Gaming and Collaboration

Στη συνέχιση της έξαρσης των ηλεκτρονικών διαδικτυακών παιχνιδιών το HR Systematic σχολιάζει τη σχέση τους με την δεξιότητα τησ συνεργασίας.


Gen Y. They sit at their PC’s, play their games, and avoid all real social contact. As they enter the workforce, their lack of social skills will be a mismatch to that of the broader workforce who value direct, one to one communications. Their poor verbal and presentation skills will make them less persuasive. So says the current establishment. Of course there are some drawbacks to the current generation’s personal habits. However, I’d suggest that not all is ruinous.

Let’s take a popular game as an example. World of Warcraft (WoW) is a popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game – I think I got that right). Within this game, the player enters an online world and interacts with other (real) people. The first action taken is to create the character. The goal of the character would be to increase their proficiency in their chosen profession. For example, if someone is a priest (don’t know if this is a real character in WoW) then they will need to perform the tasks that will make them a better priest. They will get types of points related to experience that allow them to allocate new resources to bettering themselves at their chosen position. Think of these as competencies. So already, the player is immersed in an understanding of competencies and improving only the ones that will be valuable to them.

The next step is then to battle against other players. This may be done in guild settings or teams. The level of coordination here is amazing. Not only are players battling against other real live people, but against other teams who have developed team tactics specifically to defeat them. Within this setting, our fabled player along with her team will not only develop an approach and strategy for battle, but they are also in constant communication. Many games have both the capability for voice and written real time chat. So while in the midst of a battle, voice and written collaboration is happening real time. All of this collaboration is happening with people they may never have met, and in different countries.

I’d theorize that while some of these games are not developing skills we developed when we were younger, the games are also doing a better job ad developing other skills. Competency management and self evaluation, collaboration, and teamwork. So it’s different, but let’s hold judgement until we see how it all plays out.