make a clan and use alot of words like: nib, L337, Pwn, ownage, sex, SEX, 1oneone111one11, nuff said, haXXorz, onoz

and everything will work out yust fine :P if you follow originals advice you cant go far wrong

nib

[Bengalmin]

Originally posted by QuantumDelta
If you're going to be that close minded I'll answer in one word.

No.

Closed minded? what did I say?

I was just clarifiying my post as the responces seems to deal with trying to run a clan part time.

As for the trying to shedule things problem. I would keep the day and time fixed and people wouild know when to be on when they joined the clan.

[[TgR]KILLER]

din't read all reply's that good.. but it depends on what u are planning to do.. OP wars etc or holding OPs are never gonna happen.. and just playing on some days some times won't work imo.. because if somebody got to work that day or can't get on u won't see him for 1/2 weeks.. better make a clan with "timezone's" most of [TgR] is Euro with 5/6 US ppl.. but most of them are on early so i do see them in the late evening for me..

and the others i keep contact with due e-mail forums and being up untill early morning in the weekends ;)

IMO a clanleader should be on alot.. there's so much stuff to take care off.. even for a parttime clan.. but thats just my opinion after 2.5 years of leading a clan.. ( 1.5 in UT 1 year in NC now )

[Bengalmin]

cheers for that. I never thought holding ops would ever be an option, but taking a few and hopefully getting a fight out of it should be feasible (however every other clan would learn when you are going to be on if you did it regularly)

I liked the school idea earlier in the thread, I was thinking about starting the clan trying to recruit mainly new players with a few high level people to help out. Get the noobs together, show them good hunting spots, give them equipment and see them again in a few days to give them the next step up. being a casual gamer it can be hard leveling (I still haven't capped my first char and I've been playing him since day 1, 6 CON to go!) so hopefully finding other people in the same situation would help findind teams etc.

[evs]

yeah can't see why not - as long as the other clan members realise its going to be lonely if they are on a lot / realise how the setup is meant to work.
recruiting will also be hard unless you already have peeps you know want in.







also you should give me my guns back on pluto ;)
email evs ;)