Guide on Managing A Clan
Originally by Pepsidude123, Modified By FD2
The intentions of this guide is to show you a little more about what it
takes to manage a great clan and to get a clan of your own started. The
guide will be divided into 6 parts.
- What is a clan?
- Getting started
- Be unique
- Promoting your clan
- Choosing staff
- Online strategies
- Forum parties
A clan is a group of people who play multiplayer games together. Clan members compete, trade strategies, and just have a good time playing with one another. Clans are a great way to improve your online skills and compete in competitions with your fellow clan mates. There are generally four kinds of clans. The first type of clan is for competing online with other clans. This type of clan sets regulations on who can join. You might have to have a certain online ranking or win percentage to insure that you are good enough to be in the clan. A clan like this will regulary set up forum party dates where fellow clan members are all asked to get online and play together. This clan will compete with other clans and try to become the single best clan on eso or ClanWars. The second type of clan is similar to the first type, but not so competitive. These clans are for everyone to join. The idea behind these clans is just to have a good time and play with other clan members without having to worry about your win percentage or how good you are compared to the rest of the clan. These clans are great for beginner and intermediate players. And the third type of clan is a designing clan or design team. This type of clan doesn't fully revolve around online play, it revolves around designing. A designing clan is a group of people who use the editor to create custom scenarios, mods, or utility programs. However, some of the designing clans are invite-only where only the best designers can get an invitation to join the clan. Many design clans play online to discuss new scenarios and share their strategies. And the fourth type of clans, are clans that specify in something special that isn't in the frames of the previous. That could be a clan focusing on things like Fort Wars (yes, that exists), or modders seeking inspiration in all the units they'll use while playing. They normally don't have any special requirements for joining, and they are rarely high on members. Also, something to think about when creating your own clan is who do you want to play with? People around the world are in different time zones so it will be harder to play with people outside your time zone. Many clans are European-Only, American-Only, etc., so that all of the clan members will be on a similar time zone.
Now, that you have hopefully chosen a clan type, it is time to get your clan started. The first thing you need is a clan name. Try to pick out something that relates to your clan type or pick a name that can be made into a theme for your clan. If you can't think of a name, ask other forumers for a good name, or use a name of your favorite Battle for Middle Earth 2 unit as your clan name. For example, you could name your clan the Haradrim Clan. The next step is optional but it will make your clan nicer looking and it will give your clan more publicity. I'm talking about getting a website and forum. Forums or message boards are a great way to arrange forum parties and discuss different strategy methods with your other clan mates. You don't need to have any previous knowledge in site design or forum making to get a site and/or forum. If you don't know web design, W3 Schools is a great site for learning HTML, CSS, PHP, and other essential languages. The next thing you'd need is a forum. You have a lot of easy choices for forums. If you wanted a free forum, I'd prefer getting an invisionfree forum. To do this, go to www.invisionfree.com and register for your own forum. In a matter of seconds, you'll have your very own forum. All you have to do is add categories to your forum and start posting. You can also customize your forum with unique buttons or skins from www.ifsz.net. If you want to pay for a better forum with more features, I would recommend buying an Invision Power Board. These boards are very simple to manage and have a lot more features like a downloads center and a shoutbox. After you register for some forums and a site, you are pretty much good to go until the next step.
There are many clans out there. But, what makes a clan great is what that clan has to offer. Take a look at other online or designing clans and see what you can do to make your clan different from all of them. If your clan is unique, it will get more publicity and more people will want to join. Some things you can do to make a clan unique are:
- Hosting weekly forum parties
- Hold several unique contests (eg: fastest win in an online game, best scenario, etc.)
- Start a ladder (A ladder is kind of like a championship where you compete against other players in your clan)
- Offer your members something for being active in the clan's forums (eg: allow them to be moderators, give them more authority over the clan, put them in an 'elite' member group)
- Let your clan offer more than a fun gaming experience. If possible, it's always a good idea to offer your clan mates something. An example is many clans have graphic designers that make graphics upon requests.
- Put a strategy guide database on your site for easy access to guides on each faction
Now, it's time to get the members! To promote your clan, you should advertise it (where allowed). Many BFME2 forums including HeavenGames will allow you to make one advertising thread for your clan. Advertising threads should have a nice description of the clan, state what it takes to join that clan, and state the clan facts (eg: How many members are in the clan, How often you have forum parties, etc.) Advertising on those sites should give you your first few clan mates. You also might want to try to hold online games on Battle for Middle Earth 2, and if you play against someone who you think would make a great addition to the clan, invite them. Most of the time if this player doesn't already belong to a clan, they will be extremely excited to join you. You can also affiliate or link up with other sites. To do this, create an affiliate button or give the link to your site to another clan leader who allows affiliates. Being affiliated with another clan will give you free advertisements on that clan's site in return for advertising on their site. An affiliate button is usually a 88x31 graphic that states your clan name or clan tag. The affiliate button would also link to your site when someone clicks on it.
After you get some members, it will help to hire some staff to help you out. The staff would help you out with updating the ladder, moderating the forums, recruiting new members, and adding content to the site. Be careful when you choose your staff. You shouldn't hire just any one who asks to be a staff member. Pick who you think could benefit the most to the clan and who would stay active. It's good to have a helpful staff but you don't want too many staff members. Just pick the staff as you find that you need more.
Clans should always have part of their forums dedicated to discussing different strategic methods. Part of the clan is to help each other get better and the best way to do that is to share your own strategies. If you find a really good strategy, you could even update it to your site. Strategies help everyone. Say you have a strategy based on Mordor, an Elves player can read the strategy to learn how to counter Mordor in a game.
Forum parties are a must. Forum parties are set dates where your clan members can all get online and play together. Forum parties allow your members to get to know the other members better and they can also be used to introduce the clan and to recruit new members. Many clans hold several forum parties to get well-known or to improve their strategies with each other. Forum parties are also a great way to get matched up with someone of your skill level.