03/22/2006 05:10:00 PM 
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(1) Playing is a form of learning. It is through games and play that we learn the very fundamentals of life. Games teach us how to master skills and patterns that are around us daily ? whether they are survival skills, social patterns or mathematical thinking. When kittens are playing with mice by batting them around they are practicing hunting skills they need to rely on later in life. When little children are "playing house" they are experimenting with social behaviors. When you consider games as simple as checkers you realize that games teach us basic and complicated mathematics such as topologies, algorithmic thinking and causality.
This week BusinessWeek wrote an article on using gaming as an interactive training tool. The article describes how "serious gaming" (as opposed to entertainment gaming) is cost and time efficient for companies and engaging to the employees. The military uses gaming for training, as does American Express, Bank of America, Charles Schwab, Estee Lauder, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, Cisco Systems inc., Cold Stone Creamery, Nokia, Pfizer, the US Department of Defense, just to name a few. It will be interesting to learn what "serious games" are played at the Game Developer's Conference this month in San Jose.
Last year at the Account Planning Conference Mark Earls spoke for a session on the importance of co-creativity. His idea works parallel to the idea of play as a form of learning. Yet he says this play is interactivity and the result, creativity.
Gaming/playing is an opportunistic form of learning that could become the future medium of education and experience. It is a medium that blurs the line between learning and playing, with the added value of extended engagement. This type of engaging interactivity is just what the brand-doctor ordered. The question for you to ask yourself how can my company use games (and/or some notion of playful give and take) to create a more collaborative relationship with your customers and consequently increase brand loyalty?
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If you want to see how information (and the real objects it represents) will be exchanged, discussed, manipulated, evaluated, bought, sold and traded in the future, hop into an imaginary world provided by a game such as World of Warcraft. <br> <br>Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (often referred to as MMORPGs or MMOs) such as Warcraft lead the way when it comes to interactive media experiences, and interactive media experiences are the information-distribution destination of all organizations and individuals. <br> <br>MMOs connect people with common interests across geographic barriers, turn complex social interactions into a form of entertainment, stimulate imagination and help train players in time and people management skills. <br> <br>Imagine having an MBA class where you run a guild -- the term for a team of cooperating Warcraft players -- to learn how best to manage a large staff. Imagine having to accomplish a quest -- the term for tasks in the game that, when completed, give players game-enhancing rewards -- in the most efficient way to learn how best to use limited resources. <br> <br>The end result of games like these is replicating the complexity of the real world in a digital environment. Better yet, "players" (or should we call them "digital citizens") will most likely be able to adjust the realism of digital worlds according to their preferences. In other words, if you want to fly, you can. Welcome to The Matrix.