

Joi Ito: What World of Warcraft taught me about being a better leader - yarapavan
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/new-director-of-mit-media-lab-talks-of-encouraging-openness/31112

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Xurinos
Some caution on this...

WoW guild leadership was a good exercise in how to lead _volunteers_. There is
a gulf of difference between leading volunteers and leading paid people. Yes,
there is overlap, too, but it is much harder to motivate volunteers to do
tasks they do not _feel_ like doing at the moment. It is a different kind of
beast to lead, and Joi Ito certainly deserves respect for learning how to do
that effectively.

Note I said "was". With Cataclysm's release, Blizzard introduced built-in
incentives to do things for the guild. A guild member gets rewarded by the
game for working for the guild. This reduces the leadership burden quite a lot
and focuses it more on the "getting X number of people together at Y time to
raid/PvP" task. Additionally, guild leadership can now check the WoW Armory to
see what raids potential guild candidates have completed and how many times;
thus, players have incentives to work with guilds to establish their
experience/pwning ability. That makes it easier for guild leaders to gather
people for raids because people have more incentive to be there. Effectively,
members are now paid to work for their guild or to increase their own standing
if they want to work for another guild.

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ilamont
Good interview.

For anyone who's interested, I captured part of his first meeting with Media
Lab researchers, staff, and faculty:

[http://lamont.scripts.mit.edu/newsio/2011/04/26/joi-ito-
addr...](http://lamont.scripts.mit.edu/newsio/2011/04/26/joi-ito-addresses-
the-media-lab-for-the-first-time/)

I also heard Nicholas Negroponte (former Media Lab director, OLPC co-founder)
speak about Ito's appointment during class yesterday. He thought it was a
great appointment (I believe his words were, "Japanese? College dropout? 44?
Godson of Timothy Leary? Perfect!") and was also happy to hear that Ito
wouldn't be heading his own research group, as it would be too much of a
distraction.

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darkmethod
Excellent topic. I wish him well.

As a former guild leader in World of Warcraft I can state that yes indeed it
takes a certain level of finesse to get a group of 40 volunteers (out of 100+
members) motivated to accomplish an already pre established goal defined by
Blizzard. The game has incentives already built into it and the formation of a
guild is relatively easy process. WoW is truly gamification at its finest
which is used as the primary motivator.

It was a lot of fun. But it was a huge time sink. So much so that to say it
was distracting would not accurately describe it.

Word of warning: if you don't play it, don't start. Time is a valuable
commodity which you can't earn back once it is spent. There are other ways to
learn leadership/soft skills that are more productive.

~~~
ohashi
All I can say is, playing that game is a decision I regret at least once a
week. My business stagnated for two years as my life got sucked into that
game.

I could talk about all the leadership skills and blah blah blah that I learned
from GM'ing an enormous guild, but that would be deceitful, because if I had
been doing anything else I would be a lot further ahead than I am now with an
extra two years - or 269 real days of time spent on that game. Sure there were
some benefits, but I think they are dwarfed by the opportunities I lost (great
way to spend the first two years of college - you make a TON of friends
playing WoW all day in your room).

So if you really want to improve yourself, stay away from this game.

~~~
michaelcampbell
Learning a bit of self control, be it for WoW, irc/chat, general surfing,
playing music, hanging out, partying, or ANY endeavor is a good habit to
acquire.

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Alex3917
I'm curious how much WoW he actually played. It seems like he mostly
disappeared for a five year period, though maybe he was doing other stuff.

~~~
gyardley
I was in that guild. Joi was on quite a bit when the guild was running Molten
Core regularly. Good times.

Can't speak to anything more recent, since I quit playing years ago. According
to the Armory, the character he used years ago has reached the level cap and
has ran some five-man dungeons, but doesn't raid:

[http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/eitrigg/jonkichi/simpl...](http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/eitrigg/jonkichi/simple)

That doesn't mean anything, of course - for all I know, he could be raiding
every night with another character.

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StavrosK
I can say that my time as a trader in a MUD I used to play gave me valuable
negotiation skills, and I don't doubt that it takes significant leadership
skills to run a WoW guild...

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ditojim
i've said this for years to my friends and family and it is comforting to see
this come up again and again on the internet. running a guild in warcraft is a
great stepping stone for aspiring leaders and Joi does a good job in the
article pointing out some specific reasons why warcraft gave him good
experience in this area. i think of it as a spark that started the fire.
beyond that, i wouldn't give it _too_ much credit.

~~~
davty
Exactly.

I see it more like WoW has given him an arena in which he can try out his
leader skills and perhaps improve on them.

