Thanks, they’re interesting although the title “Everything I ever needed to know, I learned from World of Warcraft” promised a bit more than you’ve delivered so far. :) I’d be interested in other lessons you learned, especially ones that are more transferable to other situations (the Goodhart one was better in that regard than the loot system one).
Thanks! I may write more of these at some point, yes. (I’ve got a couple of old LW comments on the subject that I should probably turn into a post or two.)
(By the way, I do hope that you read the comments on these posts—this one in particular is almost a post’s worth by itself!)
My experience was similar. Leading raids, in particular, was excellent social-skills training.
Yeah, I imagine that must be the case for the guild/raid leaders, but don’t see what the footsoldiers get out of it. (Aside from practicing to be footsoldiers, which most people don’t really need more of?) I guess I’m hoping that MMGs can somehow deliver more learning opportunities for social/coordination skills than just giving a small number of people the chance to practice being low to mid-level managers.
The thing to understand here—and this is a (perhaps subtle) lesson of my post on loot systems, among other things—is that the distinction between “guild/raid leaders” and “footsoldiers” is not nearly so sharp as you imply; and the ratio of leaders to followers, not nearly so skewed.
I elaborate on this in this old comment. To what I say there, I add this:
Consider a raid requiring 40 people (such as the high-end raid dungeons in Vanilla WoW). Now consider a raid guild, or “raiding group”, consisting of some number of people in excess of 40—to account for absences, swapping out, etc.
How many leadership positions are there in this group of people? Just one? Oh, no. By no means! There are:
The guild/group leader. Responsible for managing the whole shebang.
The raid leader. Can it be the same person as the guild leader? Sure. Does it have to be? Not at all, and it often is not.
The guild officers. A guild leader typically deputizes several others—to help manage guild affairs (recruitment, other personnel matters, guild supplies and treasury, training and advice for lower-ranked members, etc.), to lead dungeon and raid groups in the guild leader’s absence, etc.
The raid officers. These, too, may all be guild officers, but not necessarily, and even if they are, the overlap between those guild officers with raid officer responsibility and those with guild management responsibility is incomplete. Raid officers assist with assembling a raid (often a complex matter), managing sub-groups within the raid, distributing loot, etc.
(“Class leads” are generally guild and/or raid officers who are responsible for having expertise on, and dealing with players of, individual character classes.)
Out of those 40 people, a full quarter could well have leadership positions of some sort. Some or even all of the rest may, at one point or another, gain leadership experience by leading dungeon groups, or running smaller raids (as I note in the above-linked comment thread).
Thanks! I may write more of these at some point, yes. (I’ve got a couple of old LW comments on the subject that I should probably turn into a post or two.)
(By the way, I do hope that you read the comments on these posts—this one in particular is almost a post’s worth by itself!)
The thing to understand here—and this is a (perhaps subtle) lesson of my post on loot systems, among other things—is that the distinction between “guild/raid leaders” and “footsoldiers” is not nearly so sharp as you imply; and the ratio of leaders to followers, not nearly so skewed.
I elaborate on this in this old comment. To what I say there, I add this:
Consider a raid requiring 40 people (such as the high-end raid dungeons in Vanilla WoW). Now consider a raid guild, or “raiding group”, consisting of some number of people in excess of 40—to account for absences, swapping out, etc.
How many leadership positions are there in this group of people? Just one? Oh, no. By no means! There are:
The guild/group leader. Responsible for managing the whole shebang.
The raid leader. Can it be the same person as the guild leader? Sure. Does it have to be? Not at all, and it often is not.
The guild officers. A guild leader typically deputizes several others—to help manage guild affairs (recruitment, other personnel matters, guild supplies and treasury, training and advice for lower-ranked members, etc.), to lead dungeon and raid groups in the guild leader’s absence, etc.
The raid officers. These, too, may all be guild officers, but not necessarily, and even if they are, the overlap between those guild officers with raid officer responsibility and those with guild management responsibility is incomplete. Raid officers assist with assembling a raid (often a complex matter), managing sub-groups within the raid, distributing loot, etc.
(“Class leads” are generally guild and/or raid officers who are responsible for having expertise on, and dealing with players of, individual character classes.)
Out of those 40 people, a full quarter could well have leadership positions of some sort. Some or even all of the rest may, at one point or another, gain leadership experience by leading dungeon groups, or running smaller raids (as I note in the above-linked comment thread).