7 Ways Playing Video Games Translates to Work
“Stop wasting your time on video games!” This was a common phrase that many like me heard growing up. But because of people like me, video games thrived and taking on industry head on in entertainment, technology, finance, etc making multi-billion dollars annually. You wouldn’t think so by categorizing it as one genre or market vertical but there are gamers everywhere. But it’s a lot more complex than that. Through micro transactions and streaming services video games moved beyond just the simple point and click that it once was decades ago. It crosses socioeconomic boundaries through different platforms that help content creators monetize their space. Alas… I am not a professional video gamer. But, what I take from video game culture in my years of playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) is these 7 tips that can translate into ways of working in your job or career.
1. Schedules
In some games you have set schedules where each week you have a certain amount of time set aside daily, weekly, etc that are time boxed to ensure you have the best opportunity to play and explore and take on new encounters. Team members attendance is essential to the success and their role within the game. Yup… just like work there are people that count on you to be there the times you promised and that you’ll do your part.
2. Plans
In MMORPGs planning involved when taking on a boss encounter. This is because these games have phases or unique events that happen throughout when you engage a boss. Phase one could require you to dodge a lot of stuff (mostly fire or lava or something) maybe you are required to navigate obstacles and keep your character from dying. Phase two may require after surviving that hopscotch of death that you now must run a ball with your team towards the boss to cause damage to it. And of course it’s not as easy as one person being good at it… they often make it more challenging by requiring multiple players doing this or if a player does it too many times it fatal or wipes an entire team. Like a dungeon boss projects and bodies of work often have phases, routines, and or gates you need to pass through before you can move onto the next step. You want to visualize those distinct steps to allow the support needed to execute on the plan.
3. Research
Naturally, before you can have a plan, you may have to perform research. There are plenty of online resources or guides (write-ups of an encounter) that are available. Some even go into depth by creating animations that show all the distinct steps involved and for each player role and best composition of player roles. Better yet, a lot of streamers may have posted videos online that you can watch that show step-by-step of what they did to be successful. On top of all this research, you share with your team the findings, the strategies and the best way to move forward with the team. It can be hours of time putting it together so that your team has one merge set of information to work with.
4. Communication & Coordination
If you play a game that requires others to join in, you know that communication and coordination are key to taking down that gigantic dragon (We call them “bosses”). You need to be talking and communicating regularly as there are actions and behaviors that require the team to discuss in real time what is happening. That way you can adapt the strategy that was originally planned if things change or if someone on your team makes a mistake. There are projects that require the same level of coordination and communication to be successful. Playing games allowed me to work with my team and approach challenges that are placed before us in a similar way.
5. Micro & Macro Thought Processes
While playing games you have to think about some key things: what you’re doing now, what you’re doing later, what your team is doing now and later, what the boss will do now or later and so on. There is a lot of planning and thinking that happens. You deploy both strategic thoughts and tactical while in a boss encounter. Video games were designed often time with different phases that require different problem-solving skills and so too much the team adapt and discuss their thoughts. The teams that think the best of their feet and adapt their strategy can often win the day. Part of being a project manager was exploring likely outcomes of a project. Ideally you don’t want failure but that’s part of learning to. So you do what you can to plot out those outcomes, explain the thought processes and strategize on how to ensure that a project can come to completion successfully.
6. Focus & Practice
While you don’t break a sweat playing some of these games. Focus and pay attention to what is happening in an encounter and “practice” (aka “boss attempts”) in order to accomplish what you had set out to do. This could span days, weeks, and if you’re unlucky, a month! It takes time and learning to take on challenging encounters. You may repeat planning and research and potentially tweak communication and work on improving. Similar to how you should hone your craft either through study, training, or other avenues in your career. In the project management space, it helps with getting comfortable managing projects of all shapes and sizes. You may not have seen it before, but you know it’s something you can’t manage.
7. Leadership
Of course this is all pulled together brilliantly through leadership. They may compromise it of a team that works on managing the maintenance of the team by using a social media platform to organize and plan. They often spend the time on maintenance of the actual group itself keeping the team going requires constant recruitment of new players and upkeep of game resources that help to make the playtime exciting and fun. Just like the administrative work you have to perform to keep things going at work. These steps ensure the team is healthy, focused, and performing. Over time, you learn part of the process of team maintenance is shown by example, your real world spills into the video game world as you decide and communicate openly and fairly about those decisions even if they are unpleasant. You have team agreements or rules to ensure proper discord, e.g., what’s tolerated or not. Leadership isn’t about being the manager but being able to corral the group in achieving goals and having fun and doing it successfully. Leadership is fostered beyond the classic walls of offices and cube space. It’s embodied through high emotional awareness and ability to lead teams to success.
Final Thoughts
I’ve always loved video games. It’s been a part of my life for as long as I could remember. Be it sitting with my mom and playing Nintendo. Or, on a team with other players that want to delve into a world filled with monsters and treacherous encounters. When I realized the parallels between video games and work, it opened up ways to problem solve and tackle challenges with my in-game teams and my teams at work. Ultimately, being comfortable with who I am as a person was tied heavily to the things I enjoy. I hope this helps open you to viewing work and whatever it is you enjoy to making it work best for you. I didn’t stop playing video games, and it definitely made me resilient rather than be a waste of time. I’m here to slay dragons, be it in game or a project.
