The World of Warcraft Writing Group

How World of Warcraft Made Me a Better Leader and Writer

Screenshot of author’s character in a favored role play spot in Boralus

I stared at the blinking cursor in the “Character Name” part of the character creation screen. It was 2018 and I had just moved away from home for the first time. 3000 miles away from nearly everyone I knew, I sat in my apartment in Oregon with a desktop computer, hand-me-down furniture, and some curiosity around this ‘role play.’ I had mostly just heard jokes about it on the Moon Guard server on World of Warcraft, but my curiosity was getting the better of me.

I didn’t think too hard about my character. I made him a human male priest with black hair and blue eyes. All I needed was a name. I picked a constellation I remembered, the Pleiades, and typed it in. The only problem was, I didn’t quite remember how to spell it. Instead, I typed in Pleades, and figured that the term ‘plead’ for a human priest would fit well enough. I didn’t know it was going to slowly but surely change my life.

I logged in and started to level my character. I didn’t expect to play him for seven years. I didn’t expect to make lifelong friends because of the messages I typed in the in-game chat. I certainly didn’t expect that making a character in a video game would demonstrably increase my writing capabilities and my leadership skills. Here is the story of Pleades…