What's a House?

The article that got us started can be read on The House of Depleted Uranium's website. Stop now and read the article. Go on, we'll wait. Done? Okay. Now for my own slant on the topic.

I first got into gaming on the Internet when Half-Life came out and have been pretty much addicted ever since. When I first started the idea of a clan seemed pretty neat. Invariably members of the clans could pretty much clean my clock. My mental image of a clan was a group of really talented players.

As time went on, more and more clans started popping up. I started to improve in my playing and started to get people asking me to join their clan. At first, I thought this was pretty neat. I slowly started to notice something about my image of clans, though. It had changed. If you were to ask me right now what a clan was, I would liken it to a group of punk street kids who run around painting graffiti, mugging old ladies, and smoking crack.

There's nothing worse then jumping onto a server to have some fun at your favorite game and be greeted by a bunch of thugs who make fun of the new players and are just flat abusive. Then the same people, if you happen to be in the groove that day and consistently whip them, will ask you to join their group. It amazes me, and I realized I really didn't want to be associated with that. Don't get me wrong; there are some good clans out there. Unfortunately there's also a lot of trash and it doesn't take much to make the whole group look bad.

Enter The House. Now, you probably skipped the article I mentioned above on The House of Depleted Uranium. Shame on you. Go on, read it now.

As a house, we are governed by a few simple rules:

1) Skill at playing is not necessarily even a consideration for membership.

2) Be Respectful of other players.

3) Play With Honor. Cheating is for the Clans.

4) Be helpful when you can.

If you're thinking this sounds a bit like a digital version of a Samurai or some kind of Cyber-Knight, well, that's a good analogy.

This is just a game, and if we all realize we are supposed to be having fun and help one another to have fun in the process, it will be all the better.

--Anubis