Teach Your Employees to Think Like Online Gamers

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  1

  mbmattis@...

  04/12/08 | Report as spam

  Plus...

  Gamers have really, really strong thumbs from all the clicking!

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  2

  Sound FX

  05/17/08 | Report as spam

  Re: Uh

  How does having strong thumbs help?

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  3

  kfp7550

  04/14/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Teach Your Employees to Think Like Online Gamers

  I myself am a "gamer" and a lot of my friends are as well. I notice a few things myself from some of my friends when it comes to gaming. Depending on the game, whether it be Starcraft or Counter-Strike, when gamers play online in not strictly a "every man for himself" mode, there is a lot of collaboration and team building that takes place.
  
  Especially in Counter-Strike, which is a team-based first person shooter (FPS), groups/teams form that are called "clans". Potential members request or are asked to join based on skill level. Within a clan, members are given ranks (The Leader, 2nd in command, etc...) and higher ranking members give orders in rounds. Each member is given tasks and the group works as a team to accomplish objectives. The end result benefits the whole and advances the clan.
  
  This mentality is a great asset to any organization. We all know of or have experienced breakdowns of team activities, where team members don't share the work or accomplish their tasks [on time] and the team suffers as a whole. Acknowledging people's contributions to the team is vital and will motivate people to do their work as part of a team. In gaming, winning is it's own reward and the feeling of winning as a team brings people closer and forges stong bonds between players. You acknowledge your teammates when they do well and congratulate players on a "GG" (Good Game).

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  4

  AristonCC

  04/14/08 | Report as spam

  I agree

  I agree with this in that gamers do make good employees, but only if the company is willing to modify, even slightly, its normal practices. We gamers thrive on change and action and a company that is stagnant or not allowing the employee to improve themselves (i.e. gaining those levels/ranks/points or whatever), will quickly lose these people that are considered to be so important. I am a gamer as well, and I definitely match with each of the five points discussed. Since I play World of Warcraft, group management, distributing work, managing a changing environment, learning on the fly, each of these are crucial to survival. Would you not agree that the same applies to business?

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  Sound FX

  05/17/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Teach Your Employees to Think Like Online Gamers

  Number 4 is wrong, why would any gamer(I'm speaking about myself) want to spend 3-5 maybe 8 hours on something really hard in a game? It gets quite boring after awhile, take for example "Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess" It takes nearly 2-3 hours for each of just the easy items in the beginning of the game. I mean, I can understand trying to get past moving boulders but this game(and many others) made the thinking WAY too hard. Why can't we just go in and slice-up everyone about 90% of the games? Also I agree that gamers make good employees because we can think on our feet and quickly solve basic and some slightly complex problems we come across.

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  geo333@...

  05/17/08 | Report as spam

  Uh

  Really? you thought Twilight Princess was difficult and had too much thinking? Wow.

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  Sound FX

  05/17/08 | Report as spam

  yeah I did

  Yeah, everything was complex. except the slashing to bits

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  Insaniac99@...

  05/21/08 | Report as spam

  what may be true for you isn't true for everyone else.

  you do know that some of the most loved games of all time are also the hardest games of all time, right? Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts is a game that to truly beat, you need to make it through not once, but twice without getting hit to get the right ending. And there were no save points whatsoever, if you messed up on the last area, tough luck you have to settle for the sub par ending or start over from the beginning.
  
  Super mario fans love the Lost Levels, and designed their own mario levels that are nearly impossible, look up "mario frustration" on the internet to find some of the hardest platforming levels you'll ever see.
  
  just because you hate difficult things doesn't mean everyone else does too.

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  Sound FX

  05/23/08 | Report as spam

  People like stuff that blows your mind?

  People really like games that make you go insane? Wow that a new one.

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  10

  Ian P

  05/22/08 | Report as spam

  Only to a degree

  Pretty much the same sort of pitch used to be used for board game players last century. Chess players were amazing strategists, Monopoly players were key tacticians, Go players understood deeply complex issue... etc, etc.
  In practice these games bred their own kind of archaic nerd, who couldn't transfer skills from the game to real life.
  My four year old granddaughter is an amazing fantasist, who builds her own worlds within her role playing games. But switches them off immediately real life intrudes.
  She implicitlty understands the difference between gaming and interacting with reality and knows that what happens in real life is somehow a lot more serious and important - just not as much fun.
  This is how it should be and fuzzing the boundaries in a business by putting gamers in key positions who do not grasp the intrinsic difference between gaming and reality is asking for trouble.

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  pesc

  06/25/08 | Report as spam

  exactly.

  yeah, tell me about it.
  
  I worked at a company that at one point hired a "futurist" who was a self professed gamer to become head of corporate strategy. We'd have to attend these meetings where he would go on at length about what technology would be like in the future and had to develop products or services to meet this star-trek future.
  
  Needless to say the the company was acquired not too long after

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  midknight129

  05/22/08 | Report as spam

  Temperment and personality

  One thing that this concept doesn't take into consideration is personality and temperment. All gamers are not created equal. Let me give you a quick run-down of Myers-Briggs 16 temperments. Everyone has 4 mental functions, 2 data gathering functions, Sensing and iNntuition, and 2 data processing functions, Thinking and Feeling. These are abreviated S, N, T, and F. People also have a tendancy to gather data first, Judging or scheduling (J) types, or to make decisions first then explore data, Percieving or Probing types (P). Also, people are either Introverted or reserved (I), or Extroverted (E). It can be determined for any person which of 4 opposed characteristics they lean more towards. There are 4 major groupings, the SPs (artisans), SJs (guardians), NTs (rationals), and NFs (idealists). I'd dare say that most online gamers are SPs. This isn't because they like gaming more, but just because there are so many of them (SPs and SJs make up roughtly 75-80% of the population at large). SP personalities typically live in the here and now, and thrive on action, conflict, competition, ect. On the other hand, NTs (many of whom are avid gamers) make up only about 7-10% of the population. We NT types are cool, logical, scientific. We treat play as work. If you ever play a game and someone seems to be taking it "too seriously" and comments that some other player isn't playing the game right, it's probably an NT. Also, NTs also value their independance. NTJs like to be in charge of the group, INTJs (masterminds) are master strategists who come up with plans of action for others to follow. ENTJs (fieldmarshals) come up with strategies on the spot, in the thick of it from the "frontlines". INTPs (Engineers) like me are generaly the lone wolf characters. We like to min-max, minimize weaknesses while maximizing effectiveness. We also like to come up with systems. ENTPs (Scientists) like to build systems also, but in a more physical way than INTPs. For more information, and to determine your personality and how it relates to others, go to www.mypersonality.info and also look into multiple personalities while you're there. It will give you great insight into how people work, react, think, ect. And if you are really interested, there is a hobby called peopletyping (or peoplewatching) in which you figure out how to sort people into their respective groups just by observation of their behavior. And for more information on my peronality type, go to midknight129.mypersonality.info

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  Silverwood5

  05/22/08 | Report as spam

  Fascinating (FS)

  Fascinating (FS). However, in reality, no true gamer would have made it halfway through your analysis (AS) of the human psyche (HS) as this would take up too much time that could be better spent on finishing level 6 (L6).

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  Insaniac99@...

  05/23/08 | Report as spam

  Re: Fascinating (FS)

  and how would you define a true gamer? i played games back before there was a standard for PCs and continue to play games to this day. your post offers no real content for discussion because it is nothing but a derogatory implication that all gamers are slackers.
  
  now the real point of the article is to encourage managers to let their employees to try the unbeaten path and and find new (and potentially better) solutions to old problems. it suggests offering rewards to employees that do well instead of treating the slacker and the hard worker the same and not to just hire one-trick ponies who only know their field. these kind of traits are exhibited in lots of people, but the group that seems to draw people with these traits is the gamers. I'll also point out that the author didn't even specify video gamers and that the board gaming groups have all of the same qualities.
  
  oh by the way, there is no sense in abbreviating words and phrases that you only use once, if you were trying to be funny I'm willing to be you amused no one besides yourself/

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  outofthebox1

  07/17/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Teach Your Employees to Think Like Online Gamers

  There needs to be a caveat. Good online gamers. Good online gamers do the research, solve the problems, work cooperatively to a common goal. Guild leaders have the same problems as managers in the work place, all are not created equally. Good online gamers love what they are doing, look forward to the next challenge, and prepare prepare prepare working tirelessly to gear up. Just like that rare gem of an employee who re-writes the job description through their action and dedication to being above average with a solid work ethic -- and lo it isn't the 90 hour a week person who is your gem. I was disappointed at the responses to this conversation starter -- but not surprised. Because my experience in the work place and in online gaming is that this nay saying and let's not open up to the possibilities is prevalent. And you know, I am not sure that those minds are ever going to open.

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  bnet@...

  07/24/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Teach Your Employees to Think Like Online Gamers

  This micro-article is the epitome of the use of language:
  1) Concise
  2) Precise
  3) Accurate
  4) Intuitive
  5) Useful
  
  Darn, well done!

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  cashley@...

  09/06/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Teach Your Employees to Think Like Online Gamers

  Frankly, I think that most of you are nuts and
  have been duck taped to your PC's. The many
  skills needed to keep a business on track are
  not those of a gamer. How would you like your
  payroll employees to "game" your pay, change
  the your payroll options, cash one week, bank
  wire the next? How about gaming orders and
  invoices? There is a lot to be said about
  procedures.
  
  Those who establish the vision and keep the
  herded cats in the same direction need the
  gaming skills but the bulk of your workforce
  want to be recognized for what they do and they
  want to do their jobs to the best of their
  ability.

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  livethakly

  09/26/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Teach Your Employees to Think Like Online Gamers

  "There is a lot to be said about
  procedures. " You are obviously not a gamer to think they are not full of procedures. There are always things that must be done in a certain way to get a certain result, but gamers also find new and inovative ways to break the standards and come up with creative solutions to get to an even more productive end result whenever possible.
  
  To say that gamers are not interested in being "recognized for what they do nor wanting to do their jobs to the best of their ability", is just downright silly. Thats exactly what gamers want. They want the 'win', the 'rank' - they want to be the best and they know they need the 'team' to make that happen.

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  truckdeschel

  10/03/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Teach Your Employees to Think Like Online Gamers

  This has to be the shortest article and also holds the most responses, of any that I have read in a long time. That is proof positive of one point about gamers that was not brought out in the article??? we are participatory. It is the gamers of this world that volunteer for unchartered territory whether it is a business venture or extracurricular adventuring. We are not timid or faint of heart. I love all of the input that is attached to this piece, after all, that is what it is all about.

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  Eekamouse01

  10/03/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Teach Your Employees to Think Like Online Gamers

  Woo the talented, but please don't WoW them!
  Allow them to 'think outside the box' but remind them that the box is what holds the cereal they eat in the morning before work. If they eliminate the box entirely, where will the toy surprise hide? i.e.: Explore parameters, but remember the ToS or guidelines. The SYSOP has the ability and the responsibility to ensure that the ToS is abided by, and may even allow a little flexing of the walls, but actions which could bring the script to a grinding halt will be expunged mercilessly!
  
  Now if i could just figure out how to get paid from all 5 accounts and computers I am playing on simultaneously....