Financial Express, India
06-30-07
Virtual wars to boardroom battles
Online games are shaping today’s tech-savvy generation, whether it is picking up
tips on business strategies or living life
Banasree Purkayastha
For Deepak Abbot, senior manager in a start-up, boardroom battles are passé.
The enemies that he slays, the damsels that he rescues give him the real high.
All on his PC. And the lessons that he learns from these virtual wars are
translated into strategies put into practice in his morning meetings with his
marketing team. “Monsters, demons, Viking warriors, knights in shining armour
— these may all seem very juvenile, but thereby lies a tale,” he intones. Most of
his marketing tactics are derived from the virtual world — the world of massively
multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs).
Abbot is not the only one who sees the virtual world simulating real life or vice
versa. Says David Abecassis, product designer and former president of the
Stanford Gaming Society, “I’ve learned that guild and other leaders are just as
human as the rest of us, and they often need our help as much as we need
theirs. I have tried in my personal and business life to be mindful of the strain that
is often placed on leadership, and to be as helpful to well-meaning leaders as
possible.”
Backed by research
They have got studies to back them up. According to an IBM study conducted in
conjunction with MIT, Stanford University and a start-up called Seriosity, skills
developed as an online gamer help employees become better business leaders
in the future. The qualities needed to effectively lead in the workspace are the
same qualities that kids, teenagers and adults are developing in the world of
MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Everquest, it says. “To succeed in a
global, highly competitive, virtual business environment, organisations need to
focus on the behaviour they need their future leaders to demonstrate, and the
tools and techniques corporate leaders will need to master. As India now plays
an increasingly important role in the globally integrated business strategy,
organisations in India can leverage the lessons from online gaming
environments,” says Dr Daniel Dias, director, IBM India Research Laboratory.
The study suggests that companies seeking competitive advantage in the global
marketplace might be well served by tapping into the skills and experience these
gamers are acquiring in their “virtual” lives. For example, nearly half of the
gamers studied believe that game playing has improved their real-world
leadership capabilities. Three-quarters believe that the tools used in games to
collaborate and connect can be applied to enhance leadership effectiveness.
The other extreme
At the other end of the spectrum are people who lose themselves in these
games. They would prefer to interact with cyber characters instead of having
flesh-and-blood mates. Says Dr Samir Parikh, clinical psychologist, “If it is
leading to reduced social interaction, then it is definitely a cause for worry. The
length of time spent in this virtual world can also affect your concentration, thus
compromising your quality of work. Preoccupation with gaming where routine
activities are compromised is very often seen among youngsters.”
Contents of these games may also influence behaviour, say experts. If there is
too much of violence, you could become more aggressive. Studies by Iowa State
University psychologists have linked children’s aggressive behaviour with
exposure to violent video games. “Games which focus on mindless shooting do
not appeal to me. I prefer games like Simcity or Age of the Empire where the
stress is on conquering a territory through strategizing, planting your team at the
right place or learning from your past mistakes,” says Rajesh Shastri, another
gaming enthusiast.
DNA of the online gamer
There are today around 100 billion gamers in the world, of whom around 5-7
million are hooked into MMORPGs. In India, the number of people who play role
games stands around 2-3 lakh. “According to dip-stick surveys, most of these
online gamers are based in smaller cities. Cyber games give these youngsters
an opportunity to live out their dreams and desires, become the heroes that they
normally would not be in a typical 9-to-5 job,” says Rajesh Rao, CEO, Dhruva
Interactive. While bigger cities offer a lot of entertainment opportunities, options
are restricted in smaller cities. Online games therefore offer an opportunity to
reach out to the bigger world, team up with people whom they would have not
otherwise met, and by default give a sense of power and achievement, he
explains. And it isn’t just long-haired geeks who are into online gaming, kids in
the age group of 8-9 years to career professionals in their early 30s are hooked
onto the ‘good versus evil’ wars.
Points out Abbot, who’s just touched 30, “I have been playing for the last 12-13
years. Earlier I used to play for 8-9 hours, but now it has come down to 2-3 hours
daily.” He confesses that even his choice of career was to a certain extent
influenced by his fondness for the virtual world. Today, although he and his
friends are dispersed across the country, they still talk shop (read gaming) when
they chat.
Playing for high stakes
For Arun Mehra, chief marketing officer, Zapak.com, it all depends on what the
stakes are. Monopoly was the precursor to today’s MMORPGs, he says, — you
had to strategise, think long-term, keep your wits, and read your opponent’s mind
to win. “Already MMORPGs are very popular with MBA students. I would not be
surprised if tomorrow simulated games based on the MMORPG model are
incorporated in MBA courses to give students a feel of real-life business
instances.”
Naveen H, national manager, sales, Sify gaming, Sify, points to the online
gaming phenomenon in the US to explain his reasoning. “Most of the web
entrepreneurs we see in the US today are those who got into online gaming in
the 1980s and 1990s. The skills which they used to win the game were the same
ones based on which they spun off their start-ups.” He goes on to say that many
of India’s current gaming geeks could turn into tomorrow’s entrepreneurs.
Nintendo’s Wii console was this year heralded as giving the right push to physical
activity – the console’s motor sensitive wand required users to swing their arms
more, thus burning up the calories. Now with studies saying that online gaming
could even shape your personality and push you up the corporate leader, all that
we can say is — keep gaming!