Vanguard has all of the previously mentioned features that make for good management training
Well, I have finally had the chance to explore Vanguard for a while. Vanguard is the new Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) from Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) that I had mentioned in a previous post. It is certainly not my intention to make this blog into a video game review and critique section, but since we have been discussing the use of MMORPGs as management training tools, I will diverge from the norm in this case and present a brief evaluation of Vanguard and how it stacks up against previous SOE games like Everquest (both 1 and 2) and World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment.
Vanguard has all of the previously mentioned features that make for good management training. The guild structures are still in place. As was true of previous SOE games, the Player vs. Player (PvP) aspects of the game have been minimized although they are there for anyone who wants to make use of them. Special servers are set up for those gamers who want to test their mettle against real life opponents. But computer generated obstacles provide a more cooperative and less competitive environment which, for many business situations, is perhaps a more appropriate concentration.
Vanguard has a few issues associated with a newly released game…
Vanguard has a few issues associated with a newly released game, and although I was not intending to post an overall review of Vanguard, some of the difficulties should be noted. One particularly annoying problem is the occasional crash and/or suddenly poor performance. SOE does provide some easy methods for reporting bugs, and I have no doubt that they will be addressed as soon as possible. Another problem is one that strikes all MMORPGs that are at all popular and that is the inevitable real life companies and individuals that collect in game money and then sell it for real dollars. Although this is against the rules, it is very difficult to prevent and Vanguard is starting to see more of this activity.
The last minor issue and symptom of a relatively new game offering is that the servers are not very populated with players. This may or may not really be an issue from the standpoint of coordinated use of the game for management training. If one is using the existing public access environment and players to determine the quality of different players’ leadership abilities, then it is a problem. However, if the intent is to plant players in a training scenario or coordinate a training event then only intended players should populate the server anyway, and this becomes a non-issue.
Real time information and communication management is evident when the pressure is on…
As we said in previous discussions, there are two versions of leadership which can be examined in this type of gaming environment. Real time information and communication management is evident when the pressure is on and multiple channels of communication must be organized. This can be compared with a team which has already been given structure and is under fire, for instance, a sports team where the players are already signed up, the management is in place, and the timer is running. We know “Who is on first”, and it’s time to play. Let’s refer to this as “Management”.
The second type of leadership is the ability to organize the team in the first place. Leadership would be the formation of the guild in the game environment as opposed to Management, which is the use of the existing guild when the pressure is on to perform. Finding volunteers, determining the best use of their skills, and forming the structure of the team are different problems requiring a different set of skills. We can refer to this set of skills as “Leadership”. Getting people to follow the lead, to form the group, and to perform when required is the problem of Leadership.
…Vanguard has added another interesting little twist called “Diplomacy”
Vanguard has all the hooks to explore both Management, in raids and other group activities, and Leadership, in the formation of guilds and groups. But Vanguard has added another interesting little twist called “Diplomacy”.
It is a little unsettling to discuss Vanguard’s version of Diplomacy, because the actual techniques involved in the game’s version of Diplomacy have little if anything to do with the way things work in the real world, and I certainly don’t want someone reading this to think that I see political intrigue as similar to a “Tug of War” with a deck of picture cards as it is portrayed in Vanguard. We need to remember that it was not actually SOE’s intent to make a management training tool and in fact, this is clearly a game and nothing more at this level. But let’s look at it differently for a moment.
I am the founder of a non-profit organization…
I am the founder of a non-profit organization which has the goal of building a high school in my community. To accomplish this task, we needed to change the minds of the state legislators and have a moratorium on the creation of high school districts removed. After a couple of years, we were successful, and it is interesting to look at how it compares with SOE’s concept of Diplomacy. Although the give and take with the various politicians involved had no real similarity with the Vanguard version of Diplomacy, one thing was similar.
We needed to get a lot of people in the community to work together to make changes. This involved many seemingly trivial tasks like writing letters to congressmen and congresswomen, making phone calls, doing press releases, and soliciting community opinions. Many volunteers had to work together, some of whom would only marginally benefit from the results. In this way, Vanguard Diplomacy is similar to real life, but perhaps less like a business situation and more like the organization of a non-profit. To be effective at making city changes in the game, many people must coordinate their efforts. The more people cooperate, the easier it is to make changes happen, a lot like real life.
…Vanguard does offer the ability to change certain city characteristics if enough players cooperate
The actual task of playing the cards in Vanguard to influence non-player characters (NPCs) is as much an indication of a good real life diplomat as the ability to stuff a lot of real life envelopes might be. Neither a good picture card player in Vanguard nor a good envelope stuffer in real life is necessarily a good diplomat. But Vanguard does offer the ability to change certain city characteristics if enough players cooperate. Convincing people to cooperate in their letter writing efforts is just as relevant for making changes in real world cities as organizing players to play trivial card games is in changing Vanguard cities. It is the ability to get the crowd to come together that is common in both cases – Leadership.
The addition of Diplomacy is actually quite relevant to Leadership training. In some ways it offers a good twist to the guild structure in that the cooperation required for Diplomacy is short lived and requires less formal organization and communication than guild structures. It does not have any of the aspects useful for Management training (as we have defined it here as opposed to Leadership training). There really aren’t the time sensitive communication requirements of a big guild event, but getting cooperation from a group and working with people is and always will be the center of business coordination, leadership, and management.
