The Daily Grind: Where else do your MMO skills come in handy?
by Eliot Lefebvre 
Oct 29th 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Education
Those of us that have been playing MMOs for quite some time have probably developed more than a few skills in the process. It's pretty much inevitable, after all -- while you might not be able to learn to dance from a boss fight, you can at least get a good sense of how to move and work as a group, just by way of example. And we all know that learning to play the holy trinity of MMO roles (tank, healer, and DPS) can be ported over to a variety of other games, since odds are high there will be an equivalent.
Today's question, however, is asking about when you've reached beyond other games and have been able to apply your game skills to a real-world problem. Do you have an easier time handling budgets from all the time spent stat crunching? Are you able to be more diplomatic from dealing with random party members over and over? Maybe you just have an easier time reacting in stressful situations, or a better system for remembering obscure details. Whatever the skill, let us know about how it's boosted you in real life. (Of course, the ability to actually shoot fireballs or fly would be pretty useful in real life -- and if you've figured out how to bring over some of those skills, please share.)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kurdaj said on 8:04AM 10-29-2009
Maybe this is cheating, but having played WoW, EVE, and other games, it's made me a fantastic DM for my DnD group.
I learned time management skills as a result of playing the games.
And reading about player's builds and watching PvP videos, studying the "cookie cutter" set ups that players come up with, taught me how to identify value within a context. I didn't learn how to read the stitches on a fastball until I watched someone else do it, and that didn't happen until I became involved with MMOs.
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GaaaaaH said on 8:32AM 10-29-2009
Way to rub it in with the pic
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noamraz05 said on 8:45AM 10-29-2009
MMO is the thing that made my english decent.
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Adric Antfarm said on 8:48AM 10-29-2009
We have had wars going on forever and the best redleg pic you can find is of training (they are wearing MILES gear)?
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Bam! said on 8:50AM 10-29-2009
I learned to type fast from playing MMO's, but I don't think there's much you could say an MMO taught you that you would want to put on a resume without getting laughed at in the interview.
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Wisdomandlore said on 9:26AM 10-29-2009
I learned HTML from posting on MMO forums. Does that count?
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Kdolo said on 9:32AM 10-29-2009
i learned the stealthy shadow arts of the ninja.
also, i learned how to say hello in chinese.
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Kaldor said on 9:43AM 10-29-2009
Personally I have learned how to better manage people from different age groups, and get them all working as a team. Leading a 250+ member guild and running 40 man raids lead to improving my natural leadership skills.
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Jess said on 10:43AM 10-29-2009
Not much to be honest. Working as a team with people I can't explain things to in person has been interesting, not sure where I'd use that though IRL.
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UltimateQ said on 11:05AM 10-29-2009
Since I started to play Everquest some 8 years ago, my grammar and vocabulary have improved substantially.
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Faryon said on 11:22AM 10-29-2009
Not much tbh.. I guess all the gaming has given me an impression of what works and what does not work in MMOs, but unless I get a job at a developer those skills are pretty much wasted.
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Macabre said on 11:31AM 10-29-2009
MMO's have taught me how badly I want to punch interwebs people in the face.
Yep, that's pretty much it.
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Mr Angry said on 11:53AM 10-29-2009
Poop socking it in front of a PC game is not going to improve anything that another activity couldn't be improved by reading a book or speaking to real people.
Folks who think this has a positive impact on any sort of 'leadership' or 'interpersonal' skills are deluding themselves.
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Laephis said on 1:47PM 10-29-2009
Thank you for posting this, I was afraid I was the only one who saw this as mass delusion. Folks, you're playing a video game where you press button 2 repeatedly, followed by 3 and maybe a 4. If you want to get good at dancing, you need to take a dance class. If you want to get better at managing people, go back to business school and get that MBA you've been putting off for years. The only thing that playing an MMO makes you is better at is playing MMOs.
I see articles like these as mostly rationalizations for the huge amount of time you've sunk into a game. Yeah, it sucks that you've spent 1000 hrs playing your UD rogue instead of learning how to play an instrument, but trying to justify it isn't going to help any. I've done my fair share of MMOs but I'm not going to fool myself that it was anything other than large amounts of entertainment.
pufonthis said on 1:20PM 10-29-2009
I suppose you could learn some leadership skills from an MMO. Those people most likely would learn those skill through many other means however.
In most cases I'd say the thing that MOST people learn from MMO's is
- Lack of physical exercise.
- Eye strain.
- Joint atrophy.
- How to tank, heal, dps (are these even remotely relevant to the real world?)
The list could go on and on. Time and again I've found that MMO players tend to over obsess about their game, spending way too much time in a computer chair trying to advance a meaningless stat.
I've seen this question asked many times: What did you learn in an MMO. It's such a ridiculous question.
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Graill said on 3:26PM 10-29-2009
Learn leadership skills in a an MMO?, a joke, and a very poor one. The only things you will learn from an MMO is the tiny skillset that includes repeat action and how you dont have to worry about consequence because you feel protected behind that monitor.
Learn leadership? Those of us that earned that skill are laughing at you right now, and to anyone that thinks they can or have learned it from a game, grow up and get a job. (Micky d's doesnt count either)
Stick to the learningcurve that MMO's provide, typing, reading, rote action, and what NOT TO DO in real life to your fellow human beings because most likely if you this you will end up with a face wired shut, or worse.
Sadly as with most learning abilities and lessons the majority of folks have a hard head and a soft ass.
xslipperyx said on 12:17PM 10-29-2009
I've learned that if I'm standing outside and it starts raining, I can summon a huge leaf to hold over my head to keep dry.
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steve said on 2:14PM 10-29-2009
a few things that has helped i can not say i learned it from mmo's.
1) better people management skills (it has improved because i use it a lot)
2) leading people (again while it don't replace being in the same room leading people it still helps me practice what I've learned)
3) math something i was never really good at but i get to practice it a lot in-game
that about it
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Tourach said on 4:27PM 10-29-2009
Mock all you like but for over a decade, academics have been looking closely at this kind of question, in detail and over time. Businesses and advertisers look at what people learn in games that carries over into real life because it affects their bottomline. Cutting edge companies from Yahoo to Google hire people for their tech savvy, their overall competence, their confidence handling people, and ability to communicate with skills learned in MMOs.
You may have learned to do nothing more than eat at the computer and grow fat, but that's the exception when thousands of MMO players around the world describe specific examples of benefits learned gaming. The one I remember best is the emergency room tech who feels strongly that he grew much better able to remain calm and level-headed under extreme stress, trying to help save people's lives, because of his PvP experiences in WoW. If that's not a positive benefit in the real world, I don't know what is.
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Swusn said on 4:44PM 10-29-2009
In the office i currently work in they use IM for everything, the girl in the next cubicle over will im me to see if i have tape, its crazy! but i have gotten good at explaining things (especially UIs) via text messaging.
On the down side my coworkers IM me constantly because i am the only one who has the pateince to walk them through things :(
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