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[dood]

Soooo ... I mean I don't know how many of you have ever played this game or will have any idea what I'm talking about ..

Anyways, I think that my best example of leadership capacity is that I ran a (relatively) successful WoW guild a few years back. For people who have never played the game, the best guilds had ~30-50 active members, and raids required 25 members. So basically there were a lot of egos and drama etc. It's pretty difficult to coordinate a minimum of 25 people 3+ times a week for 4+ hours, as well as prepare for/understand the different encounters (bosses) from multiple points of view (each of 9 classes has a different job, as guild leader I had to understand all of them). I honestly believe that it was one of the most difficult and character-building experiences that I've had (certainly more so than a part time job or college class), and it required intelligence, time, commitment, good mediation skills, etc.

My basic question is, do you think it would be a good idea to use this as a backbone for a PS? Conversely, would it be better to just incorporate it in some way? Or will it just be completely over adcomm's heads/dismissed as ludicrous/irrelevant?

Thanks!

i like u bro.

[sold123]

I think any topic works well in a PS as long as it touches on your passion and conveys a sense of reflection. The fact that you can incorporate leadership into it is obviously nice, but be careful with the specifics. I could see that weighing down your PS (just like any other topic), so focus on lay terms instead of esoteric ones. Focus on one situation that challenged your leadership skillset and go from there.

Finally, the best advice I can think of, is to write it out and see how it feels once you have a finished product. No doubt you will go through many iterations; don't let the "specifics" be your anchor, but rather the overarching theme of leadership.

[AreJay711]

As someone that is not that much of a loser, I think that it could be a fascinating and memorable PS if you are able to do it well. I guarantee that not many PSs will be about being a WOW guild leader and it would be something that most Adcoms would have very little knowledge of. I say try and see how it turns out and maybe use it for your reaches at least.

[Moomoo2u]

There are two big reasons this would be hard to pull off.

The first is the largely-justified perception that WoW players are overweight, antisocial, child-neglecting, class-failing, job-losing failures. The fact that a tiny fraction of the gaming population is involved in team-based, skill-intensive play will be very hard for them to believe, much less that the players involved would be an asset to their school.

Second, there's just too much background required to understand the role leaders play in a high-end guild. I don't doubt that you could successfully convey the information in a personal statement, but it would certainly not be all that interesting to the average reader.

This is said as someone who would have loved to mention my WoW experiences as part of my PS:

http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/08/31/15-mi ... rs-a-week/

Maybe someday gaming will be as mainstream as sports and we can take public pride in our accomplishments. But not today.

It would take you a lot of extra lines to explain concepts that people who don't play video games (let alone MMO's) don't understand. Experience points, groups, boss battles....

[Aston2412]

I definitely don't think you'd need to go in depth about experience points on your PS.

If you decide to write about this, tell them it's a video game that involves coordinating with 25 different people of different skill sets to bring down a target that can kill any of you almost instantly if someone messes up and that you, as the leader, were responsible for making snap decisions (battle rezzes, soulstones, innervates, etc.) when something inevitably did hit the fan. Then tell them you had to keep this perfection up for an hour (just pick the longest boss fight you can remember and drag it out). Emphasis on the you coordinating.

[SchopenhauerFTW]

You gotta be kidding me. Are you actually encouraging this?

[Bildungsroman]

I definitely don't think you'd need to go in depth about experience points on your PS.

If you decide to write about this, tell them it's a video game that involves coordinating with 25 different people of different skill sets to bring down a target that can kill any of you almost instantly if someone messes up and that you, as the leader, were responsible for making snap decisions (battle rezzes, soulstones, innervates, etc.) when something inevitably did hit the fan. Then tell them you had to keep this perfection up for an hour (just pick the longest boss fight you can remember and drag it out). Emphasis on the you coordinating.

This would be a hilarious PS.

[Yeshia90]

I definitely don't think you'd need to go in depth about experience points on your PS.

If you decide to write about this, tell them it's a video game that involves coordinating with 25 different people of different skill sets to bring down a target that can kill any of you almost instantly if someone messes up and that you, as the leader, were responsible for making snap decisions (battle rezzes, soulstones, innervates, etc.) when something inevitably did hit the fan. Then tell them you had to keep this perfection up for an hour (just pick the longest boss fight you can remember and drag it out). Emphasis on the you coordinating.

This would be a hilarious PS.

Hey, OP: how about you write a quickie draft (how long will it take, 30 minutes to an hour) and let us see where you're going with this. Until then, I don't think any of us can judge.

[gin]

This so made my day

[sold123]

Just for fun:

Here I was, sitting in Firelands, the most difficult WOW instance. The orange waves danced around my screen, as a nearby party member rushed through my screen's field of vision, alternating between fleeing and attacking. "SHIT" I yelled, as the indicators began to flash: Dead, all dead.

The moans of my fellow guild members began to reverberate through my ear: this was named end-game content for a reason: both as a reward for those persistent enough to reach the final rewards of the most popular MMORPG in the world, and as a signifier of the high level of difficulty associated with those famous words: "Game Over".

Video games are often seen as a singular experience, and thus an endeavor in anti-social behavior. This, however, is as inaccurate a label as those who might seek to label Lawyers as "immoral," or associate the profession as "self-interested". In World of Warcraft, players from all around the world engage in a shared world, where cooperation, leadership and tenacity are more important in completing successful end-game content, than the singular talent of an individual.

This is manifested through the formation of "guilds", which are groups that players agree to join in order to complete the most difficult end-game content. As the leader of a guild, I was responsible for the formation and composition of my guild members; I had to know the personalities of everyone involved, their respective skill levels, and their experience and knowledge of the end-game content. Further complicating this job, was the fact that WOW is structured with strategy in mind. Different classes of characters have different weaknesses and strengths, and balancing and figuring out the most efficient groupings was a problem I had to solve ever week.

Perhaps the most difficult [Insert Specific Instance that challenged one's leadership and was resolved via skills that you are writing about]

/end

[bruss]

Hahahahah Lmfao bro I love it but don't do it. Once u said computer screen all hope was lost. The fact that you have to change peoples opinions is a terrible thing to hinge your whole ps on. And I'm pretty sure no one wants to get on Google to figure out what WoW is or mmorpg is.

[sold123]

Hahahahah Lmfao bro I love it but don't do it. Once u said computer screen all hope was lost. The fact that you have to change peoples opinions is a terrible thing to hinge your whole ps on. And I'm pretty sure no one wants to get on Google to figure out what WoW is or mmorpg is.

I would just throw in cool little footnotes that didn't overdo the "cuteness" of footnotes in more personal writing. Essays' worth doing man (I was just writing it for fun), you got to challenge that status quo.

[Gefuehlsecht]

Don't do it. You can write about almost anything you want in a PS. But do not write about videogames.

[cubswin]

Please write this PS and send me a copy.

WoW is terrible, but if i was on an ad-comm i would so admit you for giving me one less cliche overcoming adversity essay to read.

[firemed]

I was pretty good at Dungeons and Dragons back in the '80s when I was in elementary school. I had a bunch of those pewter figurines. This shows leadership and dedication, right?

If you had real leadership and dedication, you would still be playing. I mean, those beholders aren't gonna off themselves.

+1

[woeisme]

I disagree with a lot of posts here so far. I think this can be pulled off as a personal statement for law school admissions. If it's well written it could be an interesting piece. I would not use this as my example of leadership during job interviews, however.

[firemed]

I disagree with a lot of posts here so far. I think this can be pulled off as a personal statement for law school admissions.

This statement quite possibly sums up what is wrong with Gen Y.

[Gecko of Doom]

This thread makes me miss high school, when I actually had time for video games.

[woeisme]

This statement quite possibly sums up what is wrong with Gen Y.

Nah uh. I mean it's a risky personal statement, yes. But it has potential. My personal statement involved use of the interwebs (granted, it had nothing to do with WoW, but it was still probably risky per TLS standards). I got into almost every school that I should have based on my numbers.

[ToTransferOrNot]

This statement quite possibly sums up what is wrong with Gen Y.

Nah uh.

Probably not the best way to whitenight Gen Y

[woeisme]

Probably not the best way to whitenight Gen Y

Haha

[RobMD]

I initially thought the WoW PS idea was great for originality and kind of funny, however:

In light of the Norway shootings (along with other past shootings) you may not want to use this topic in your PS.

Below is a quote from the shooters manifesto in which he discusses his hobbies and interests and mentions that he "raided hardcore" and that "running a hardcore WoW guild is equally challenging to running your own business with 7 employees".

It's very doubtful that admissions officers are going to read the shooters manifesto but since Columbine the press has associated has these types of games with mass shootings. I believe it is an unfair association and so does almost every else, however, if your application is on the fence, it could affect the semi-rational, sub-concious/gut decision of an admissions officer.


"Q: Hobbies and interests?

A: Friends, fitness (weightlifting and spinning), snowboarding, opera, theatre, art exhibitions, antiquities, MMOs, science fiction, Freemasons, European architecture, European history, European art in general, genealogy, heraldry, political/stock/currency/commodity analysis, travelling - learning about different cultures.
Annual grouse hunting trip, Oslo Pistol Club, Norwegian Masonic Greater Lounge.

I took a year off when I was 25 and played WoW PvE hardcore for a year.
Conservatism - Alliance, human female mage – PvE, Server: Silvermoon Conservative - Horde, tauren female resto druid – PvP, Server: Silvermoon

I raided hardcore and was a guild leader in a couple of hardcore guilds: Virtue, then Unit, Nordrassil – Rank 1 Alliance PvE. We transferred the guild to Silvermoon. I grew tired of running the guild and sorting recruitment issues so I joined Nevermore, another hardcore guild on Silvermoon (Rank 3). Silvermoon is the most progressed Alliance server in the world out of more than 300 servers (10 million + players worldwide) so the competition is extremely hard. This means we were one of the most progressed guilds in the world at one time.

I can honestly say running a hardcore WoW guild is equally challenging to running your own business with 7 employees or more. It requires an extreme amount of work in order to be successful and get server first kills. It was a good experience and something I wanted to do at least a limited amount of time during a period of my life.
I’m currently playing Modern Warfare 2 casually."

Edit: removed color

[bjsesq]

I initially thought the WoW PS idea was great for originality and kind of funny, however:

In light of the Norway shootings (along with other past shootings) you may not want to use this topic in your PS.

Good point. Never discuss anything you enjoy doing that serial killers enjoyed doing. Ted Kazyncski liked to write, for instance.

[bilbobaggins]

I initially thought the WoW PS idea was great for originality and kind of funny, however:

In light of the Norway shootings (along with other past shootings) you may not want to use this topic in your PS.

Good point. Never discuss anything you enjoy doing that serial killers enjoyed doing. Ted Kazyncski liked to write, for instance.

Charles Manson hated Scientology.

[bjsesq]

I initially thought the WoW PS idea was great for originality and kind of funny, however:

In light of the Norway shootings (along with other past shootings) you may not want to use this topic in your PS.

Good point. Never discuss anything you enjoy doing that serial killers enjoyed doing. Ted Kazyncski liked to write, for instance.

Charles Manson hated Scientology.

Gacy liked painting. AND CHILD RAPE! SEE THE PARALLEL!?!?!?!??!