WoW the Next "Golf"? 243
TheGrapeApe writes "1up has an article about the possibility of World of Warcraft becoming the next "Golf": A place where friends, acquaintances, and perhaps even business partners will meet up to "talk shop" and swap stories. Personally, I can't wait until I have my next job interview in the Deadmines. " I demand extra healing and mana pots from all my employees.
Uh, no (Score:4, Insightful)
new tool for HR (Score:2, Insightful)
The Future of MMORPGs, rather, Virtual Socializing (Score:2, Insightful)
Stick with Golf (Score:2, Insightful)
Nobody asked me, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
OMG who thinks of this garbage? (Score:1, Insightful)
Gee, I'll bet (Score:3, Insightful)
Far too involved. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's also an effing cartoon, for those nubs who haven't yet realised.
So... No. Not happening.
*silence...*
Next question, please.
This is a Joke Right? (Score:5, Insightful)
differences (Score:3, Insightful)
As to say its the next way people are going to get together and hang out and schmooze it up is ridiculous, because nobody that is a real businessman wants to be dealing with people in a virtual game. If you cant look someone in the eye, why would you discuss anything serious with them?
I doubt anyone over the age of 20 even thinks this is an intelligent assumption.
WoW is the next everquest, not the next golf.
I'm sure a Diablo MMORPG will drop in 07-08 and we will all be like "Diablo is the next Golf" lolzz
Never work (Score:3, Insightful)
But in WoW if your new to the sport, or suck at it, you'll probably find that others who have less wealth and power in the real world can and probably will, have more in the World of Warcraft... egos don't like that
Time to drag out this old chestnut: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Far too involved. (Score:3, Insightful)
And that's a high-end raid.
Exploring the countryside, hunting relatively weak beasts, these things just don't require much attention and are not that fast-paced. Now, an on-target 5-man instance run is another matter, but presumably if you were connecting with someone in order to chat, you'd do something like... explore the Barrens.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Non-verbal communication (Score:2, Insightful)
Tone of voice, posture, the way the eyes move and all sort of tiny little details about the way a person talks, that you unconsciously recognize are missing in WoW (and in most types of electronic communication).
It's already difficult to assess the state of mind of other people in meat-space, in an on-line game where your 'perceptions' are diminished or can be fooled by other means, it might as well become impossible.
different servers? (Score:3, Insightful)
So the analogy isn't perfect, as many other replies have already said. BUT, I could easily see groups of people who work at the same company gaming together on a regular basis. And if one of those folks happened to be your boss, that would be a major advantage you would have over your non-gamer coworkers. So everyone who is spitting up on themselves about how imperfect this analogy is should probably chill out, and go find out what server their boss is on.
Re:This is a Joke Right? (Score:3, Insightful)
Or more to the evolutionary point, getting the hot chick.
Re:Not Gonna Happen! (Score:3, Insightful)
The only game/sport I've done that I think fills the role of golf (for some) is trap shooting. It has most of the same elements -- potentially very slow paced, provides ample opportunities to throw your own game if you're doing better than the boss, lots of standing-around when done in a group, etc. It also has a certain stratifying/filtering effect -- although a basic one doesn't cost much, high-end trap guns can get terribly expensive, so it provides people a way to show off a little if they've got dough, and some trap clubs are not dissimilar to country clubs in terms of having a social atmosphere and elitism (by virtue of being very expensive and/or having a limited number of membership slots that are handed down from one member to another). That's not to say that you can't be involved in the sport without those aspects, but they definitely are there for people that want them.
I'm sure other people can think of similar sports that provide the same things. The only downside to trap as a "business sport" is that (assuming you play safely -- I am willing to bet people in generations past did not) the hearing protection does make it difficult to talk without being rather loud. Although the way I've seen some people play, they don't spend a whole lot of time actually shooting.
Re:Unrealistic representation of a game (Score:3, Insightful)
How they handle adversity, boredom, burnout, etc. is very critical to the success of the guild, especially when you get to BWL-type raiding (or even putting MC on farm status).
We (as one of these guilds) have seen all these problems and more. Running a high-end raiding guild means coordinating 40-80 people's schedules (for MC/BWL/ZG/WorldBoss/etc), getting them to show up dependably and on-time, having a reasonable system for rewarding the members, convincing them to continue to work at an encounter after 6 hours and countless wipes, and managing what most "real" businesses call a supply chain. Except ours consists of Greater Fire Protection Pots, Flasks of Titans, and Dark Iron Ore.
Personally I can tell the difference between people who could be directors or managers that you would want to work for in an IT/Engineering context and those that would have people quitting in droves. Wouldn't that be a useful thing to know in your Engineering organization?