[Shenglong]

I'd like to interject, although this is purely based off observation in a different setting, and I have absolutely no proof whatsoever... so the disclaimer is there:

I used to be a very avid gamer in a lot of different MMOs. Back when 16-22 year-olds were still the dominant demographic for MMOs, I observed something: guilds with at least a few girls tended to be much stronger overall than guilds with no women.

To understand why this is, you need to comprehend the nature of the term mmorpg. While it stands for "Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game", it's been commonly dubbed as a half joke, "many men online role playing girls". The significance is essentially that women are rare, and males take any chance they get to flirt with any good looking girls who end up playing the game. Regardless of how sad this is, and how many e-dramas result, the simple fact is that it benefits guilds. In fact, every guild I can think of that dominated any MMO I played had at least 1 attractive female.

Sexual drive is primitive and powerful; I think it goes a long way in providing motivation for males. I'm thinking a similar thing goes on in the work situation. I don't think it's all a function of diversity.

[dkokelley]

The correlation may mean nothing. Perhaps the strong guilds managed to attract women, because the leadership was able to manage the boys to behave better.

It's wrong to say that better guilds had women, so women cause better guilds. The only thing you can say is that annectodally the better guilds had women.

[billyvg]

"The significance is essentially that women are rare, and males take any chance they get to flirt with any good looking girls who end up playing the game."

I fail to see the significance of this, how does a male flirting with a female in an MMO benefit the guild at all? In fact I would even say that having females in the guild is more detrimental to the guild. You have a bunch of males trying to flirt with that one "good looking" girl in the guild, and what do you get? Drama. And that drama eventually leads into the downfall of the guild.

I don't think you can compare the environment of a professional setting with that of a video game (in this case at least).

[whatwhatwhat]

I think the implication is that the presence of women leads to higher performance among men, as well as any other traits that women contribute to the group. I think it's a give and take overall, and I bet women get better around men too. We are symbiotic after all. ;)

[kstenerud]

I saw the exact opposite. The guilds that performed the best, got first kill, turned the newest content into farm status the quickest, were guilds that had one man at the top.

He would have officers to whom he would delegate most of the operations, and with whom he would confer as the guild was tackling new content, but in the end his word was final. And it worked wonderfully until eventually the leader left without appointing someone competent enough to fill his shoes.

It was the complete opposite with "committee" based guilds. Everything there was about your standing in the council, who you could bring to "your side", infighting, inertia, analysis paralysis, cliques, rifts, you name it. It was a mess, and most raid nights were spent dying in very stupid and careless ways. DKP hoarding and loot cockblocking would become commonplace. Morale would plummet, the good players would leave, and eventually the guild would fold, be absorbed, or just wallow in suckiness.

[Shenglong]

The most organized guild I've been in, as an example, did not really have a governance structure. There was no such thing as DKP, and when a boss was down'd, everyone's immediate first question was "who needs this most?" - or rather, "who would bring the most benefit by taking this?" Raids were super smooth. In fact, on vent, we'd barely talk, other than to make jokes and tell stories.

Siege wars went well too. 40 of us vs over 200 people every time, and no one raged, and we never lost. This guild won siege for over 8 months straight without a single loss. I actually do have proof of this in the form of a 1gb video. I can upload it if you like. :P

Games now (I notice you mentioned Rifts) are different. I find most players now tend to be 30-50 year olds. I'm not sure why the shift in demographic...