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View Full Version : Gaming + Clanning [My History]


KnightAttack
01-01-2009, 05:24 AM
So, here we are, a few days away from Christmas. School's done, and I really haven't been gaming enough to write a decent review. Instead, I've been at home, busy with lots of work, although I had a chance to reinstall Battlefield 2142, and play it for the first time in probably close to a year [and get my ass kicked], I began thinking about my turns with clans in Video Games.


To most people, the amount of clans I have been in, quite small to how many they have been. My own personal amount of clans, is 7.


But each clan I have been in was quite fun, or at least, while it lasted it was. I thought this post should explain some things, my actions, so that you people will know a little more about me.


[I posted this here, instead of the user review. Think it's a decent read.]



So, the 7 clans I have bene in, are:

* -=JO=- - The Jedi Order - [Game:] Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
* eXe - [didn't really stand for anything] - [Game:] Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
* <Ca> - Clan Apathy - [Game:] Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
* I have to leave this one blank, because I don't remember the name. [Game:] Counter Strike Source.
* .:AFW:. - Affinity For War - [Game:] Counter Strike Source
* ^ESC^ - Exiled Soldiers Coalition - [Game:] Battlefield 2142
* <uFo> - u Fear only - [Game:] Battlefield 2



Each clan has had signifigant impact on where I am today.


So, let's start with a little history.

After coming back to Jedi Knight II online after my area finally got DSL in late 2004, I was way out of touch. Eventually, someone came on, recognized I was new, and helped me understand the controls, and better basics of the game. In May of 2005, I was able to join a the clan of -=JO=-. I got my new tags, new colors. About 3 weeks after I joined however, the clan folded, as we ran out of money, and could no longer pay for a server.

For a few months, I bounced around and around, going to different servers. In September, I eventually found my way to eXe. The server was always fairly busy. They were announcing that the clan was recruiting, when I met a fellow Canadian, and member, Teh_Nemesis, who recruited me into the eXe ranks.

I was fairly well liked, active, and moved up the the first few ranks quickly. Soon, I began recruiting some new people, and at almost any given time, there was 5 members on. By November of 2005, the money once again ran-dry. Our server was gone, as was most of the members.

Except me.

I kept playing. Wearing the tags, and kept in constant contact with our leaders. I began playing on another clans server, known as -[KoTp]- (Keepers of The Peace), where I soon made friends with one of their clan members, Chop_Sticks. Soon, I regularly played with him, keeping the clan alive. Members started to come back, and, in January of 2006, we launched a server hosted by a member on a spare computer. It only held 16 people, and was occasionally unstable, but it worked. And the clan expanded.

The clan, moved to a new site, new forum, and new web page. I was unofficially put in charge of recruiting, and clan relations. As many members will atest to, I helped refound this broken clan. The membership, which was struggling around 15 active people, jumped to 40. All of them, good members. 2 new alliances, one with -[KoTp]- and <Ca> were established. However, it was during this time, a fracture began in the clan. Many of the original members were gone, some less active. One of our leaders, got involved with a "Guild" in the game. Originally this wasn't a problem...Until later. Members who I had recruited, good people, such as Teemu, Vanilla, Deathy all were chosen over me to council us, as that was how the clan worked. I wasn't bitter. I was a step below council, and most of these people confided in me, discussing what was going on during the meeting, or in the forums.


I was still actively taking part in recruiting, and admining the server, as I was one of the few on in my timezone. During the spring months of 2006, a membership swelled to 80+ members. We spand all over the world. However, structure problems began.

The council changed policies, allowing them to have the power to choose who to recruit into the clan. The council also began promoting people, which, to an untrained eye seemed random. New recruits were being brought up faster than members who had been there for months. However, these new recruits, were fellow friends, and members of people on the council. They were now hoisting admin on the server when they should have not been.

The man hosting the server passed out admin not just to members, but to his friends as well. New members were getting upset, but no one on council had enough balls to admit that there was problems, or go against our founders wishes.

In May of 2006, my first problem with another member occurred. While admining the server, one new member was cursing, laming, and doing everything that broke the rules in the server. I first tried to control him, but he refused to listen. I removed him from the server 3 times, but he refused to listen again. I went online, found one of the guys who I had recruited who was on council, and had them Ban him from the server.

I went on to Post in the members only forum about the lack of respect in the clan. No one was respecting the elder members of the clan. It was the way how we worked. However, my post after only about 3 members had seen it, was removed from our Members forum and put in the council forum. Later, I shown the logs from the post. The people who I had recruited had defended the actions I had taken, while the founder ripped them for agreeing with me, and eventually unbanned the person.

I was taken aback. This clan, which I helped keep alive, was going down a very bad path. And I wanted to stop it. However, I pled my case with one of the council, and they thought I was stupid. "Admin to friends was fine", I was told. What set me off last however, was the day I found out our leader was showing his buddies, who were not in the clan, our "Members Only" Forum. This is detailed information, where we discussed important clan topics. Privid information. I lambasted the leader for allowing this, where he basically told me to "F**k off" as he thought it was fine.

In June of 2006, I left eXe. The clan had taken a road I could not follow. It was going to implode. It was only a matter of time. Other people in the JK2 community saw it, and that's why they didn't join. The leader told me I was "next" to be on council, if that was why I was leaving. He thought I was power hungry. It just proved how little he did know me. I later learned that there was several votes on myself becoming a council member, with the decision split right down the leader. Half thought I was too rash, too angry to be one, while the others thought i would bring exactly what was missing. Ironically, my biggest ally in the clan, was one of the founders, a man who went by the name Ste- or disrupti0n, the seldom heard, and rarely played member (usually, only with me, despite the fact he was in England). He and I discusses everything with the clan, including expansions into the sequel game.

By November of that year, eXe was dead. There was several attempts to revive it, but it was never right. Ex-Members agree, when I left, eXe might as well have closed shop. Some members followed me, others simply quit playing.

However, my time in JK2 does not end there. After being asked to join a various amount of other clans in the game, I eventually decided to join our old ally, <Ca>, or Clan Apathy. Clan Apathy was one of the original JK2 clans. They had been around since shortly after the game went online. The clan was/and is still more or less ran by a man name HaunTed, although the clan structure is set up to spread jobs around.

When I joined in September of '06, I quickly found a place at home. Soon, I became actively involved on the forums, and then found myself working on the recruiting team. I worked dillegently with the other members, bringing new members into the fold.

Everything was fine, until......May of 2007. In our scouting department, I saw something posted that made me very upset, as it reminded me a lot of what happened in eXe. A member came on the forums, lambasting us for recruiting someone while he was away for a week, because he thought they were "weak" and "not worthy" of being in the clan. This particular member, had been giving me some grief before, and I just went off on that post. I told him to get "STFU" and "GFO" if he was going to be like that.

He began a massive war of words, with him accusing me of not being nice to his "Girlfriend" when she tried to join. [Point of Fact: We had an emote with a smily face guy holding the sign of "lier". I used this icon on her post, when she had posted that she had played the game for 2 years longer than it had been out. It was just for fun, and I still wished her "good luck", as was our policy]. I tore the member a new one for that.

By the end of it, I eventually decided as long as this member was still in the clan, I could not be. So I left <Ca>, until January of 2008, when I rejoined, after the two members left. I don't play a huge amount of the game anymore, or am all that active in the clan, but I'm still around.

That about wraps up the JK2 saga. However, I also was in more clans at the same time.

KnightAttack
01-01-2009, 05:24 AM
When I played JK2, I met a person online by the name of Exloded. He came, and often played on our <Ca> server. Eventually I added him to my Steam list, and we started playing Counter Strike: Source together. He was apart of a clan based in England, which I played with. Eventually I joined. Sadly, a week after I started playing with the clan [who's name I cannot still remember], lost the server, because they quit paying for it.

Exloded and I were quite saddened by this event. After about 2 weeks, he decided he was going to start a new clan, .:AFW:. - Affinity For War. He asked me to join in around November of 2006. We had a server the size of 12, but our clan grew, mostly do to me recruiting friends. We reached about a size of 10, and practiced, and played regularly. We also held a few informal clan matches, winning over half of them.


In late January of 2007 however, funds ran out again, and no one wanted to cough up money for a new server, so we folded once again.

In March 2007, one of my friends from eXe, and one of the founders, Ste-, got me to start playing Battlefield 2142. He was part of a clan, called ^ESC^ - Exiled Soldiers Coalition. At the time, ^ESC^ was running one of the hottest servers in Battlefield 2142. They were running a 48 person 24/7 Camp Gibraltar. It was full almost all the time. If it was empty, it could start up in less than half an hour.

http://screenshots.filesnetwork.com/21/potd/1175745277_24.jpg

Ste- got me to join. So soon, I met the rest of the clan. We varied from all over North America. Our leaders were in the Army, serving in Iraq. The clan held together well though. We had a 24/7 City Maps server, and a 12 person practice/challenge server as well. Everything worked well. It was great. We practiced regularly, and I got much better. Gun fights, knife training, weapons training, was all part of us learning. Not just that however. We were also trained as commanders, and squad leaders. We taught each other specific places that were good for us to set up spawn points, or where to hid for snipers. We learned the ins and outs of every map, mostly by exploring it ourself.

We also ran our servers fairly strictly, anyone who did not abid by the rules, was removed. By May however, the same problem, once again, occured. We ran out of money. We didn't have clan fees, and with the leaders in Iraq, we folded.

The majority of us stayed close however. Playing together occasionally on a variety of games, or at least talking on xfire/msn/whatever.

My dates are a little hazy.


I believe it was in September/October of 2007, a couple of the leaders from ^ESC^ were back from Iraq. One on leave, and one full-time. One of the leaders, theffoh, wanted to restart the clan. However, he chose to restart the clan under a different name, <uFo>, standing for U Fear Only. He also wanted to open the clan up, starting different games, Instead of playing BF2142, he wanted to play Battlefield 2. He also wanted to open up new division in Counter Strike: Source as well as Team Fortress 2.

He jumped in right away, spending $1000 on a layout/website/forums for the clan for one year, which I personally thought was ridiculous. He also set up 4 servers in Battlefield 2, as well as one in Counter Strike Source.

I was astounded at this. We have 5 servers, for a clan of only about 20. On top of that, he wanted to start offering free gear to the member who played the most, as well as sending people Battlefield 2 copies to anyone who who wanted it.


I couldn't understand this. WHY was he explaining this large amount of money? I talked to one of the leaders, but was largely ignored. So, I went to the clan forums. I posted that I thought it was ridiculous that he was spending such a large amount of money on this clan. I said it was stupid without at least asking us for donations, or charging membership fees.


Clan Response? "Knight STFU".

Leader Response? "Your out of the clan."

I was astounded. I got removed BECAUSE I told the clan leader to stop spending money. How is that even possible? Does it even make sense to anyone?

Ironically, the clan blew up in January of 2008, due to no one wanting to pay money for the servers, and the clan leader was getting a divorce. I laughed for about a week, mostly because I was told by another former member that his wife was divorcing him partially for spending so much money on the internet, and spending too much time on the computer. Hilarious that the website was up for almost 9 months, without anyone using it.


Well, that's been my clan history. It's been a long journey. It's been hurtful at times. I've invested a lot, and seen only a little. Does that mean I would never go in another clan? No. I loved every minute, and I can't wait to join another one in the future.


Should you join a clan? Yes. Clan's are there for fun. They are there to help you when playing a game. They are the admins for the servers. You should be nice to them, as they help you enjoy the game.

[I thought it was a good read. And important for some people to read.]

AmuroRay
01-01-2009, 05:29 AM
Wow, and that was only for JK2.....

Amazing, no wonder you taught me all that stuff when I was playing with the Foxkei battles.

I sucked, but then you taught me a few stuff. So I got a little better. Then eventually Foxkei got tired of the game.

Can't wait to read your story on CS:S.

KnightAttack
01-01-2009, 05:32 AM
Wow, and that was only for JK2.....

Amazing, no wonder you taught me all that stuff when I was playing with the Foxkei battles.

I sucked, but then you taught me a few stuff. So I got a little better. Then eventually Foxkei got tired of the game.

Can't wait to read your story on CS:S.

It's up. My original post was too big. And I'm a little hazy on CSS. BF2 and 2142 is much better.

[edit: pictures are coming]

AmuroRay
01-01-2009, 05:41 AM
Well that was a short story on CSS.

I have been on clans only in CS 1.6, I created one, was a co-creator in one, and made another one. Since I couldn't play as much, I had to shut it down since members were getting crappy since we couldn't get into any Scrims with other clans.

I loved my "Phalanx" clan since it was very unique with Shields only tactics, which works at times.

KnightAttack
01-01-2009, 05:47 AM
Well that was a short story on CSS.

I have been on clans only in CS 1.6, I created one, was a co-creator in one, and made another one. Since I couldn't play as much, I had to shut it down since members were getting crappy since we couldn't get into any Scrims with other clans.

I loved my "Phalanx" clan since it was very unique with Shields only tactics, which works at times.

My time with CSS clans was short. We didn't accomplish huge amounts, but it was fun. Too many clans noawadays are pushing fees. Fees, I can't cough up. I'd rather just play for fun on the server anyway.

I'm probably going to edit a little bit right now on the ^ESC^ clan. yep. Definitely.

KomodoAce
01-01-2009, 01:59 PM
Man, I loved the clans I made for 1.6. {R3VeRB}.

Too time-consuming though to be in serious competition. We wanted to enter CAL, but we lived up to the reality that we weren't good enough.

PSRT
01-01-2009, 03:58 PM
This brings back memories of my America's Army clans...it seems like the only clans you can really trust are the ones made up of your friends. Most random fools who decide to start clans are power-hungry and ignorant, but every once in a while you find that great guy. This makes me wanna get into a clan again...