BusinessWeek thinks corporate execs can learn from WoW
by Zach Yonzon 
Jan 27th 2009 at 8:30AM
Although some readers counter that the achievement-oriented environment is normal for MMOs, one key insight is how WoW reduces barriers to entry and early advancement. More than most MMOs, World of Warcraft is easy to access -- it's easy to level and there are no harsh penalties for dying (unlike some MMOs where death results in a sharp XP loss, sometimes to the point of losing levels). In fact, some might even say that WoW is a little too casual-friendly. Even then, there's a lot in the game that drives people to perform.
The article recommends that corporate leaders take a look at the game and see how it creates a motivational environment. It even goes so far as to laud the gamer disposition, something that players have or develop. It's certainly a refreshing counterpoint to the idea that gamers (or WoW players, in particular) "cannot give 100%" to their jobs. So even though some companies might think that WoW is bad for their employees, BusinessWeek says it just might be good for the bosses.
Thanks, Cahu!
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Siph Jan 27th 2009 8:40AM
WoW can be amazing from both a managements and a psychological view, they can learn a lot from eachother!
Xtyle Jan 27th 2009 1:45PM
The thought processes and mechanics can overlap, but should have NO impact any employer or staffing agency in their hiring process.
Fun info? Maybe..
Might it give insight to character integrity and teamwork functionality? What are they going to do? Ask "What is your toon name and server?" "What guild are you in, what's their website and how long have you been in this guild?" "Do you have any in-game refrences, preferably by non-a$$hats, that we might contact in-game?"
... I don't think so it has any business in business.
Think of your guildies... how many would you hire? ;)
Xtyle Jan 27th 2009 1:47PM
... Or just Hire a HR Reps to search www.wowarmory.com?
Satn Jan 27th 2009 8:43AM
Well employers would certainly see an increase in productivity if they applied an fast/instant reward system to most jobs (instead of only marketing).
If I knew getting a project done on time got me a 0.20% raise, I'd bust my ass to do so, and even more so if finishing ahead of time got a slightly bigger raise.
Seems like only upper management and marketing have any type of tangible short term rewards system built into their regular work, everyone else is expected to get satisfaction and motivation just from doing the job and keep it good enough for that year end review.
Netherscourge Jan 27th 2009 8:45AM
It's too easy for someone to use WoW as a business model, since WoW is practically a no-risk monopoly. There's no physical inventory and since everything is done on computers, there's not much room for new job opportunities.
Blizzard is also willing to cave into its customers at it's own expense to keep the game highly accessible. Some would argue that it's willing to sacrifice the quality of it's product in order to reel in new customers.
I don't see how that would work outside of the video game universe.
Liel Jan 27th 2009 10:12AM
"Blizzard is also willing to cave into its customers at it's own expense to keep the game highly accessible. Some would argue that it's willing to sacrifice the quality of it's product in order to reel in new customers."
No it works outside because they are practicing good business to keep the customer happy which makes up the bulk of their customers rather than cater to the minor few that want inaccessible content.
Any smart business will do what ever it takes to reel in new customers, are their subscription numbers dropping? Nope its going up, if the quality was dropping their numbers would drop.
sephirah Jan 27th 2009 8:46AM
Why when I read the title, the first thing that came to my mind has been
"Nice, now CEO will learn how to ninja their corps gold...err... money!" :P
Aleph Jan 27th 2009 8:49AM
I've also read an article somewhere ages ago where psychologists and sociologists alike studied the social dynamics in the game involving the Corrupted Blood bug after Zul'Gurub was released.
It was mainly about how different people react to epidemics. Some go out of their way to heal the inflicted, some purposefully tried to contaminate others, some steered clear of major cities to avoid getting the debuff, some people who can help didn't bother, etc.
Tinious Jan 27th 2009 8:51AM
Ironically, I just confirmed these guys to speak at EclipseCon eclipsecon.org later in March. I've been trying to convince folks in my technology space the similarities we face with WoW - multi-billion dollar ecosystem, rich 3rd party tools ecosystem, steep learning curve challenges, driving innovation from your users, etc. Luckily someone else has been working hard on the topic too.
Karilyn Jan 27th 2009 8:57AM
I thought it was interesting... until I reached the part where he talked about how the forums were a place for people to get together and work together discussing game aspects for the betterment of the entire playerbase... How the forums allow people to easily get help from others.
And at that moment, I realized this guy had probably never entered the WoW official forums before, and likewise, had probably never played WoW before.
unigolyn Jan 27th 2009 8:58AM
Lol nice hit gems scrub.
Karilyn Jan 27th 2009 9:03AM
unigolyn... What the heck are you talking about?
unigolyn Jan 27th 2009 9:16AM
I was attempting to simulate the level of open and friendly discourse seen on the WoW forums. :D
unigolyn Jan 27th 2009 8:57AM
"one would argue that it's willing to sacrifice the quality of it's product in order to reel in new customers."
The WoW-elitist argument you're making is almost interchangeable with cultural elitism. The "art" of music, literature or film is cheapened by appealing to the masses, yet if we're talking about products, like music, books and movies, what appeals to masses is the only quantifiable quality a non-practical product can have. Certainly the subjective opinions of a tiny subculture of critics count only in the minds of that subculture.
There are two ways of appealing to masses - the lowest common denominator tripe of Michael Bay movies, and the novel idea of creating something with widespread appeal due to having something for everyone, great acting, clever writing and intelligent subtext, as well as thrilling action setpieces.
In other words, WoW is The Dark Knight or the Pixar feature of the MMO world.
karas Jan 27th 2009 9:13AM
ok i'll quote a comment from the source site.. :)
imagine an employee being "addicted" and passionate on his work and would give his time, effort and resources at being good in what he does.. that ought to be something corporations and companies can learn how World of Warcraft did it to its players.. :)
Linden Jan 27th 2009 9:13AM
I would say that I think pretty much all of what he says applies to any MMORG (or that matter any game requiring player-player interaction).
A good example of this is 'shadows over camalot' based around Arthurian legend you fight the game as a team (with the possibility of one player being a traitor) it requires the same degree of co -operation that a raid will.
Its good to see that people are finally starting to realise that games are in no way a bad thing for people to take part in. While some people have this weird idea that gamers are sad lonely individuals (so unlike the go - getting population sitting in front of TV.. wait...) at last it seems that the majority have spotted that games tend to push problem solving skills to the limits
/rant / ramble
anonymoose Jan 27th 2009 3:40PM
Oh this is indeed funny--I followed some of the links you posted, and wound up at the F13 forum that issued a scathing rebuttal to those who attempted to cover the "WoW players screened as bad workers" story and messed it up.
Yes, WoWInsider, you were on the list as having gotten the story wrong.
Check the link to find out what really occurred
http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=15577.0
Ilnara Jan 27th 2009 11:50AM
Gee imagine that, Employees don't fancy themselves "slaves" or "drones" stuck to the tread mill of churning out profits for the people in the corner offices in the suits.
I think this 'awakening' doesn't have anything to do with WoW at all, I think it has more to do with the workers being tired of being thought of as commodities for the taking /trading / exploitation of business owners and managers.
No, it isn't an enticing prospect that we're seen as wage slaves any more..
We want to work, but we don't -just- want to work.
Equality..what a great thing.. Awww, all you business owners finally have to admit that without your workers you wouldn't know, or have crap, especially all that money you roll around in while paying the people that actually EARN it for you a pittance.
If you want your employees to embrace you, and the work you ask them to perform, try treating them like your equal, and not someone beholden to you for what they have, as if without you, they'd have nothing, and no opportunity at all.
My last Boss was exactly like this. Told me to my face that "I don't know this stuff, thats why I hired you" yet when I asked for a raise commensurate with my experience and the level of work I was doing was told "Thats not what I'm paying you based upon" .. Well, which is is asshat? Either you hired me because I know what I'm doing or you hired me to get yourself some cheap labor so you could pocket more cash and act like you did all the work. The fact that I got fired shortly after this, and that he rolls around in a $90,000 luxury car should give you the short answer.
The time for these people honoring themselves is at an end.
Cyrus Jan 27th 2009 11:56AM
"it's easy to level and there are no harsh penalties for dying (unlike some MMOs where death results in a sharp XP loss, sometimes to the point of losing levels)"
The RPer in me hates the current death system, but the rest of me is mostly OK with it.
In instances, Blizzard got it just right, I think. If one person dies they're out of the fight until it's over, barring relatively rare in-combat resurrection abilities. If everybody dies the encounter resets so the group or raid has to start over. There's a gold cost, and if you die too often, there's a time cost to repair. These penalties are serious but not all that time-consuming, which is important when you're coordinating a lot of people for something that takes a certain amount of time even if things go well.
Maybe I'd make the penalty a little steeper in the non-instance world, or at least return it to the penalty it used to be by taking out some of the graveyards they added all over the place in recent patches. Basically, it seems wrong to me that there are ever situations where corpse runs are a good strategy, like the blue dragon cave in Winterspring for the old Onyxia attunement quest.
Hmmm. This reminds me of Diablo II, where there were normal characters who died and resurrected basically like in WoW, and then there were Hardcore characters, for whom death was permanent. Maybe Blizzard could implement something like that in a future expansion: characters who can't be resurrected, except by spells or abilities. Although there should be some kind of limitation to keep people from spamming the general channel for someone to resurrect them, then. The dead couldn't chat? (Except to the new Necromancer hero class!) Someone can only resurrect someone else if they were in a group with them when they died? And it wouldn't apply to deaths in PvP combat, or one determined ganker in mid-level areas could cripple the opposite faction. And leveling a character with this restriction would be much tougher than any current achievement, so Blizzard should give useful rather than just cosmetic rewards for it. I know I'd roll a Hardcore character at least once, to see if I could handle it...
tl;dr version: death in WoW could be tweaked and it might be cool to see the option of "real" death, but overall I think Blizzard got it right.