There's been multiple articles out there about whether or not running a guild in WoW can help you get a job or not. Some say that WoW sucks up your life, so you'll never get full commitment from these people and they're more likely to pretend to be sick to play or something. Others say that managing a guild builds valuable management skills and shows that you can successfully handle the needs and wants of many people while still accomplishing a goal.

I'm not sure what the verdict is, though I do have to say both can certainly apply. There have been many minutes wasted at work when we should be concentrating on work stuff but we've been distracted by guild drama. But on the other hand, running a guild, especially a raiding guild, has been so very difficult and we've had to work extra hard to make them work.

For those of you non-MMO-gamers out there, raiding is basically where you have a group of 10 or 25 people gather together at one time to run through an instanced area with set encounters. Back when WoW first launched, it used to be 40 people, and that was difficult to organize.

Luckily for us, now that you can raid with just 10 people, we can actually go through these raid instances with our guild. We currently have about 13 to 15 people that can raid on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, as you can do the math, that means that not everyone can go. And there are certain roles that need to be filled, such as the tanks (the ones who take the damage and keeps the bosses focused on them), the healers (the ones who heal all the damage people take), and then the DPS (that's WoW's term for the damage dealers). So right now, we've got quite a number of tanks, not enough healers, and a fair number of DPS, though only a few really good DPS. It's been a management nightmare since the few healers we have then have to go to the raids, and we only need 2 tanks per raid but we've got more than we need, so of them we take the ones that can actually do the job well, and then making sure we have enough DPS, and hopefully of them there will be enough good DPS.

So in a nutshell, here are the management nightmares: the people who play healers have to raid all the time and can't get a break. There are too many tanks but only a few have the gear to actually tank a raid successfully. So we end up taking them all the time, and the other tanks don't get a chance to get the gear to be able to tank. And then the DPS (of which there is the largest number in a given raid) are unreliable because if there are too many not-as-good DPS, then it takes us forever to run an instance. Otherwise, some people sign up, but think that since there's plenty of DPSers, there will be someone who can take over their spot, and so they just don't show up.

So meanwhile, it's like pulling teeth getting 10 people to all sit down together and devote 4 or 5 hours of their lives, and not have people be late, or not show up, or be hurt that they can't join, or whine that they didn't get the loot they wanted. And all the while, we have to motivate them to just suck it up and do the best they can for the greater good of the guild.

And people say this is just a game.

Hey, I'm not saying it's not fun. It's fun to see my character decked out in nice gear, and see the huge numbers flying around my screen, and to take on a boss challenge and win (eventually). But it's not fun dealing with people's egos, and whining, and other drama. It's not fun having to tell a person they're benched cuz they just can't deal enough damage. It's not fun telling someone we've got 11 people signed up for a 10 person raid, and they're the weakest link (so good-bye). It's not fun gathering everyone together and wondering where that 10th person is, scrounging around trying to call them, only to find out they overslept, or forgot they signed up and made other plans, or didn't feel like coming, or you just can't get ahold of them outright. It's not fun hearing people whine about how they had to pass on so much loot and they never get anything.

But that's the price of leadership, I guess. Cuz since we run the raid, it means we get to set the time, determine who gets to go, determine who gets what loot. And Whateley and I signed up for guild leadership because in the end, we want to see this content, to participate in these raids, and the best way to get them to happen is to do it ourselves.

It would be nice, though, if we can get at least a little gratitude for the work we put in.