The topic of clans has been concerning me lately. This is in the Septagon for a reason. The recent, spoiler filled XBN covered clans in a small box on one of the pages. I'm going to take the time to type it out for those who haven't read it. [quote]Playing online is an important - and integral - part of the [i]Halo 2[/i] experience. Aside from an Xbox Live friends list that is available at any time during the single-player game, Bungie is changing the face of online play by implementing robust clan features. Anyone can create a clan at any time. Once it's christened, the originator of the clan becomes its overlord. As the owner of the clan, the overlord has all administrative privileges, including the ability to promote, invite, and expel other players. "When you're in a clan, there are four different levels," Max Hoberman, [i]Halo 2's[/i] multiplayer lead, says. "Everyone starts as a member; everyone is allowed to play in clan matches. As an overlord, I can demote this guy all the way to a peon, which means he's not allowed to invite anybody, and he's not allwed to spam anybody. He's only allowed to play in clan games. I can also promote him to staff. Once he's staff, he can recruit and also boot people form the clan." This level of depth extends onto the Internet, where your clan can customize its own homepage on Bungie.net for all to see, admire, and fear. Will you bring your clan fame or shame?[/quote] In another sidebar this is added: [quote][b]Clans:[/b] Groups of players who fight together online. Anyone can join one (and only one) clan in Halo 2.[/quote] I was worried about our groups as a community. We will be seeing a lot of problems with rivalry. Single groups might become a center for clans while multiple groups might gang up together to form a massive clan. I can see super large clans consisting of many groups dominating. And that's fine. I'm worried about the smaller groups. Like the lost ones who enter the Septagon to post advertisements. Initially, they'll be mad they can't get their clan's membership up worth a damn. Hopefully, they'll try to find another clan to join because of the supposed "...and only one" clan limit. I doubt that will happen. There will be a flood of either begging or disgruntled Bungie.net members seeking a good clan. Problems that could develop: 1. The usual team killing, [color=red]-BLAM!-[/color]tards entering clans as either spies or saboteurs because they're pissed nobody joined their clan. 2. An ungodly amount of "New Guys", that flood larger clans and groups with "Pick me!" requests. 3. Inner-group/clan wars because of the other two problems. All of these problems will hurt the Community (Bungie.net and XBL) as a whole. I think we should discuss ways to deter unnecessary conflicts. I'm all about challenges, just not about bull...stuff.