Online Communities Have Positive Effect

eToychest has the results from a three year study, showing the effect of online gaming communities. Overall, the study found, such communities have beneficial results. From the article: "'Our study shows that the online gaming communities are complex and highly developed, acting as training grounds for the transition from school to work' Nic continues: 'When playing, gamers are undergoing a complex process of work related learning - learning how to cope with work scenarios - which is far removed from the traditionally held negative view of gaming. Put simply, these games have a central - and positive - role to play in the development and education of young people.'"

Comments

Commander Obvious strikes again.

[PFI_Optix]

Am I the only one not surprised that when you put a group of people in an entertaining environment with common goals, they develop a positive social structure that emphasizes cooperation and just generally being a good sport?

I mean, seriously. This has been documented plenty of times in real life, is it really all that astounding that people behave the same way in multiplayer games?

Actually interesting

[Puhase]

I never really considered this idea of "work enviroment" related training and how MMO's can foster develope of these skills. Imagine how many times in school your teachers gave you a ridiculous group project simply because they wanted to teach kids how to function in a results-based enviroment as a group. There are alot of skills you learn in an MMO group: leadership, listening, adapting to change based on observation of other's actions, conflict resolution, etc. that are nice to have when you step into that deep, cold, void of the real world. Obviously they are not saying that everyone learns these skills, but I can definatly see that the challenges set before players do foster such ideas.

Socializing Practice

[bob65]

So the article basically says: "Socializing with others provides good training and practice for socializing with others". I know some researchers have to conduct null studies like this to pay their bills and stuff, but is anyone really interested in this?

Don't Forget

[Azarael]

Gaming communities give you great experience on how to deal with lots of potential aspects of a workplace. Ego driven flame wars, megalomaniacs, juvenile tantrums and control freak superiors are a few that come to mind.

Playing.... learning.

[Spy der Mann]

Does anyone who has seen Animal Planet find a coincidence? When animals play they're training their survival skills. Children play with toys and learn about their environment. Humans are "social animals", so games which imply cooperation in a society are (inadvertedly) training people for today's jobs.