When I was about eight years old, my grandmother introduced me to my first immersive, multiplayer computer game experience: Everquest. One of the earliest of its kind, Everquest brought people together through the internet to complete quests, form player-sustained organizations (i.e., guilds), and otherwise interact with a host of individuals one rarely met in real life. I was hooked right away. Beyond my love for video and computer games, I also can’t remember a time when I wasn’t a voracious reader, particularly anything in the fantasy genre. Together, these interests led me to the discovery of a special kind of online role-playing game: text-based MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons).
Yeah, I’m about to out myself as a huge nerd.
Text-based MUDs are the equivalent of live-action choose-your-own-adventure novels. Think World of Warcraft, except there are no graphics, just text. Your interactions, your surroundings, your activities—they all take place through words. As a reader and a gamer, I fell immediately in love with its presentation and its possibilities. As it turns out, one of those possibilities was the cultivation of leadership skills.
I played one MUD, Lusternia, for about ten years (…I’d still be playing it today, except that the forty-plus hours a week I devoted to it were conscripted in the pursuit of my degree). For the final two and a half years, I served in the capacity of Dark Regent of a forest commune, Glomdoring. During that time, I learned a lot about myself, my leadership style, and how the leadership process impacts others. Online gaming represents a viable way to learn about leadership skills because of its low-stakes, accepting environment—it provides players of all ages a number of opportunities to experiment with approaches and styles (Prax, 2009). The culmination of my own experiences led to the realization that I am strongly attuned to servant leadership.
Servant leadership originated in the works of Greenleaf (1970, 1972, 1977, as cited in Northouse, 2019). The theory’s premise is best defined by Hale and Fields (2007) who describe it as placing “the good of followers over [one’s] own self-interests and emphasiz[ing] follower development” (as cited in Northouse, 2019, p. 227). Servant leaders, then, are those who are other-focused and who lead through acts of service, both for the benefit of others and the whole (Northouse, 2019).
Servant leadership depends on a number of antecedents, or conditions, that influence its application (Northouse, 2019). Three such antecedents are context and culture; leader attributes; and follower receptivity. Because of Glomdoring’s unique nature as an organization, this post will focus on how these three antecedents shaped my application of this leadership approach.
Context and Culture
Culturally, servant leadership was a somewhat surprising fit within Glomdoring. I was preceded as leader by my in-game mother and others who had led aggressively and militantly, as would befit the commune’s credo, “Nothing Matters but Glomdoring!” The commune’s norms ran strongly to the betterment of the whole, yet the one-hundred-plus player base recognized that, like saplings which wither and die when they are trapped beneath the canopy of a great oak, some would survive while others were sacrificed in the name of Glomdoring. By contrast, servant leadership entails supporting and empowering even the weakest of individuals; Northouse (2019) asserts that serving all others by putting them first is the cornerstone of the theory. To reconcile this, I worked to make myself accessible to all members of the commune each day in what I suppose might be equated to ‘office hours’. I took pains to provide the newest members with hunting expeditions and other enrichment in order to make them stronger. By paying attention to the least powerful alongside the most influential players, I not only earned their trust and loyalty but effectively strengthened the commune by increasing the number of capable, contributing members.
Two supporting factors that permitted me to be successful in shifting Glomdoring’s culture without sacrificing our identity were, first, the support I had already summarily garnered from the most tenured and powerful players in the commune, and second, my reframing of Glomdoring’s entity focus. Without carrying the support of the influencers, it is unlikely that their resistance would have facilitated any such outreach efforts I might have tried. Without being able to justify the benefits of strengthening the weak (namely, asserting that we were all of Glomdoring and thus required to serve each other to the greatest extent possible), the commune’s nature would have characterized my actions as counter to Glomdoring’s best interests.
Leader Traits
As the second antecedent of servant leadership, traits rest within the leader themselves. Several traits have risen to the top with their prevalence and popularity in the style (Northouse, 2019). These traits include emotional intelligence, agreeableness, and humility (Northouse, 2019). As I’ve already shared my thoughts on humility in an earlier blog post, I will focus on emotional intelligence and agreeableness.
Emotional intelligence is defined as a “leader’s ability to monitor the feelings, beliefs, and internal states of the self and followers” (Northouse, 2019, p. 233). Unlike the complex reasons that people engage with their real-life organization (pay, of course, chief among them), figuring out core beliefs in the gaming world is in many ways a simpler proposition (Prax, 2009). Because players engage with the organization of their choice (and play because they wish to play rather than because they must), commitment to organizational beliefs and processes is much less ambivalent. It does require maintenance, however, to encourage and sustain appropriate group morale and effectiveness. In addition to my ‘office hours’ dedication of time to the commune, I was also consistently present at every major event and competition between Lusternian nations. This meant that I had firsthand experience of the thrills of success and the lows of defeat. I was enabled by my presence to write summaries of each major event that could echo the feelings experienced, creating a stronger emotional connection and cohesion among members. By creating value in this way, I had ample opportunity to link our purpose (to glorify Glomdoring in all things) and goals (to spread Glomdoring’s influence and ideology across the world) to the efforts and actions of its members (Northouse, 2019). I was thus closely attuned through my individual and collective interactions with the commune and well-positioned to understand forces at play beneath the surface.
Agreeableness is more challenging to quantify in my experiences in gaming because Glomdoring was not a soft place nor was I known for avoiding conflict and simply getting along—manifestations commonly connected with the trait (Northouse, 2019). In reality, I’m probably the least agreeable person I know! Within the confines of my role, however, I developed the skills to negotiate with foreign powers and to influence the high court of commune officials. This required a willingness to work with others and compromise.
Follower Receptivity
According to Northouse (2019), follower receptivity refers to the desire of all followers to be part of the servant leadership process. Research suggests that follower receptivity is directly tied to outcomes in that those who embrace the personalized attention, empowerment, and familiarity that come along with servant leadership demonstrate stronger performance and organizational loyalty; those that do not tend to experience the opposite result (Northouse, 2019, p. 234). By contrast to the assertion that servant leadership can be construed as micromanagement in the eyes of some due to the level of investment of the leader, my experience was that the few who felt more apart from the whole were not a cultural fit and soon moved on. Beck’s (2010) take is that followership receptivity is a byproduct of the servant-follower relationship because, in the process of engaging in servant leadership, the goal is to ensure that the motives of both parties are aligned. In other words, while follower receptivity sets the stage for servant leadership and its viability, in an environment where there is alignment between the leader and followers’ motivations, receptivity is more or less a foregone conclusion. Such was the case within Glomdoring—our motivations, by virtue of our culture, were closely tied to the wellbeing of the whole. In uniting and empowering the individuals of Glomdoring, I could reinforce our shared vision and sustain receptivity for my methods.
As Northouse (2019) points out, servant leadership is not about adopting a specific style of leadership but instead is focused on the execution of other-centered behaviors. Put another way, that I may not have effectively demonstrated agreeableness as we define it, for example, was not a bar to my adoption of the servant leadership approach; instead, it directly influenced the tactics and skills I employed to maintain a focus on my followers. Antecedents lay the foundation both for the viability of the approach and the ways in which it will ultimately manifest.
My time playing text MUDs prepared me for real-world leadership experiences and provided me with a fun way to figure out the types of leadership that best fit my personality and strengths. Many of the qualities I have described from my time in Lusternia have translated over to real life. For instance, I can’t imagine a better way to practice the art of carefully couching criticism so that it will be well-received and fair. Studies support the idea that students of leadership can learn a lot from “trying on” the role of leadership, and that the areas one would typically need to target for development (such as administrative, social, and political concerns) can be faithfully replicated and attempted within the world of gaming (Prax, 2009).
What do you think? If given the chance, would you be willing to “try on” your own leadership approach in a role-playing game like Lusternia?
References
Beck, C. D. (2010). Antecedents of servant leadership: A mixed methods study. Retrieved at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=aglecdiss
Iron Realms Entertainment (2021). Lusternia [Images]. Retrieved at: https://www.lusternia.com/
Northouse, P. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice. Retrieved at: https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781506362298/
Prax, P. (2009). Leadership behind the screen: New theory about leadership in online role-playing games. Retrieved at: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:201021/FULLTEXT01.pdf
jxs6466 says
I enjoyed reading your post. I personally don’t play role-playing games but I play first-person shooters and battle royale games where teamwork is crucial. Like you, I learned about leadership and my preferred style of leadership through playing games. I completely agree with you in that gaming is a great way to learn about leadership. I loved the part where you held office hours. I found this relatable in that I did something similar when I was trying to teach my friend how to play a game. I play a battle royale game called Apex Legends and I found myself being a servant leader when I was trying to teach my friend how to play the game better. I would hold private game sessions where I would teach him the basic movement shooting skills. Then we played many games together where I taught him what to do in different situations. Overall, great post and I enjoyed reading it!
Louis Barbiere says
Wonderful post, I really enjoyed reading your thoughts! I personally was very into MUD games way back in the days of AOL, particularly one called Dragon Realms. It was a nice blast from the past to read about one!
As you stated I think servant leadership suits a virtual leader in these types of scenarios. I love the point you made that because it is technically a game, stakes are very low and positional power found at the workplace is non existent. I think there is much more value found in someone leading who is developing and benefiting players vs someone who is more powerful. I really enjoyed the breakdown you had context and culture, leader traits and follower receptivity. Thanks!