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Did Somebody Say Clans? 5 Comments
Some of you may be wondering what's happening with clans. After all, it has been some time since we added the teaser page for "Clans" and "Ladders." Although they are not ready for release yet, I thought I'd take a few minutes out of my celebrity-like life of developing to talk about some of the cool features you can look forward to.
Clan?
Clans are basically a way for people to unite and play games together. I think a lot of people use the word "team" now, but I think you'll find that our Clans are the same thing. The plan is to allow clan members to post news, upload files (demos), report their matches to keep a record, manage their roster, and eventually play in Spawnpoint sponsored matches (on ladders).
I want a Clan!
Anyone can create a clan. The process will be pretty simple. You enter your desired clan name, your tag, and some other information about your clan (IRC channel, website, etc.) You will also be asked for a "friendly name" or domain name. Similar to how you access your blog (like wayetender.spawnpoint.com), you access your clan page by going to [friendlyname].spawnpoint.com. Because of the possible collisions, Clans cannot have friendly names that match a username, nor can new users have a username that matches a pre-existing clan friendly name.
I have a Clan, Now What?
Once you create your clan, you'll find some interesting options: manage ranks, add officer, report match, post news, upload file, and perhaps more. Immediately upon creation of a clan, two unique Ranks are made: member and leader. What is a Rank? A Rank is a way of designating the clan's hierarchy. You can manage all the Ranks and change who is allowed to do what to the clan. The default group, member, has no privileges and the leader group has all the privileges. Of course you can always change all of the ranks to suit your clans hierarchy. A nice UI touch will be the ranks can be adjusted with a nice sortable list, so you can change permissions with a simple drag-and-drop.
Growing My Army
When you first create your clan, you will be asked how you want your users to join. The possible options are invitation, and using a join password. You are allowed to enable or disable a join password whenever you want. It may be useful when you first create your clan to just use a join password. However, the choice is up to you. When you want to invite a user, you can just simply enter their email address or username. If they don't belong to Spawnpoint, an email will be sent showing how they can register and then join the clan.
How Do I Know When Something Happens?
Well, we do know people like to stay connected, and this issue is a large concern for all of Spawnpoint. A nice feature that we are working on is a unified notification system. Anything from a profile update, someone making a comment on your blog, or someone leaving your clan can all be adjusted in the new notification system. Also, how you receive updates can be changed; anywhere from being emailed immediately, to looking at a feed that shows all relevant information that you would find interesting. Perhaps in the future it will send you a text message? I think I'm thinking too much...
There are many things you can do in a clan, but not enough to make it cumbersome. It is a nice way to show off your clan with statistics on your matches, manage your roster so you can send messages to everyone easily, and eventually have some fun playing matches on the Spawnpoint ladders.
More updates soon, but I must get back to work!
Clan?
Clans are basically a way for people to unite and play games together. I think a lot of people use the word "team" now, but I think you'll find that our Clans are the same thing. The plan is to allow clan members to post news, upload files (demos), report their matches to keep a record, manage their roster, and eventually play in Spawnpoint sponsored matches (on ladders).
I want a Clan!
Anyone can create a clan. The process will be pretty simple. You enter your desired clan name, your tag, and some other information about your clan (IRC channel, website, etc.) You will also be asked for a "friendly name" or domain name. Similar to how you access your blog (like wayetender.spawnpoint.com), you access your clan page by going to [friendlyname].spawnpoint.com. Because of the possible collisions, Clans cannot have friendly names that match a username, nor can new users have a username that matches a pre-existing clan friendly name.
I have a Clan, Now What?
Once you create your clan, you'll find some interesting options: manage ranks, add officer, report match, post news, upload file, and perhaps more. Immediately upon creation of a clan, two unique Ranks are made: member and leader. What is a Rank? A Rank is a way of designating the clan's hierarchy. You can manage all the Ranks and change who is allowed to do what to the clan. The default group, member, has no privileges and the leader group has all the privileges. Of course you can always change all of the ranks to suit your clans hierarchy. A nice UI touch will be the ranks can be adjusted with a nice sortable list, so you can change permissions with a simple drag-and-drop.
Growing My Army
When you first create your clan, you will be asked how you want your users to join. The possible options are invitation, and using a join password. You are allowed to enable or disable a join password whenever you want. It may be useful when you first create your clan to just use a join password. However, the choice is up to you. When you want to invite a user, you can just simply enter their email address or username. If they don't belong to Spawnpoint, an email will be sent showing how they can register and then join the clan.
How Do I Know When Something Happens?
Well, we do know people like to stay connected, and this issue is a large concern for all of Spawnpoint. A nice feature that we are working on is a unified notification system. Anything from a profile update, someone making a comment on your blog, or someone leaving your clan can all be adjusted in the new notification system. Also, how you receive updates can be changed; anywhere from being emailed immediately, to looking at a feed that shows all relevant information that you would find interesting. Perhaps in the future it will send you a text message? I think I'm thinking too much...
There are many things you can do in a clan, but not enough to make it cumbersome. It is a nice way to show off your clan with statistics on your matches, manage your roster so you can send messages to everyone easily, and eventually have some fun playing matches on the Spawnpoint ladders.
More updates soon, but I must get back to work!
ooooo, sounds like it's going to be great, keep up the good work. Think we might need a section of the forum purely for bragging too.