Veteran researcher John Seely Brown says some accomplished World of Warcraft players would probably make great employees. "I would rather hire a high-level World of Warcraft player than an MBA from Harvard," he states at the top of a video republished this week for Big Think.Brown says that WoW achievers stand out because of their passion for the game and their willingness to succeed in an environment that is largely devoid of meaningful bonus-based structures. He also comments on the nature of guild politics and their usefulness in preparing people.
"These guilds are truly meritocracy-based," Brown explains. "So even if you were the leader of this particular high-end raid, at the end you do an after-action review, and [during] the after-action review each person is open to total criticism by everybody else."
Massively's Karen Bryan offered her own take on Brown's assertions in a fall 2012 edition of The Guild Counsel. Check out the original video after the cut; the new edition of the video is available only on YouTube.