MMOs are tools for more than just gaming

by Andrew Russo Apr 23rd 2008 at 10:00AM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Business models, Culture, Second Life, Virtual worlds

"A 33 year old playing video games means neglected children and a very irritated wife." What? We call shenanigans! This is blasphemous and the speaker must be confronted! Someone else out there thinks the same thing. Matt Story, a columnist over at ClickZ, has an interesting article concerning the use of MMOs, and games in general, as tools for teaching, entertaining, and advertising. MMOs can offer us plenty of options beyond killing rats and looting the hammer of world destruction from the tiny little body.

Take for example a fear of heights. Perhaps standing on the edge of Outland and leaping off would help? Want to make a few more friends? MMOs have plenty of community events and groups. Need to train a staff of employees to bend to your will and worship your amazing powers? Second Life recently built a jean manufacturing plant complete with wages, training seminars, and shifts. When there's a will, there's a way. The possibilities are endless here people! Virtual worlds have so much to offer, beyond simply crafting, killing, and questing. We are glad to argue for the power of the MMO and tip our hats to you Matt.

Tags: clickz, culture, matt-story, second-life, society, virtual-worlds, world-of-warcraft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

TigroSpottystripes Katsu said on 12:10PM 4-23-2008

web foruns, and more recently (more than a year i think) SL, have helped me lots with my social phobia and such (still a long way to go before i'm happy with myself regarding those aspects, but it helped me tons so far)

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