By John Salak –
Maybe online gaming isn’t all that bad. In fact, it may even be a workplace win for online gaming, proving to be downright good for players.
Research out of the University of Houston claims that massively multiplayer online gamers learn by gaming, while also enriching their workplace skills. The study’s conclusions are a relief for the estimated 200 million gamers in the U.S. who spend hours in front of various screens playing a wide range of games.
“Online gaming often gets a bad reputation, but our study reveals a different story. We found that gaming can actually help people develop valuable workplace skills,” noted Melinka Shirmohammadi, an assistant professor. “These skills include problem-solving, teamwork, leadership and even self-confidence. Our research shows that gaming, when done in moderation, can be a way for people to grow both personally and professionally.”
The math behind this specific gaming slice is simple. Millions of people play “massively multiplayer online” or MMO games. These contests allow players to come together in a virtual world. The top three games, alone, World of Warcraft, Destiny 2 and Final Fantasy, boast respective player pools of approximately 150 million, 50 million and 60 million.
The intent of the research was to examine and understand if and how MMO gaming positively enriches employees’ work domain. The university’s team undertook the challenge by conducting a qualitative study among 23 employed MMO gamers who had 20 years of video gaming experience and on average who had played MMO games for at least 10 years.
The MMO games examined, including World of Warcraft, EVE and Final Fantasy, require players to coordinate tasks to achieve collective goals, respect team norms (such as arriving on time for missions), collaborate with others as part of a team, and avoid reckless or uncalculated behaviors that would jeopardize the mission.
Ultimately, gamers reported viewing work as solvable puzzles, and their experience resulted in improved patience in encountering problems and encouraged them to persevere in solving them.
One participant noted “I just see a puzzle and I’m motivated to solve it. So, it’s affected, I guess, my mindset in that way, such that I look at things as solvable…”
Other players say they developed self-confidence through game playing because they feel good about the level of success in the online gaming world. Still, others reported developing self-awareness as they received feedback on their own skills and how they played alongside team members.
Gamers’ enhanced coaching skills, which include evaluating performance, providing feedback, giving instructions and inspiring others, were also traced to their gaming. Participants mentioned the similarities between gaming and work that made such skills transferrable.
“I deal with a lot of new people [at work]. Since I kind of go out of my way in the game to do all the coaching, I’ve become ahead of some of my colleagues in explaining how to do certain things [to new employees] …” an IT specialist and study participant mentioned.
“Our study extends the understanding of nonwork-to-work enrichment to the MMO gaming context and reveals how a hobby, as an understudied subdomain of life, could benefit work,” said Shirmohammadi
