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Anecdotal and quantitative data seemed to suggest that many players felt they were learning important life lessons from MMORPGs. Several questions were included in a recent survey to explore this aspect in more depth. The following graphs show age and gender differences among respondents who used the top two of the seven agreement rating points, labeled from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. So the 45.5% at the top right of the first graph means that 45.5% of female players over the age of 35 strongly agreed that important life lessons can be learned in MMORPGs.
Both the gender and age differences are quite striking in that they are either non-linear or only affect one gender. In the first graph, younger players tend to feel that important life lessons can be learned in MMORPGs, but for female players, this sentiment rebounds with age while it declines among male players. In the second graph, about one-third of female players across all ages feel that their MMORPG experiences have helped them grow as a person whereas among male players, this sentiment declines significantly with age.
Multiple regression analyses were performed on both data sets using the demographics, motivations and personality factors as independent variables.
The multiple regression results showed that the motivation to socialize within the game was the best predictor of whether a player felt they were learning important life lessons or achieved personal growth from the game. To ensure that this result wasn’t merely due to the covariance of gender and score on the “social” motivation, the multiple regression was repeated with only the male players. The coefficients for the “social” motivation were almost exactly the same, .26 and .27 respectively. In fact, the coefficients for the “social” motivation were weaker when the multiple regression was done only with female players, .20 and .20 respectively.
Previous results showed that a significant portion of MMORPG players do tell their online friends about personal issues and secrets that they have never told their real-life friends (link), and these results hint at how these virtual worlds provide a different kind of communication channel than face-to-face communication provides. When respondents were asked whether they felt more comfortable expressing themselves and communicating through typed chat as opposed to face-to-face, it was interesting to find a near-perfect normal distribution.
While there were no gender differences, there were significant age differences.
Respondents were also asked whether their MMORPG experiences have helped them be better communicators in real life, or whether it has helped them in forming and sustaining relationships in real life. About 1/5 of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their MMORPG experiences have made them more comfortable with face-to-face communication. There were no significant gender or age differences.
While there were no significant gender differences, there were significant age differences. In particular, younger players were more likely to have benefited from their MMORPG experiences.
The safe, anonymous environment that an MMORPG provides may very well facilitate individuals overcoming their real-life anxieties about communication and relationships, and provide them with a variety of practice settings. This is one of the many reasons why it doesn’t make sense to think of MMORPGs as “just games” – because it denies the existence of the transfer of experience and lessons that occurs all the time.
The exploration of whether individuals can learn leadership skills from their MMORPG experience is important for several reasons. First of all, it demonstrates that actual real-life skills can be learned in virtual settings. Secondly, it allows educators and corporate training creators to think of MMORPGs as more than just games, and shows that MMORPGs should be thought of as potential educational mediums. And finally, it highlights the possibility of a kind of “emergent learning” where the pedagogy isn’t dictated as in traditional training software, but emergent in the sense that it occurs because of the rich system mechanics.
MMORPGs allow for some provocative scenarios. One could imagine asking job candidates to join a group and persuade the group to move to a different hunting spot to gauge a candidate’s persuasion skills. Or alternatively, have an individual join a group and then attempt to take over the leadership role while gaining the loyalty of the existing group members. Of course, these scenarios depend on a more straight-forward rule-set so there isn’t too much domain specific knowledge that doesn’t apply to the real world. As the pervasiveness of MMOGs increase however, these might be a very possible scenarios.
Because the power of MMORPGs is the ability to place individuals in different ad-hoc groups every time they play, it makes sense to explore whether people are able to learn complex social skills from their experiences. Respondents were asked whether they had learned anything or improved their ability in the following 4 leadership skills from their MMORPG experience.
Mediation: Resolving in-group conflicts. Reducing in-group tension.
Persuasion: Convincing the group to move to a different area, or change hunting tactics.
Motivation: Instilling loyalty. Providing encouragement.
Overall Leadership: Overall leadership ability.
The following table shows that almost half of respondents felt that they had learned a little or a lot across all 4 leadership skill areas.
While there were no gender differences, there were significant age differences. In particular, younger players were more likely to feel they had improved their leadership skills from their MMORPG experiences.
Respondents were also asked whether they were in a manager or leadership role in their real-life jobs, and the interesting finding was that this had no effect on whether the individual felt they had learned anything from their MMORPG experiences. In other words, someone who was in a leadership or management role in real life was not any more or less likely to feel they had learned something from their MMORPG experiences.
This data set demonstrates that MMOGs can, and should be, thought of as potential educational mediums for complex social skills. Beyond training, one could imagine MMOGs used as candidate screening tests. Instead of asking candidates to answer Critical Behavioral (CBI) questions, one could imagine observing them behave in stressful group situations instead, which provides a far better assessment tool than the CBI questions where a candidate can provide prepared answers.