Clan Evolution

There's been something on my mind for the last few weeks and recent chatter within my clan has sort of brought it to the forefront for me.  I'm sure most, if not all, of the site clans are dealing with the issue of splintered gaming habits among their membership.  It was so much easier a year ago when the only game anyone really wanted to play was Halo2.  Now with the 360 we have an abundance of good games to divert our attention away from Master Chief.  It's a blessing and a curse.  I was one who never thought I'd play anything but Halo, after all that's all I basically played for the last 4 years (including H1).  I bought my 360 basically because I have a desire to have the latest and greatest (that I can afford) and thought maybe the updated graphics Bungie included for the 360 might look pretty cool.  After a month of still only playing Halo2 I started experimenting a little with the 4 games that Fry's forced me to buy in order to purchase my new machine.  To my surprise I found that there was life outside of Halo. 

It's been a great 10 months or so exploring all the great game content being made for the 360.  In fact the problem is that there are so many games to play, I simply don't have the time necessary to get into all the ones I'd like.  I'd love to try out Saint's Row, but I'm too rapped up in Chromehounds right now to even think about trying to invest any significant time in another new game.  Beyond CH, I still desire to try and play COD, PGR and yes, even H2 once in a while.  It's more than 1 man can handle (unless your name is Banjocut.  How the heck does he find the time?) 

The point I'm trying to get to is this.  There seems to be a recurring refrain that goes something like "____ is never around anymore he/she is always playing ____."  I understand the sentiment.  I'm on both the giving and receiving end of it sometimes.  Once the discussion over who's playing what games when and why and how often ensues, a common theme always seems to pop up in the discussion. "When Halo 3 comes out, all of this won't matter anymore anyway.  We just have to get through the next few months."  Without trying to be flamed for Halo blasphemy I'd like to humbly suggest that that mindset be re-thought. 

The game play bar as been significantly raised in the past few months and it appears to be raising exponentially with the holiday releases in the pipeline.  Does this mean that I don't think Bungie is up to the challenge?  Not at all, but we need to remember that they can't just bring our Halo 2.5.  They are going to have to release a vastly superior product to Halo 2.  It's not that H2 was bad, but it is a 2 year old game.  I don't want new maps and a few new weapons.  I want a vastly enhance game experience from its predecessor.  We honestly don't know what we will get when H3 is released.  We all assume it's going to be balls out fantastic, but the reality is we just don't know.  I'm sure everyone has experience having such high expectations for a new game only to finally play it and be disappointed.

That is why site clans need to start thinking in terms of evolving past a Halo community.  Obviously I'm referring to the large number of clans that were essentially founded on the basis of a Halo clan.  If you're only in the Uno clan this probably doesn't apply so much to you.  After all Halo seemed to be the one who fully developed the "clan" mentality. - Side note here- Why exactly did they decide on the word "clan"?  I mean why not squad or platoon or just about any other word I could use in public w/o being looked at like a racist. -end digression -  Even once H3 comes out, we still will have to think about "life after Halo" at some point.  After all I'm in this for the long haul.  They can't make a new Halo game indefinitely.  At some point we will have to learn to still function as a clan without the 1 killer game app that binds us all together the way H2 did.  I've made lots of great friends in OMM and 2o2p.  At this point I'd like to think that that friendship is base on more than just Halo.  I hope H3 is everything we want it to be and more, but I hope more that my OMM brethren will stick together even if it isn't.  I hope your clan does to.