Video Games: More Than A Game

The IBM articles focus on a main theme that a connection can be made between multiplayer online roll playing video games and the business world. Some reasons for this are that in many online games, "leaders" are developed as well as people to fill smaller roles that contain things that need to be accomplished, much like what is done in a business. Four leadership behaviors were the focus of what to base the connection between games and business on; Visioning, Evaluating, Collaborating and Executing, since both are dominant in both games and the business world.

Here is a screenshot of a popular multiplayer game I am familiar with, Halo 3. This game has a bunch of different game modes that require all 4 leadership behaviors to be in effect for your team to win. I like Halo because it is a simple Red Team vs. Blue Team, and all players have the same equipment and amount of health. In this pic we can see the red person is carrying a flag (capture the flag) and returning it to his base. Teams need to visualize the task, evaluate what course to take, collaborate in doing so (since all players have the same amount of health, no one has an advantage), and then execute.

Another game I am familiar with that requires the same kind of leadership behaviors is Call of Duty. This is another popular series of games, yet more realistic than Halo because it is based on war. Still the behaviors in game modes, such as "Sabotage" where you need to plant a bomb in the enemies base and defend it for 60 seconds until it detonates. Collaborating is a huge factor in his, because one person cannot do it by themselves without an almost impossible amount of difficulty.

Here is a screenshot from http://immersiveeducation.org/minecraft. I liked this page because it related to the Bent's Old Fort videos we watched earlier on this semester, in which the virtual version of the fort was created using Minecraft! This is a very helpful tool for tasks like the one accomplished with the virtual fort, and could be the future of business meetings and things of that nature.

The IBM articles were interesting because I never imagined video games would have any place in the business world. They have come a far way since the days when my grandmother would yell at me saying I had played too much playstation and to turn it off. The highlighted points are incredible in the similarities they draw between what goes on in huge companies and what goes on in online multiplayer roll-playing games. Information cited can be found at http://IBM.com​.