MBTI and WoW

Kae at Dreambound with the help of Nertok has been running a survey of the personality types of Warcraft players. The instrument they are using to measure personality type is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This attracted the Innkeeper's eye because she happens to know that her Bartender, when not spilling mead all over the customers, has a great deal of professional experience with MBTI and Jungian psychology. As all employees know, when your boss e-mails you and says, "it might be a good idea" this means "do it now or you're fired." But I don't mind the task because it will keep her distracted and not notice that the barkeep is into the goods (if you follow my (hic!) drift) and that this is the real reason yours truly spells tips as "tits".

Since it's tradition in the MBTI community to always reveal your type when talking about type, I'm an INTJ. This post assumes you know what those letters mean as it's beyond the limited space here to introduce the whole theory of the MBTI.

The first note I want to sound is a note of caution. The MBTI is an instrument and like all instruments it's only as useful as the competency of the person who wields it. A person's MBTI result is frequently an inaccurate description of their true personality type because responses to the questions are subject to cultural, social, and age-related influences. The MBTI should always be used as a starting point; not treated as a final answer. The single biggest confounding factor in any web based survey using the MBTI is the reality that there is no way to tell if the person is recording their genuine personality type; professional assistance is required.

Despite this caution about the accuracy of type identification, the results recorded by Kae and Nertok are for the most part what Jungian theory would predict. If you had asked me prior to reading the results who most role-playing gamers are I would have said the dominant type would be an INTJ. Certainly IN. Everything about on-line gaming screams INTJ for the same reason that this type dominates in research, academia, and the law. It's a quiet activity where individuals can use their analytical skills to create systems that push the boundaries of the possible. The concept of an ordered progression (gear levels, class levels) is what we mean by judging (J). That data is taken in and manipulated analytically (think Elitist Jerks) is what we mean by thinking (T). That this activity takes place in an imagined space is part of what we mean by intuition (N). That this activity takes place in a space of limited extroverted interaction is part of what is meant by introversion (I). The common remark that INTJs are the unusual combination of imagination (N) and reliability (J) is well illustrated by reputation grinds, dailies, dps rotations. Once they find something that strikes their imagination they just want to do it over and over again, sometimes well past the time that is healthy. Alexander the Great (ENTJ) raided Persia; Napoleon Bonaparte (ENTJ) raided Russia; INTJs raid Ulduar.

As this table shows, the overwhelming majority of the respondents are introverted or intuitive and of the top five types three are introverted intuitives. Interestingly, the top two introverted personality types are the INTP and the ISTP. Both of these types are actually dominant thinkers and secondarily intuitives. The two dominant intuitives are the INFJ and the INTJ. The poor representation of the INFJ and the middling representation of the INTJs suggest that Warcraft is less of a game for people with imagination than it is for people who think. With the lone exception of the INFP, all the top introverted types use thinking as their dominant or secondary function. This makes perfect sense if you consider that most of the community around the game is based upon sites that emphasizes the usefulness of data (Wowhead, Thottbot) or thinking through the possibilities in data. Elitist Jerks is a beautiful example of the INTP personality writ large.

To those who don't know much about how Jungian personality types work the popularity of the ENFJ might seem a real outlier. But ENFJ is the description of the extroverted type that is most interested in exploring the values of others in the world. They are the prototypical socials that Gevlon likes to deplore; the ones who want everyone to win; the ones who will sell their Runed Orb for 10g to help out the guy around the corner. I would also guess the type most likely to be casual players as Warcraft would be only one of the many activities they do. For reasons to complex to get into here, I would also suspect that they are almost entirely under age 30. ENFJ are also a very popular type in fields like career counseling and I suspect that their dominance in the results also comes from seeing the MBTI advertised. They are one of the extroverted types most interested in personality, although almost always another's personality and never their own.

One aspect of the data I found puzzling is the Feelers. Role playing gaming is intrinsically structured imagination; it's not a feeling activity at all. So while the absence of the ENFP is to be expected, the presence of a large number of INFP respondents is remarkable. The American cultural female stereotype is INFP. It's possible that many of these players are women brought into the game by their boyfriends to do the traditional female role of healing. There's some support for this in the fact the data shows that most of the feelers are in classes that have a healing role (Druid, Paladin, Shaman) and that feelers shy away from the classes known for tanking (Warriors, Death Knight). In other words, the feelers are not into the game as an end in itself but as a way to support their feelings about others. This theory is further buttressed by the almost complete lack of any sensing feelers in the game. It would be most illuminating to know where those INFPs came from and their sex. If they were American women then boyfriends is reasonable answer. If they are not, it's an interesting development warranting further research.

Kae's and Nertok results are right in line with what Jungian type theory would predict about who plays role-playing computer games: introverted intuitives and introverted thinkers. The top four types (baring the ENJF) are the INTP, INFP, ISTP, and INTJ all of which are either primary/secondary thinkers or primary/secondary intuitives. The results so far suggest that thinking types are dominate but a surprising large numbers of intuitive feelers, most likely drawn to the game in support of their feelings about others. In particular, the involvement of the INFP in Warcraft is an area warranting future investigation.

A homage to the Crusader Ixobelle

He doesn’t need to grind reputation with Bloodsail Buccaneers. He’s obviously a bit insane in the brain by birth. And that is exactly why I think he might succeed in his epic quest for the Holy Grail.

A couple of months ago Ixobelle left Japan with his mind set to one thing: to follow his heart and aim for a position in the game industry. Currently he’s storming the castle of Blizzard in Irvine, reporting about it on his blog.

Regardless of security guards, locked gates and other restrictions, Ixo has set his mind to get a foot inside. He has put up a sign across the street, trying to attract some attention from the employees. And he’s handing out a booklet containing the artwork and ideas for a dungeon that he’s created all on his own.

Employer POV
I’ve been on “the other side”, employing people, not in the game industry, but at a very popular NGO-alike organization, and I can imagine that it was a bit similar to the Blizzard case, even though the office was smaller.

To tell the truth we just hated “spontaneous applications” as the one from Ixobelle. If we wanted to hire people we did it in an organized manner, putting together an ad, letting the human resources people help us to do pick out the few plants among the abundance of weed.

People like Ixobelle, without a formal education and a background as a professional in the area we were looking for, wouldn’t stand a chance. If he just turned up at the office, we would politely tell him to sod off. And if he kept hanging around we’d call the police. I wouldn’t be surprised if Blizzard had the same approach. They want to be left alone. They don’t want to have their office stormed by hordes of fan boys who think they were born to become game designers.

However, Ixobelle isn’t just an ordinary fan boy. He hasn’t only got passion; he’s also got real artistic talent and a solid understanding of game construction. I’ve seen his portfolio booklet, since he was kind enough to send a pdf of it to me. And I tell you: he’s telling the truth. It’s bad ass looking. I can’t possibly see how anyone in his full senses could resist having a closer look at the creative mind behind it. The crucial point is to get it into the right hands, to make someone who has any kind of influence at least have a quick glance at it.

The American Dream
I’ve always had a week spot for the myth about the self made man. The US mantra: if you only try heard enough you can achieve anything. I agree about it. Sure there are exceptions, people who are born under extreme circumstances that their destiny is out of their hands, but most of us still have the freedom – and burden, since all this freedom actually can be a bit painful - to create our own destiny.

No matter if they’re clichés and lies – I can’t help loving those refrains from American TV series telling us that we can reach the stars. Does anyone remember Fame? “But fame costs. And right here is where you start paying. With sweat!” Or why not quote ST Enterprise:

I’m going where my heart will take me/I got faith to believe I can do anything/I got strength of the soul and no one’s gonna bend or break me/I can reach any star. I got faith. Faith of the heart.

As poetry regarded, it’s crap to tell the least, but I like the attitude. I really do.

Ixobelle. don’t know what’s most insane about this. His fearless attacks to the Blizzard headquarters or the fact that he’s publishing the full story at his blog. How brave isn’t that? I wouldn’t take the risk myself to be honest. I might go for the break-in mission, but I certainly wouldn’t tell anyone about it, in case I would fail. It would be too humiliating. I would rather go to my hamburger flipping job without having to sharing my disappointment with the world.

I’ll finish this post with a humble request:

Dear Blizzard employees, if anyone of you happens to read my blog (there might be one who does it, I actually do get regular hits from someone in Irvine. It could of course be just a coincidence, but you never know): PLEASE let Ixobelle in and have a look at his booklet. You won’t regret it.

Edit: Accordning to tha latest report, Ixo is facing some difficulties. But considering his energy and dedication I'm certain he'll be back to it soon.

Is there a cure for the diminishing returns of the MMO genre?

A bunch of new MMOs have recently been or are just about to be released. But there’s something missing in the reactions from the community according to Tobold’s post of yesterday.

The cheers aren’t convincing. The crazy “this-is-incredible-I’ve-never-ever-seen-such-a-freaking-awesome-game-before” atmosphere just doesn’t arrive. Well, there was an enthusiastic cry-out right after Blizzcon at the news about Cataclysm. A few of us Blizzard fanboys and -girls were jumping with joy at the thought of it. But even though it was inspiring, it wasn’t exactly revolutionary, was it?

Somehow, I get the impression that the MMO-concept, with all its potential to reach the stars, right now is stuck on the ground. The rocket makes noises, but for all the engineering and fuel that has been put into it, it just won’t take off.

Tobold asks: “What would it take for a game to break out of this circle of apathy and really get people excited?”

Diminishing returns
As a newcomer without any personal experience from any other MMO but WoW, I hesitate to comment on this topic. My knowledge of the genre and of computer gaming at all, MMO or not, is shallow and only recently acquired. So take it for what it is: a newbie perspective.

I think we’re dealing with the phenomena of diminishing returns. The longer you play an MMO, the more will it take to shake you up, and the quicker will the first rush of novelty wear off. And unfortunately this diminishing returns experience isn’t restricted to one game. If the patches and expansions in WoW don’t give you the kick they used to do, you can’t just switch to another MMO, expecting it to give you the same level of thrilled “exploring the unknown territory” as you got as a WoW virgin (if WoW was your first MMO experience).

Actually it came as a bit of a shock to me when I came to this insight after playing WoW for quite a while. In my innocence I had imagined that most things I encountered in WoW were unique for this game. The concept of questing, of levelling, the inventory management, the spellbook and actionbars, the gearing, the instancing, the way to fight monsters. I figured that all this stuff were Blizzard innovations and that the other MMO:s I heard of had other features that were completely different. I couldn’t imagine that those elements are around one way or another in any game – like the mandatory jumps and twists in figure skating. There are only ever so many you can choose between.

I’ve come to think that the activity of picking a MMO-fantasy game resembles to how you decide which breakfast cereals you buy from the supermarket. Some people prefer them with a lot of sweets or fruits in it, others want them to contain fibers. But in the end it’s all cereals. It’s not opion soup, it’s not New York Steak. A cereal is a cereal, a fantasy MMO is a fantasy MMO.

What may lie ahead
The question is: can you still break new grounds, regardless of this? Is it possible to develop a new MMO, which will give us the sense of wonder out of pure awesomeness?

Of course it is! If you ask me I would say that we’ve only seen the beginning of the MMO era. If you compare it to the development of the film industry, I believe that the MMOs of today are at the level of the Lumière brothers or possibly Charlie Chaplin. We have yet to see the equivalence of the sound movie or the colour movie, which will take the MMOs to a new level and make the present ones obsolete in comparison.

I don’t know what those inventions will look like. Being a Star Trek fan I can’t help fantasizing about holodeck characteristics. I dream about games where you’re absolutely immersed, transferred and locked out from the everyday world. I dream about endless possibilities, an abundance of scenarios. I dream about the day when we can use more senses than just our eyes and ears. I want to smell the virtual world, I want to taste the world, I want to feel the sensation of it to my skin (at least to some extent, tanking a monster might hurt a bit too much for my taste).

I want to explore strange new worlds. I want to encounter not only alien creatures, but real life human beings who I can love, hate and interact with. The presence of other players is the essence of what an MMO is about, what makes it different to a consol game. It what makes a visit to a theatre where anything can happen so much more interesting than watching a dvd on your own ever can be.

The need for creativity
Is there something in the line of my dreams in pipeline? Maybe. Who knows what’s going on in the most secret department of Blizzard, where their brightest brains are at work, forming the next generation of MMOs. I don’t expect them to deliver full scaled holodecks. But maybe they can come up with a tiny little step heading in the right direction?

Gaming companies need people who are efficient, professional and know how to make profit, that’s for sure. I agree with Tobold on this. But I think they also need some crazy visionaries, people who have the ability to think big, wild and daring thoughts, beyond the known boundaries. If all of them are rationalized away, we’ll end up with a number of MMO:s, each one a copy of WoW, no one adding anything essential new. And eventually it will be about as interesting as munching on a chewing gum that has lost its taste hours ago.

It’s up to the owners of Blizzard and other giants in the gaming industry to find a cure for the diminishing returns of the MMO experience. But it will require some investment. And the question is if the creative staff can find a way to make the economy accept the bill for it.

Blizzard makes an effort of gender neutrality

We never get tired of discussing gender issues in WoW, do we? More than once have I stated that I don’t see much of discrimination of women in the WoW community. I sincerely believe that we are and should be looked upon as players like anyone else. Nothing more, nothing less.

Because of this I’ve consciously avoided discussing gender perspectives too often and too lengthy, since I have a theory that we reinforce the prejudices and injustices there may be by constantly bringing them into light. Other bloggers have a different approach and they have my full respect.

The best post I’ve ever seen in this genre was the one by Sydera from the beginning of August this year, Archetypes of the female gamer revisited. She really sparked a debate with that one, and her replies to the objections some of the readers had are just as read worthy as the post in itself.

The most recent commentary in this field was at Righteous Orbs the other week, where Chasity pointed out how odd it is that the frog kissing in Grizzly Hills results in a princess appearing. Why not a prince, as the classic fairy tale says? Was this possibly because players are assumed to be male, and male players would feel uncomfortable kissing a guy, since they don’t want to appear gay?

I don’t deny that it’s pretty easy to spot stereotypical thinking in the design of the world as well as some of the quests in WoW. It’s there and it’s no more, no less than in real life. Sometimes it goes a little bit too far (anyone remember the playboy associating bunny quest at Easter?) but most of the time it doesn’t bother me. Hey, after all, I’m a complete sucker for The Lord of the Rings, and there you can really speak of and outdated view on men and women!

Quote of Gostcrawler
You could wonder if the people at Blizzard consciously think about and discuss gender issues. And as a matter of fact I think they do. Last week a sentence at MMO Champion caught my attention. It was a quote in a blue post, where Ghostcrawler answered some question about tanking:

He wrote:

“It only gets to be a problem, in our minds, if the OT is such a liability on single-tank fights that she gets swapped out for another rogue or whatever.”

Did you notice? It’s just one letter, one single little “s” that he has added, but yet it says so much. Ghostcrawler refers to the imagined offtank as a “she”, which actually shows that he has higher ambitions than I have in this field. I normally don’t bother even to write “he/she” when I’m writing about a non-determined gender in third person, I normally go for a “he”, it seems appropriate since I expect a majority of the players to be masculine after all.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Ghostcrawler’s decision to label the tank as a “she” is deliberate. And actually I think it makes a difference in the long run. At a subconscious level, the way we speak about things affects the stereotypes – by reinforcing them or challenging them.

Maybe at some point in the future we will refer to tanks as “she”, as naturally as we now expect healers to be female. We’re not quite there yet. But one thing is clear: Blizzard definitely makes an effort.

A glimpse of the beautiful world hiding behind the addon boxes

Words, words, words. And even more words! That’s what you’ll find at the Pink Pigtail Inn. Since I started the blog so long time ago (1.5 years is like “forever” in terms of blogging), I’ve published only a handful of screenshots. I don’t have any decent picture editing program, but above all, I lack any spottable talent for composing and taking good pictures. So I’ve pretty much given up about the whole concept of showing the game through screenshots. When I paint a picture of what Azeroth looks like from my point of view, I use letters and words, rather then colours, pencils and brushes.

Because of my personal lack of graphical ambition, I tend to be a little bit of a snob in my way of looking at other WoW blogs. More than once have I expressed my annoyance with blogs that focus so much on providing pretty pictures that they resemble to a toy store one week before Christmas Eve. They makes my eyes hurt. I want ideas to chew on, not pointless decoration!

A picture blog
But the other day I ran into a blog that proved me all wrong about this. What I found was a blog that is the absolute opposite of my own: a blog without words, a blog consisting of screenshots and nothing else. And yet it said more about WoW, it told more stories than most WoW blogs ever manage to do. Some of you have probably already heard of it, others maybe not. Anyway: it’s called Postcards from Azeroth.

The title says exactly what it is about. The blog keeper Riorel, a player at The Shatar (EU), takes screenshots from all over Azeroth, gives them a layout following a set pattern, adds a few tags to make them searchable and post them this way. It’s straightforward, to say the least. One picture at a time. No explanation, no commenting. The picture speaks for itself. As I’m writing this he’s at 260-something pictures, and apparently still posting.

Some of the motives of those postcards are quite expected – well known views, which I imagine a souvenir shop in Dalaran would offer to visiting tourists, like pictures of the gates of Ironforge or an idol portrait of Illidan in The Black Temple.

But other perspectives are more unusual and they fascinate me even more. Riorel captures all sorts of views – NPCs as well as places, which we rush by regularly, too busy to stop and have a closer look. He points out all those things that we miss, because we wrongly think that we’re in a hurry to deliver a quest, join an instance group or make an errand at AH.

Hidden behind addon boxes
The thought that strikes me looking at his blog is that there’s a huge artistic effort put into this game that is a bit of a waste on me. Because of lag issues on my old pc, I’m used to always have the graphic settings at minimum, making the world into a bit of a blur, far from the detailed and clear postcards. Things have improved with my new machine, but I still suffer from having most of my screen covered by all sorts of addon boxes, such as Omen, Grid, X-pearl and Bartender. And as if this wasn’t enough, DBM, my scrolling combat text addon and another mage specific monitoring addon, keep popping up, showing huge messages covering the few empty spots there are left.

There is a beautiful world to see and experience behind all those control panels. We miss a lot when we’re letting our eyes focus on the threat monitor, the cast bar of the mob or the fire spot we’re supposed to move out of.

Admittedly, mid-raid probably isn’t the best moment to hide my UI with an Alt+z just to enjoy the view. But why not linger a few moments after the raid to really look at the place, instead of running like a maniac into the portal to Dalaran? Being a mage, I can teleport whenever I want to. So the hurry doesn’t make sense.

The Postcards from Azeroth give me a great reminder. There’s much more to WoW than just XP, loot and achievements. There’s a world to discover. Behind the addons. Beyond the words.

Should Guilds be Democracies?

Every RPG MMO I have ever played has a guild system hard-coded by the developers based upon a dictatorship. Call that dictator the guild owner, founder, manger, leader or whatever the fundamental truth is that is that the person is a dictator. He or she may be benevolent, may love delegating authority, may even allow democracy to flourish, but the fundamental truth is that there is only one guild owner and they can sell their guild to anyone they want for whatever reason they want at whatever price they want and no guild member can stop them. Much of the social trauma surrounding Warcraft guilds comes from players who worm their way into positions of authority in the guild, ninja the loot, and quit or where the guild owner really does sell the guild out from under the members, essentially exploiting their work.

A broader perspective reveals the anomalous nature of this developer imposed structure. Real world guilds even in America are run on a social democratic model; there is nothing dictatorial about the American Medical Association (doctor guild) or the American Bar Association (lawyer guild) or the American Association of University Professors (educational guild). Even the vast majority of corporations work on a democratic model of governance, at least among the owners (stockholders) of the firm. Outside of single owner small businesses, there are very few examples of social organizations run by an all powerful owner. The guild system in MMOs has more in common with the philosophies of people such as Kim Jong Il or Fidel Castro than they have with modern Western sensibilities.

There certainly isn't any particular programming reason that guilds need to be dictatorships. While changing the programing at this stage in the game undoubtedly requires work, there is nothing in the code itself that prevents Blizzard from implementing a system where, for example, in order for someone to be kicked from the guild a majority of players active in the last week had to vote on the expulsion or where two-thirds of the guild members had to approval of the sale of a guild. It seems to me that guilds are designed as dictatorships more from a unreflected upon tradition than from any cogent deliberation.

Advantages to Democracy

One clear advantage to designing guilds as democratic entities is that it would shift the focus of social contention regarding guilds away from the chat channels and the forums and into the guild itself. If a member doesn't like the way they are being treated there is a tool within the guild to resolve those differences that doesn't depend on the whims of an owner. A member may still be bitter about having their guild sold out from under them but it seems like much less an injustice if two-thirds of their guild mates disagreed and voted to sell. Blizzard was having too much drama surrounding loot so they implemented a system of loot sharing. It seems rational that the solution to the drama surrounding guilds is a system of power sharing, namely democracy.

Another reason to force democracy on guilds is that it increases social cohesion. One of the theories is that drives developers to implement and enhance guilds is the theory that social grouping leads to greater loyalty which leads to sustained subscriptions and thus more profit. But as real world evidence shows, the social cohesion created by dictatorship is inherently artificial and disappears the moment that the central authority disappears. Developer supported democracy encourages organic social growth. Players feel empowered not only by their triumph over the fantasy environment created by the developers, they feel empowered by their contributions to the social unit (the guild) necessary to achieve that triumph. Guild democracy is the formal implementation and recognition of this second contribution.

A third reason for developers to support guild democracy is that it can form an educational experience that carries over into life beyond the game. In America voter participation in elections is often below the 50% level; experiencing democracy within the game can serve the boarder social goal of educating the young for civic engagement and reinforcing that value in older players. It seems contradictory for developers to state that they desire players to participate in a form of social grouping directly at odds with the larger cultural values in which the game exists.

Disadvantages to Democracy

One obvious difficulty with developer supported democracy is that it's an open question whether or not such a model can succeed in an environment where as a practical matter many of the voters (players) are much more transient than in the non-game world, a world where a player may not log on for weeks or months at a time. Rather than encouraging organic social growth, democracy may instead decease or even freeze the process of decision making necessary for the guilds, especially small guilds, to function. Many players are just not as committed to their fantasy game worlds as they are to other social milieu in which they operate.

Another possibility is that players will be discouraged from starting guilds because they are essentially putting time and effort into a social creation which, once created, they no longer have effective control. Most successful guilds are made up of members who do not know each other outside of Azeroth. Finding a group of players that work well together requires an effort that an entrepreneurial player may feel is only adequately compensated for by a model which gives them total control.

A third objection to developer supported democracy is that it eliminates a game play option. As it stands, while the underlying model is dictatorial there is no requirement that this model actually be implemented by the guild manager. If a guild owner chooses they can effectively devise systems to run their guild as democracies; many guilds do just that. Given the diverse range of cultures in which Warcraft is played, forcing players into a democratic model effectively limits their game play options and may cause some players to quit the game.

Cataclysm and Beyond

At Blizzcon 2009 Ghostcrawler made two notable statements about guilds. The first is that the developers believe that people have more fun playing in a guild. The second is that in order to encourage this fun they want to make it more difficult to switch guilds. Assuming that such reports are accurate and assuming that the development team is committed to implementing this approach, how might they go about doing so.

One obvious answer is to create a system of incentives for people to join guilds and and a system of penalties for people who leave guilds. People who join guilds would get benefits from the guild they can get nowhere else such as access to heirloom items for every gear slot. People would be discouraged from leaving guilds by the loss of those incentives or by the loss of anything material they may have contributed to the guild as well as the loss of the social communities they have built up. But this incentive system may crash into the reality that the actual gatekeepers that will determine who benefits from those incentives remains in the hands of a few players, necessarily so because of the fundamental dictatorial structure of the guild as designed by the developers.

Democracy offers an alternative approach. By hard coding guilds to run as democracies, Blizzard can reduce the social trauma surrounding guild decision making, increase the social cohesion of the group which simultaneous increases loyalty to the Blizzard brand and reduces guild turnover, and reinforce the value of democracy to the community at large. Blizzard may find that democracy is not only the greatest good for the greatest number, it's also more fun to more people.

Why you shouldn’t let one man run the show

Niniel at Swiftmend wrote a sad post about the ending of his until now successful raiding guild. They had been raiding together since they were in greens in Karazhan, and now they were one of the top guilds of their realm.

But the other night, when they expected their GM to post a run list of the upcoming ToC raid, they got something else: a goodbye post, out of the blue. The guy who didn’t only run the guild, but also all of the raids, had suddenly decided to transfer to another realm to join a top raiding guild, free from the burdens of guild management.

And this didn’t only mean that this guild had lost one valued player. It meant the end of any serious raiding in this constellation, as the guild apparently was all depending on his leadership. To quote Niniel:

“He was so good at it and had full attendance that there were never any need for an alternate leader but this created our dependence on him. We never did raid with Teamspeak/Ventrilo so instead we got used to his macros and fast typing and it was the way we did things and we were damn good at it.”

A lesson to learn
I can’t help getting a bit wet in my eyes reading this post. The pain is real. He describes their emotional reactions spot on, and how they’re trying to handle it, sharing their thoughts, seeking comfort in excessive chocolate consumption. As a fellow gamer I understand them, but I also can see the difficulties they have explaining their upset feelings to their spouses. The best strategy is probably not even to try to explain, but to do as one guy: putting on “Marley & Me” at the video to get a reasonable cover for the sadness.

But apart from feeling sympathy, I also think that there’s a lesson to learn from the story. It's only natural that it seems to be very convenient to be gifted with such a dedicated and brilliant guild master and raid leader, who willingly takes care of everything. It’s tempting to let yourself be carried by his enthusiasm and energy. But it’s also highly risky.

Exactly this is what is likely to happen, sooner or later. There’s no chance in the world that this kind of person will last forever. Sooner or later he’s bound to leave the game. It may be for a server transfer, it may be for real life intervening in the form of changed economical circumstances, a divorce or illness. Or he may simply burn out, wanting to get away from it all as soon as possible.

Don’t put yourself into this kind of situation! This reminder is actually directed to guild masters/raid leaders as well as to officers or ordinary members. A one-man-show is a bad strategy, both for the show master himself and from the perspective of one of the foot soldiers.

The shared responsibility
I don’t deny that the ultimate responsibility and power over a guild is in the hands of a guild master. But if he cares the slightest about himself and about the future of the people who have invested so much time and effort into the guild, he should make sure that there are people who could take over in case he would have to leave, players who have been trained to lead raids, players who have the confidence and authority needed to take decisions for the guild on their own.

But it’s not just the responsibility of the guild master to see to that this situation doesn’t happen. It’s also up to the ordinary guild members. If you suspect that your guild could end up as described at Swiftmend, you should raise your voice. Make it clear that there are more players in the guild who would be willing to take their share of the burdens. Don’t take it for granted that this is obvious to him.

Some of those one-man-show leaders are blinded from their own success and just don’t see the danger right in front of them.