Not a plug for WoW, just an interesting article about an MMORPG Guild Leader.

In late 2004, Stephen Gillett was in the running for a choice job at Yahoo! - a senior management position in engineering. He was a strong contender. Gillett had been responsible for CNET's backend, and he had helped launch a number of successful startups. But he had an additional qualification his prospective employer wasn't aware of, one that gave him a decisive edge: He was one of the top guild masters in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/learn.html

This concept seems to be on a roll:

http://news.com.com/2061-10797_3-6048770.html?tag=nl

That's funny to me considering I was just thinking how half-assed the guilds in WoW are, especially compared to my old EQ guild. Maybe the FOH guild and some of the leftover EQ-to-WoW guilds are different, but on my server I've found that hardly any guild can boast the same kind of drive or enthusiasm or skill that we had in EQ. Maybe it's because the instances remove direct guild-vs-guild spawn competition, or maybe because each "boss fight" lasts a total of 5 minutes. Either way, even the most organized of raids I've been to feel, at best, like a "family guild"-run event from EQ.

I know in EQ if we took 30mins to rebuff and retry a boss, half the raid would have left due to sheer boredom (I'm talking 30min of standing around before someone started buffing, not 30min of buffing before everyone was ready). I also know that if your class didn't know what you were doing, there was a much smaller margin of error in most high-level boss fights. WoW, in comparison, takes a much more "shotgun" approach, and I guess while it was the dream of a lot of us on this EQ board, well, there aren't that many classes that are <i>required</i> for a raid in WoW - unfortunately the drawback was that ... well... no one was required. You could literally zerg almost any mob in the game - you only really required members with sufficient mana/hp to keep going (ie: gear).

Yes, maybe to be the first guild to take down Boss_X still requires talent, but the transition from "hard as hell" to "farmed b***h" is very quick.

Either way, I guess if a WoW executive can be this accomplished, the EQ executive should be CEO :P

I had a background on my work laptop of an EQ scene and one of our customers saw it and bonded with me over it. :D

I was interviewing a candidate for a position at the software company I used to work for and he brought up EQ at some point during the interview. I proceeded to ask him a bunch of questions about how he would solve various problems within the game environment. It was a pleasant departure from the typical interview fare. In the end he got the job and, to this day, continues to perform well there.

You never know when one of your hobbies might help you to get a job. :)

You never know when one of your hobbies might help you to get a job. :)Hobby? Or obsession? :p

Hobby? Or obsession? :p
A bit of both. I didn't ask him for his /played time -- I think our HR department had rules against that sort of thing. :)

A bit of both. I didn't ask him for his /played time -- I think our HR department had rules against that sort of thing.
That's the sort of quesiton you really SHOULD ask in a job interview!

I have to say, Stormhaven is just about dead on with everything I've seen on WoW thus far. EQ raid leaders have an incredible amount of stuff to keep up with, organize, and adapt to.

That's funny to me considering I was just thinking how half-assed the guilds in WoW are, especially compared to my old EQ guild. Maybe the FOH guild and some of the leftover EQ-to-WoW guilds are different, but on my server I've found that hardly any guild can boast the same kind of drive or enthusiasm or skill that we had in EQ. Maybe it's because the instances remove direct guild-vs-guild spawn competition, or maybe because each "boss fight" lasts a total of 5 minutes. Either way, even the most organized of raids I've been to feel, at best, like a "family guild"-run event from EQ.

I know in EQ if we took 30mins to rebuff and retry a boss, half the raid would have left due to sheer boredom (I'm talking 30min of standing around before someone started buffing, not 30min of buffing before everyone was ready). I also know that if your class didn't know what you were doing, there was a much smaller margin of error in most high-level boss fights. WoW, in comparison, takes a much more "shotgun" approach, and I guess while it was the dream of a lot of us on this EQ board, well, there aren't that many classes that are <i>required</i> for a raid in WoW - unfortunately the drawback was that ... well... no one was required. You could literally zerg almost any mob in the game - you only really required members with sufficient mana/hp to keep going (ie: gear).

Yes, maybe to be the first guild to take down Boss_X still requires talent, but the transition from "hard as hell" to "farmed b***h" is very quick.

Either way, I guess if a WoW executive can be this accomplished, the EQ executive should be CEO :P


Brother Strom, we are old EQ players. We perhaps can identify with how things were and how things are now. Nonetheless it is interesting to see how things have progressed.

When I was at the interview segment of my officer candidacy, the field captain asked me if I played Doom. He then relayed similar college doom fest stories. No, we aren't crazed murderers, oddly enough.

I lead a guild once, more than once actually. Never brought anything but grief to me.

Game playing did help get me a job at EA for obvious reasons.

In actuality, I think running a guild, even if it isn't the "first kill" kind of guild is a lot of work. The personality conflicts you have to deal with on a daily basis without collapsing the guild are the real work. Scheduling, babysitting and all the rest fit in as a second. I think the actual raid part is the easiest of the chores.

In actuality, I think running a guild, even if it isn't the "first kill" kind of guild is a lot of work. The personality conflicts you have to deal with on a daily basis without collapsing the guild are the real work. Scheduling, babysitting and all the rest fit in as a second. I think the actual raid part is the easiest of the chores.I agree. And I'm not sure it matters which game it is. Leading a guild takes tenacity and patience. And it takes a special type to stick with it over time. After all... this person is spending his or her "off hours" time working as hard as any job and maybe even harder. Just holding a guild together is more work than I ever wanted to make time for. :p

But on a side note... most GLs I have run into in games tend to "yell and scream" at people, often belittling them in channels with others present. It may take an even more special person to understand that this behavior is not welcome in a corporate (or even small company) environment. :D

But on a side note... most GLs I have run into in games tend to "yell and scream" at people, often belittling them in channels with others present.

I couldn't agree more. I know not many people agree with me or I believe its just easier to do it the "yell and scream" way. As an engineer I often think "there has to be a better way" and I actually believe there is. I'm not right all the time by a long shot but people seem to enjoy being treated with respect more than being treated as an unwanted stepchild. The "yell and scream" easy way gets you short term gains, which works well for some people. The other way takes longer with long term lasting gains.

Managing people at any level certainly requires a great deal of diplomacy and interpersonal skills, there is a certain level of finesse to it.