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Section authored by ShackTac NCO Syixxs
The full range of leadership requirements found in the TTP2 can be daunting in sheer scope and depth. All of the information found here is important for anyone interested in leading within the confines of ArmA2, but can be equally as valid for a leader in any other kind of gaming environment. This relevance becomes the key element when it comes to being a leader in any gaming situation, whether coordinating 70 players in ArmA2, or a raid of 40 in any one of the MMORPG titles on the market. There are considerations that must be made as someone coordinating a group of gamers across the Internet, rather than simply as virtual soldiers in a simulated battlefield. You must treat yourself as a manager, human resources director, and event coordinator all in one package. You must also remember that the people you are working with are just that - people. Don't lose perspective on what you're doing simply because of the context. These are people who are looking to have a good time. Gaming is about entertainment, and your primary goal as a leader is to coordinate that entertainment and facilitate the enjoyment of all participants through a streamlined, well directed event.
The Volunteer
If there is one thing that you repeat to yourself, over and over again, while leading any group of people in a gaming environment is that they are volunteers. This isn't voluntary in the sense that all of our current service men and women decide to sign up for military service. This is voluntary in the sense that all of your participants are electing to give up a portion of their personal time to enjoy a game. They are there to have fun, be rewarded for their participation, and gain a real sense of accomplishment through the game. This kind of volunteer participation is far smaller in scope and meaning than more traditional forms. There is little given to, and typically more taken away, from the experience. This means that bad experiences can lose volunteers quickly. It, then, is critical that you remember who you are leading within the game. These are people who expect you to help them have a good time, and there isn't much room for disappointment. If you consistently fail to meet the expectations of your players, they will choose a new leader or simply stop participating.
Playing a game like ArmA2 can easily lead to the trap of "milsim". This is most often seen in the form of military role playing both inside and outside of the game. Milsim situations can often be abrasive for gamers who are looking to have a more realistic gaming experience, or simulation, without actually signing up. Milsim leaders often treat their players in a manner similar to actual military discipline, which is designed to provide harsh consequences for deviating outside of the norm.
This kind of military discipline will only diminish your player base and alienate those players who are simply looking to enjoy themselves and have a good time within the confines of the simulation. You must remember that your players are gamers - not soldiers. Even players who are former service men or women aren't typically interested in meeting a leader who attempts to be their long-lost drill sergeant. In the best case scenario you will be laughable, getting remarks about your abrasive and over-the-top nature outside of the game. In the worst case, you will cause conflicts within your group and drive members away. In many cases, these are often the outstanding members that you lose. Consider many of the comedy videos found on YouTube of gaming leaders screaming tantrums to their players, and exactly how ridiculous they sound. You don't want to be that leader. To avoid this situation, you need to keep control of yourself and know what kinds of players you have in your group. Thankfully, some broad definitions exist to help you get a sense of who you are leading.
The Gamers You Lead
To lead most effectively, you must know who you are leading. The types of gamers found here apply primarily to ArmA2, but can also be closely linked to other game types as well. For the most part, you will be leading three kinds of gamers: the cooperative, the adversarial, and the experience-seeker. Each type has different quirks and attributes that you must understand and seek to fulfill as you lead them through their gaming experience.
The Cooperative Gamer
The cooperative gamer is a real team-player. These members are most interested in doing anything that involves heavy teamwork, coordination, and betterment through group effort. This is a relatively easy type of gamer to work with because they seek strong teamwork and coordination first, which is also your primary goal as a leader. Cooperative gamers can be very helpful in assisting you with the task of leadership. They make excellent junior leaders, enthusiastic participants, and are typically willing to go beyond standard participation for the good of the group. Keeping a cooperative gamer happy and active is just a matter of striving for strong teamwork, good organization, and effective communication. The suggested organization methods found here in the TTP2 will address much of this for you.
Cooperative gamers become unhappy when teamwork breaks down, communication becomes ineffective or misunderstood, or "lone-wolf" players take advantage of the whole for their own gain. Keep your organization strong and your lone-wolf players to a minimum, and cooperative gamers will be very pleased with you.
The Adversarial Gamer
You might expect that the adversarial gamer is the opposite of cooperative, eschewing team participation and spending most of their time being the lone-wolf that cooperative players loathe. This, however, is not always accurate. The adversarial gamer is typically driven by in-game goals and achievements, preferring to demonstrate their prowess to other members as a form of self-worth. Accomplishments for adversarial gamers are not found simply within group participation, but come from concrete metrics such as score, mission accomplishment, or degree of success. Because demonstrating skill and accomplishment are so important to adversarial gamers, they often want to test their skill against other players. You will often find members like this in competition with one another for score, kill count, mission success, or other measurable criteria.
Keeping the adversarial gamer happy is a matter of allowing them to flex their competitive muscles. Make sure they feel that they are able to participate in a direct and effective way. Allow these players to take the combat heavy or other front line roles to get a strong sense of efficacy in-game. Cooperative players will often happily occupy support roles for adversarial gamers, allowing them to get into the fight. In this way, the two groups compliment one another nicely.
Adversarial gamers begin to become unhappy with situations where they feel that their personal skills are being wasted, or that they are being "cheated" of legitimate results. Try to avoid long dry spells in action content, as the longer these go, the more frustrated adversarial gamers become. From the ArmA2 standpoint, remember that a series of lighter action missions may require that you follow with something much heavier and more direct to capture the interest of your adversarial gamers once again.
The Experience-Seeker
The experience-seekers are often the easiest of your members to please. These players are typically involved to get a sense of "being there". They want to be a part of the spectacle of a platoon charging into a town, or calling in air strikes. These players will often drift from cooperative to adversarial in their current interest, but the experience is always what drives them to participate.
An experience-seeker just wants to have an engrossing time. This means that it's often a good idea to give them something in-depth to do. Being in charge of support assets like artillery or air support does a great job of keeping experience-seekers interested. They get to make the fancy visual fireworks, after all. This not only makes a great scene, but allows them to indulge either their cooperative or adversarial leaning, whatever it may be at the time.
Typically, an experience-seeker will be happy so long as you avoid simple scenarios. Don't play missions oriented toward death matches, or other more "sports-like" activities, and they will be glad to be a part of the group.
The Lone-Wolf
Though not technically one of the three main groups of players, you must pay special attention to the lone-wolf players. Any game that involves leadership of large groups inherently calls for team play. Lone-wolf players avoid team play to go it their own way, doing what they please and indulging whatever sense of accomplishment they are looking for. Lone-wolf players are indicative of a few things: group health, member efficacy, and organization. Specifically, the appearance of lone-wolf players means there is a problem in one, or many, of those areas.
Dissatisfied members are likely to become lone-wolf players, no matter which major group they are typically a part of. If the player stops getting what they are looking for as part of their involvement, they may decide to get that fulfillment themselves by going it alone. This will inevitably anger other members who are still working for the team. It's important to address lone-wolf players quickly and effectively. Either figure out what needs to be done to get them back into team participation, or determine that they have simply reached the end of their participation and remove them. Strong communication and established relationships with your members will help you address lone-wolves quickly and effectively.
Considerations for Leadership
With an understanding of the type of players you will be leading, you must constantly keep their interests in mind as you conduct your leadership. This goes beyond simply what you are doing from a moment to moment adjustment in a mission. This begins with mission selection. You should keep your mission choices varied and planned in a way that keeps all of your members happy. Large scale, combined arms cooperative missions will certainly please your cooperative and experience-seekers, but your adversarial members might feel that their goals are diminished with the scale.
Break this up for your adversarial members by including well-designed competitive missions with a strong theme. Cooperative members will appreciate the teamwork and coordination, adversarial members will enjoy the competition with other players and the sense of accomplishment, and experience-seekers will enjoy the theme and participation. Keep your mission variety high, and always listen to your members. Know what they are interested in doing to ensure that you pick the right mission at the right time.
In-game, call for members who suit a particular task. If you need someone to bring up support assets at some point, call a known cooperative member by name and ask them to do it. They will feel involved, appreciated, and effective. By the same token, if a special task calls for someone strongly combat-oriented, ask one of your adversarial gamers to take the job. They will get the same sense of accomplishment.
Know Your Community
Obviously, you cannot make the right decision at the right time if you don't know your members. It is critically important that you interact with your members on a regular basis. Get to know who they are and what kind of play they enjoy. This will help you better understand them, communicate more effectively with them, and help them have a far better time. Do not fall prey to the ivory tower mentality. A good leader participates with his community and enjoys the people he games with. If you don't like who you lead, you need to go elsewhere. You will only serve to upset yourself and diminish the enjoyment of your entire community.
Remember that your members are volunteers who have something they want to get from their participation. Military discipline and harsh treatment will alienate your members - not encourage them. Treat your members as people, with genuine consideration for what they want, who they are, and how they feel. Always be considerate, even-handed, and fair. Apply community rules equally, work with your community, and do what your job calls for you to do: make your community a great place to game, and a place where everyone can have a great time doing what they enjoy the most.
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2012-08-02, 01:09 PM
Guide Excerpt
Linear Mode
