News: PlanetSide as a Leadership Skill

Hamma · 2012-03-01, 12:26 PM

http://www.planetside-universe.com/n...skill-2698.htm

basti · 2012-03-01, 12:28 PM

100% True. Ive learned a lot from PS back in the day, that gets used im my life these days.

Goku · 2012-03-01, 12:33 PM

Coming from my PlanetSide experience I will say there was many opportunities for someone to be a leader in terms of commanding a squad to a entire Outfit. However I believe only a minority of the player base can be called a actual leader. Sure everyone wanted to get CR5 and many did, but the majority of CR whoring CEP squads I was in the leader didn't care what you were doing in the squad. Instead of giving actual direction they would just kick you from the squad if you weren't in the SOI to give them their CEP. Even Outfit squads had this issue. Rarely did the actual SL lead if the Outfit Leader or a XO was on to run things unless the SL actually wanted to run stuff. Which was rare in my outfit at least.

EVILPIG · 2012-03-01, 12:42 PM

Planetside saw some fantastic leaders, but the game was flawed in that too many unqualified individuals attained leadership tools. Planetside 2 will be much different, as the players will choose who they want to hear and follow.

To expand on the point of the article. There have many who have put down gaming for some time. When I was young, I played some paper and pen RPG games and it was frowned on by some, but I did a TON of reading of the resource books and this was definitely beneficial. Planetside is one of many games that offer an opportunity for an individual to use and evolve their leadership and organizational skills. Many try and simply don't have the social skills to do it. Some are great at logistics, but cannot manage the relationships to keep a team on task and successful. You need to be a people person and you need to be able to clearly communicate what you mean. I am soo looking forward to working with the player base again. Old faces and new.

Akemo · 2012-03-01, 12:47 PM

What an interesting take on Planetside!

I've got to agree that leadership can be learned from some games, especially ones like Planetside. I think that yes, there were plenty of squad leaders that just wanted CR5 and were whoring the CEP, but there were also lots of squad leaders and outfit leaders and officers who took their roles seriously. In a group that I frequently ran with, there were about 6 of us. One had been in the military as an officer, and he frequently led our group. We didn't mind that he was long since a CR5, he knew how to bring out the best in us and we liked being our best.

And pretty regularly, and I don't know if he was tired of always leading or wanted us all to get the experience of leadership, one of the rest of us would take charge of the squad. We'd plan what we wanted to do, how to do it, and then we'd execute our little strategy. Leading as we went. Good times!

Crator · 2012-03-01, 12:57 PM

I'm surprised when I hear parents say they hate it when kids play videos games, especially nowadays. Like it some sort of mindless task that doesn't benefit anyone. Many video games have aspects that help people, rather then harm:

Video Games Affect the Brain—for Better and Worse

Sardwyn · 2012-03-01, 01:04 PM

We all remember the best leaders in Planetside. The CEP whores are all forgotten.

UnknownDT · 2012-03-01, 01:11 PM

Planetside taught me how to be a real boy.

Geist · 2012-03-01, 01:39 PM

So, what your saying is if I lead the players of my Empire to victory... I can lead the resistance to victory against Skynet?

Hermes · 2012-03-01, 02:36 PM

I always thought PS1 was a great social example of organisation. I used to go on and on about it to people - how the command structure evolved from the players and the skills they learnt.

On a side note, the way the guy separated the title into two words("Planet Side") reminds me of my parents. They always used to break a word down into two bits if they weren't in touch with it/down with the kids.

texico · 2012-03-01, 02:38 PM

Yes. I think there's an unfair perception about video games that they're somehow hollow. It really depends on the game. A game like PlanetSide with tactical organization and teamwork can be great for leadership and social skills. A game like Final Fantasy can be great for developing your imagination, story telling abilities and empathy. Games like Portal can be great for problem solving and logic skills. They can all be great for you.

People who snub games are really being ignorant, and the stereotypes tagged to gaming can really hurt its image.

What PlanetSide in particular can do is allow people to begin to develop leadership skills in an easier environment. With the social buffers of not being face to face with somebody, it's easier to begin giving commands, learning how to deal with people, and so on, when that person would find it difficult to get on the leadership ladder in real life. The consequences of being a bad leader aren't so great, so you can experiment.

EVILPIG · 2012-03-01, 02:38 PM

Originally Posted by IDukeNukeml

Absolutely, the younger generation voluntarily played a game that caused them to problem solve a situation, make quick precise decisions and how to deal with the consequence if it was wrong. Then they did it again.

These basic principals are what we use in every day life. Cause and effect. Conditioning your brain to do this at 15 and 16 years old leaves an imprint for life I believe.

They learn to communicate, building interpersonal communcation skills (even though some are bat shit nerdy.) They still learn too communicate regardless.

And not just for leaders, for the followers as well.. They learn how to take direction, accept what they don't understand that moment without a fight and LEARN it's purpose afterwards by experience.

Video games are an excellent visually fun tool to learn with in general, Planetside did it a little better than most.

This is why I hate it that players are always trying to think up ways to dumb down the game. We don't need automated systems to organize and in fact, it's a more beautiful thing when players pull together and coordinate on their own. My outfit organized platoons as three squads per platoon, each platoon in a squad channel. Player got on and got into the division they wanted to play on outfit channel. All of this was done long before the LFS system, the platoon system and SL Chat. I say don't put automated systems in and let the players decide how to succeed or fail amongst themselves. The real stars will rise and shine.

Mag · 2012-03-01, 02:40 PM

Ha! This is actually my father's blog. He shot me an email this morning saying that he'd mentioned me in it. Glad you all enjoyed the read. Here's the article in its non-rehosted format.

http://eblingroup.com/2012/03/is-you...html#more-3157

At any rate, the outfit back in those days was Strength and Honour (We were NC on Markov, and I recognize more than a few names around here of outfits and folks we'd coordinate with pretty routinely).
SnH is still together, largely with the same base membership these days, though we've moved on to other games while waiting for PS2.

SniperSteve · 2012-03-01, 02:43 PM

I have PlanetSide on my resume! (not really, but I should)

EVILPIG · 2012-03-01, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by Mag

Ha! This is actually my father's blog. He shot me an email this morning saying that he'd mentioned me in it. Glad you all enjoyed the read. Here's the article in its non-rehosted format.

http://eblingroup.com/2012/03/is-you...html#more-3157

At any rate, the outfit back in those days was Strength and Honour (We were NC on Markov, and I recognize more than a few names around here of outfits and folks we'd coordinate with pretty routinely).
SnH is still together, largely with the same base membership these days, though we've moved on to other games while waiting for PS2.

WOW, I wondered who it was. GREAT to see you Mag!