The clan world is shrinking

I read a post similar to this on a different fansite forum, so I thought I would bring a version here.

This topic will only really apply to clans that are in the top 30 range.

Basically, more and more, we see people getting declined for having no clan experience.

There is very little "new blood" flowing into the clan world. Several years ago, many clans had junior clans to encourage new members, but this is no longer the case. As of right now, I can name on 2 or 3 top 30 clans who actually still have junior clans.

My question is this: How will the lack of new members affect the clan world? Do you think junior clans will eventually become popular again?

As far as I know, people were in junior clans because of their low combat level, not because of a lack of PvP experience. Junior clans simply aren't required anymore because it is perceived that training combat is amazingly easy and that it's not really a challenge to meet a clan's requirements.

In Gladz, we haven't declined anyone for a lack of PvP experience. On the contrary, although this may negatively effect us, a vast majority of our new members are those who haven't been in a large PvP clan before.

Dutch clans have pretty much the same problem now, there used to be 3 maybe 4 clans who actually brought new people into the clan world. The newcomers got to know every tactic there, and moved up to a better clan. Now that some of these clans are not there anymore, and people from the bigger Dutch clans move up to international ones, there's a big exit in the Dutch clans.

i think the more more boring rs gets the more people will want to be in clans, thats if they dont just quit. me for example, i dont play rs for anyother reason other then i like to war with my clan...

And my reply to this as before is maybe the RS world is shrinking and the clan world is shrinking with it. Say 10% of players were in clans before it's still probably around 10%.

Dutch clans have pretty much the same problem now, there used to be 3 maybe 4 clans who actually brought new people into the clan world. The newcomers got to know every tactic there, and moved up to a better clan. Now that some of these clans are not there anymore, and people from the bigger Dutch clans move up to international ones, there's a big exit in the Dutch clans.

Which ones?

RSB is where the "fresh blood" is at yal

I can't speak for other clans, but I would be very surprised if more than 50% of our members have been in the clan longer than a month. When we made our new site we went on a huge recruiting campaign and gained about 60 members in a month or so. And most of those people are first time clan members.

I point the finger at the popularity of PVP among clans today. People who don't know the clan world just don't see the point of losing rune set after rune set.

I point the finger at the popularity of PVP among clans today. People who don't know the clan world just don't see the point of losing rune set after rune set.

I very much agree. I don't see many fresh clan members having banks full of hundreds of rune sets.

I always liked the JR. clan idea. As you know yguy, BK has a cadet program, and on our forums I notice the cadets are always having fun. And when they finnaly reach that combat goal to join the real clan, they seem extremely happy because they finnaly reached a goal, and it seems they have a way better attachment then normal members who join straight up. Cadets or jr programs are great I thnk!

I honestly think the only thing at this point that could "revitalize" the clan world would be full clan integration for Jagex--offering forum hosting; ingame calanders, member lists, etc; RSOF/TIF/RSC/Sals cooperation (on a larger scale than what's happening now); DRASTIC changes to how the RSOF is set up and run; and so on.

That'll never happen though. Fansites, the top 30 clans, and the RSOF will always remain seperate. And now that you can find a temporary team without much work or dedication, now that you have all the pros of the clan world and none of the cons...Well. We'll just keep dying off. Because noobies don't need the top 30 clans to find what they're looking for anymore. It only takes 10mins and a friendly group of strangers.

I agree with you m8, but jeah what could we do its btw the same in the dutch clan world. There are lot problems if you want to solve this problem. You need to talk with all big leaders of the top 20 clans. I don´t think you can fix that :oops:

After looking at the new BH I think this will create new pk clans that will bring "fresh blood" to the clan world. And I can see the return of many old players that quit after old wildy died.

I always liked the JR. clan idea. As you know yguy, BK has a cadet program, and on our forums I notice the cadets are always having fun. And when they finnaly reach that combat goal to join the real clan, they seem extremely happy because they finnaly reached a goal, and it seems they have a way better attachment then normal members who join straight up. Cadets or jr programs are great I thnk!

I remember this. However, I also noticed that the cadets were a huge drain on BK leadership, and many members of BK seemed to care more about the cadets than they did bk. This is natural of course, but it is one of the reasons why many top clans have forsaken Junior clans, because they require 100% dedication to the main clan events.

Another question now is will the clan world expand now it's the summer time? The actively playing population of rs generally doubles over these months, and personally at least my clan is seeing a surge in recruits as we go into the summer.

Another question now is will the clan world expand now it's the summer time? The actively playing population of rs generally doubles over these months, and personally at least my clan is seeing a surge in recruits as we go into the summer.

That's true, we have had many recruits as well recently.

Another question now is will the clan world expand now it's the summer time? The actively playing population of rs generally doubles over these months, and personally at least my clan is seeing a surge in recruits as we go into the summer.

Gladz, traditionally, are strongest during the Summer. However, I don't think that will be the case - it certainly wasn't last year. We lose members for weeks at a time who go hiking, take their families on holiday, and are busy being occupied elsewhere. I'll be away for at least a month this Summer, potentially more, so it isn't going to be my most active time. :oops:

Another question now is will the clan world expand now it's the summer time? The actively playing population of rs generally doubles over these months, and personally at least my clan is seeing a surge in recruits as we go into the summer.

 

Gladz, traditionally, are strongest during the Summer. However, I don't think that will be the case - it certainly wasn't last year. We lose members for weeks at a time who go hiking, take their families on holiday, and are busy being occupied elsewhere. I'll be away for at least a month this Summer, potentially more, so it isn't going to be my most active time. :oops:

That's true, vacations take their toll on clans as well.

Could argue it was due to the removal of the Wilderness and intregration of specific PvP/BH worlds. Instead of Clans being able to fight on EVERY world, there's now a limit. Top Clans are clearly going to dominate these so it's difficult for smaller Clans to fight like they used to. Less fights = Less publicity. Less publicity = Less recruits and bearing in mind a lot of people probably join a small clan before they join a powerhouse, these effects on smaller clans are going to spread through the entire Clan world.

So in a metaphorical sense, people want to save the whale but not many people care about the krill it eats.

Could argue it was due to the removal of the Wilderness and intregration of specific PvP/BH worlds. Instead of Clans being able to fight on EVERY world, there's now a limit. Top Clans are clearly going to dominate these so it's difficult for smaller Clans to fight like they used to. Less fights = Less publicity. Less publicity = Less recruits and bearing in mind a lot of people probably join a small clan before they join a powerhouse, these effects on smaller clans are going to spread through the entire Clan world.

 

 

 

So in a metaphorical sense, people want to save the whale but not many people care about the krill it eats.

Thats actually a very good summary. Top clans are in a huge power struggle, more so than previously. They can't afford the resources to train newbies from scratch. I see many people being declined now for having no clan experience when previously they would be welcomed with open arms.

Before they removed the wilderness, there was an overflow of applicants on almost any clan, large or small. You could create a clan yourself, and within 5 days have 20 people in it, ready to mini war 3-5 times a day. Or constantly pk.

After the removal, tons of PvP'ers quit. The pure world was hit harder more so than the main world, but the mains still had their guts put on the floor. Thus applications slowed as the rage and hate towards Jagex continued to grow every day. I'm guessing if yo graphed the increase of rage/frustration towards Jagex and compare it to the decline in applications to clans, you'd see both lines going horizontally and then on December the lines cross vertically, dramatically.

Anyways when you put this together:

You get that overflow stopping, the current amount of applications is reduced, but the ones that stay after the wilderness is removed, become the last large pocket of applications for almost a year and a half.

This large pocket dies out by February, and now the applications for each clan is dreadfully slow, thus this is where we saw clans dying and the mood of the clan world was quite depressing.

Then with continued fail of PvP Mini-Games, tons of clan users quit during the Summer holidays.

In my opinion I'm going to say 30% of all users that quit because of the removal quit during the Summer or in the month of Dec 07. The other 70% quit through January to June, and after the disappointment in the improvement to Clan Wars and the PvP Worlds.

The clan world has obviously been shrinking since the removal of the wilderness, since the core of all combat clans was taken away for almost a year. There was no replacement, people were getting bored and had their last straws out. It's not a surprise that we're still affected by the relatively small amount of active clan users still around.

You can do a test though. Count how many people are in your clan. The vast majority will have been in the clan for 8-10 months or more. Compare this to the previous Wilderness times and the vast majority would have only been in the clan for 4-5 months, before quitting. More players have stuck with the clans they were in during the year of 08. As well it's also obvious that clans are living longer than they were before September 08.

This is all because people aren't taking quantity over quality as they used to before the removal.

But as I've said, it's not a surprise that the clan world is still shrinking, though I'd have to disagree on this for the past week. Whether it's extreme hype, curiosity or false hope, players are logging back on to play the BH worlds. Unlike PvP Worlds though the feedback is more than positive.

Couple this with the fact that you basically had free 99s with Soul Wars, and you basically have the ingredients to jump start the player base for pure,s mains and overall the PvP Group ,that don't care for levels, but the experience of PvP.

BH Worlds are going to work and bring us out of these dark ages.

 

 

 

BH Worlds are going to work and bring us out of these dark ages.

Thats rather optimistic, they just removed a ton of them. :roll:

yeah, and it's a good thing. I don't like having no target or anybody on my world.

I'd say the blame has to be on the Clan Wars mini-game itself.

Now lots of people that would previously join a clan can just go to world 141 and cw for a day with no commitment. It's the one night stand of the Rs world. There's no point for people to be dedicated to one clan if they can just pick and choose a different one every day and dominate with huge clans.