Yet Another Excuse to Play “World of Warcraft”

MMORPGs Build Business Skills?

According to a study by IBM and Seriosity, playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games isn’t a waste of time — in fact, it can build valuable business skills:

A study released by IBM and collaboration software maker Seriosity found significant parallels between business leaders and MMPORG gamers.

MMPORG games, which include World of Warcraft, Eve Online and EverQuest, can include millions of players who come together in various groups to accomplish a specific mission or task.

Gamers learn collaboration, self-organization, risk taking, openness, influence and how to earn incentives when involved in a MMPORG, according to a study of 200 members of IBM’s internal gaming community.

“Smart organizations are recognizing valued employees who play online games and apply their skills and experiences as virtual leaders to their ‘real world’ jobs,” says Jim Spohrer, IBM Research Center’s director of services research.

Half of survey participants said playing MMPORGs improved their “real world” leadership skills, while 4 out of 10 surveyed indicated they have applied such game leadership techniques to the workplace.

The survey found that leadership roles are far more fleeting among MMPORG players than in the real world. Leadership is viewed as a role an individual plays to accomplish a specific task, rather than one that remains for an indefinite duration.

I personally know a couple of big-shots who spend a fair bit of time playing World of Warcraft, even when they’re on the road: Joi Ito and my boss’ boss’ boss, Tucows CEO Elliot Noss. Perhaps I should buttonhole fearless leader and see if I can’t get him to do a podcast interview about his adventures on World of Warcraft.

The Dangers of World of Warcraft

I can’t resist including the comic below, The Dangers of World of Warcraft in this article. It’s an old “Dangers of Alcoholism” comic re-jigged to poke fun at people hooked on this very addictive game. Click it to see the full-sized version.

Click the comic to see it at full size.
Comic courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.