Clans

Clans are groups of players who fight on the same team in matches against other clans. Clans can compete in many leagues, ladders, and tournaments. Clans are a great way to make sure you’re playing with the kind of people you want to play with, and not some raving lunatics. Great friendships are formed in clans, and they give players a sense of purpose as well as camaraderie. There’s nothing like prepping for a clan match. You can set up a clan for free. All it costs is time…

Creating a Clan

If you’re tired of never being able to get anyone to work as a team, create one of your own. There are tons of things to consider before you get yourself into something you can’t get out of. Consider everything from the name of your clan to the players you bring into it, and everything in-between. Running a clan is a lot of work, but it can be a lot of fun if you do it right and put the time into it.

Clan Name & Tags

The first thing you should do is decide on a name and a tag. In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, your name won’t show up anywhere, but your tag will. A clan tag is an abbreviation of your clan name. For instance, the Sea Snipers’ tag is [SS]. There are a couple of schools of thought on this process. You can choose a clan tag that you like first, and then make up a fitting name around it. Let’s say you want your tag to be [DOG]. Now you have to come up with something that stands for… Department Of Gunfire? It’s up to you. Be creative and/or descriptive. If you don’t care what your tag is, choose a name that fits your style of play or the image you want to present to the world. For instance, the 1st Digital Infantry’s tag would be [1]. It’s your choice whether you want to take things seriously or just have fun with it.

Your tag is placed in front of all of your players’ names. If your name is Jimmy, your clan tag is displayed in front of it in-game, making it [1]Jimmy.

Clan Rules & Standards

Your clan should create a code of conduct for all its members. If you don’t set down rules beforehand, members will think you’re a jerk when you punish them for something they didn’t know they weren’t supposed to do. This also helps you decide what kind of clan you want to be, and helps potential members decide if it’s the right place for them. Decide how much time you require from members for things like practice and matches, how active they need to be in your forums, etc. Include rules like ���no smack-talk” if you want to take things seriously and gain respect from others, and “if you fail to show up for a practice, you may not be rostered in the next match.” Regardless of the type of clan you want to create, don’t be a jerk. Treat people with respect, or you’ll be left in a room by yourself and the word will get around not to play your clan. Be respectful and people will respect you. If they don’t, bug out.

Eventually you’ll find a good group of players and clans that all have a good time with each other…while killing each other. Make sure you cover everything that you think you may need to, and enlist the help of some of your clanmates to add to or revise the rules.

Chain Of Command & Promotions

All clans need a chain of command. Of course, there’s the leader, who may delegate parts of his duties to other clan members. You should also create a rank structure based on our existing military’s structure, or create your own rank names. You can use 10 ranks or 30, it’s up to you. Just make sure everyone knows what they need to do to earn each rank, and what their responsibilities will be once they reach that rank.

You can let some of your subordinates take care of things like recruiting, intelligence, training, and battles. Whatever you need done for the clan, find the right person for the right job.

You might decide that your members need to reach a certain rank to become Chief of Training. Just make sure your members know how they can achieve that rank. You can base rank on many different things, such as practice attendance, in-game skills, if the guy came over and helped you move that couch with the fold-out bed…anything you want. Or you can promote people at random if you like. Just let your team know that’s how you’re going to do it.

Once you’ve got your chain of command in place, make sure to explain how it works. Can Privates talk directly to the General? Do they need to go through a Lieutenant? Are Captains and above the only members who can set up clan matches? These are all things to consider when creating your chain of command.

Clan Duties

There are tons of things to do in a clan. Delegate the work to the players you trust. Some of the duties that need to be performed are: Webmaster, Practice Coordinator, Battle Organizer, Recruiter, Intelligence Officer, Communications Officer, and Forums Administrator. One person can’t perform all of these jobs, so figure out what needs to be done for each position and take volunteers. This is usually the best way to assign these positions. Disregard rank when choosing members to fill these slots, because some of your higher-ranking officers may not be any good at doing what you need them to do, or may not have the time to do them. Find out who’s good at what and let them run with it. If they screw up, can’t do a good job, or don’t have the time, just assign the position to another volunteer. By letting everyone have a hand in running the ship, everyone will feel a bit more ownership in the clan and help it to succeed.

Let’s explore one of the positions: Practice Coordinator. This is a crucial job, because everyone needs practice whether they think so or not. The Practice Coordinator makes sure everyone knows when practice is and shows up on time, and comes up with a practice schedule for the night. If you need work on a certain map that you’ll be playing in an upcoming match, set up some drills on that map, such as getting across the bridges in Overgrown. Have one team hold one side while the other team tries different ways to get across. Then debrief the team and see what worked well and what didn’t work. A lot of times you’ll hear things like, “When you flashed us in the barn, we couldn’t see anything. Good idea.” So the Practice Coordinator should make sure everyone’s where they need to be for practice, and everybody knows what’s going to happen.

Recruiting

There are many ways for clans to recruit. If you frequent gaming forums, add a line of text in your signature that says, “We’re recruiting! Click here.” Link it to your clan website or forums. You can make a party, join a public room, and let the other players know that you’re recruiting. You can watch them play and talk to them right there to see if they would be a good fit. Then you can offer them an invite or ask them to play with you a few more times before you make a decision.

You can even create a form for recruits to fill out, detailing things like when they’re available to play, how old they are, how long they’ve been playing, how they found your clan, why they want to join, and any other questions you’d like answered. Take into consideration the age group. If you and all of your members are 25-30, you might not want to recruit 12-year-olds. The same goes for a clan of 12-year-olds. You don’t want some old man in your clan, do you?

Stock your clan with good players, but also make sure they’re good people. You want people willing to help you out, work as a team, and contribute what they can. Make sure all recruits know what you’re looking for, and show them your clan’s rules and regulations. Once you find people you think are a good fit with your clan, have them play with you in a few practices and matches before you give them their tags. They may seem cool in the beginning, but time will always reveal the true nature of a person. Make sure you’re getting the player you thought you were going to get before you tag him.

Awards

Create some sort of a reward system to give your members something to work toward. This can include anything from medals to ribbons to trophies. Set up a system where players vote for each other to get certain awards, or have them make recommendations to the leader. You can even base it on in-game stats. For instance, at level 25 you get your Ground-Pounder Medal. Check out some military websites for ideas on medals and ribbons to bestow upon your members. You can give out awards for specialties such as great sniping, grenade work, good communication, tactical work…the options are limitless. Just let your players know how they can earn these awards, so they have something to work for within the clan.

Try to create a group of awards, medals, ribbons, etc. that you can build upon. For example, if someone gets the Sniper Medal, and they continue to perform well with the sniper rifle again and again, try adding something to the medal, like a star or a stripe. Or change its color to denote that the player has achieved more than just the basic award—just like in Prestige mode. Every time you reach level 55, you get a different icon. This is the same basic principle. People love to unlock things and need to have a sense of progression, so this feature will make your members want to do well.

Practice

Practice makes perfect. Or at least a fun Wednesday night. Decide how often you need to hold practices. Run at least one practice every week. Set a time and let everyone know they have to be there. This helps everyone get to know each other, and it creates a fun and comfortable atmosphere. A couple of hours should be the max for practice, especially if you’re working on specific things like tactical maneuvers, weapons training, etc. Practice should be used for training and testing. Try out tactics that you’ve drawn up for the upcoming match. If they don’t work, you can take new suggestions right then and there, and try them out to see if they work.

Another great way to practice is to set up a friendly scrimmage. Find a clan that you’ve played before and set up a time to battle. This is usually the best way to try out your plans. By playing against the same people all the time, you start to anticipate what everyone’s going to do. Playing against someone new, it’ll be a crapshoot. You can even discuss with the other clan what you need to work on and what they need to work on. Let’s say your clan needs to work on getting into the barn on Overgrown. The other clan can set up camp in there, and you can try to get in. They may need practice on Wet Work and will want to run on a certain side of that map. Scrimmages are great ways to make new allies and test out your tactics.

Matches

This is where all your hard work can pay off. There are lots of places to find a battle. Just search online. There are tournaments, ladders, and leagues, and some even offer cash prizes. Find a system that works best for you and your clan. Make sure you read all of the rules before enrolling in a ladder, and make sure your members can play at the specified times. Ladders are set up in a numbered fashion, ranking you based on who attacks you and who you attack. You can only attack a certain number of “rungs” up on the ladder, and vice versa. All ladder systems are run differently, but the point is that the more you win, the higher up the ladder you climb.

Leagues are a bit different. They can be set up to knock out any teams that don’t get past a certain level, or contain playoffs and tiers. Again, decide what works best for you. Online matches are extremely tense, and you’ll need exceptional communication to win. Shooting alone won’t always win matches, so talk it up when you need to relay intel to the team. Always be respectful. If you end up fighting a bunch of immature players and they start talking about your mom, just mute them and play on. Report them if you have to.

Intra-Clan Tournaments

You don’t always have to fight other clans. In fact, some of the most fun you’ll have in the game is when a rivalry is struck. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare offers an immeasurable number of combinations for private matches. Come up with something fun, like a knife-only Domination tournament, and come up with prizes for it. You can even have the clan members chip in and get a hat, or shirt, or controller, or whatever you can do for the winners. Virtual trophies with the players’ names on them will work too, but stay away from the cold hard cash prizes for the most part. Experiment and have fun. That’s what it’s all about.

Website & Forums

There are plenty of free hosting places available on the web. Poke around and see what you can find. You’ll want to have a few pages on your site to show the public that you have your act together. Your site should show people what your rules and standards are, what your requirements for recruiting are, and how you owned that clan last night. If you don’t have anyone in your clan who can design a website, there are other options. You can use a cheap template that you can edit yourself, and some hosting services give you access to basic web page editing tools.

You’ll also need some forums or bulletin boards. These are free of charge and easy to maintain. Forums give your members a place to talk amongst themselves. They can post about tactical ideas and suggestions, practice times, upcoming matches, tournaments, and anything the clan needs to know. Forums are a great place to do it. They also give the public a place to come and interact with you as well. When you’re playing in open rooms and someone asks you if they can join, you can point them to the forums.

Forums also offer things like calendars and private messaging systems, including e-mail features. They’re a must for any clan.

Clan Maintenance

You can’t just say, “This is my clan name and here we go.” You’ll need to keep up on everything, from updating your roster to administrating your forums. Make sure you have a finger on the pulse of your clan so you know if anyone is unhappy. You want to keep morale high, or members will jump ship and find another clan. Find out what your members like and dislike. There’s no better way to grow. So good luck and have fun.