MMORPG Gamer vs Entrepreneur – More Alike Than You Know
Entrepreneurs and MMORPG Gamers share so many of the same traits, I think it’s insane. I know, because I’m both. ヽ(ಠ_ಠ)ノ
I’ll get specific here shortly but neither one of them is afraid of the grind because they know their goals. They usually don’t hesitate to learn something new if it is going to improve their game. Things that would typically overwhelm many are quickly broken down to their parts in the minds of these, one in the same type of people.
I honestly believe that MMORPG’s helped program my brain in a way that prepared me to have a better chance of being successful with my online businesses. So many of the jobs that players have once they join a guild mirror the traits of professionals.
Let’s take a look at them side by side:
Guilds (aka Clans)
Players will usually join a guild to further their progression in the game. Guilds are full of many players that all may play a little differently but they ultimately have a similar goal in mind. A guild can be your most valuable resource as a player.
Communities (aka Groups)
Entrepreneurs will usually join forums, communities, and Facebook groups to ask questions and learn from everyone in the group. With engaged groups, you will be able to find more than enough people that are with familiar the topic that you may need advice on.
Guild Leader
Guild Leaders are the highest ranking members of the guild are usually the visionaries of the guild. Based on their soul decision or voting from the members, they decide the course that the guild should take to progress in the game. If not delegated, they are likely to handle the administrative duties of setting up the guild website, voice comms, recruitment of members to the guild, raids times, and special events.
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO) is the highest-ranking executive in a company, and their primary responsibilities include making major corporate decisions, managing the overall operations and resources of a company, and acting as the main point of communication between the board of directors and corporate operations.
Raid Leader
Raid Leaders have all the necessary knowledge needed for a raid on multiple boss fights and trash. This comes from experience and/or by studying YouTube or guides of gaming forums. They will know each role that they will need the guild members to play and will have a strategy explained in voice comms prior to the raid. They are tasked with calling out events of the boss fight and the movement of the guild if not assigned to another player(Squirrel or Stack on Smiley). Due to them having to be constantly alert to the mechanics of the fight and call them out they will usually take on the role of the Tank or a Raid Healer.
Business Coach
As a coach, you develop and possess various skills and efforts that are aimed at guiding employees to achieve high productivity and positive results. Coaching is the sum of all the coaching skills — giving performance feedback, delegating, motivating employee performance, and so on. Coaches can be managers for a team of employees or individuals hired to improve your personal business performance much like a consultant.
Class Officer
Class Officers of a good guild will know how to play every role of their class. This allows them to help newcomers to the guild that might need some additional training to make them a better player for their class and the guild as a whole.
Consultant
Consultants will usually sell their expertise professionally to a client. This allows the consultant to teach and advise their clients of strategies that they should implement to improve the performance of the client’s business.
PUG
PUGs (Pick up groups). PUG is also defined as “Pick up game” in some circles. Folks who haven’t been in the MMORPG scene may simply refer to them as Pub, short for Public Groups.
A single player can also be referred to as a PUG. The player has the necessary skill set to join a guild or other PUGs to make up a raid party. Some players are forced into habitually “pugging” because their available times to play do not match up with any guild’s raiding times.
Solopreneur
Most entrepreneurs start out on their own especially if it’s an online venture. A Solopreneur has to learn how to carry out the operations of their business by themselves because they usually cannot obtain a partner or are without the opportunity. Thankfully, there are many tools available online to allow them to accomplish their tasks in that way. If desired, through networking a Soloprenuer can partner with others to do collaborations to promote their business or arrange joint ventures on a new business if the relationship is that developed.
Player Roles
The best players usually have the equipment and the skills to play different roles of their class(ie: Tank, DPS, Support, Heals). This makes them an asset to their guild and the raid in the case that other players need to be moved into other roles. Gamers simply spend the time to learn more skills and know how they need to adapt for the fight.
No person usually does just one thing
Most entrepreneurs have a versatile skill set. They can be a YouTuber, Blogger, Freelancer and Business owner. In the case of Solopreneurs, they learn how to do things themselves so they do not need to pay others to do it or hire a service to get it done. This allows them to save time and money to get things done without disrupting the progress of their work.
Popular Gamers
Some people are just naturally magnetic and helpful or have awesome skills and as a result will rise in popularity. Most gain popularity through their expertise and posting guides on the game forums which gets their name out there in the community. Consistency is the key. The most popular gamers have usually been around for several years. Hell, some of them are even invited to go to work for the company that made the game like RoughRaptors did with Trion. (Rift players might get this: Summoning RR with #bloodfury. You better comment too.)
Influencers
These people have usually amassed quite an audience on social platforms or other mediums. They have earned the adoration and respect of their followers by consistently being on their game and sharing as much as they can. They are trusted by their following and can usually influence their decisions on a particular topic based purely on their own opinion, research, experiment or case study presented.
Modders
These gamers create an alteration to the content of a video game in order to make it operate in a manner different from its original version. Typically to enhance a player’s ability to play easier or carry out tasks simpler.
Developers
Developers can pretty much create anything but the ones I’m speaking of specifically create modifications, extensions, add-ons, and apps for pre-existing software like WordPress for example. Extensions are like what apps are for your phone. In WordPress, they are called plugins and can be sold or provided freemium with an option to upgrade to a Pro version. Some are entirely free. Many software like eCommerce platforms will have marketplaces to where these developers can sell their mods. Envato and Mojo are also other good marketplaces to sell plugins and themes.
Casuals
Some casual gamers will just play the game to consume the story line and are not concerned with participating in dungeons or raids. Casuals that are part of a guild will harvest massive amounts of resources and share them with their guild so that the materials can be used to craft entry level gear for freshly capped players so that they can enter dungeons to get better gear that will eventually lead to them being able to play in raids.
Content Consumers
Some people get stuck in the learning process and never take action. This is analysis paralysis. They will usually have consumed so much information on a topic that they are nearly and unknowingly an expert on the subject but they are crippled in fear to take the next step thinking that there might still be something they are missing. If they only knew the best way to learn anything is to just get in there and do it.
Gold Sellers
They will spam world chat and/or plug up your mailbox with their links to where you can buy in-game currency for real money. Sometimes they are legitimate even if their advertising isn’t.
Internet Spammers
They will spam your inbox with the latest get rich quick crap or cleverly convince you that your business is at risk and you are in need of their services. These people can absolutely not be trusted because they can tend to do more damage to your websites in the eyes of Google when it comes specifically to SEO. Learn to identify spam and if you are ever in need of services ask a colleague or for a referral from a group. Note: Depending on the search most services are safe to search on Google but do your due diligence and research.
Gamer Trolls vs Internet Trolls
A troll is a troll. Don’t waste your time on these losers they aren’t going anywhere in life. They can thrive in gaming communities (and reddit)but they are quickly shooshed in professional circles. The ban hammer definitely exists in this world too.
Cheater (aka Hacker)
A person who typically uses software or glitches to exploit a glitch in the game to gain an advantage. Cheaters in MMORPG’s can drastically alter the economy in the game by manipulating the cost of goods in the auction house and price of materials.
Hackers and Black Hat SEO
A hacker is a person who uses software or exploits to gain unauthorized access to data. Black Hat SEO is the process of finding and exploiting loopholes discovered in search engines to gain rank for the black hatter’s website. The detected process doesn’t usually last for too long these days as Google and other search engines are creating more intelligent algorithms every day.
Character Leveling
Each quest will tell you what to do and where to do it. When you complete that quest and turn it in you will usually recieve a reward and you will be instructed to where the next quest is located.
Figuring it out by Yourself
Each article and guide you read will tell you what to do and how to do it (if it’s well put together). When you finish applying what you’ve learned you can either go back to that same site and look around for more things to learn or you will have to search Google for what you’re trying to accomplish next. You don’t get a reward because no one wll care but you. You’re going to have to learn to feel good about accomplishing the task you set out to get done. This world isn’t linear like a game is and you will seldom be lead step-by-step unless you find a course designed for it. Typically, many gamers are already attuned to searching and finding things that they need through search engines.
Power Leveling
The process of leveling a character as quickly as possible with the least amount of play time. It can be used from any level – up to level cap.
Online Courses
Designed as an environment for learning. It’s constructed as an experience that can be followed sequentially. Instead of spending weeks and months Googling and reading (like you would if you were figuring it out yourself) you can learn everything on the topic being taught in one place with video instructions, quizzes and trivia.
MMORPG Gamer’s Morning
The first thing you might do is before you even launch your client is open up your voice chat program for your guild or clan to see if anyone is on and what they are doing. Get into the game and check your mailbox to see if anything sold in the auction house. Then you go and collect your dailies and get them done. Of course, if you’re a raid logger this is an exception.
An Entrepreneur’s Morning
I can’t speak for everyone so I’ll just tell you how mine goes: The first thing I do is open up my inbox and knock out those emails. Depending on what needs more attention; my content, promotions or new products, I’ll work on that. Then I log on to social media platforms and browse through discussions for groups I have joined and help a few people out. If that’s it and I’m good I might go binge watch some Netflix or get on Rift.
When You Start a New MMORPG
You have to pick your name, customize your character or select a pre-designed one and make small alterations to it to fit your personality. Decide the class of your character. Is it a warrior, mage, rogue, or cleric. Then pick a faction. This also ties into branding. Gamers are constantly surrounded by other gamers and they know how to design their characters to make themselves unique and standout. If anyone ever copies that look they will come down on that fool with the fury of a woman scorned in a rage PM and you know everyone in guild chat and voice comms is going to hear about too.
When You Start Your Own Website
When you start your business you have to pick your brand & domain name, design the layout of your website or choose a theme and make small alterations like adding your logo and changing the colors. Decide on your target audience and niche(this might also influence your business name). Do you want to talk about gaming, dank memes or something that people tell you you’re good at? Then you decide on how you want to market it.
MMORPG Player’s Screen
You have hundreds of different items in several bags and you know exactly what each of them is used for and what they can do. You have a character equipment window, a soul tree for multiple character builds, crafting windows… seriously the list goes on and oh my goodness if you design dimensions you have a bag of actual windows.
An Entrepreneur’s Desktop & Browser
I have a few items on my desktop but most of my files are stuffed in folders. I keep stuff like backups of my sites, images for social media marketing and notes and to-do lists. I have a few programs that I use like my email inbox, ftp program, screen recorder, I did have Long Tail Pro but I upgraded to SEMrush. Most of my stuff is inside my browser. I have a bookmarks bar for some of my most frequented webmaster tools and sites with more tools stuffed in folders. If they aren’t there then I just type it in the address bar as needed. I also have about a dozen chrome extensions that let me do different things when and if needed.
Why would you want to become an Entrepreneur?
I don’t know what the hell your life goals are so I’ll tell you the reason I wanted to: I hated working for the man ✊. I wanted to be able to wake up whenever the heck I felt like it. I also wanted whatever I did to be flexible. What I didn’t want to do was anything that was boring as hell either. Oh, and I didn’t want to have to write alot like I am doing… at this moment, but I’m a big boy now, I can handle it. It’s so good to have what may seem like unrealistic expectations… because sometimes you blow your fricking mind when they come true.
I knew that was possible because I had heard of creating passive income and that’s basically the setup you have when you build a website(or an app nowadays). So I started creating free online gaming sites. Gaming was something I was passionate about so it was something that could keep me engaged. I knew that I could make money from it because of the ads on the sites themselves weren’t for decoration.
My main goal was to give myself the free time to where I didn’t have to have a typical job so that I could raid all the time. It did take me some time to figure it out because at the time they didn’t have online courses and all that just forums and what-not. The game I played was due for a new level cap so not many people were playing. So I decided why the hell not? Why the hell can’t I do this? At this moment there is nothing stopping me from trying to figure this out.
Then there was. But I Googled that question or asked people in forums until I got my answers and just kept going. Dabbling with that for about 3 months and 4 different website ideas later I finally figured out a strategy(This isn’t a secret, it was simply creating better images on banner exchanges than anyone else. The ability to do it doesn’t exist anymore because they have all pretty much died.) with my site that was making me $22 a day on average. This covered the cost of my apartment for the month and I was stoked. Blew my fricking mind and I definitely started giving it alot more attention.
Not only that but it made me a more interesting person when people asked what I did. I work at blah blah corp and I do zzzz…… boring. But when I told them I ran my own websites and made money through advertising and affiliate marketing most people were intrigued and wanted to know more. Other people would start listening to the conversation and start asking me questions. Oh my, Hi Everyone! I’m MR. F’in Popular All o’ Sudden.
I lost my steam here and there, I was better at working on new ways of promoting the site and building new projects in bursts rather than steadily all the time. But at the year and half mark of just beginning to do this I had matched the income I was making from my real job. Then I didn’t want to quit that job because I was making twice as much with my online job being barely any work. I seriously just uploaded like 2 or 3 games to my site a day, shared it on some forums here and there and on facebook and boom, I was done with that crap for the day. A year later, I quit my job when my boss did because things were changing there and I knew sure as hell I wouldn’t survive there much longer anyways haha.
Later on after that it got serious
Google rolled out some new algorithms over time called Panda and Penguin to combat spammers. One attacked bad links and the other attacked crappy content. This obliterated my competitors and even killed a few of my own websites that I was dabbling in the dark arts of black hat SEO. Didn’t matter because my main site skyrocketed. Between it and a few other sites in different niches my revenue took off like crazy. Insane numbers, like 5-7 times what I was making in a month from it previously.
This isn’t my entire story. I’ve created all kinds of sites in different niches like shopping, entertainment, resources sites for various different interests, my own services and sold themes, mods and app source code. My favorite to this day has been gaming collection sites, resource sites, and niche product websites monetized with on-page ads and affiliate networks.
I’m not here to talk about me but to just share with you what is possible. I’m not saying it is going to work out the same for you. You could be a content consumer for all I know and never do anything at the end of reading this. Hell, I’ll bet many won’t. I don’t know how smart you are or how dumb for that matter. You’re the only person that can answer for yourself, the same questions I asked myself: Why the hell not? Why the hell can’t I do this?
The only type of MMORPG gamer that I think that would really be able do this successfully are hardcore raiders. I believe they have the best chance of being successful as an entrepreneur because of their determination. They put in the time to optimize their skills by beating on their craft as often as they possibly can. The only reason I believe that is because that’s the type of person I am when I’m really into something. I really don’t know if anyone else can do it because it takes a little bit of insanity to do great things. An unrealistic expectation that your life can scale beyond what you may have been raised to believe is possible.
If you are excited as hell right now, cool. But you better get your expectations vs reality in check. It’s definitely possible to make money online but if you’re dreaming of partying on yachts and driving in a Maserati in no time at all then you’re fricking delusional. It’s not impossible but neither is winning the lottery.
Nobody is coming to save you from your life.
I can’t build you up like that just for you to realize later on that it might not happen as quickly as you thought it would. My moral compass isn’t screwed up like that. You have to put alot of time into leveling a character and learning the aspects of the game. That doesn’t happen overnight and neither does this. Just keep on, keeping on and don’t ever give up. If something fails then you find out why and fricking fix it and try again. If it pisses you off, use that. Anger is a hell of a strong emotion that can drive you. It’s better that than depression and you feel nothing at all. You don’t have to have your crap together or be a fricking Buddhist monk to get your life to where you want it to be. You just have to want it bad enough and do whatever you can to get it. Nobody is coming to save you from your life.
If at the end of your life, you realized you never lived… what risks towards making your dreams possible, would you take today?
I’ve got a free course that you can take if you want to be power-leveled. I won’t even ask for your email address. If you want on my list I know you’ll find the form somewhere on this site. You can pay for a better learning experience on Udemy or you can watch it for free on YouTube, that’s up to you. It’s there if you want it. It’s another project I got obsessed over and wanted to do better than anyone else out there.
What am I getting out of it, if it really is free?
It is. Let’s speak gamer for this one. I’m basically setting up my new guild and I think it’s going to be awesome because I’m one hell of a good player and I know I have the time and experience to help people. So I’m spamming global and low level chat right now like “Join Banana Hammocks of Doom! We’re a new guild that will help power-level you and get you geared to start taking on dungeons and finally get into raiding. We already have many PVP and open world perks leveled up so… Why the hell not? PM Corupt and tell him KungfuBanana sent you!”. That’s the jest of it. I’m building a community and I want the type of people in it that understand me and I understand them.
I never thought I could write posts this long. I never thought I would write a fricking book and become an author. There are alot of “You never thought you’d dos” that I just want to do, so I can say “I did” soon enough you might be able to say the same thing.
Hi! I’m Carlton Bryant, author of Do Not Dwell: A True Beginner’s Guide to Making Money Online.
Welcome!
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