Spontaneous grouping and what it may mean for the real world

As you know if you spend any significant amount of time reading WoW news (as yours truly does), researchers love to look at WoW for their various projects to gain insight into how humans act in group and how they can apply the things we do in-game to the real world. One of the things that captures their interest frequently (such as in the latest project detailed by WoW.com) is the ability of WoW players to spontaneously form groups to cooperate on a certain task (be it a quest, a heroic, or killing an enemy player who walked too far into your starting zone) then disband the group and continue on their way, perhaps forming another group later. Many of the researchers who look at fluid group formation WoW are interested in how they can get that dynamic to apply to the real world. After all, if we could get people to cooperate more frequently, we could probably solve certain world problems more easily. But is it that easy? Can the elements of WoW that facilitate spontaneous cooperation really be replicated in the real world? Now, keep in mind, I'm only talking about fluid, spontaneous group formation here; I'm only talking about groups you cooperate with but don't get attached to. As such, I will not be going over the various motivating factors for joining raiding guilds and the like.

To answer that question, we must first look at what elements of the game facilitate those spontaneous groups. Some of those elements show themselves while we are out questing in the open world; they include a perceived common purpose and the knowledge that if you cooperate, it means less individual effort for each participant. If you need to kill tigers in Stranglethron Vale and you see another person killing those same tigers, it's reasonable to assume that they are doing so because they are on the same quest as you. This coupled with the knowledge that if you are in a group, you will both get quest credit for the kill, makes it a very reasonable idea for you to simply send the person a group invite without even needing to ask if they are on the same quest, and for the two of you to cooperate to kill the tigers. It means less effort for both of you, and you won't be competing for kills.

Another element that makes grouping up in WoW so easy and lucrative is the fact that, in some cases, it is automated. You want to group up with some allies and fight the opposing faction in a battleground? Automated. You want to run a heroic but don't want to go through the effort of finding a tank, a healer, and/or three DPS? Automated. Simply click a few buttons and you are now automatically grouped up with people with the same goal as you (there's that common purpose, again). For heroics, you are automatically put in a group that, from a composition stand-point, is capable of beating the heroic (assuming no one lied about their role), and for battlegrounds, you are automatically put with people with similar gear and pitted against people of similar gear. The heroic finder contains similar functionality, in that it won't let you queue for a heroic that you don't reach the minimum standard of gear for. So not only is some grouping in WoW completely automated, but those automated grouping systems won't pit you against a challenge you are completely incapable of overcoming.

Another important motivating factor for these groups is that the better rewards in the game are only available to those who are willing to cooperate with other people, and that the more one is willing to cooperate and work with others, the better the rewards get. While heroic raids give the best rewards, they also require commitment and extensive teamwork, something many people aren't willing and/or able to put into the game. However, spontaneous groups allow a middle-ground between the inferior rewards of being a lone wolf and the superior rewards of extended group play. By joining a spontaneous group, one is able to do group quests and run heroics for gear that may not be the best, but is certainly vastly superior to what one could get on his own. It also helps that, thanks to the clear indication of numerical stats, those rewards are objectively better than the rewards one can obtain exclusively through solo play.

So, in review, there are five aspects of WoW that make forming spontaneous groups so lucrative and easy: an implicit common goal between those considering cooperating, clear benefits to that cooperation, automation of the process, said automation limiting you to reasonable challenges, and objectively better rewards for cooperating. While I'm no sociologist or programmer, it seems reasonable to me that these motivating elements could be transitioned into the real world. I imagine that wish some decent programming skill and a good knowledge of how to motivate people, these motivating aspects for spontaneous group formation could be replicated in the real world. Perhaps there could be a web program that has you answering a few questions about things that interest you, for it could then match you with a cause you can feel really motivated about without matching you with one that you aren't capable of doing anything for. It could then match you with other people to work for that same cause. If the satisfaction that comes from doing good isn't enough to motivate people to use such a program, perhaps tax breaks or similar incentives could be given to people who do so, or perhaps the networking involved would be its own reward.

But should these motivating elements really be transitioned into the real world? I know it seems like the obvious answer should be yes, but I am a bit hesitant. Imagine a world where these elements were successfully implemented to get people to more easily cooperate on solving various issues, from intra-office issues to global problems. It seems like a recipe utopia, and it probably would be, but therein lies the problem. As I said in my post on the wisdom of Death Knights (and for the record, what follows in the rest of this post will be much less shocking to you if you have read the wisdom of Death Knights; if you haven't read it, then please, do so for my sake), our lives are defined by how we overcome the difficulties we face, so making those difficulties easier to face and automating the process almost seems... cheap. In other words, copying these elements of fluid group formation into the larger world could vastly reduce the amount of hardship in our lives, which might not be a good thing.

I know this may come as a shock to you to hear me say that there being less suffering in the world could be a bad thing, and I know you may accuse me of having it too easy, as I sit here in my cozy dorm room typing this on my own laptop, to be able to say that a dearth of suffering is a bad thing, but let me explain. As I went over in post on the wisdom of Death Knights, Schopenhauer says that if we don't suffer, our lives become boring and we either "die of boredom or hang ourselves." These may seem like the inane ramblings of a man who is disconnected from the real world, but studies have shown the suicide rates increase as you go up in income brackets, and general satisfaction with life tends to decrease. Having more doesn't make you happier, and it actually makes it more difficult for you to be happy with what you have. I can tell you from personal experience that I am more satisfied with my life when I face some sort of challenge than when I have it easy. Take away that challenge, take away the adversities we face in our lives, and our lives become rather pointless. If you think about it, our lives are defined by the challenges we have overcome and the rewards we have reaped from overcoming them (much like WoW), so it really isn't such a great thing for hardship to be done away with.

However, all is not so bleak as it seems. Now, copying these elements of fluid group formation into the real world probably wouldn't successfully get rid of all of the problems in the world, but it would certain go a long way towards it. After all, if all you have to do to help the world is open up a program that automatically matches you to a cause you can support and groups you with other people who support that cause and can help you further it, people would probably do good more frequently, and if people did good more frequently, perhaps the world's problems could be reduced or even done away with. That's fine and good for the people who are actually doing that good work, for they get the satisfaction of helping other people, and that can replace the satisfaction they would otherwise get from overcoming their own hardship, but what about those that benefit? Well, studies once found that the ideal income in terms of making you happy is somewhere around $40,000 a year, so I'd imagine that as long as those benefiting were being taken out of bad living situations into better ones without having all of their problems disappear, the net effect would be that they would be happier. And if they were the recipient of so much charity that their suffering was relieved to the extent that that they started feeling less satisfied with their lives, they could then open that program and help those in need, and thus it would be a virtuous cycle (opposite of a vicious cycle) that would make lives better for everyone.

That is, of course, assuming people could actually design such a program and market it correctly, and that people would actually use it, but I am in no way qualified to muse on any of those points.