World of Warcraft Guild Implements the No Asshole Rule

I wrote a post several months ago about entrepreneur and venture capitalist Joi Ito. I talked about how Joi was using his World of Warcraft guild as a place to prototype different ways of managing and structuring an organization.  World of Warcraft is one of the most popular of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, and success in the game depends heavily on cooperation and coordination among team members.  I was fascinated how Joi was "learning on the fly" by experimenting with different rules and role assignments, and more generally, how online games seem to be a great place for develop and test different prototypes for structuring and managing "real" organizations -- which are doing more and more of their work "virtually" all the time (so the distinction is blurring). 

In this spirit, I just found out about a World of Warcraft guild called Return from the Edge that implemented the no asshole rule .  They did so, according to one of the leaders who writes on their blog RTFE Updates, because "I just finished reading Prof. Robert Sutton’s The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. Here at RftE we've always talked about being positive and friendly but I think allowing assholes to thrive in the guild has gone too far and is indefensible. There are real costs to allowing people with these attitudes run rampant throughout our organization."

Although the writer makes clear that the rule needs to be modified for the online world in general and World of Warcraft in particular, he goes on to explain:

As it applies to our guild though we are implementing the No Asshole Rule. Current assholes no matter their knowledge or "worth" to the guild will receive demerits for interactions that go against our mission and rules.

When recruiting new members this will be a high priority in their joining AND staying with us during their two week initiation. We do not need anyone who cannot treat people with respect. No matter what they may contribute in-game.

So be aware of this new policy. Commit it to heart. Be the best person you can be. If you feel you might be an asshole and want to discuss how to improve Lavan or Auro are always willing to discuss solutions. At the same time, we are relying on our officers to alert us to our own asshole behavior when it surfaces.

In short, they are building in punishments for assholes and will even use them to discipline star players. They are using the rule for recruiting and screening new members. And they are making it clear that it is everyone's responsibility to enforce the rule.  It sounds to me like they are doing it right. 

I will keep track of the guild through their blog and website, but I would appreciate any comments that people have about the application of the rule in online environments, especially in online games. I have blogged about Online Asshole Management before, but confess my understanding about this world is limited at best, especially in the world of online games.

On the surface, however, the explanations used by the leaders of the RTFE guild sound remarkably similar to the reasons given for enforcing the no assholes rule at the software firm SuccessFactors and other more traditional organizations that I've examined.

Comments

[zygor guides]

Quite interesting, I never knew that such rules was implemented on world of warcraft...

[Auronani]

After reading your book I felt it definately applied to online life and WoW. People seem to be even bigger assholes online then offline. Internet Aninimity breeds behavior where there seems no recourse.

In RftE we've chosen that there is recourse. We don't have to play with assholes. We are a raiding guild with commited casual and hardcore members that have come to understand that these negative behaviors don't help us accomplish the goals we've set for ourselves.

Some say, 'It's just a game.', but we believe that whenever people are involved respect is paramount. Even in a game.

[anon]

Interesting... I have played EQ and EQII, games similar to WoW, in which cooperation from as many as 72 different people is required to accomplish a raid mission. It is very hard to manage that many people in a virtual environment without running into a lot of assholes.

There is an interesting dichotomy in these MMORPGS. If you want a guild in which there are no assholes, you usually wind up in a "family" guild, which has no requirements on members beyond being nice and helpful. If you want a guild that is successful at raiding and takes on the most difficult missions (hence garnering the biggest rewards in the game), then you will wind up in a raiding guild where there are many assholes.