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	Discuss: Findings -- the network's thinking, aggregated Topic: Turning business into a game

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kwerb

Member Since:
09 Mar 2006
Posts:1

09 Mar 2006 5:30 PM

3 have marked this post as Insightful

The next great communications tool, the one that will make a dent in the information overload Chris and Josh are jabbering about, will come out of the world of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs).

A few stats for background. There are tens of millions of people worldwide who participate in MMOGs, which are immersive 3D "virtual worlds." The leader in the west, World of Warcraft, has 6 million users paying $12-$15/month plus $50 for the game CD -- an annual $1 billion revenue run-rate, and growing. And the market for selling virtual objects and money in MMOGs is estimated at between $100 and $800 million annually. As one might expect, MMOG usage skews to the younger generation, although in places like South Korea, more than 10% of the total population plays.

I was on a panel at an IBM event yesterday on "the future of the enterprise." One of the topics was the relevance of MMOGs. (To their credit, the IBM team involved in the underlying project, the Global Innovation Outlook, gets the importance of games.) People in the audience were willing to accept that MMOGs are a significant entertainment phenomenon, but they had a hard time appreciating the importance for business.

Well, think about the great challenge businesspeople face today in managing multiple overlapping information flows. We're stuck with the inefficiencies of our established communications technologies, which aren't good enough any more. If you play an MMOG like World of Warcraft, one thing you quickly appreciate is that it's all about processing multiple parallel information sources, including 3D graphics, text chat, and voice over IP. And MMOGs have something that the Web and desktop software don't have today -- spatial representation. I can't think of a better test environment for next-generation business communication tools. The business leaders of tomorrow will cut their teeth in MMOGs. They will expect similar conventions when they go to work.

Today, the game designers are way ahead of the business software developers. Two years from now, we should start to see the beginnings of a great crossover.

chrismeyer

Member Since:
20 Dec 2005
Posts:33

20 Apr 2006 2:35 AM

0 have marked this post as Insightful

Yesyesyes. This substantiates the discussion going on in response to the Survey findings, which rank MMOGs last among the trends in importance--MMOGs are training the next generation in how to live in a world that blurs the bounderies between virtual life and "rest of life" (thanks, Sherry Turkle.)

hs96kmw

Member Since:
24 Feb 2006
Posts:1

02 May 2006 9:22 PM

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MMOG's are a really interesting topic. Especially with the Project Entropia game. (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4953620.stm for the full story).

Interesting that you can play a virtual game, where you can win money (that is dispensed in cash points) to spend in the real world.

"It allows people to access their virtually acquired PEDs and convert them into real world money at any cash machine in the world."

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