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The Guild Counsel: Am I a leader?
Last week, in response to the article about dealing with guild complaints, there was a somewhat provocative comment from reader Graill440, who questioned the use of the word "leader" when referring to guild leaders. In his comment, he made the following point: "While the article is great in terms of what kids and some adults do in a guild, the misnomer that 'leaders' are created in a game of any type or simply because you wear the abused tag 'guildleader' is absurd. I have no problem with the term guildmaster, GM, stratman, stratperson, roteman, etc., but labeling or calling anyone who plays a game a leader because of that particular game is plain wishful thinking." While it did put some on the defensive, it's a point worth examining more closely. As Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday would say, "I'm your huckleberry." In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll take a look at whether guild leaders possess enough qualities to actually call themselves leaders.
U.S. Navy fights piracy with MMOs
The U.S. Navy has a new tool in its war against piracy on the high seas: MMOs. Specifically, the Massive Multiplayer Online WarGame Leveraging the Internet, or "MMOWGLI" if you like your awkward acronyms. Developed over several years to bring war simulations to the next level, MMOWGLI will go online May 16th and be used by civilians and military to figure out new ways to combat Somali pirates. This unique MMO was developed by the Office of Naval Research to be used as a flexible training platform. Under the watch of a control team, players will secure and arm ships, plan for a variety of pirate attacks, figure out hostage situations, and raid pirate camps. There's no word on whether these raids will be 10, 20, or 40-mans. ONR's Dr. Larry Schutte looks forward to seeing if this simulator will result in better preparedness: "We hope MMOWGLI will help us to understand what happens when your insights are combined with the observations and actions of another player -- will that fusion result in a game-changing idea or solution, or will the MMOWGLI platform teach us something about our traditional thought processes?"
