for a class

I used to play video games with friends, like on the Nintendo 64 system, at parties, where the four of us (they'd only go up that high in controllers) would get together and play in "deathmatches" which were competative games which'd pit the four of us against one another in a free-for-all. These early days in my video game career were fun, but weren't at all based on teamwork, just my own personal ability and advancement.

But then MMO's came along (massively multiplayer online games) and there were objectives in the game which were too difficult for a sole player to beat, and the game was team-based, with the massive encounters requiring multiple teams to complete. this was point where guilds came in handy, and organization of eople on a massive scale was necessary. everyone who cut their teeth on these first and second generation MMO games learned first hand what the best ways were to tackle such content, and the game developers actually built their games around how the players were acting, rather than vice versa. we were creating a genre through our very actions.

basically, in the old days, you'd just worry about how fast you'd push the button, and how well you'd basically manage to handle the content of the game. but with the advent of the new system, you'd be in addition to those old things try to keep in mind the new factors of keeping people syncronized, on the same page, and organizing leadership structures to keep the various groups on task with their various responsibilities, which of course would differ from team to team, as well as methods to distribute rewards from encounters, which would often only be small in number and only reward two or three of a group of seventy. guild structures were built up to handle the masses of players so people could continue to adventure with teh same group of folks and to guarentee that over the long-run they would be rewarded, through the guild, from the encouters that they would participate in.

over the years we became much more sophisticated in our guilds and loot distribution, tactics, and teams, and leadership, and many people rose to the occasion and showed themselves to be quite accomplished in these new areas. politics in a way started to see its own way into gaming, and being able to handle people in a positive way, managing their abilities and personalities became a skill every leader, or sub leader, would establish as part of their own repetoire.

instead of focusing entirely on yourself, people now focus on the people they play with as well as their own advancement, and a community is formed. its a neat outcome, and the current gaming fad.