How to play well with others and win friends while clashing
Part I
Since we all enjoy this game after all, having fun should be the main foundation of our experience.
There is a plethora of excellent guides and write ups published already about game strategy and mechanics. It is strategy and action after all that draw many of us to play and enjoy Clash of Clans. However, I believe that one huge reason why CoC is so successful is its innate sense of community, in game, on the forums, and other third party chat/site destinations that supplement and fuel the community activity & gaming experience of CoC. As some would agree, the social bonds and friendships we form from interacting in the community, whether you are farming, or competing for trophies, are what fuels some if not most of us into furthering the "grind". Building and nurturing successful friendships with those who share the same interests (playing CoC) is part of the fun of it all.
I'm honored to have been asked by some of the FRENDz to write up and share my learnings and experiences about the organization style that have brought success to The FRENDz Network. I'm hoping that sharing a few of the simple organization techniques I have used, and also providing my own personal relationship building techniques in "how to play well with others while clashing", would benefit those who read these words and apply them to have a more fruitful, enjoyable interaction with the community either in game, on the forums, or even just with others in life in general. I'll try to be as comprehensive as possible, and will focus only on some helpful aspects that I feel are appropriate to this community.
First I'd like to start by setting the premise that I am not an authority on these subject matters. This is by no means a comprehensive guide, but a good start for a foundation. I am merely sharing my learnings in hopes it will provide some insights to others who can benefit from the content. Second, there are many great, successful clans out there, each with their respective identities and management styles which may have some similarities to the below. Hopefully, good feedback from those organizations will be added here, to cover other helpful topics and additions.
So you want your clan to be successful?
How do you define success? Success could be about gaining one of the top trophy ranks in the world. Or it could be about assembling the highest level roster of players. Or, it could be merely about filling your clan to 50/50, and retaining long term, loyal members, who become what you consider to be your everyday gaming buddies who collectively define your clan and its brand. No matter how you define success, there exists the gritty organization management that is required to keep order.
Organization
Every successful clan has a unique brand, a unique identity. You'd want this to be the foundation of your organization, right from the very start:
- Establish a clear mission, clear vision, clear metrics
- Minimum entry requirements
- Clear processes
- Establish clear rules
- Keep the number of rules small
- Simplify simplify simplify: KISS - keep it simple stupid
Establishing your clan's identity and keeping it consistent throughout its existence is crucial to driving any influence to the members, and to keeping the morale high. You'd want to specify a clear mission, which is largely dependent on how you define success for your clan as mentioned above. You'd want to align your mission, your vision, with clear metrics that you can measure your success rate and progress. Examples of some metrics would include donations minimums, player levels, or trophy rank. However, one portion of identity that should not be overlooked is the clan's "personality". Are we mature? Are we knowledgeable farmers? Are we gemmers, forum elites, or are we a band of friends?
Expanding on the metrics, clear minimum entry/retainment requirements would need to be enforced by clear processes. What criteria would define a member to be accepted to the clan? What criteria would define a member to be removed? Setting processes for these criteria and getting the correct members to apply them consistently and timely are important to ensure that the clan is running like a well oiled machine.
Then come the rules. Whatever your rules are, it's probably best to keep them as little as possible, so that it is easy for all members to remember and acknowledge. Having too many rules is like having too many instructions. Any human is bound to fail at some point and forget a few from an elongated list.
KISS - overall, simplifying your processes again and again will enable your organization to remain as nimble as possible. Any new rule or process introduced into the existing set should be vetted to minimize additional complexities.
Communications
It is an understatement that without an excellent communications system, any group large or small is bound to fail from lack of coordination. It is my personal opinion that in game chat is never enough. Providing other channels of communications will help foster the continuing communications in different time windows. Some obvious channels include the SuperCell forums, forum groups, or private messaging. If you have a large network of clans, having a 3rd party chat platform like glassboard, groupme, palringo, kik, etc would help bridge the gap between clans. Having your own website would be excellent as well, which enables you to personalize the content and it is all within your control. All suggestions mentioned here are all great, but remember that having too many channels also means lots more fragmentation. It may be best to minimize and focus on only one or two manageable channels.
Recruiting
One of the most difficult tasks in filling your roster is obviously recruiting. I bet that most would agree that recruiting through global chat is not a very effective method. You are probably better off in finding members of your community from an existing set of community like the SuperCell forums or Reddit, where there is an existing collection of members who share the same interest (for CoC). These members will have a higher chance of staying long term and being loyal.
Having a recruitment team also facilitates the task, it is hard to do anything alone. Ensure you are armed with a recruitment thread or a clan website, great branding (signatures), clear processes and communications as mentioned above.
Part II
I've covered some key dry topics in Part I. Now I will diverge into the not so obvious required skills and characteristics that define true leaders and maintain a loyal following, which in this case, is your clan, your crew members, your friends.
Social responsibility
It is without saying that each and every one of us participating in any social network of games, Facebook, etc, have a social responsibility to others we interact with. What is this social responsibility? It is defined as such: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_responsibility. In the world of Clash - I define it is each player's obligation to foster a positive or beneficial environment to others we clash with. This is a subjective topic and I will only briefly touch upon two areas where it could immediately apply: Forums, and in game.
Forums- lots of obvious qualms the regulars know. From the poor quality of posts, responses, or trolling in general, it is best to minimize noise and reserve posting or replying with only relevant and useful content. In short, if you have nothing good or relevant to say, save the typing, save the click. Save our eyes. Minimize your posting and don't inflate your post count with nonsense.
In game- quite simple, if you can't be nice to your mates, you don't belong in the crew. Respect must be earned and it starts with giving respect. Don't expect to be treated kindly if you are out of line and unreasonable. It's okay to argue, but argue within logical bounds, and learn to compromise. Lots of topics to discuss around this, only one example I will give is about flexing authority if you are in position of power: if you are in contention with others, you have to learn to control your ego and find another way for a solution. If there is a deadlock and nothing is being done - flex your muscles and don't be afraid to push buttons, respectfully. Feel free to discuss other examples and elaborate, but common sense that applies to any case is that in any group arguments, there will almost always be no unity, and to press forward, others must be willing to compromise. Real leaders have real charisma, and they will find the right ways to motivate the masses.
It applies the other way around as well. To be part of a crew means you have to commit to the crew. Give respect, follow the rules, contribute. That is your social responsibility.
Morale
Morale is defined as: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morale. It is the direct result of how well you execute your social responsibility and leadership as I have previously described. In order to maintain loyalty, you need to maintain morale. Some techniques I have learned to use are:
- Empowerment: your mates are your comrades in clash. Empower all with the resources and support they need. It is not limited to troops donations. It goes well beyond the game into social and psychological realms:
- Hierarchy
- Creating a lasting organization/clan requires a defined hierarchy. Without defined leaders who are tasked with pushing the boundaries and maintaining the foundation, progress will be stymied.
- Delegating responsibilities
- Identify those who are most invested in your social circle. If you respect each other equally, you should share the load and allow others to contribute to pushing the needle. This means quickly identify who have the leadership qualities, and nurture it. Assign tasks, roles, and responsibilities. Define and refine.
- JFDI - Just F'n Do It
- If you think it will benefit others, regardless of established rules that may be broken, flex your muscle as I have noted earlier. I call this steamrolling, or bulldozing. If you don't have the stomach to take the bull by the horns, then you have to be the one to compromise. If you are constantly roadblocking positive change because you can't overcome your conservative boundaries, then you are holding back the crew. If you want something to be done and it's not moving fast enough, and you have high belief of the benefits, then it is your responsibility to bulldoze.
- You will hurt feelings. Help others more often by bulldozing, apologize later. Be a master of apologizing.
- Soft skills - how in tune are you with your emotions? How in tune are you with others' emotions? It's called emotional intelligence: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_intelligence. The following are some simple soft techniques you can use to nurture morale and loyalty.
- Not ruling with an iron fist
- Forgive Forgive Forgive. Err on giving too many second, third, etc chances. This is generalizing, but it applies to all matters of conflict within your crew. Everybody slips, and may break the established rules a few times. Some learn slower than others. If you are able to maintain order, and stay fair, reasonable, and polite, while giving as many chances as reasonably possible, you will win a myriad number of loyal followers.
- Any chat messaging system is not good. I wanted to touch upon this as any form of readable chat is a dangerous platform for conflicts:
- Chat is always open to interpretation, your interpretation. Varying cultures, varying ages, result in varying understandings of certain typed text. Always take context into consideration, and if the offending chat text is unclear, then ask it to be clarified.
- Lots of miscommunications are caused by misunderstanding context. Chat requires a lot of patience, and exercise of restraint and self control to respond to seemingly offensive typed text by others who "rub us the wrong way". Take a deep breath, let the blood flow from your brain (yes, that's the heat that comes over to your forehead when you're angry at reading something), and wait a while before responding. The next words you type with your response are crucial.
- Social Dynamics - all of the content above are individual versus group behavior content. For those interested in learning more, and improving your knowledge of individuality and group behaviors, start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_dynamics. There is so much to cover around this, and will leave this open to interpretation and further discussion.
In conclusion for now, I reiterate that this not a comprehensive guide. There is much room for further topics and discussion around clan management. Feel free to suggest additional content that you wish to be added or discussed.
I have been very fortunate to have been joined by some of the most amazing personalities who have come to embody the great crew of the FRENDz. These individuals hold much of my respect and gratitude for their continued contributions and efforts in The FRENDz Network, which hopefully are inspired by the FRENDz culture. Hopefully, some of you will benefit from the above and will proliferate some good vibes all around. If you enjoyed reading, take JFDI to heart and learn "how to play well with others while clashing" - whether it be ideas, arguments, discussions, etc. Be progressive. Bulldoze responsibly. Aim to contribute to the community.
As always, Clash, and Rock on.
humu of The FRENDz
