While we're on the subject of consumer technology and the need to provide great tools in order to attract and retain employees, there's a great collection of articles about the online gaming world in the April issue of “Wired” magazine. I loved the short piece by John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas entitled “You Play World of Warcraft? You’re Hired!” In it, they described the benefits that gamers derive from interacting in an "accidental learning" environment as opposed to an intentional learning environment, where you are "learning to be," rather than "learning about."
“When role-playing gamers team up to undertake a quest, they often need to attempt particularly difficult challenges repeatedly until they find a blend of skills, talents, and actions that allows them to succeed. This process brings about a profound shift in how they perceive and react to the world around them. They become more flexible in their thinking and more sensitive to social cues.... The process of becoming an effective World of Warcraft guild master amounts to a total immersion course in leadership. A guild is a collection of players who come together to share knowledge, resources, and manpower. To run a large one, a guild master must be adept at many skills: attracting, evaluating and recruiting new members: creating apprenticeship programs; orchestrating group strategy; and adjudicating disputes.”
Of course, the World of Warcraft is just one example of the many virtual worlds in which people are teaming up to co-create their experiences.
In another article in the same cluster, "Generation Xbox," Erin Biba presents a summary of some of the findings in a book called "Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Shaping Business Forever." The book is a good read with a lot of interesting surveys and statistics. Authors John Beck and Mitchell Wade describe the behaviors of "Gen G" in great detail. There are now two generations of folks who grew up with video games and online games as part of their normal environment. There are 90 million of them in the United States alone. Like John Seely Brown, John and Mitchell don't focus on the violence of "First Person Shooter" games or the seemingly antisocial behavior of interacting with a computer or TV screen for hours. Instead, they talk about the behavioral differences that you need to be prepared for when developing products or experiences for Gen G customers, and/or integrating them into your workforce. Here are the highlights that Erin Biba summarized in her article:
"1. Arrogance: Killing the bad guys and saving the universe leads to a superiority complex...Gamers as young as 20 often claim to be experts at whatever they do.
2. Sociability: The more a gamer plays, the more likely they are to identify themselves as sociable.
3. Coordination: A study by the University of Rochester found that visual processing dramatically increases with as little as 10 hours of gameplay.
4. Flexibility: Gamers try different methods with tireless persistence. They tackle life's problems with the same flexibility. This allows for analytical, strategic, and open-minded thinking.
5. Competitiveness: Even though gamers often succeed at teamwork, they retain a strong, underlying sense of personal ambition.
6. Insubordination: Logging thousands of hours in authority-free worlds teaches gamers to live by their own rules. Gen G accepts criticism exclusively from peers."
My take-away from reading the book, “Got Game,” was that spending time in virtual worlds makes you more flexible, adaptive, and self confident. So I plan to start logging some time in at least one of these virtual worlds. Care to join me? If so, tell me which one(s) you enjoy.
I also learned that it is possible to harness the incredible creativity that comes from these folks who know how to fail fast and often, and pick themselves up and start over. One way is to set the team's goals high, and make the boundaries, constraints, and rules of the game very clear. Then step back and let the magic happen. Do not, under any circumstances, tell them how or what to do! And be prepared for some knock-your-socks-off results.