Saturday, May 06, 2006

Leadership II: The BG Experience

Been doing a lot of BG (battlegrounds) with my hunter alt, a level 24 hunter with a kickass raptor pet (named Spielberg, for Jurraasic Park). I think there is a lot of potential in that for leadership workshop. You are dumped into a group of about 5-10 people within a 10 point level range, e.g., 20-29. You play live against a comparable Horde group. I've been playing in Warsong Gulch (WSG) where the game is a variation on Capture the Flag. When you are pulled in to the game, you have about 4-5 mins to get your act together before the gate goes up.

In the first few I was in, the first minute is about getting everyone invited into the group so you can communicate on the /raid channel. Then everyone buffs and manas and does stuff with pets etc. Rarely, someone actually steps up and takes command. Rarely. In about 10 games this has happened once for me. I usually try to suggest it with phrases like, "So what's the plan?" or "How do we want to play this?"

Some folks are just there for the HK (honor kills) and don't care if they win. They just want to kill a lot of the enemy. That's a real drag. Some folks are very competitive and yell a lot. Worst group I was in two guys kept arguing on /raid channel about who should be doing what: everyone to midfield; everyone on defense; everyone gather to attack; only hunters on defense. Very chaotic. We lost (btw, I've only been on one winning group in 10 tries).

I'm surprised no one stops to use the 5 mins to take stock of who the team is made up of, what strengths and weaknesses that represents, and plans accordingly. It is a classic leadership dilemma. Thrown into a situation with a group you don't know with limited time to plan. Would be interesting to see if different leadership styles work it differently and get diff. results.

Just a thought to add to guild leadership, which is much more organizationally oriented and less process and strategically oriented.

Anyhow, try BG. It's addicting.

No comments:

Post a Comment