North America, 2020: Will Countries be run by Guilds?

In case it isn't evident from Guild Wars, people often develop time-consuming leadership roles and complete online communities in virtual worlds (such as WoW). One person asked me, not knowing anything about Odin and DWR, "I wonder when are people going to start putting 'Guild Leader' on their resumes?" Good point--some guild leaders do enough event coordination and other leadership activities to make their roles worth mention on a resume. The question remains: When is society going to discover that so much is going on in the virtual world that it has become part of real life?

One thing to note is: that the reason I enjoyed being an officer here is because I learned a lot about real life.

While it sounds rather amusing to see "Guild Leader for Death Without Remorse" on an application for a Civil Engineering position, there may come a time where being in the right guild is just as important as knowing the right family used to be. I am by far not the senior MMO gamer here; do you think this will happen, and if so, how soon?

I have noticed throughout high school and even in college that I live in a rigidly cliquish world. You either know somebody or you don't, and that doesn't change except by joining their organization or getting stuck as their lab partner. This is also a major reason I tend to lack social common sense: too little experience in the "in group". I hope this major social problem does not consume the term "guild", since it would kind of turn me off to the idea of being in one, but calling cliques "guilds" may very well be an acknowledgment of reality.

Any other comments? This sort of thing could easily happen during all of our lifetimes (yes, even the 40-year-olds' lifetimes).

By the way, Nikita, can you write me a letter of recommendation? Maybe it will help me get a summer internship...

If you were applying for a position in my department, I'd already be interested in that as part of your resume. Among other things it gives me the ability to find out both for myself and from online references what kind of person you really are and how you interact with others.

Not a Second Life fan myself, but I think a good measure of how seriously people take that sort of thing is how violent the reaction is to the constant griefing certain people and things on there seem to attract.

Semester project: Discuss the above for 200 Asura reputation points.

Interesting, many people who commented on seeing "guild leader" on a resume felt it would be unwise for an applicant to include it. Their reasons: Not enough employers appreciate MMOGs, negative stereotypes, etc. Others debated whether the resume in question was lying b/c it listed a 6000-person clan in WoW, where guilds are capped at 500.

Others found that it made the resume stand out to them, which is always a good thing, or compared "guild leader" to "varsity captain" in terms of leadership. You make good points as well.

If anything the time for "Guild Leaders" getting jobs is when my generation becomes the job interviewers. Right now too many pre-MMOG aged people look at resumes.

In Cantha, guilds heavily determine a person's loyalties and allies. Do you think this will happen to real life, and when? Will this be good or bad, or just a formalization of what currently exists? Thoughts here?