When Hall' and I emerged into baby Dwarfland the land [game] was known by many millions before us. We made friends and later guildsmen [guildspersons?] who guided us . . . mentored us. Later, we were able to pass the lore onto others, but we were just conduits mostly.
When I run someone through Deadmines and we get to the Goblin room, I always tell the n00bs to stay close to the wall. Why? Cause that is what I was told . . . now, more tradition to me then real tactics. Many things I convey to those I mentor come directly from those who mentored me. My 'leadership' in an instance is cobbled together from the expertise and experience of others . . . and sometimes with a yawn.
When I do a Mara run, I have a 'leadership' I have developed more or less independently of mentors, but it is also an instance I am 10 levels above. The leadership there is really management. It is my Disneyland's Jungle Cruise. No matter how dangerous it might seem, I know there will be another tour in 28 minutes.
Standing just inside the instance yesterday, I first had to overcome my natural and native fear of facing 3 Level 61 Elites . . . to start! Second, I had to face an instance that none of the five of us knew, but the difference was . . . we knew each other.
Now, what Hall' doesn't mention is this was a run with no less then 20 wipes. We payed for every inch . . and every piece of knowledge we all left with . . . along with [except for poor Nemi] the upgraded gear each of us were rewarded . . with death after death after death.
Standing before the first boss [Big guy with two buddies] . . . we hit him as hard as we could. We wiped. We came back and wiped again. It was about this time that someone [Nemi or Hall] noticed that the buddies were healing the boss. So, for the third approach we hit the buddies . . . and boy-howdy did they fall fast . .. and then we kicked the bosses ass. And then the screams of joy ripped through everyone's speakers on Vent.
What I remember most from that boss was everyone contributed something. Let's try this. Let's try that. Let's go back to that. No recriminations. No accusations. I know I made mistakes. I saw other's make mistakes. Yet, it was the joy of making them and overcoming them in an environment that was truly supportive that I remember most.
After that boss, things changed. Hall' started pouring through the combat logs between wipes and there was the swapping of advice and opinion, but there was little discussion during the pre-battle. Nemi took point. Cela laid her trap. Via [Hey, that's me!] stood ready to charge and Hall and Bany took up ranged positions. During the battles there was no more Vent chatter. The group had fallen silent, but the mobs fell faster and with more frequency.
There was no leader, but there was leadership. Leadership by the community . . . or committee can go two ways . . . none of are as dumb as all of us or none of us are as smart as all of us. The knowledge and confidence we had in one another allowed it to be the second for us.
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