World of Warcraft Represents the New Culture of Learning at its best

We haven't talked about World of Warcraft (WoW) as a learning tool in awhile. There is an interesting and compelling piece ("How World of Warcraft Could Save Your Business and The Economy") from Big Think with John Seely Brown discussing what the corporate world can take away from WoW. JSB leads off  with:

"I would rather hire a high level World of Warcraft player than an MBA from Harvard."

Boom.

Wow is not just game play. You have to look at the social life on the edge of the game. The creation of guilds. The creation of "Raiding" guilds. Those are guilds (groups of gamers) joined together for the purpose of tackling the most challenging content that Blizzard has to offer. In a typical night, the WoW community (12million-ish PAYING customers) create 15,000 new strategic ideas in problem solving for a Raid. (10 -20 people playing together)

Guilds are social learning entities.

JSB says they don't have a bonus structure. I would argue that. When you collect enough high level players together and mold them into a high performing team there are definite bonuses to be gained. Harder raids means the opportunity to acquire better gear. There is also an element of prestige. Achieving more difficult achievements. Etc.

The point is that the members of the guild are motivated by the reward system. It is internal to them. I want that new piece of gear. I want that dragon that I can fly around in. So I seek out a group that will help me and that I can contribute to as well.

JSB refers to a guild as an iteration structure and an idea refinement structure.

Corporate life does not compete with this at all. 15,000 new ideas a day?

Guilds perform After Action Reviews on failed attempts. Do you have the right mix of classes? Is everyone geared properly? Is everyone buffed properly? (Boosted from food and potions, gems and enchantments). What went well? What do we need to do differently?

He points out the similarities between dashboard measurements in corporate life and WoW. In WoW, you create your own dashboards for measurement. In the corporate world, your manager creates a dashboard to measure you. JSB contemplates corporations in the 21st century letting us define our own metrics. And then building small teams whose mission is to help us accelerate learning. I like his term "talent accelerator".

This makes me think of my brother. He is a Guild leader and a Raid leader. He spends a considerable amount of time each week studying forums and you tube videos of Raids. Learning. He then takes that learning to the group/Guild and TEACHES them. Talent acceleration.

This is a fascinating piece and gets me a little geeked up for the upcoming new content drop coming very soon from Blizzard. In the meantime, check me out on Eonar: Mokohoko.

Here is a 6 minute video of JSB. Totally worth it: