Month: January 2007

Joi Ito has an excellent video presentation on Google Video discussing how games like the World of Warcraft can teach us more about community building and teamwork which we can then take and utilize within the real world (such as in our work environments).

One of the things I’ve realized though is I haven’t found a single MBA who is good at leadership in this situation. Most of the people who are good at leading here are people who are good at listening. It’s actually very similar to leadership in open source.

I honestly believe that games have the potential to be so much more than just about fun. A young fox cub chasing a butterfly through a field is more than just having fun. It is learning how to hunt. So too do games have the opportunity to teach us more about ourselves, which we can then take back into the real world. It seems like some companies already understand this transferability of experience and knowledge though, as there have been articles on the subject already.

Gamasutra has an article entitled Researchers: Deeper Emotions Keep Gamers Playing which talks about how emotions play a strong part in continued gameplay.

“We think there’s a deeper theory than the fun of playing,” says Richard M. Ryan, a motivational psychologist at the University and lead investigator in the four new studies about gaming. Players reported feeling best when the games produced positive experiences and challenges that connected to what they know in the real world.

“It’s our contention that the psychological ‘pull’ of games is largely due to their capacity to engender feelings of autonomy, competence, and relatedness,” adds Ryan.

“Feeling best”, “positive experiences”, and “connected” are all words that resonated with me. The funny thing is that while yes, it does relate to “what they know in the real world”, I think more than anything people are playing these games because they are looking for something more. In other words, they are looking for something that is lacking in the real world (or more likely something that used to be there a long time ago but is no longer).

What is it? I’m not sure specifically but I think it relates to the feeling of being a part of something and being truly valued and appreciated for your contributions, no matter how small or diverse they may be. Unfortunately, due to the culture of big business today, this rarely happens because most people are not seen so much as people but more as machines that fill a specialized replaceable role. And if you’ve ever worked in a large corporate environment then you’ll probably know what I mean.

Of course not all businesses are this way. Changes are occurring and for the better. It’s just that it will probably be sometime before these changes fully spread to most businesses so that they finally catch the cluetrain and fully understand what’s going on.

For those who are familiar with Hugh MacLeod, you’ll probably know of about his post from a while back entitled The Sex & Cash Theory.

The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task in hand covers both bases, but not often. This tense duality will always play center stage. It will never be transcended.

I’ve slightly renamed this for myself to be The Love & Money Theory. In other words, on the one hand you get work which you love doing because it’s in synch with your passions. The other work you do, you just do for the money because you need to pay the bills. It doesn’t mean you hate the work. You may actually find it very interesting. It’s just that it isn’t fully in synch with your passions.

I have no problem accepting this reality. However, at the same time, I just realized that I need my space here on this site to be about my passions and only my passions. To achieve this, I think the best thing to do is to keep any “business” related content off my site here. In other words, I need to follow my site’s byline that says it’s a “Personal Site”.

With that in mind, I’ve removed all posts relating to my freelance work from my site here. And yes, this also means I’ll no longer be doing freelance work (well except for a few established clients already). I’ve decided instead to look for employment in Vancouver, preferably with a startup company or a small company with a startup culture. I just really miss working face to face with a close knit group of people.

Oh one last thing. You might be wondering why I changed the name of the theory from “sex” to “love”. The reason for this is that sex, while enjoyable, is very rarely fulfilling, as you usually just want more. Love on the other hand, even if just for a brief moment, can truly sustain you for a lifetime. And from the looks of Hugh’s latest post on his site, it looks like he’s thinks love is a pretty big deal as well.  🙂