Breakfast Topic: What real-life skills has WoW helped you develop?
by Amelia Ramstead 
Apr 15th 2011 at 8:00AM
I've never been a hunt-and-peck typist, but these days, my fingers can fly across the keyboard. It has certainly served me well in my employment. I can successfully type out full paragraphs with one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse. You can't see it, but I'm doing it right now. Are you impressed yet?
Okay, probably not. I'm willing to bet that any of you can do it, too. But what other skills have you acquired through playing WoW? If you run your own guild, you may have become an effective leader and a whiz at organization and planning. Raid leaders may have to become experts at dealing with conflicting personalities and steering their cohorts toward the common goal. Dealing with guild drama might have you thinking should have a degree in social work by now. Playing the auction house might have inspired you to go into the stock market (and if you have earned a fortune doing this, please share your tips with the group!) Or maybe you've just learned to suck up your disappointments and handle them without having to resort to QQ and name-calling.
Have you acquired an impressive skill through WoW that you might not have developed otherwise?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
e.friedman1992 Apr 15th 2011 8:05AM
I think typing is the obvious one here... But besides that, I guess I learned here that you aren't the only member of a team, and you need to learn to deal with other people sometimes to get work done. (Bad relationship with someone in your raid/annoying coworker on the same project as you)
sterny Apr 16th 2011 12:24AM
It's not typing for me, it's touch-typing. Taking notes in class has been the biggest win thus far, and I've heard similar stories from friends who play other online games, such as Runescape (olawd).
Another thing i've learned more about, is how to deal with addiction, or at least I hope I have, as while I was addicted to WoW, I've taken a year off for my last year of school so I can hopefully get into a good university. I hope my presence on this site doesn't prove me wrong, although it has blurred the lines a little.
Name calling is certainly something I've learned to deal with a bit better, although the banter always seems more intelligent in real life, or maybe it's that when I played WoW, I had the time to think before I replied
I'll be back in exactly 220 days, but until then, I'll have to take pleasure from what enjoyment I can garner from my real life exam achievements, rather than my Arena ones.
Deke Apr 15th 2011 8:15AM
I am an awesome tank in RL.
Seems like my co-workers get away with a lot as the Boss is always angry with me.
vorgadk Apr 15th 2011 8:17AM
This made me lol :)
Roy Apr 15th 2011 8:33AM
:-) They also must have learned to stay out of the fire then :-)
Myramensgone Apr 15th 2011 8:08AM
Wow helped me budget time better. If I agree to show to a raid I'm gonna show so i end up planning everything around that.
Roy Apr 15th 2011 8:08AM
Goldshire has taught me many things about humanity, none of which I am willing to type out here.
theconman Apr 15th 2011 8:09AM
I'm a raid leader, and for me it's all about leadership and confidence. I'm also a high school teacher, and Once I started leading raids, I found that my presence in the classroom and my confidence at work also improved. Guildies keep saying there are a lot of similarities between teaching and raid leading, which I guess they are right, but I found the RL helped my teaching probably more than the other way around.
Pri Apr 16th 2011 12:22AM
I'm a high school teacher as well, and was a raid leader and healing leader before I began my teaching career. Honestly, the first day of teaching math to very unwilling teenagers was less daunting than organizing and keeping control of 25 toons working at cross-purposes.
loop_not_defined Apr 15th 2011 8:13AM
Tact.
shatto.a Apr 15th 2011 8:51AM
This. If pugging has taught me anything it's that some things just don't need to be said, even if they're true.
furry Apr 15th 2011 10:08AM
funny, shatto.a... Sometimes I feel like I learned the exact opposite in PuGs
GrumblyStuff Apr 15th 2011 8:15AM
I don't know if I'd call it a skill but WoW has made me more honest and helpful than ever. I'll answer the call for crafting weapons or armor or doing enchants and ask about what they're gonna do with it. If it seems like they just want new armor but have no idea what stats their looking for, I'll spend a while chatting about it, even going into specs and glyphs and enchants so long as they're willing of course. Sometimes I've gotten them over to target dummies and took a look at their rotations and spell/ability usage, showing them the results with Recount.
Okay, maybe some consulting and conversational skill but at least in WoW I can inspect people to see where they're at and where they might be aiming playstyle-wise.
Elicor Apr 15th 2011 8:21AM
Thanks to roleplaying, WoW has helped me type very fast and without errors. As a side effect, I learned to think on my feet and easily come up with interesting things to type.
Fkkyocouch Apr 15th 2011 8:23AM
Thanks, just added 3 years WoW experience to my resume.
That'll definitely get me a good job! :D
Wulfkin Apr 15th 2011 9:22AM
You joke, but I maintain we should live in a world where this could happen.
Classic example for me was when I was interning last year and my line manager was teaching me how to make publishing materials in InDesign. My work quickly surpassed hers even though I had never used the program before. When asked how I had such a good handle on layout design, I simply replied that this was nothing compared to making a custom WoW UI. :D
Winter Apr 15th 2011 12:59PM
A Yahoo middle manager got his position, selected from several of equal competency, after the hiring team looked at the fact he ran a large raiding guild. His HR people skills, developed under those conditions, were a deciding factor.
IBM also used WoW and other virtual worlds -- playing, not just as a setting to meet up -- to train managers. This is one of many related articles. http://www.seriousgamessource.com/item.php?story=11690
emberdione Apr 15th 2011 2:21PM
As a game designer, I did this. I talk about WoW as a design experience, my addon work as code experience, and my guild website as organization experience.
Also, it really helps when trying to explain what we want to do on something using WoW terms, because everyone knows them. "Okay so this boss fight, it's the geyser from Lurker, plus the switching from Halion, with a bit of Sindragosa for good measure."
fallemwarrior Apr 15th 2011 8:25AM
Not to stand in fire
I was so lost before i didn't know if it was good or bad, wow clearly taught me that if i stand in fire i will die.
thank you wow!
Tygerwolfe Apr 15th 2011 4:26PM
I agree. And yet I still find myself standing in the fire occasionally. :P Some people never learn.