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BBC: "Does Playing Video Games Improve Your Workplace Performance?"

llien

Member
"Businesses are waking up to the skills gamers can bring to the workplace," argues the BBC, adding that "Even the military is hiring gamers.""The ability to assimilate information, react swiftly and co-ordinate actions whilst remaining calm under pressure are often attributes of people that are good at gaming," a Royal Air Force spokesperson tells the BBC. Those skills are part of what the RAF is looking for "in a variety of roles. Skills acquired through gaming can be very relevant to certain areas."

"There are plenty of soft skills that gamers can utilise in a professional setting, such as teamwork, problem solving and strategic planning," says Ryan Gardner, a regional director with Hays recruitment.
They also interview the man who told Kotaku that "If you're playing EVE Online you basically already have an MBA."Matthew Ricci tells the BBC he stands by the sentiment -- and Eve players might understand why. Often made fun of in gaming circles as a "spreadsheet simulator", the economy of the fictional Eve universe is driven by real market principles. If you want to build a new spaceship, the raw material has to be mined by another player. Manufacturing costs come into effect, and commodities fluctuate in price based on demand and haulage distance.

Mr Ricci, who had always dreamed of being the boss of his own company, ran an in-game corporation comprising hundreds of players. Eventually, he realised he could transfer his skills to real-life business -- instead of doing it for free. He restructured Zentech, once a taxation vehicle for his father's business, and it is now in its fourth year helping international brands enter the Canadian market... He credits his success to his family, his obsession with running his own business -- and "a damn good company in Iceland that made a damn good game".
The BBC also spoke to a radiotherapy physicist who says old-school games like Palace of Magic, on his father's Acorn Electron [released in 1983] not only exposed him to computers, but encouraged a competitive streak which he believes translates to his work today. "When creating treatment plans, the aim is to optimise the radiation dose to the tumour and restrict it as much as possible to healthy surrounding tissue and organs... Most videogames are essentially puzzles to solve," he says. "And problem-solving is a big part of my job."

slashdot

Quite refreshing, after all the "makes you shoot people", "makes you sexist" nonsense.
 

Chromata

Member
The issue with video games is the vagueness of its experience. You can't monitor how someone plays video games. These benefits apply to those who play them more mindfully, rather than someone who turns their brain off and plays mindlessly. Employers often don't have a concrete way of distinguishing the two which is partially why gaming isn't necessarily something that's valued in a work environment.

For example, I can spend 500 hours drawing stick figures but that won't make me a good artist. Someone who spends 500 hours drawing critically and focusing on improving will be far greater than me. They will also have something to show for it in the form of a portfolio.

Even among those who play mindfully, it's hard to pinpoint a specific benefit for playing video games because there are so many different types of games that each demand different attributes from its players.
 

VertigoOA

Banned
Yea. I’m an electrician in skyscrapers. I feel like I’m raiding the tower sometimes.

I greet people sometimes with “what puzzles do you bear, guardian?” All the time...
 
Monkey island and Broken sword have helped me problem solve and fault find,

Theme hospital, Settlers and C&C taught me resource management and business strategy,
 
F

Foamy

Unconfirmed Member
Cant say I envision any of the hardcore Warcraft players having their work improved when they're averaging about 2 hours sleep every night.
 
Did they check what is the effect on the receptionist who plays solitaire on her work computer? or the home office worker who spends a couple of hours a day on their favorite MMO?
 

down 2 orth

Member
I would think so. You need fast reflexes with the controller, just as you need fast reflexes to deal with people in real life.
 

Shifty1897

Member
My girlfriend is in surgical residency and video games help with her hand eye coordination, which was terrible until we started dating.

As for it helping my job... Maybe? I dunno. As a cloud engineer I spend a lot of my time spinning plates, responding to requests from sales, customer support, and development, while also managing my own projects. I played a lot of RTS games when I was younger so that probably helped. Though now I mostly play turn based strategy and RPG games because I deal with time-sensitive stuff all day and I don't want to feel that kind of pressure when I relax.

Playing SNES RPGs as a kid really helped my vocabulary and let me appreciate other classic literature, and helped with my writing as well.
 
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joe_zazen

Member
My girlfriend is in surgical residency and video games help with her hand eye coordination, which was terrible until we started dating.

As for it helping my job... Maybe? I dunno. As a cloud engineer I spend a lot of my time spinning plates, responding to requests from sales, customer support, and development, while also managing my own projects. I played a lot of RTS games when I was younger so that probably helped. Though now I mostly play turn based strategy and RPG games because I deal with time-sensitive stuff all day and I don't want to feel that kind of pressure when I relax.

Playing SNES RPGs as a kid really helped my vocabulary and let me appreciate other classic literature, and helped with my writing as well.

Weird, becsuse the studies ive seen show more video game play, less hand eye. Or maybe i am confusing screen time with game time, not sure now.

Also from the bbc “do headlines with question marks get more clicks?”
 

Shifty1897

Member
Weird, becsuse the studies ive seen show more video game play, less hand eye. Or maybe i am confusing screen time with game time, not sure now.

Also from the bbc “do headlines with question marks get more clicks?”

A lot of surgery nowadays is done with machines that are controlled by a surgeon in the corner of the OR with basically a video game controller, so those skills definitely correlate now.
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
This is the kind of quote that haunts someone on a forum, but I think Fortnite greatly aided my multitasking and decision making under pressure.

That game is difficult and packed with things going on, like few others are, and keeping up, let alone winning, takes a lot.
 
Yeah, no.

Working unpaid overtime would improve my workplace performance.
Playing games just takes away some of my time, some of my money and probably some of my health.
 
"Businesses are waking up to the skills gamers can bring to the workplace," argues the BBC, adding that "Even the military is hiring gamers.""The ability to assimilate information, react swiftly and co-ordinate actions whilst remaining calm under pressure are often attributes of people that are good at gaming," a Royal Air Force spokesperson tells the BBC. Those skills are part of what the RAF is looking for "in a variety of roles. Skills acquired through gaming can be very relevant to certain areas."

"There are plenty of soft skills that gamers can utilise in a professional setting, such as teamwork, problem solving and strategic planning," says Ryan Gardner, a regional director with Hays recruitment.
They also interview the man who told Kotaku that "If you're playing EVE Online you basically already have an MBA."Matthew Ricci tells the BBC he stands by the sentiment -- and Eve players might understand why. Often made fun of in gaming circles as a "spreadsheet simulator", the economy of the fictional Eve universe is driven by real market principles. If you want to build a new spaceship, the raw material has to be mined by another player. Manufacturing costs come into effect, and commodities fluctuate in price based on demand and haulage distance.

Mr Ricci, who had always dreamed of being the boss of his own company, ran an in-game corporation comprising hundreds of players. Eventually, he realised he could transfer his skills to real-life business -- instead of doing it for free. He restructured Zentech, once a taxation vehicle for his father's business, and it is now in its fourth year helping international brands enter the Canadian market... He credits his success to his family, his obsession with running his own business -- and "a damn good company in Iceland that made a damn good game".
The BBC also spoke to a radiotherapy physicist who says old-school games like Palace of Magic, on his father's Acorn Electron [released in 1983] not only exposed him to computers, but encouraged a competitive streak which he believes translates to his work today. "When creating treatment plans, the aim is to optimise the radiation dose to the tumour and restrict it as much as possible to healthy surrounding tissue and organs... Most videogames are essentially puzzles to solve," he says. "And problem-solving is a big part of my job."

slashdot

Quite refreshing, after all the "makes you shoot people", "makes you sexist" nonsense.

Dunno if helps with my work, but playing shittons of fps thru the years, and lately countless hours on Destiny 2 in particular, made my reflexes lightning fast in everything, in sport and my martial arts fights too is noticeable
Lightspeed bitches lol

If I were a medic or therapyst, I'd make elder people play tons of Mario, platformings in general and lots of fps to them, both relaxing, good for put stress out, and helps with reflexes and coordination
 
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