So we've got our graph paper, ruler and protractor, and our fancy-schmancy graphing calculator. As I said before, to be truly good at an MMO, you have to feed the computer the highest possible numbers at the fastest possible rate. To know what those winning numbers are, you need some insight into the calculations the computer actually does. And the first step is to solve the following equation:
(E x L x I x T x I x S x T) - (J x E x R x K x S)
Which can be written as ELITIST-JERKS. As in this website right'chere! You see, once upon a time, an excellent raiding guild called Elitist Jerks decided to share their in-depth knowledge of game mechanics with us mere math-o-phobes. Their forums are a gushing well of class- and role-based calculations. For nearly every class and spec, they've got pre-made spreadsheets, tried-and-true rotations, with pages and pages of debate about each. A few trips to Elitist Jerks and you'll be swimming in useful, easily-applied tips. What I love best about Elitist Jerks is anyone at all can contribute, but the Ban Hammer swings down hard on people who troll, act hostile, or do not read the forum rules.
Perhaps Elitist Jerks is not for you. You find them too hard-nosed, their debates too steeped in equations. While I encourage my readers to get familiar with this sort of hard math if it helps improve your game, and even become one of EJ's contributors, you really don't need to. There may be a website, like Tankspot, focused on your chosen role. BigBearButt and BigRedKitty (ret.) are both BigGoodBlogs for Druiding and Huntering. A trip to WoWwiki's page about your class will certainly help you out, and you can also dig through WoWInsider's massive archives. You can even ask one of your server's leet raiders in your chosen spec to sit you down for a crash course. I recommend a combination of all of the above for a holistic experience.
Perhaps you don't play WoW at all. If so, there are resources out there for your game.
My whole point is yes, you need to apply math and crunch some numbers to get good at an MMO, but luckily, most of the legwork has been done for you, and is constantly being reexamined and re-tested by some truly dedicated minds. The equations and systems are already in place for you to plug in your numbers and come to your own conclusions. If you want to stand tall as a leet raider, the giants are already offering you a shoulder.
For your homework, find some resources pertaining to your chosen class and role. Make sure their information is consistent with the latest patch. Try working just one or two of their ideas into basic play and see if you're more efficient. Then look at the two subjects these sources seem most concerned about that can be applied to all players, and try to guess what I'll cover next!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
ASIDE: Mean to Dicks, We Barely Knew Ye
Egads, what's this? A Tough on Jerks post on an off day! Before you start believing I'll teach leadership on days that don't start with Mon, Wed, or Fri, know that today is what I like to call an Aside. I figure since I have this loverly blog space, I might occasionally use it on Tuesdays or Thursdays to, y'know... blog.
Today I'll remain mostly on-topic and give you a little peek under the hood of Tough on Jerks. See, were it not for a change of my mind, your current URL would read "Mean2Dicks.blogspot.com" and I'd like to tell you why that's not the case.
When I planned to start my very first guild, my Sgt. Major (later) and I came up with a slogan. Our guild at the time often subjected itself to the whims of obnoxious players, and many of the officers balked at disciplining these members. Some such officers showed more aggression toward pro-discipline officers than they were willing to show people who actually deserved a little bit of aggression. So in planning our first guild, our motto became "We're Mean to Dicks."
The Mean to Dicks philosophy is exactly identical to the one here at Tough on Jerks. Lead for the dutiful, devoted, mature members, and show zero tolerance for selfish players. So when I started writing this blog, my plan was to call it Mean2Dicks. And yes it's more risque, yes it has a number in it, yes it may even be catchier, but ultimately I switched to ToughOnJerks, and I'm glad.
Mean to Dicks doesn't work on two counts. The "mean" and the "dicks."
The goal of this blog is not to teach leaders how to be tyrants who revel in making other players, even bad players, suffer. I don't practice or preach cruelty to dumb animals (RIMSHOT!) After all, the exact sorts of players you want to attract will be turned off seeing you act like a jerk yourself. My goal is to make you tough, confident and determined enough to give unpleasant people no more or less than they deserve. Which is to say, a solid "no" to unreasonable demands and a quick trip out the door if they make trouble. So this blog is not about being mean.
So why not "Tough on Dicks?" Aside from the immediate Beavisesque snickering (thank Lawsy it's not "Hard on Dicks,") I firmly believe a good leader is more-or-less professional when "at work." This means when you're fulfilling your leaderly duties, you avoid vulgar language. This is not to say a leader never ever says naughty swears. When just running a five-man or PvPing, it's good to let your guard down and be "one of the gang." And sometimes, even when leading a raid it's okay to cuss or tell a dirty joke.
But as a rule, leaders act with decorum. You don't need to set a guild rule outlawing potty talk, but you yourself shouldn't indulge in it. Not because you're a prude but because you must appeal to guildies who don't like swearing, and because politeness is a huge part of professionalism. How many good supervisors have you worked under who regularly swore, even in jest, on the job? I myself can point to a number of times when vulgar language took a leader's approval rating down a peg.
In writing ToJ, I try to maintain the same "professional" voice I used as a leader. I can be laid-back and tell jokes, but I do not address my readers without concern for their sensibilities. "Off-duty," I swear just like anyone else, so my more unofficial Asides can feature stories about how I say "Jerks," while meaning "Dicks."
Here, we're just shooting the breeze, so I can let you in on what I really think. But if I'm leading, or teaching, I aim to be professional. After all, no one would name a lecture, "Some Shit About Chaucer."
Today I'll remain mostly on-topic and give you a little peek under the hood of Tough on Jerks. See, were it not for a change of my mind, your current URL would read "Mean2Dicks.blogspot.com" and I'd like to tell you why that's not the case.
When I planned to start my very first guild, my Sgt. Major (later) and I came up with a slogan. Our guild at the time often subjected itself to the whims of obnoxious players, and many of the officers balked at disciplining these members. Some such officers showed more aggression toward pro-discipline officers than they were willing to show people who actually deserved a little bit of aggression. So in planning our first guild, our motto became "We're Mean to Dicks."
The Mean to Dicks philosophy is exactly identical to the one here at Tough on Jerks. Lead for the dutiful, devoted, mature members, and show zero tolerance for selfish players. So when I started writing this blog, my plan was to call it Mean2Dicks. And yes it's more risque, yes it has a number in it, yes it may even be catchier, but ultimately I switched to ToughOnJerks, and I'm glad.
Mean to Dicks doesn't work on two counts. The "mean" and the "dicks."
The goal of this blog is not to teach leaders how to be tyrants who revel in making other players, even bad players, suffer. I don't practice or preach cruelty to dumb animals (RIMSHOT!) After all, the exact sorts of players you want to attract will be turned off seeing you act like a jerk yourself. My goal is to make you tough, confident and determined enough to give unpleasant people no more or less than they deserve. Which is to say, a solid "no" to unreasonable demands and a quick trip out the door if they make trouble. So this blog is not about being mean.
So why not "Tough on Dicks?" Aside from the immediate Beavisesque snickering (thank Lawsy it's not "Hard on Dicks,") I firmly believe a good leader is more-or-less professional when "at work." This means when you're fulfilling your leaderly duties, you avoid vulgar language. This is not to say a leader never ever says naughty swears. When just running a five-man or PvPing, it's good to let your guard down and be "one of the gang." And sometimes, even when leading a raid it's okay to cuss or tell a dirty joke.
But as a rule, leaders act with decorum. You don't need to set a guild rule outlawing potty talk, but you yourself shouldn't indulge in it. Not because you're a prude but because you must appeal to guildies who don't like swearing, and because politeness is a huge part of professionalism. How many good supervisors have you worked under who regularly swore, even in jest, on the job? I myself can point to a number of times when vulgar language took a leader's approval rating down a peg.
In writing ToJ, I try to maintain the same "professional" voice I used as a leader. I can be laid-back and tell jokes, but I do not address my readers without concern for their sensibilities. "Off-duty," I swear just like anyone else, so my more unofficial Asides can feature stories about how I say "Jerks," while meaning "Dicks."
Here, we're just shooting the breeze, so I can let you in on what I really think. But if I'm leading, or teaching, I aim to be professional. After all, no one would name a lecture, "Some Shit About Chaucer."
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
MICHAEL'S KEYBINDING GUIDE or "FEELS SO GOOD TO THE HANDS!"
As promised, here I am to tell you my personal approach to key-binding. There is no single best way to keybind, but I prefer a layout that rewards natural hand motion. Remember the main goal: In combat, your reaction time must be as efficient as possible. The less motion you need to activate an ability, the more efficient you are. However, some in-combat abilities need some physical commitment to keep them from being used at the wrong time. So, single, nearby buttons are good for common abilities. Distant or modified buttons are for emergencies, specific situations or long-cooldown abilities.
The first thing to know is that you will never bind an in-combat key out of one hand's easy reach from WASD. Below is a picture of the most useful keys for in-combat bindings.
Of course, if you have large hands, feel free to add more keys on the right, but the goal is to always have your hand hovering over the movement keys. If you need to stretch your hand uncomfortably to reach something, it is not important enough to use in combat.
I find that QERTY make the best rotation keys, and 1-4 the best sequence-breakers. We will cover these later, but for now know that a rotation is a string of abilities you repeat over and over to maximize your output, and a sequence-breaker is an ability you opt for in certain situations to improve your rotation. I also find that 6, T, F and G are good for abilities you use once or twice a minute, such as short-term buffs, while TAB and ~ are great for "big gun" abilities that require some commitment. Meanwhile, the fingers curl back for ZXCV, so these make great defensive keys, with B as a last-ditch panic button. F1-4 are good for targeting your party for buffs, or for camera angles, or /Yelling all manner of big important warning.
The modifiers, SHIFT, ALT and CTRL, are not just there to allow you to use more abilities, they are to keep you from using certain abilities at the wrong time! So a hunter can set her pet's abilities to SHIFT and QERTY, but warrior stance-switching, paladin Divine Intervention, and rogue Vanishing should never happen with just a simple keystroke. Auto-run needs to be a twofer. So many wipes could have been avoided if people had to commit to dundering forward blindly. Remember, every action you can use in combat needs a key, but the the more motion necessary for an ability, the less often you use it.
Some hints: Experiment to find the layout that works best for you. Turn off all your combat bars and try memorizing abilities by touch (this is not a good idea permanently, as you still need to see cool-downs.) Trust me when I tell you to make a list of your in-combat key-binds, in case they ever get erased from the game.
Finally, you do not need to keybind everything. Vanity pets, mounts, trade skills, out-of-combat consumables like food and elixirs, all of these can stay on a pretty bar for your clicking amusement. Certainly, none of these need to be bound to any of the keys in the picture, unless poor ALT needs something to do. Me personally, I use the number pad for consumables and the arrow keys for gear changes (most outfitter mods have a key-binding option.) For these sorts of things, key-binding is a personal preference, but for combat, it is a must. No matter how fast you mouse-click, with practice, keys will make you even faster. And our goal, again, is to feed a calculator big numbers as fast as we can.
Wuh-oh! Did I just say numbers? No more putting it off, readers mine. Tune in next time to meet Milo's good friend, the Mathemagician.
(Also tune in tomorrow for my first-ever irregular "Aside.")
The first thing to know is that you will never bind an in-combat key out of one hand's easy reach from WASD. Below is a picture of the most useful keys for in-combat bindings.
Of course, if you have large hands, feel free to add more keys on the right, but the goal is to always have your hand hovering over the movement keys. If you need to stretch your hand uncomfortably to reach something, it is not important enough to use in combat.
I find that QERTY make the best rotation keys, and 1-4 the best sequence-breakers. We will cover these later, but for now know that a rotation is a string of abilities you repeat over and over to maximize your output, and a sequence-breaker is an ability you opt for in certain situations to improve your rotation. I also find that 6, T, F and G are good for abilities you use once or twice a minute, such as short-term buffs, while TAB and ~ are great for "big gun" abilities that require some commitment. Meanwhile, the fingers curl back for ZXCV, so these make great defensive keys, with B as a last-ditch panic button. F1-4 are good for targeting your party for buffs, or for camera angles, or /Yelling all manner of big important warning.
The modifiers, SHIFT, ALT and CTRL, are not just there to allow you to use more abilities, they are to keep you from using certain abilities at the wrong time! So a hunter can set her pet's abilities to SHIFT and QERTY, but warrior stance-switching, paladin Divine Intervention, and rogue Vanishing should never happen with just a simple keystroke. Auto-run needs to be a twofer. So many wipes could have been avoided if people had to commit to dundering forward blindly. Remember, every action you can use in combat needs a key, but the the more motion necessary for an ability, the less often you use it.
Some hints: Experiment to find the layout that works best for you. Turn off all your combat bars and try memorizing abilities by touch (this is not a good idea permanently, as you still need to see cool-downs.) Trust me when I tell you to make a list of your in-combat key-binds, in case they ever get erased from the game.
Finally, you do not need to keybind everything. Vanity pets, mounts, trade skills, out-of-combat consumables like food and elixirs, all of these can stay on a pretty bar for your clicking amusement. Certainly, none of these need to be bound to any of the keys in the picture, unless poor ALT needs something to do. Me personally, I use the number pad for consumables and the arrow keys for gear changes (most outfitter mods have a key-binding option.) For these sorts of things, key-binding is a personal preference, but for combat, it is a must. No matter how fast you mouse-click, with practice, keys will make you even faster. And our goal, again, is to feed a calculator big numbers as fast as we can.
Wuh-oh! Did I just say numbers? No more putting it off, readers mine. Tune in next time to meet Milo's good friend, the Mathemagician.
(Also tune in tomorrow for my first-ever irregular "Aside.")
Monday, October 26, 2009
CLICKING MAKES YOU WEAK! but CLICKING THIS BLOG MAKES YOU STRONG!
Most starting players click on buttons to activate their abilities. Computer games tend to be very mouse-dependent, and moving your big gauntlet to select flashy icons is more tactile and satisfying. It also allows you the pleasure of rapidly clicking an ability when under stress, cool-downs usually preventing unwanted multiple activations. Likewise, nothing says "target that" like pointing at it.
Over time, some clickers hone their cursors into little hunting falcons: swooping across the screen, plucking each icon once, never mis-clicking, never hitting that pesky rim around the icon, never ever double-clicking. Similarly, a very messy person might be able to find anything amidst his chaos.
I find such clickers and mess-makers have two things in common. First, they tend to vastly exaggerate their acumen. I have yet to meet many messy people who could actually find much of anything, let alone everything in their clutter, just as I have only known one or two clickers who could keep up with the key-binders. Even if they are quite efficient, they'd be even faster if they supplemented their skill with organization. And, bottom line, orderliness is professional and (gasp!) a hallmark of good leadership.
Imagine cleaning up and organizing for a messy person who's actually good at finding his stuff (and perhaps badly twisting your ankle-- sorry hon!) He'll probably get mad at you, right? He knew where everything was, and now you've messed it all up. But what's actually stopping him from getting used to the organization and finding things even faster? Instead of his red boxers being in the blue hamper while his Yu Gi Oh boxers are under the pile of comics, all his underpants are together in one drawer-- and his comics all in one box! Now, he'll look adult and respectable when people, maybe even female people, visit. The same goes for a clicker. It's not that he's so much faster when he clicks, it's that he doesn't want to change his routine and learn something new, though he's got the reflexes to really shine with a more efficient approach.
Clicking isn't exactly like keeping a messy room or keyboard-turning, because there are no tell-tale signs. You are simply not living up to your full potential. As a leader, you're going to ask your players to live up to theirs, so you'd better blaze the trail. Dozens of guides online explain clearly and for free how to bind, and will make your kung fu strong. Me, I'm in a hurry to get to the juicy maths, so next time...
What's that? But you want me to teach you how to key-bind? Oh, well I'm barely qualified. You're just trying to get out of math class! I'll tell you what: Though I doubt I'll give you anything you can't learn elsewhere, next time we'll go over my personal advice for efficient key-binding.
Over time, some clickers hone their cursors into little hunting falcons: swooping across the screen, plucking each icon once, never mis-clicking, never hitting that pesky rim around the icon, never ever double-clicking. Similarly, a very messy person might be able to find anything amidst his chaos.
I find such clickers and mess-makers have two things in common. First, they tend to vastly exaggerate their acumen. I have yet to meet many messy people who could actually find much of anything, let alone everything in their clutter, just as I have only known one or two clickers who could keep up with the key-binders. Even if they are quite efficient, they'd be even faster if they supplemented their skill with organization. And, bottom line, orderliness is professional and (gasp!) a hallmark of good leadership.
Imagine cleaning up and organizing for a messy person who's actually good at finding his stuff (and perhaps badly twisting your ankle-- sorry hon!) He'll probably get mad at you, right? He knew where everything was, and now you've messed it all up. But what's actually stopping him from getting used to the organization and finding things even faster? Instead of his red boxers being in the blue hamper while his Yu Gi Oh boxers are under the pile of comics, all his underpants are together in one drawer-- and his comics all in one box! Now, he'll look adult and respectable when people, maybe even female people, visit. The same goes for a clicker. It's not that he's so much faster when he clicks, it's that he doesn't want to change his routine and learn something new, though he's got the reflexes to really shine with a more efficient approach.
Clicking isn't exactly like keeping a messy room or keyboard-turning, because there are no tell-tale signs. You are simply not living up to your full potential. As a leader, you're going to ask your players to live up to theirs, so you'd better blaze the trail. Dozens of guides online explain clearly and for free how to bind, and will make your kung fu strong. Me, I'm in a hurry to get to the juicy maths, so next time...
What's that? But you want me to teach you how to key-bind? Oh, well I'm barely qualified. You're just trying to get out of math class! I'll tell you what: Though I doubt I'll give you anything you can't learn elsewhere, next time we'll go over my personal advice for efficient key-binding.
Friday, October 23, 2009
THE MOUSE IS FOR TURNING or "I'M ALMOST UPON YOU, ROGUE!"
"Oh no!" you say, "Math is haaaard! I don't want to crunch a bunch of numbers to play a game!" Alright, alright, today we won't talk about how you have to do math (even though you do.) Today and next time we'll work on improving your reaction time by properly controlling your character.
How do you move your avatar? Do you turn with your keyboard or your mouse? If you use your keyboard, is it arrow keys or WASD? If you use WASD, are Q and E the strafe keys? You can argue there's no "right" way to be good at the game, but there is a slower and a faster way to turn. If you refuse to follow my lead on anything else control-related, at least try this experiment:
Agro a monster and let him attack your back. Toggle auto-attack on and use your keyboard to turn in place until you attack him. A second or two, right? Put your back to him again, hold the right mouse button and flick the mouse once, hard, to the right or left. Less then half a second later, you're smacking him. Illustrated in practical, combat terms: Keyboard-turning is noticeably slower than mouse-turning. If you paid attention, you also noticed that when you keyboard-turn, your character looks over his shoulder. Skilled players recognize this as a tell-tale sign of noobery. They look for a quick whip-around and immediate response.
So, you must mouse-turn. Happily, most default key-bindings have holding the right mouse button set to turn your avatar.
How do you manage the rest of your movement: back and forth, and strafing? Try putting your free hand on the arrow keys. Since you have to hold the mouse to turn, you're suddenly very uncomfortable, so I guess the arrow keys are dead to you. It's good old WASD for moving, and the first-person-shooter gods are pleased. But wait, Q and E are your strafe keys, and you can still keyboard-turn with A and D.
In one fell swoop, we will literally make it impossible for you to return to this nasty habit. Open your key bindings and set A to strafe left and D to strafe right. Do not assign any keys to turning. Try to move without the mouse. I'll wait. Now try your keyboard and mouse together. Turn in place or while walking backwards. Strafe around something in a semicircle. I'm sure you've noticed this is how the elite PvP players circle each other.
Congratulations! You are cured of keyboard-turning forever. Never again will a raider covered in epic gear snicker at your shuffling feet, or a ganker see your turned head as a come-hither-and-do-me-from-behind glance. You sit comfortably at your computer and can respond to anything with a flick of the wrist.
And because you strafe with A and D, Q and E are open for some of your most important keybinds. Which sets up our next lesson: supplementing your effortless character control with hair-trigger ability response.
How do you move your avatar? Do you turn with your keyboard or your mouse? If you use your keyboard, is it arrow keys or WASD? If you use WASD, are Q and E the strafe keys? You can argue there's no "right" way to be good at the game, but there is a slower and a faster way to turn. If you refuse to follow my lead on anything else control-related, at least try this experiment:
Agro a monster and let him attack your back. Toggle auto-attack on and use your keyboard to turn in place until you attack him. A second or two, right? Put your back to him again, hold the right mouse button and flick the mouse once, hard, to the right or left. Less then half a second later, you're smacking him. Illustrated in practical, combat terms: Keyboard-turning is noticeably slower than mouse-turning. If you paid attention, you also noticed that when you keyboard-turn, your character looks over his shoulder. Skilled players recognize this as a tell-tale sign of noobery. They look for a quick whip-around and immediate response.
So, you must mouse-turn. Happily, most default key-bindings have holding the right mouse button set to turn your avatar.
How do you manage the rest of your movement: back and forth, and strafing? Try putting your free hand on the arrow keys. Since you have to hold the mouse to turn, you're suddenly very uncomfortable, so I guess the arrow keys are dead to you. It's good old WASD for moving, and the first-person-shooter gods are pleased. But wait, Q and E are your strafe keys, and you can still keyboard-turn with A and D.
In one fell swoop, we will literally make it impossible for you to return to this nasty habit. Open your key bindings and set A to strafe left and D to strafe right. Do not assign any keys to turning. Try to move without the mouse. I'll wait. Now try your keyboard and mouse together. Turn in place or while walking backwards. Strafe around something in a semicircle. I'm sure you've noticed this is how the elite PvP players circle each other.
Congratulations! You are cured of keyboard-turning forever. Never again will a raider covered in epic gear snicker at your shuffling feet, or a ganker see your turned head as a come-hither-and-do-me-from-behind glance. You sit comfortably at your computer and can respond to anything with a flick of the wrist.
And because you strafe with A and D, Q and E are open for some of your most important keybinds. Which sets up our next lesson: supplementing your effortless character control with hair-trigger ability response.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
IMPROVING PERSONAL COMPETENCE or THE CALCULATOR DOES NOT LIKE YOU!
So I see the prospect of being tough on jerks has brought you back for round the deuce! Welcome back, but if you're looking for a string of pithy insults to throw at said jerks before you show them the door, you'll have to wait a while. Our first few entries will focus on helping prospective leaders become excellent players.
But wait, you say! What does being a good player have to do with being a good leader? For shame, I reply! An MMO leader is a front-line general. He might make the plans, but he carries them out along with the rank and file. He can't just be "okay" at playing the game. A good leader does not ask his followers to do a task he is cannot do himself, and kicking ass is a task. To put it bluntly, your job is to tell others how to play. If you don't know how yourself, your teammates will resent your orders.
But wait, you say! I'm already pretty good at the game! Okay, I answer. So stick around a few days and see what advice I give, and feel free to contribute your own in the comments. But I want to train good leaders from the ground up, and a leader who lacks the skills I'm handing down won't be able to attract good players to his banner. If this guide is to be comprehensive, we need to cover things that seem basic to more advanced raiders. And who knows, you might see something useful.
But wait! What is it now, I ask you. The way I play is just fine, thank you so very much! People who want to lead often assume they're already pretty decent at the game. Yet the sad truth is I've met many leaders who, when asked if they knew their theory, or how they moved their characters, responded with some tale of home-brewed awesomeness. "Oh, I keyboard turn, but my reflexes are really good," or "I just click on whatever's off cooldown and my numbers are really high," they say. Then you ally with their guild for a raid and they themselves are lowest on the meters, losing respect in the eyes of thier peers. For every home-cooked savant pumping out awesome digits, there are ten pretenders, easily exposed. And every single savant would be even better were they organized and informed.
For you see, The Calculator Does Not Like You.
An MMO is a computer game. Your damage, threat, healing, avoidance, all are decided by a machine doing hozillions of calculations a second. The machine does not feel, it does not have any notion of "cool" or "fun." It takes the numbers you give it and assigns consequences. One day, the machine might rise up and attempt to wipe out humanity and only my state's incompetent-but-lovable governor will be able to stop it. Or at least, it has a higher chance of doing so than it does of ever giving a binary poop about what you enjoy.
It does not care if you think dwarf rogues look better with maces, or proper Jedi spec Light Side. It doesn't care if you think you're faster when you click abilities. And if you want to wear fabulous color-coordinated outfits to raids, know that somewhere, deep in its silicate soul, the machine is laughing at you.
You are not playing a tabletop RPG with a game master who wants you to have fun. You are using a computer program, interacting with a machine that requires your numeric input. The faster you feed the machine high numbers, the better the results it will calculate.
And so, my friends, comes the dreaded moment when I tell you straight-up: To be truly good at an MMO, you need excellent reaction time, and math.
But wait, you say! What does being a good player have to do with being a good leader? For shame, I reply! An MMO leader is a front-line general. He might make the plans, but he carries them out along with the rank and file. He can't just be "okay" at playing the game. A good leader does not ask his followers to do a task he is cannot do himself, and kicking ass is a task. To put it bluntly, your job is to tell others how to play. If you don't know how yourself, your teammates will resent your orders.
But wait, you say! I'm already pretty good at the game! Okay, I answer. So stick around a few days and see what advice I give, and feel free to contribute your own in the comments. But I want to train good leaders from the ground up, and a leader who lacks the skills I'm handing down won't be able to attract good players to his banner. If this guide is to be comprehensive, we need to cover things that seem basic to more advanced raiders. And who knows, you might see something useful.
But wait! What is it now, I ask you. The way I play is just fine, thank you so very much! People who want to lead often assume they're already pretty decent at the game. Yet the sad truth is I've met many leaders who, when asked if they knew their theory, or how they moved their characters, responded with some tale of home-brewed awesomeness. "Oh, I keyboard turn, but my reflexes are really good," or "I just click on whatever's off cooldown and my numbers are really high," they say. Then you ally with their guild for a raid and they themselves are lowest on the meters, losing respect in the eyes of thier peers. For every home-cooked savant pumping out awesome digits, there are ten pretenders, easily exposed. And every single savant would be even better were they organized and informed.
For you see, The Calculator Does Not Like You.
An MMO is a computer game. Your damage, threat, healing, avoidance, all are decided by a machine doing hozillions of calculations a second. The machine does not feel, it does not have any notion of "cool" or "fun." It takes the numbers you give it and assigns consequences. One day, the machine might rise up and attempt to wipe out humanity and only my state's incompetent-but-lovable governor will be able to stop it. Or at least, it has a higher chance of doing so than it does of ever giving a binary poop about what you enjoy.
It does not care if you think dwarf rogues look better with maces, or proper Jedi spec Light Side. It doesn't care if you think you're faster when you click abilities. And if you want to wear fabulous color-coordinated outfits to raids, know that somewhere, deep in its silicate soul, the machine is laughing at you.
You are not playing a tabletop RPG with a game master who wants you to have fun. You are using a computer program, interacting with a machine that requires your numeric input. The faster you feed the machine high numbers, the better the results it will calculate.
And so, my friends, comes the dreaded moment when I tell you straight-up: To be truly good at an MMO, you need excellent reaction time, and math.
Monday, October 19, 2009
I AM MICHAEL or IN WHICH A CATCHY CATCHPHRASE GETS COINED
I recently graduated from a university on the west coast and, like many English majors, work in the exciting retail field. An aspiring writer (hence the blog,) I absorb stories through the skin like a sponge and constantly read, watch movies, play games and write, write, write.
One game I played nearly from release is World of Warcraft. I spent the vast majority of my time leading groups, whether quest groups, dungeons, raids or entire guilds. If a team formed to reach a goal, I guided them, usually with great success. I've had my failures too, and learned from those, so over my time playing WoW, I've collected many lessons to pass on to you, the aspiring leaders of the MMO community.
This blog is not about how MMO leadership is like office management or is something you can slap on a resume without shame. Both these things are true, but I am here to teach the nitty-gritty of leadership, specifically in MMOs. I will discuss everything from improving personal gaming competence to putting groups together, to raid tactics to policy to discipline, all in practical, no-nonsense terms.
The first no-nonsense thing I have to say is leadership should be rewarding and fun, period. If leading any group is making you miserable, filling you with self-doubt, and enabling unpleasant people to have fun at your expense, don't do it. I don't mean "don't lead," I mean "don't let leadership suck." This blog is about taking firm control of one's leadership style and becoming a figure of authority and respect without compromising all your free time.
If you want to become the sort of leader who comes online mostly when you want, who holds attention when you need it, whose guildies trust your vision, then you must internalize one basic truth: If leadership must be rewarding and fun, people who choose to make it less rewarding and fun are not worth leading. To coin a catchy catchphrase, you can and must be TOUGH ON JERKS.
You know who I mean. The selfish players, the rude players, who guild-hop without a second thought, who start drama, who have no perspective. The players who become crusaders against whatever guild "injustice" they currently feel victimized by, or who, when they hurt someone, say "it's just a game." A good leader need not take their crap, and if they are indeed a good leader, they have built a strong organization that can shed these creeps like a dog sheds fleas. The first step to building such an organization at all is to realize that no such group can exist without being tough on jerks.
So I am here to teach you, my readers, how to be bold, competent, respected leaders for whom command is a reward and not a terrible burden. I am here to show non-leaders where their higher-ups are coming from, and how to best support them in their difficult jobs. And I am here to prove to players who are like me, who enjoy positive interactions and strong online friendships, that not only should you never let the bastards get you down, you can get the bastards down a bit, without becoming one yourself.
Of course, any good authority figure leads by example, so if you want to be surrounded by competent players, you must be competent yourself. Our first series of lessons might seem like a big dollop of duh to many readers, but I think a truly awesome leader must become awesome at the game he plays.
One game I played nearly from release is World of Warcraft. I spent the vast majority of my time leading groups, whether quest groups, dungeons, raids or entire guilds. If a team formed to reach a goal, I guided them, usually with great success. I've had my failures too, and learned from those, so over my time playing WoW, I've collected many lessons to pass on to you, the aspiring leaders of the MMO community.
This blog is not about how MMO leadership is like office management or is something you can slap on a resume without shame. Both these things are true, but I am here to teach the nitty-gritty of leadership, specifically in MMOs. I will discuss everything from improving personal gaming competence to putting groups together, to raid tactics to policy to discipline, all in practical, no-nonsense terms.
The first no-nonsense thing I have to say is leadership should be rewarding and fun, period. If leading any group is making you miserable, filling you with self-doubt, and enabling unpleasant people to have fun at your expense, don't do it. I don't mean "don't lead," I mean "don't let leadership suck." This blog is about taking firm control of one's leadership style and becoming a figure of authority and respect without compromising all your free time.
If you want to become the sort of leader who comes online mostly when you want, who holds attention when you need it, whose guildies trust your vision, then you must internalize one basic truth: If leadership must be rewarding and fun, people who choose to make it less rewarding and fun are not worth leading. To coin a catchy catchphrase, you can and must be TOUGH ON JERKS.
You know who I mean. The selfish players, the rude players, who guild-hop without a second thought, who start drama, who have no perspective. The players who become crusaders against whatever guild "injustice" they currently feel victimized by, or who, when they hurt someone, say "it's just a game." A good leader need not take their crap, and if they are indeed a good leader, they have built a strong organization that can shed these creeps like a dog sheds fleas. The first step to building such an organization at all is to realize that no such group can exist without being tough on jerks.
So I am here to teach you, my readers, how to be bold, competent, respected leaders for whom command is a reward and not a terrible burden. I am here to show non-leaders where their higher-ups are coming from, and how to best support them in their difficult jobs. And I am here to prove to players who are like me, who enjoy positive interactions and strong online friendships, that not only should you never let the bastards get you down, you can get the bastards down a bit, without becoming one yourself.
Of course, any good authority figure leads by example, so if you want to be surrounded by competent players, you must be competent yourself. Our first series of lessons might seem like a big dollop of duh to many readers, but I think a truly awesome leader must become awesome at the game he plays.
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