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I, Gabriel B, am the creator of the Xeno Community. I am Xeno, and this is the history of my community. On August 19th, 2012, the Xeno Community was born. I was having a conversation with my friend Tanner about why I was not already in a clan, and he told me that I should create my own clan, that I would be good at it. He said he would be my second in command, and we would be able to construct an amazing clan together. So there it was, another small clan born on Halo Reach. It started off just the two of us finding cool people through matchmaking, and when we played custom games their friends would join. I wanted the people joining to have a little extra fun with their gaming experience so I created a rank up system within Halo Reach. After all competition was the exciting part. The different levels were based off of their emblem colors so they could compare while gaming together. We started to create a good strong group who always played together, although I usually hosted the games. It got to the point where I figured if we kept growing I would need help leading the clan. Tanner helped, but it was not enough. So I constructed a system. It was our version of a form of government just to help manage the giant influx of people. I created a board deemed “the administrative board” of seven people including myself, Tanner, my best friend Ethan, and a few other individuals who I knew I could trust more responsibilities to then the rest, although I held a great respect for all of my clan mates.
The goal of the administrative board was seven equal leaders who voted on decisions together, hosted meetings together, got to know everybody within the community really well, as well as recruit and help the clan to grow. Everything went well for a while; then it happened. Tanner said he had to leave. An old friend of his he hadn’t talked to in over four years suddenly got on Xbox again. He told me that he had promised his friend that if he had ever got on Xbox again that they would create a clan together and so he left. It sucked not having my oldest administrator around anymore. So I started to rely on my other administrators more, and we found a replacement for Tanner. Things kept going well; we incorporated Minecraft into our little gaming group as well as Skyrim, and other miscellaneous games. We hosted fun events for everyone to game together as much as we could. Then after a month or so Tanner came back. He wanted back in asking for forgiveness saying that his friend abandoned the idea, and he needed his old clan back. Well I was shocked with a mixture of happiness and hostility. I brought the news to the administrative board who were all none too happy that he was back. Some wanted to decline him, while others wanted to have him start back at square one. But I had a soft spot for the kid. There was another administrator who was inactive for a long time, my friend Aaron, and so what happened was we voted Aaron off the admin board, and I placed Tanner back on it. Although he was no longer my right hand man, my best friend Ethan had taken that slot, he was back on the board, and that was good enough for the both of us.
That December, another awful thing had happened that greatly impacted our clan. Three of the seven administrators left the clan entirely. Ethan and I went on vacation down to Disney World, and I put Tanner in charge for the week I was gone. He was supposed to host a meeting for the administrators, but before the meeting three of the administrators left the clan. The first two were best friends, and they left on friendly terms, simply stating that they couldn’t handle being in the clan anymore, so they left. The third administrator left in a very different manner. He held a grudge for two small things that I had unconsciously done that he never discussed with me saying they were two “strikes”. The third strike came with him rage quitting from a game of Minecraft before I left saying he was never going to play on that world again. Later that week after I had left for vacation he left, stating that our clan was awfully run, that I was a horrible leader, and that he could do it better. He left to start his own clan. I was furious because what was left of our admin board was not enough to run the clan, and we only had 19 members left. When I got back from vacation I immediately talked to everyone after I had found out what had happened. I told them that this was a weak moment for the clan, but instead of giving up on our broken clan, that we would grow and become even bigger than we ever were. By the end of the next month we had 40 some members.
The clan survived the transition into Halo 4; however it just was never the same because everyone in the clan now played different games. We had another administrator become inactive due to college, so we voted him out. Afterwards we held an election for the next administrator, and a friend of mine, David, made it to the board. He was a good friend of Jakes, another very loyal administrator of mine, so he fit right in. Tanner started to become very… strange. He only talked to a select few people. He distanced himself from me and the community, and eventually he left, never to be heard from again. The one administrator who left in a very angry manner came back. He told me his sad tale of how his clan fell apart, and he was clan jumping since. He asked me, pleaded, that I would let him back in saying that he wanted to be able to play with old friends again. I thought about it, and decided to let him have a second chance. I told everyone that I begged him to come back the last couple months, and he finally did. I did not let him back on the board, but it was nice having him back. Unfortunately he did not change his nature, and I had to, regretfully, personally remove him from the community.
Aaron also started helping out the clan again. We proposed a system where each administrator would have their own second in command to better help the community. I grabbed my friend, Ryan; Ethan took Aaron, and so on. Everything went well. Eventually the clan sort of just changed into a community. I wanted it that way. Everyone just enjoyed gaming with each other. However the clan started to decline in activity. The administrator board failed because the other administrators didn’t go out of their way to get to know anyone, and more started to become inactive. We stopped hosting events, and I stopped updating our old website. The idea of the group was there, but that was it. We were splintered and scattered among the world, no longer a close knit community. So I realized change was necessary. I collaborated with the remaining “leaders”, and we created the division system.
Right as I was in the final stages of creating the new website, and finalizing the division system, the worse thing that could possibly happen to me did. Ryan hurt me in a very deep and painful way. My closest advisor, and most loyal, up to this point, betrayed me. He turned out to not be the "good friend" I thought he was. The rest of the leaders told me that what he had done was something no one should ever do. Period. So I let my third and closest advisor go.
As a new year dawned in the Xeno Community, I realized I required a new advisor. This time, instead of looking across Xbox Live, I turned my gaze towards the friends in my hometown. I asked Josh, a close friend of mine and fellow engineer, to take the position. The reason I asked him instead of anybody else was because he did not want the position. He has a very humble character, and a good personality. I look forward to working with him in the creation of a greater Xeno Community.
I want to specially thank Ethan, and also Aaron for helping me with the creation of the new community, as well as helping me maintain the old clan. They helped me keep my faith in Xeno, when I lost it myself. I also thank the several members who were always loyal to Xeno through everything. I am proud to call them my friends. Lastly, I thank the lord for allowing me the privilege to lead such an amazing group.
This was a brief history of the two years of the Xeno Community before the division system.
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