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The Matrix For Businesses
An anonymous reader writes "The idea of using virtual reality and gaming technologies to create training exercises and business simulations has been around for years. But recent advances in computer graphics, interfaces, and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games have made it commercially viable to pursue simulations in the business world. Novel, a venture-backed startup company, is about to launch a new MMO role-playing game, called Empire & State, with an unusual goal: to use the technology and the lessons it learns from the game to create simulations for big companies that want to improve their human resources and hiring efficiencies. Imagine assessing employees' leadership and teamwork skills by jacking them into a virtual, multiplayer business scenario. That's the goal, but Novel will face challenges of all sorts — business, social, and technical — in its efforts to sell MMO technologies to the corporate world."
Today's Dilbert, quite on-topic!
That sounds great until somebody learns to game the game. Then what practical use is it to the real world?
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
see subject. I think this has already been here before, with no real success.
I can see it now....someone says something dumb, Frank from Accounting comes over to their side of the conference table, jumps up on it and proceeds to tea bag them.
Yeah, MMO-like corporate worlds could be fantastic.
Sent from your iPad.
". . . but you'll need real world skills to be successful."
*sigh*
But I play video games because I DON'T have real world skills.
Hey, I was only kidding. You don't have to MOD me "Troll" . . . again . . . .
It took me awhile of poking around the site to finally notice that this is "Novel", not "Novell". Reading carefully is important :)
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
FTFA: Players start out as citizens of an empire, and can collaborate and compete with other players to become leaders of young companies or presidents of countries. Depending on their interests, they can also become criminal overlords, military strategists, bounty hunters, or business tycoons. The game itself will be free, but Novel will charge money for transactions within the game, like when players want to purchase clothing, weapons, or housing. “Our innovation is that players have never been given the ability to explore real business practices and politics before,” Olson says. “We’ve never had the ability to do anything but kill stuff before [in MMOs].” ...Doesn't sound like something I would want my employees doing instead of, you know, being productive...
The summary sucks. You guys have no idea - it doesn't do it justice. I've RTFA. And to be honest, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
How about hitting on the bosses?
Leading virtual world provider Linden Labs just laid off 30% of their employees, all of whom were working on a similar concept. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/09/linden_labs_lays_off_30_per_cent_of_staff/
Become number 1 on ur server! go to EmpireAndStateHax.dum for free hax! Outscore your boss, become the new manager!
Why is this thus? What is the reason for this thusness?
Neo: If you're fired in the Matrix, are you unemployed here?
Morpheus: The body cannot receive a paycheck without the mind. Well, except government jobs, but you get my point.
Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
Will I be able to grief my boss?
EGOTIST, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
All right, but this game should model a real world experience. And in reality, that's pretty much how it is: Your rank in a game depends on how much money you (are able to) spend.
Games like this not only stand a chance, they're pretty much the model our world works on currently.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Hi everyone, my name is David and I'm the lead engineer at Novel Interactive. I would like to hopefully clear up some of the confusion related to the article posted here, which was recently published in Xconomy. Although technically similar, Empire & State and the business simulations are two entirely different products. While Empire & State is an MMORPG, you can think of our business simulations as being an MMO hr solution. These enterprise hr solutions are rooted in our MMO technology, but are tailored specifically towards helping to solve HR problems! For those of you who are interested in Empire & State, I encourage you to sign up for our alpha test http://www.empireandstate.com/pages/signup.
This seems pretty much exactly like an old parody video that was out a while back...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msmRwlg23Qc
Imagine assessing employees' leadership and teamwork skills by jacking them into a virtual, multiplayer business scenario.
Sounds like the Kobayashi Maru scenario to me, just without any of the fun.