End of an Era

For the past year I have been involved in a World of Warcraft guild founded as an experiment in anarchism. For those who aren't familiar with massively multiplayer online games, guilds are groups of people who gather under a name of their choosing for the purpose of enhancing their game play experience. Each guild can determine their own internal dynamics including hierarchies and rules of conduct. I was the first non-leader of the guild which I had started with a small group of friends. Due to the nature of the game dynamics, someone had to be 'in charge'. It wouldn't let me set it up any other way. So I made the best of it and took the title 'Grand Illustrious Masterful Poobah' or GIMP. After a few months when the whole thing hadn't blown up in my face, I handed the experiment over to someone else and took a major back seat.

For some reason I will never understand, the growing guild has started down a path where people feel they need structure and rules. Things had been going fine without them. So I left the guild. I don't need or want rules no matter how well intentioned, but the majority sees no problem with it. I am exercising my natural right of free association and opting to play without a guild.

But I am not upset about the new course. Anarchism as a guiding principle actually worked for a full year! Even amongst people who were not professed anarchists or disagreed with anarchism. For some reason they stuck around, stuck it out, and the game went on just fine. When things needed doing, people stepped up and did them. When people needed to bow out for a while, others stepped up to fill the gaps. It worked! For a YEAR! To me, 50 some odd people who hardly know each other voluntarily working together to accomplish the goals of a game is pretty damn impressive.