Let’s face it MMO’s and gaming for that matter have this bad reputation for being time wasters and meaningless accomplishments. While I don’t 100% disagree, I would like to submit that MMO’s are the one of the best, and most productive forms of entertainment out there:
Watching T.V. even building model cars don’t stack up to what gamers pull away from MMO’s everyday as they hack and slash their way to the cap. When I first started out playing MMO’s I was just starting high school. I was bad at English, OK at math, and good at art and history. During those next four years I realized I had some above average skills and knowledge that I had to attribute to my hours spent playing my favorite MMORPG’s. So here are five things I have learned in these fantasy worlds:
1. Vocabulary
Trah la la la la
This was a big one for me. Being dyslexic I had spent most of my time learning reading and writing, and vocabulary was the least of my worries. However, I found my self knowing all the answers to the hard vocab questions that all my friends didn’t. I realized I had learned from playing MMO’s.
Most every MMO, especial ones who’s setting is in the medieval times or some other with armor and swords seem to brandish exemplary vocabulary to accentuate the realism of that setting and to emerge players in the fantasy world. They naturally teach players vocabulary words because the player is using them in action. For example in my class the teacher asked if anyone knew what the word mitigate meant. I recognized that from playing EQ2 where armor had a mitigation bonus that absorbed damage. So I raised my hand and pieced together a definition. I was right! This happened many more times and I soon had to give credit to these games that sometimes kept me from finishing vocabulary homework.
2. Economics
Buy Buy, Sell Sell!
For some people the idea of supply and demand comes easy but for many others of us this concept is one that takes experience to really grasp. When I took economics in high school I had an A the entire year and I never studied once. This wasn’t because I was some smart wiz kid when it came to economics and would soon be making merger deals with major companies, no this too was attributed to my gaming indulgence. I had already learned these lessons whilst buying and selling on the brokers/auctions. Having to lower my prices when there were 10 other “Iron Short Swords” available. I had to know to charge a fortune when I went to sell a good item that no one else had for sale, and there were no equivalents available either. So when I had to find the shift in a graph of supply and demand the answer always came naturally.
3. Money Management
I gotz da dough yo!
While money management didn’t serve me in school, it helped me during and after it. This skill is something that millions of Americans severely lack. With credit card debt, and now house repossessions in record rates, we find that money management is a critical skill for everyday life. While I was doing repeat quests, and finding cheaper places to buy things so I could save enough money to buy a piece of armor that would allow me to kill mobs that would increase my gold income I learned this lesson. After a few months of playing an MMO you will start to have a sixth sense about the best possible way to gain money. That’s not just “uber 1337 skillz” that’s Money Management in the making! It gets even more complex and robust. If your a guild leader who has to manage your guilds money to buy upgrades and upkeep for your guild hall that is another level of this skill that is very useful in business and everyday life.
4. Leadership
ATTACK! There all dead? Ok um....LOOT!
When a major raid boss in an MMO goes down its not just because these people have logged over 100 hours of play. It’s not even because they know their classes well and have the best gear, no the reason is that they came together worked in unison and overcame. Leadership experience is rare in everyday life, perhaps if your lucky you can manage the McDonald’s your working at for the summer. In an MMO there is plenty leadership experience to be found both small and large. From leading a six man group through a new instance, or a 200 man army alliance through the keeps of Warhammer leadership is everywhere in MMO’s. If you ever have lead a guild in an MMO you learn all the rights and wrongs of leadership right away. While the same lesson might cost you a job or the bankruptcy of a company you started, in an MMO your guild just disbands and find the next “guild that raids more often” or “People are nicer there.” Its not just Guild leaders or officers that are getting this experience. It takes leadership skills to get a pug group into an instance and not die 100 times. You know what I mean because you have been there, haven’t you. There are times where you breeze through a zone like a katana on butter, then the very next day its like every trash mob is some scripted boss encounter and adds come upon you in waves until you lie face first in the dirt. Whats the difference? Leadership, getting those people to work together, get them informed about each and every step, and keeping their minds on the prize…LOOT!
5. Critical Thinking
WWwwwwwipe out!
When your deadline is just an hour away, one of your team members is missing, and you have a major presentation, what do you do? Some people might freak out, or freeze under the pressure but come on, you pulled off that Onyxia kill when all your healers died from an AOE. Critical thinking is one skill that comes ONLY from experience. You could read 100 books but when the moment comes you would rather have 100 minutes of experience. Lucky for us we play MMO’s where every encounter is a lesson in critical thinking. Not only pressured moments but even the moments before a fight when your stacking resist gear and making potions, MMO’s have all the major areas of critical thinking covered. Do you remember the first MMO or video game you picked up? Do you remember how hard it was to learn the game? Now fast forward to now, to a new computer program or game from a different genre. How fast do you learn those? Super extra fast x100 that’s how fast! Your critical thinking skills are attuned and now as you tackle real life problems you can do so better, faster, and stronger. (Hey that could be a song)
All in all, MMO games teach us quite a bit. I am not saying that we should ditch schools and books and just give kids laptops with WoW installed. What I am trying to say is that Massively multi-player online games are one of the best forms of entertainment when it comes to the benefits of playing. So put down the remote, stop building kites with your dad outside in the sun, stop watching every movie as it comes out, stop playing bejewled, and come get social and pick up a MMO.
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