Collective Action in Virtual Worlds
WoW encourages group activity through it's quests. One with a high enough level may be able to accomplish a task on their own, but by joining a group the quest is much easier. Having a group containing many different characters (i.e. warlocks, warriors, etc.) appears to be almost essential to advance in the game to the highest levels possible. Some of the tasks that had to be carried out I know I would never have been able to win on my own. For example, certain monsters that the characters must kill are easily taken care of when you are with a group all fighting as one. The same monster fought alone, would have surely killed my character and definitely gotten close to killing some of the other characters if they had attempted to fight solo. The game also encourages players to communicate with other players in order to trade items. But the thing I felt to be the most appealing about joining a group was that it felt like a team effort. That you weren't alone in your quest and there were others with similar goals. I never became very involved vocally in the groups but I did pay attention to the other players encouraging one another. I still feel as though I need some more time spent in the game to be able to participate more in the group. I also noticed that people come and go from groups all the time. I'm curious as to see if more "hard core" players have their own groups that stick together and stay together.

Although I was only in the group, A Rough Guide to Azeroth and Beyond, I noticed issues regarding the group following through on a course of action to pursue. The first issue I noticed was trying to keep the group together. It is likely that more experienced players don't have this same problem, but with my group of new players we are still in very unfamiliar territory. Within the group, picking a leader never really happened. The group arrived at our destination at different times and the one who knew the most lead the way at certain points on the journey. I felt the communication between our group members was very good. As I said before, our group was like a team and we helped one another out as much as we could.

I'm really not sure that these games would or could lead to leadership skills to be used in the real world. I would have to play the game more to come up with a definitive answer, but as of right now my opinion is no. WoW is a game and that's it. As a player, you may be able to be leader of your group and lead them to wherever they need to go and if your successful you are applauded. If you fail as a leader in the game world, it's just a game. The game world offers "do overs" which are not offered in the real world. If a leader fails, the player could avoid that game for a while and has distance from these other characters thanks to his computer. In the real world if you make a a mistake you are held responsible for your actions and must go on. Real people can't run away any time they make a mistake. Also, leadership skills are of no use if you don't have communication skills to get your point across to the group. In virtual worlds all a leader needs to do is type out the course of action or just lead the way and not have any actual face to face interaction. If a leader fails to have the necessary communication skills mandatory for leadership in the real world, they fail to be a leader in the real world.

I also feel that the virtual world does not prepare a leader for the unexpected. Sure there will be monsters and other things that "pop up" along the way, but in the real world unfortunately, there are sometimes things that "pop up" that no one could have guessed was coming. The game is supposed to follow some sort of code, where as the real world, is open with not as stringent code to follow. No one in the world could predict all the things that may or may not happen, but within the game world, someone knows that there is a possibility as to what may be an obstacle in a mission.