Ready Check: Peer pressure, responsibility and teamwork

Ready Check focuses on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, from Icecrown Citadel to Ulduar, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses.

Last week, I talked a little bit about tools and methods for getting that unreliable person to show up for raids. One of the specific tools I discussed was peer pressure. I probably should have expected it, but there was quite a bit of discussion in the comments and elsewhere about how peer pressure shouldn't be used as a tool. Also, to how the idea of "forcing" someone to show up is a bad idea. I want to acknowledge that this subject is wildly open to interpretation; after all, we all play the game differently.

The first thing I want to establish, though, is that there's no one forcing anyone else to raid. I can't make you sign up, I can't make you log in and I can't make you do anything in WoW you don't want to. However, I can exert influence. As a raid or guild leader -- or even simply as a friend -- that influence is usually in the form of peer pressure. (If it's some weird power struggle or dominance issue, that's a can of worms waaaaay outside the scope of this blog.) Why would this ever be desirable?

While I am a real person -- and my time is valuable -- I am also raiding with nine to 24 other real people. Their time is also valuable. When we're talking about a scheduled, coordinated raid, there are all these other real people sitting there and waiting for you. This is why having redundancy and letting people take time off is so important. Everyone's real, has real lives, and no one should be subverting real life to support the raid. But if you make an agreement to show up somewhere at a certain time, there are 24 other people waiting for your attendance.

This is where teamwork starts becoming a significant issue. Teamwork is more than just really skillful players working as a coordinated unit. It's about relying on one another, trusting one another and helping each other. Peer pressure can be a part of that. If you sign up to be a member of a team, you become accountable to the team. A well-run team, however, will not put undue burdens or stress on its members. That's why a column like Officer's Quarters can be so helpful; it's about trying to turn a ragtag group into a well-oiled team.

Sure, we're used to thinking of peer pressure as some horrible meta-force that will eventually force teenagers to smoke. But peer pressure can do other things. It can encourage each raid member to read strategies and be familiar with fights. How many raid application forms seem primarily interested in whether a raid member can understand the dynamics of boss fights? Seems like most of them, nowadays.

Gentle peer pressure can be applied in constructive ways. A few folks had some good examples last week. "Hey, look, it's a Bob. Does anyone remember Bob?" I'll admit that kind of playing around can be uncomfortable for some people; to others, by comparison, it feels like the camaraderie you'd get on a sports team. It's about individual tolerance and personality.

This is where the raid leader becomes most indispensable. The raid leader isn't the team's coach because he is magically able to read strategies. Anyone can do that. Go find a guide, rinse, repeat. The raid leader is the head honcho because he looks out across the team, knows their personalities and can help coordinate everyone to their comfort zone. If Frankie Warlock is usually reliable, the raid leader would step in to make sure Frankie doesn't take an undue amount of flak.

Some raid leaders will balk at the idea of this level of personnel management. But at the end of the day, whose job is it to fire someone from a raid? Whose job is it to do coaching? In my book, that's usually where you draw the line about who is the raid leader, who's in charge and why he's in charge.

It is work, it is effort. And it absolutely is a pain. But if you have 25 people raiding, along with whatever bench rotation you might maintain, personnel management will become an issue. If the nominal raid leader isn't doing that work, then my hunch is someone else in your guild is doing it already.

When I say "peer pressure," I'm not just talking about people being cruel to one another. I'm talking about the reliance and accountability raid members have to one another. That's what lifts the raid above just a random PUG; this is the dynamic that makes raids work.

Good hunting out there.

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