A clan refers to a group of
gamers who form a team to compete against others
over the Internet in
multiplayer games. Clans choose their team name and
will usually set up an initiation process for interested
gamers to join their
clan via the
Internet. Clans use Internet communications such as
e-mail,
instant
messaging,
IRC
or
Internet telephony to communicate and arrange their practices and matches.
While a
clan is usually focused on one specific
multiplayer game, some clans do have
divisions to support more than one game.
Clans first became popular in
1996 when id Software released its multiplayer game, Quake. For many years
after the release of Quake, clans revolved around multiplayer PC shooter games.
With the online
multiplayer capabilities of newer consoles however, clans have sprung up for console games
which can be played over the Internet as well.
In an MMORPG the team or group of gamers is called a guild, rather than a clan.
