[QUOTE=Auzner;245198]You can’t use words like “any” and “anyone” without defining them. You’ve just quantified it as “everyone”. Blanket statements are rarely ever true.
Heh.
I think the word itself (clan) has its own negative implications. For online gaming it usually says to me “this community is ran like in Lord of the Flies.”
What you’re describing is more how children and teenagers run clans. Then there are adults who are at the same maturity level because it allows them to fit in with the children. They haven’t learned how to balance their real life with their video games. They usually lead clans because their job grants them the money to control their own domain and game server. When the clan grows really large the intense manchildren they recruit get very serious about everyone’s rankings and they act as if they really are in an actual national security position. Socializing with nonclan members will get really uncivil, and even amongst the members there’s argument about rank based on forum activity or ingame skill sets.
Even clans that are nothing like this will still attract new members who have this perception that it is this way. New members might subconsciously prepare themselves to accept and emulate this behavior. I’m saying that using the word “clan” for a community who likes to play the same game is almost like infecting it with a virus. New members are joining for the clan drama, not just the gaming. They want people to bestow virtual ranks upon them so they feel they’ve accomplished something. Then there can be uncivil elitist behavior which bullies non members who happen to share their public server.
Competitive clans that have their act together usually have minimal socializing. Or it’s very exclusive and the ranks are ignored but you’ve got people more focused on the game than anything else. They don’t care that your arm will be in a cast for two months, you’re off the team because you can’t help them win anymore. If they’re not a sponsored clan earning money I don’t understand why some people want it like that.
I have never interviewed anyone who gets sponsored to play video games, but they have “coaches” and someone pays them to fly around the world to win all the prizes at LAN parties. Which then they immediately turn around to ask the crowd if anyone wants to exchange their high end hardware for dollar bills. Not very good sportsmanship.
So there’s more to it than colors and alias tags. It’s what those represent. Not only the fact you’re allied with something, but the bad reputation that usually goes with having an online alliance. Every member who wears the tags is an ambassador to the clan. It only takes one member to ruin the clan’s reputation at another community. They won’t care about being that user and not the opinion of their alliance. Seeing it as a declaration of immature socializing wars fuels their desire for online drama.
These are the reasons why I’ve never joined a clan for any game before. Sometimes I will favor and frequent particular clan servers if I can enjoy myself there. I’ve thought about starting my own clan, but I can only see strangers “recruiting” other strangers which eventually turns the fellowship into the nightmare drama-fest I hate.[/QUOTE]
I find you very elusive, narrow minded and generalising for some troll who is allways itchy about definitions of the words…
lets leave te argument at this: [QUOTE=Yellow Steroid Puff;245141]each his own.[/QUOTE]
And ‘clans’ in their original form have been around WAAYYYY before any of that crap… but well I guess if you dwell on negativities you’ll view everything in its negative connotation.
