Now I understand why there are so few clans

I made my clan the very moment I launched PA for the first time. In fact I made it before I even launched it, because the first time I launched PA I went in with three friends, so right away we had a four-man clan. We simply added the clan tag next to our names, and that was it! It really is that simple!

But everyone else seems to think you need to apply for a mayor's permit or something. And the moment they see a clan tag they assume that you and everyone playing with you is a top 10 player. If you beat them they whine about your "unfair" coordination, and if they beat you they make fun of how much you and your clan "suck".

This used to be aggravating to me, but now I see it as hilarious. People really are that timid! I met four Australian guys the other day who were playing together all the time, but who were still "thinking" about making a clan. I.e. about clicking on the "change your display name" button and adding three or four capital letters and an underscore or something before their usernames. That was a week ago, and I think they are still "thinking" about it!

Part of a recent discussion between me and someone I invited to join my clan:

People are overthinking it to so much, it is absurd. And, like I said, it's not only their own timidity that prevents them from going ahead and making or joining a clan, but also others' preconceptions. Simply put, if you stick a clan tag next to your name you should expect A WHOLE OTHER kind of behavior from the people in the MP lobby. Some are nice and respectful about it, but for the most part you will be getting NEGATIVE behavior, either of the form of far fewer people joining your lobbies because they are scared of you, or of trash talking if you don't conform to their inane "all clan players are top 10 players" preconception.

We have given serious thought to removing our clan tags, because the moment we do this we know that all this aggravation will instantly go away, and we'll be able to set up our games and play them with far fewer annoyances and headaches than currently. But now and again someone comes in the lobby and says "I stayed up until 4AM to watch your match against VoW, and I think you guys did great", or "it was an honor to be defeated by you" (srsly, someone said that), and that makes us feel like a real team, which is the whole point of the clan thing, and balances the negativity out -- and more than balances it -- and makes everything worth it.

I think the 'clans are serious' attitude stems from other games...

Some of the really 'big' e-sports games, the clans pretty much 'employ' their members, requiring serious commitments in time from their members, as well as punishment or even banishment for players who don't conform.

Thankfully the 'clan' scene in PA is just like it was in TA and Spring (never got heavily into PVP in SupCom but I imagine it was similar there)- it's more about having good team games than anything else. I don't think we have even 1 properly 'serious' clan which is a good thing.

As for the perception of players, well you guys are probably one of the newest clans so no your not all 'top 10' guys, however you're still miles ahead of someone who is new to multi-player. These newer players will have probably gotten beaten repeatedly by different people with clan tags, and to be honest most players who use a tag are usually more competitive so they will 'go for the kill'... I actually got accused of being a 'troll' when a new guy joined the PA:Stats ladder for a 1 v 1 and I beat him 'too quickly and unfairly'. I wasn't rude to him, didn't call him 'noob' or anything of the sort and in my mind I would prefer my opponent to give me the respect of treating me as a real threat and playing properly so this is how I played. The point is though I think it's hard to remember what as a player it feels like in the first week or so of multi-player....

Things have actually been improving on this score lately. Back in the summer when we started playing we only saw a clan player once a week, and even then he would be alone. For the first month we never saw a clan playing together as a team, and that's why we joined Clan Wars. But now there are full teams in the lobby every day, and a bunch of new clans every week, many of which we can easily beat. One example is the Reich guys that were getting so much flak on here a couple of days ago (I wonder if they are still called that), or a French clan that goes by the tag NW, or a new clan I saw yesterday that's called WerEx or something like that. And if we can beat them it means the better randoms can too, so that should help dispel the image of clan players as top players, and get a few more people thinking about starting their own.

So despite my whining above, things are improving, and I have big hopes for Clan Wars Season 2.

Here's another "negative" that I just remembered.

It's easier for randoms to remember us, than for us to remember randoms. So people come in the lobby and are all like "Hey dudes, we played with you yesterday and blah blah blah" and then they expect us to remember them and the game we played together, which 9 times out of 10 we don't. So for the most part we pretend that we do so as to not appear rude or conceited to them. Whereas when we play a full clan, we ALWAYS remember the entire game. It's simply much easier to remember that we played against "Team Burning" than against "randomuser69", "gorrillamilk", "tigolbitties" and "foerest".

Actually there are so few clans because the evil megalomaniac @cwarner7264 systematically monopolised the market.

It's true. I'm a terrible person.

Whenever you see The Realm, remember: in German it's Die Reich.

I would say 'enterprising' is a better term

If that were the case I'd be rolling in it by now - I still haven't figured out how to convert members into cold hard cash

If that's a nod in my direction I am flattered, and can give you tips if you need them.

It wasn't, I was 100% joking I'm not interested in profiteering off the Realm - I run it because I love running it and enjoy everyone's company

The Profiteer. I like that word. Sounds like a superhero, like The Rocketter or something. Or at least a supervillain.

Das* Reich. Check yo translator. Or...you know, learn German.

1) If you want a clan, make a clan.
2) Ignore what other players say.
3) Have fun, it's a game. If they're not having fun, screw them.

You'll have a much better time if you ignore the opinions of others. If you want to be in a clan, who cares what other people say?

Basically it goes like this:

"Your clan is unfair!"
"Oh no, now my feelings are really hurt... Well anyway, back to more PA"

And if they say you suck - welcome to the world of online gaming, where if you loose it's because the other team was cheating and if you win its because YEAH IM AWESOME AND THE OTHER GUY SUCKS YEAH. Again, ignore them.

Actually, I haven't really found that people are unwilling to match against people with clan tags, even when playing a team game with 2,3 or even 4 others with the same tag I find we get matches against randoms.

Of course we'd almost always win, but even then I've never really encountered much bitterness or complaints of it being 'unfair'.

Individual players I feel are far more well known than anyone with a clan tag, I know of one promethean member who recently changed his in-game name because his reputation was making it hard to find games...

With two or three clan members it's not too bad. With four it becomes harder, and with five sometimes we even give up on getting a game going. I dread how it's going to be when 10v10 is possible. We'll never get a game going. That's why we want to know all the clans and be on good terms with them. It will be impossible to get a large game otherwise.

Also because we like y'all. But the game comes first.

Well people who play in a clan usually are also connected via teamspeak or other communication networks, which make them in team matches strongly superior (on the level of organizing their play) to random player teams that have to communicate via intern chat or don't even communicate at all.

So a certain level of dislike of playing against clans is understandable in my opinion.

I think the real reason was that he can't come up with good names (if we are thinking about the same guy ofcourse)

Eh us RLM guys had problems back in beta that we could not get team games cause the tags. We would just play one another. I'm really happy other clans stayed alive and more were formed. Realm is giant and in sure numbers we are still probably 40%+ of the clan player base but that's going down since are recruiting for PA is pretty much stopped. We only let people join who ask us, we don't invite anymore. It just seems like less clans this game then in others because the lack of actual tools for clans ingame. Wc3 was built around clans and I believe it was around 80% of the multi-player player base was in clans. I myself ran a 7 clan group for a single custom game. Back then they would get massive fast.