Leadership
When you hear that word, what do you think of? (No, seriously, comment with your first impression. I’m interested in hearing what other people think of.)
Leadership can be thought of as a collection of characteristics (trait theory) that result in having a large amount of social influence. Another example would be using the available resources of an environment to meet goals. Even asking the right questions to result in problem definition and solution oriented actions. The concept can be thought of as transactional and transformational, democratic, autocratic… needless to say, there are numerous theories and views on what a leader is and isn’t.
When I see “leader,” I tend to first think of an individual who is 1) memorable and 2) instigates change. I see leading as both an obvious or emergent quality dependent on situation, goals, and resources known. How does this tie into gaming? Many social games have collections of people who form into guilds. There are PvP (player vs. player) and PvE (player vs. environment) and RP (role play) guilds as several examples. Each of these guilds have different end goals.
As a specific example from my experience playing WoW, PvP was dedicated to ranking high on fighting other players and was demonstrated by different titles depending on how many rounds of battles were fought and players killed e.g. title – Stone Guard and battlegrounds – Arathi Basin, Alterac Valley. Another way this was demonstrated was by ‘honor’ and with honor came points that could be used toward purchasing armor or weapons that could be attained only by queuing up for battlegrounds that transported each player to an “official” battle. PvE was all about the end game e.g. instances – Blackwing Lair, Karazhan. Each instance would require a raid party of a varying number of players depending on the difficulty level. There was also a level requirement to enter into an instance. Again, the reward would be armor, weapons, and loot (translating into gold (currency)).
The bigger guilds of each realm (realms were based on real life location) would have a reputation of being PvP or PvE. I played on the realm of Garithos and the most popular (and biggest) guilds would have requirements for becoming a member such as having a certain amount of honor kills or experience or even time requirement (be available on Sundays at 7 GMT for X raid/X battleground). So 1) each guild had its own set of goals and 2) each guild had a GM (guild master) and 3) regardless of guild, each player would have to work as part of a team to achieve any sort of high level playing. So structure and communication varied from using real time communication with headsets and mics over Ventrillo to texting each other on mobile phones to creating forums that members could sign into. Each leader had his or her own way of running a guild, as does each individual filling a leadership position in real life. And true to the human spirit, each team has its own dynamic that is unique and attributed to the combination of individual talents, personalities, and ideas that individuals bring to their teams.
As such, I have started a map of leadership, its role and various ideas about the concept. To view the map so it’s legible, click to enlarge and it’ll show as full size. As always, feedback is welcome.
