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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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:
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...
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.
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.