There's a lot of food for thought in this thread, thanks guys.
I kind of hoped/thought the stats part of the game would actually be useful for clans, in the awards dept. But yes, I can see how it awards individualism at the expense of team-work because somebody in a team, being given a non-scoring role, is going to get the short end of a stick.
I'm getting the feeling TWI may have shot themselves in the foot. I know of numerous people who bought RO1 because it was required for a particular mod, but all of the mods relied on custom maps and mappers were very much part of a thriving clan scene. Kind of a self-sustaining circle whereas with RO2 so far I'm seeing something very linear...individual picks up the game for personal scoring and progresses up the ladder until he gets bored, just as with all of the other level-up style games. And then moves on.
But to what? More CoD-style stuff, where the soldier carries a sentry-gun in a magic handkerchief? Puh.
I dunno. I've tried both ends of the spectrum with this one I feel...a unit requiring nothing more than sharing a name and hitting the pubs (the penal battalion) and the 5thSS requiring the whole team-work schmiel with our own server. Nada, zip, no interest. If I had zero experience with this kind of stuff I'd assume it was normal, but being able to compare how it once was, 'back in the day', it's kind of scary to see how dead it's all become. There's clearly already more server capacity out there than can be filled and that's not a good sign, clans or no.
The other, perhaps contributory, aspect is that contrary to many people's assertion that TWI listens to its community I don't think it does...in the short term. They clearly took on board things that were said years ago because we see those things implemented now in the current game, and they've proved to be quite superb (in my opinion at least). But using the stats reset issue as just one example, something that will, I believe, prove critical to the non-clan players, not a word from TWI, even with the poll that shows significant numbers and interest. It just seems to go right over their heads, like it's of no concern to them. This is possibly the chief culprit in nixing clan interest, yet it now threatens to nix non-clan interest too. Somebody already said how TWI appears to be trying to straddle a fence, and risks getting the sharp edge right in the clackers.
I'm rambling. Maybe some dynamic will shift and the clan scene will re-awaken. Possibly the games people are waiting on right now will be so crap and ultimately un-satisfying people will come back to RO2 and thank their blessings. We can but hope.
