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Comment by darkmethod | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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.

I think I racked up 4000 hours in WoW.

I regret it. I could have expanded myself so much more. Better grades, probably. Less weight gain. More skills and hobbies. The lost opportunities were vast.

Yes, it provided me a social(ish) hobby at odd hours of the night, for a low price. And that's just about it.

Like I said, I regret it deeply: not for the fun I had (had tons!), but for the lost opportunities.

i lead a guild and it helped me hone some of my skills in this area, but i tend to agree that the amount of time committed could have been better spent learning leadership via other mediums. but at least we got something out of it other than just a level XX character.

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