08-16-2006, 04:13 AM
Quote:I don't accept the implicit assumption that social behaviour theory and constraint behaviour correlate to what we colloquially refer to as "drama" in any way. A constraint doesn't necessarily lead to an issue if everyone's okay with it. You can't even make the argument that "the more constraints, the greater chance that someone makes an issue of it" because it really comes down to the personalities of the individuals involved. My larger guild experiences far more constraints than my smaller guild did at the time and yet there are far less issues because the personalities are different.
I suppose you could try arguing "on average", but neither you nor I have the data to support that claim.
Your response actually adds credence to my argument. The principles outlined are that there are a set of constraints which interact with each other. These interactions must be managed or resolved for a group to function. Many of the constraint pairs are innocuous or even complementary (as in EST or hates Alliance (for a Horde guild)). Your description states that for your larger guild "there are far less issues because the personalities are different." Thus in your guild (as proved by the fact that it functions) the total set of constraint pairs has been manged or resolved satisfactorily. None of that demonstrates a counter to my premise. The number of such pairings goes down exponentially with a smaller group. Additionally, there are sufficiently greater, potential 'functional groups' of size 25 (due to the smaller set of constraint-pairs) that a greater percentage of the population will be capable of finding a home in one of the groups.
To put it more plainly: "A constraint doesn't necessarily lead to an issue if everyone's okay with it" is exactly the problem to be overcome. Fewer people means that fewer people have to "be okay with it" for each constraint.
And I can make the argument "the more constraints, the greater chance that someone makes an issue of it". Because that is demonstrably true. Given that an average person will 'make an issue of' a given constraint 1% of the time, given only one constraint the odds of at least one problem are as follows:
5-man: 4.9%
10-man: 9.6%
25-man: 22.2%
40-man: 33.3%
The interactions with many players and many constraints will result in the behavior I described. IE - A 60% reduction in behavioral constraint-pairs (colloquially drama) when transitioning from 40 -> 25.
-Kershner