By the conveyor belt

Larísa wrote an article about group dynamics. She recalled her real life group management training, and expressed her surprise that there are so many game mechanics information available, yet there are few group/guild management information, although in the real world they are considered very important.

Tobold responds with similar ideas, but expresses that "The third phase of group dynamics ... is rarely reached in WoW, because it is a stage which isn't absolutely necessary to succeed." He also mention that other, mostly PvP games like EVE has stronger groups.

I've got countless comments that I cannot raid serious content without guilds and 99% of the population are in guilds. Everyone talk about guilds and everyone find them neccessary, yet they are extremely volatile, they form and brake very fast.

So on the one hand everyone believes (from real life experiences) that groups are important in WoW, on the other hand, they don't behave so. After all, I managed to PuG Naxx, and this weekend I'll make my first try on Malygos.

I think the solution is extremely simple. On the one hand, our real world groups are working on some professional tasks. I depend on the mechanical engineer of my group since that's not my profession, but also I cannot replace him quickly. A new, equally trained mechanical engineer would need months to read all the plans, learn all the necessary information about the plant we design to be able to contribute. So my current mechanical engineer is the mechanical engineer for me. I have to know him as a person, not just as a random "mechanical engineer", I have to notice when he has problems, I have to handle the drama between him and the enviromentalist engineer he does not really like, because I need them both since replacing any of them would delay the plant with at least a month.

On the other hand I don't think that a McDonalds employee has such problems with the rest of the "want some fries with that?" crew. They are easily replaceable random people. If there is problem with one, the manager can make a call to the local job agency and by tomorrow another guy will do the same job without any customer (or coworker) would notice. Group management is only necessary if the person is needed, not just one random worker with appropriate skills.

We may believe that in this game we are granted the position of World-Saving Heroes. But that's a lie or at least a huge mistake. We are taking the position of grunts of a World-saving army. We are are blue-collar workers standing by the conveyor belt in the factory producing "saving the world".

The task (bossfight) is completely repetitive, does not need any intelligent thinking. No one expects more from you than the McDonalds manager expect from the workers: read the not so complicated user's manual, stick to it, do what your direct manager says, have your uniform on, don't be late, don't be drunk, don't slack. Doing such a job for the first time can be interesting since it's something you've never done. New machinery, new tasks, new tastes, smells, lights. I've heard of a recreational company that offered "tours" into blue-collar jobs to rich people. They pay to be stone miners, open-sea fisherman, building destruction workers, cowboys for a day, because it's fun... for one day.

For the second time it's just a repetitive conveyor work you do for pitiful $ ... err ... DKP 200/week.

Any player with proper gear, knowledge about the boss and proper "work ethic" can take your place. He does not even has to be in the same class. A prot paladin can be replaced by any prot paladin, bear, protwarri or tank-DK, assuming they have the required skills, gear and focus. I don't have to know anything about my tank, just like I don't have to know anything about the mail-boy who brings my samples to the lab, except that he is a mail-boy found able and reliable by the HR department.

The only group-management needed at this level of working is screening for the basic skills. The servers crawl with M&S who do not have even remotely acceptabe gear, have no idea about the boss and AFK all the time. But after someone is found "work-able", and got into the large pool of "acceptable players", he is identical and replacable by any other member of the same pool.

To change that, to make group-work necessary the game must have been much harder, and above all, not repetitive. If the bosses would adapt quickly, for example drawing a shield when see a melee-heavy raid coming, or throwing down a fire resistance totem when the raid is crawling with hot-streak mages, things would be different. If he would use different CC abilities randomly, and people would have to adapt fast, plan intelligently, than having a group would be important. In a PvP game, where the challenge comes from other players with evolving skills, the group is also important.

However as long as WoW is just as easy and repetitive as it is, the groups are nothing more than social flavors over a simple blue-collar job. There is no need for any kind of group management. If I find a player useless or annoying, I simply replace him with one of the plenty available. Granted that I have to work hard to filter out the M&S scum, but I have to do this work only once/content. It took me 6+5 hours to clear Naxx. But I've done it and never will do it again. It was exciting once, both content and management-wise, but repeating it would be boring and pointless.

When will WoW change for such game? Never. The reason will be the post for Monday.