I am involved in a local clan coined Clan WASD. It comprises several of my gaming friends from high school. I don't believe clans should be based upon a leadership structure; every member should have an equal say in what happens. Having a "leader" of sorts only adds instability to the organization, since the leader knows that his position will constantly be up for grabs. Politics and gaming do not belong together. The ideal clan would be focused towards friendship, unity, teamwork, and the thrill of the game, as opposed to politics and power struggle.

Lan Parties

I have only been to a few LAN parties, and most of them were worth attending. The worst part about them is that half the people don't have the games that everybody wants to play, so you have to set them up, get everything working, etc. Half the party time is over if you factor in the time it takes for installing, rebooting, troubleshooting, configuring, and all that crap. But usually, we have fun. That is, if some flamer lamer doesn't threaten to take the hub, load viruses on everyone's computers, or in general be an annoyance (Clan WASD members, you know who I'm talking about).

Internet Gaming

Back in the day, I used to play Quakeworld online via GameSpy, when it didn't suck. I started off playing Team Fortress, and graduated to MegaTF. This was all on a 28.8K connection, mind you, so my ping wasn't that great. Nowadays, I occasionally play Skull Tag and ZDaemon online, which is greatly helped out by the fact that I am no longer stuck on a 56K connection..