Business Lessons I Learned From Online Roleplaying Games
November 5th, 2011
Most people, when asked what their hobbies and concerns of their work come together, would say hobby is a disorder of the work. Games and other entertainment to take the time you might otherwise be spent getting things done. Text-based online games that are several causes for this bad, because employees sometimes find themselves diverted at the office itself.
Online Roleplaying Games (RPGs), however, is the land where real life meets total entertainment. In them, although you must be entertained, you also learn important lessons about society, and becomes part of the group. This lesson can serve you well in the workplace.
Top Four Business Lessons I Learned From an online RPG
1. Treat Others Respectfully
When I first started text-based games, I completely understand. I do not know how to talk to someone outside the character, or even that there is a reason why I should not just use “say” command. People can find out from the context, right?
This was back in 1997, Harper’s Tale MOO. When I arrived, the people walked me through everything that I need to know. They told me how to get clients, how to use the command game, how to communicate OOCly, and what I need to know to get started. They were very patient with me, and, since I became a veteran myself, it’s my job to take that role, to deal with raw beginners, abusive troll looking for confrontation, and the players find demanding special treatment.
In the world of work, nothing is more challenging than dealing with someone who frustrate you in a calm, professional manner. Whether it is a dominating boss, incompetent contractor, or a rude customer, you are almost guaranteed to find someone in your field of work that makes you want to tear your hair out. Manage them with grace, wisdom, and respect using the same skills that helped me deal with difficult people online as a regional leader in the Tale Harper, assistant FiranMUX players, and staff members Laegaria MOO.
2. Fulfill Your Obligations
A text-based game takes work to maintain, and people who do the work that has a thankless job, in many ways. Anyone who has ever maintained the code for an online RPG know how much time can suck, but it is the least of it. There are dozens of small jobs that need to be done by somebody: to add players to the area, approved the application of the characters, writing help and news files, organizing the event. In many ways, online liability serves as an invaluable step between pleasure and business.
In the business world, one easy way to make sure you never get a promotion or a position of trust is failing to meet deadlines. When you say you can do something, people expect you to finish it, or to tell them why you do not. In the online world, there is much less rigid version of the same system codified. When I volunteered to build a new codebase for the X-Men Movieverse, I know that nothing terrible will happen to me if I quit, but I’ll let my friends down. If I agree to hold the event on FiranMUX RPed festival, it is my responsibility to be there for it, and if I fail, there may be consequences, but they do not destroy life. If I choose not to take that responsibility, I do not need. Learning to meet the responsibilities of an online game to help prepare me for the responsibility of the business world.
3. Just bullet points!
Another day, I have met with my boss about a project that we’ve done. He was short on time, so it reminded me just have five minutes. I took the list of topics that I need to go with him, wrote a concise version, and was ready. When I entered, I was ready to hammer my way through the meeting. I push the bullet points one by one, with a list of options detailing the pros and cons, and has six points decision within five minutes. He commented to be as we were leaving that he was impressed by how well I distilled the issue to the core points.
It was not until that night, when I found myself writing a speech IC for FiranMUX, that I realized how many capabilities that come from my online time. Not only Firan has a habit of mocking in its longer-winded speeches, the nature of online RPGs enforced concision. In a text-based media, everything takes more time than it does in person, because typing is more time consuming than talking. Planning a meeting or class to run in a reasonable amount of time online requires brutal trimming non-essential, and most people learn in time to trim them down to the core material. If you can extend that to the business world, you are one step ahead of the game.
4. Keep It Quiet
One odd thing for my brother when he began working full time is the need to hide from family and friends what she is doing. Most companies ask you some degree of discretion from their employees, and which can be difficult for people who used to share any of their friends might find interesting.
Fortunately, I recovered from that need through my online gaming. Although some of the games I play in, especially the X-Men Movieverse, encourage OOC spill information, to build a deeper tapestry of the world, games like FiranMUX very strict about maintaining the confidentiality of OOC on character issues. Therefore, I learned to keep a secret plan really interesting arc of all my friends. After that, the less obvious aspects of my job interesting secrets are relatively easy to keep hidden.
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