That leaves lots of room for people to still exclude players from positions and only give to clan members by making up excuses on why those nobles deserved those positions. I believe OOC clans in any shape or form in unfair play. You have a large group of friends that can coordinate outside of battlemaster and be much more efficient then normal players in the game.
Maybe so, but it's basically impossible to regulate what goes on outside the game. There are no tools we can use to monitor how players talk to each other when they aren't using BM as the messaging tool. And besides, where exactly do you draw the line on this sort of thing? My roommate plays BM. Does that make us a clan because it gives us an unfair advantage over others who can't shout at each other from across the hall? We can't outlaw having RL friends that you play the game with. I contend that it all comes down to the actions you actually take IG. If you're exclusionary, then we have a problem. But if the clan is willing to work with other players and give everyone a fair shot at participation in the realm, what is there that we can really complain about? I think it's been made clear that Tom feels that clans are against the spirit of the game, but outlawing them entirely is fraught with problems.
