Does anyone else think it would be a good idea to filter the word "recruit" or "recruitment" the same way "lottery" is filtered? It feels to me like clan recruitment games are cluttering up the open games almost the same way that lottery games used to, especially when some clans have three separate recruitment games up at once.
You're right that open games should not be used purely for chat, as it clogs up the page and makes it harder for people who want to find a game to actually play. I have deleted them.
The thing is, I'm sure some people really enjoy the convenience of being able to find clans from open games. I remember how intimidating I found the forums back when I started playing. Also, considering the number of purely mobile players, I'm pretty sure these clan recruitment games are possibly the ONLY way for them to look through clans they could join. I think accessible clan recruitment definitely has its place in a healthy community, but then again, perhaps that place is not on the open games tab. I think adding a filter like the lottery one is perhaps easier to accomplish than creating a separate tab for clan recruitment or adding forums to the mobile app, and it would let the players who are looking for games actually find games, while letting newer players who want to explore the clan aspect of Warlight.
It's okay to make a game to recruit new players. However, when doing so, players should make sure the game will actually start (and have good settings and reasonable size and such, so that it's actually a game people want to play).
The problem is when someone makes a game that says "This game won't start" or "This is for chat only" or "do not join this game" etc. These games clog up the page and make it harder for people who actually want to play a game to find one. The Open Games system isn't designed for chatting. We are cracking down on chat-only games with open seats. Please do not create these.