Flame about Sculli's response to Oropher's thread

[Squee]

As I was responding to this thread I realized that it would belong on the flame board more than in general discussion. I realize it is not a good idea to bite the hand that feeds you but Sculli I do not agree with you so please, no hard feelings.... Thanks for bringing us QCDN though

This couldn't be further from the truth, and those who are guild leaders or shell leaders know it. While I do not deny that the story of Gillett, there are several flaws to it.

I have not been a linkshell leader and wonder if someone would care to input their point of view on this. Leading people in real life is a lot harder than leading people in a game. I am in the Army and will be making my Sergeant in about one week. I have been looked upon as a leader now for a while and feel that I do a good job with it. It is a lot harder organizing a squad sized element through the city of Tikrit (thats in Iraq by the way) that it is to do an AF run with a group of friends. However, it is still helpful to receive basic leadership skills from organizing events in an MMO. Everything needs a foundation to build upon.

Would you really want to hire someone who is so strongly tied to an MMO that he or she is leading a guild? This means that the person is spending a considerable amount of time playing the game. No one can be a leader and be absent most of the time. How will this addiction interfere with the work that needs to get done? Will the person spend company time to do MMO related tasks? If I were the hiring authority, then being an effective MMO guild leader would put the job seeker at a disadvantage in my eyes.

1. Sculli, are you partially implying that players that do show leadership skills in an MMO and create their own linkshells / guilds should not be hired for decent jobs in real life? Or are you partially implying that players should keep their hobbies a secret? The intent of the article was partially to show where the individual obtained his leadership qualities and there is nothing wrong with that. I would be upset to think that the QCDN creator himself was ashamed of his members who played the game.

Virtual interaction is totally different from real world interaction, a fact conviniently overlooked by the author's who just had to come up with something to fill a page. Many of the things possible in a virtual environment are unacceptable leadership traits in the real world.

What kind of unacceptable leadership traits?

Effective MMO guild leaders are players who understand the intricate details of the game mechanics, and who are dictators. Players choose to follow them because those leaders essentially guarantee success while "only" asking from you that you do as you are told. This of course wouldn't get you anywhere in today's team oriented workplace. To sum it up, imho the article couldn't have been more wrong in its conclusions.

Leaders are not all dictators in MMOs. From what I have seen people do still vote on things within a linkshell. The Linkshell leader himself does not decide that the linkshell will no longer hunt such and such High Notorious Monster.

Sculli, come play FFXI or WoW or any other MMO and have a little fun with it. I know that most of us would donate to get you started.