In order to know when you will get enough points to get an item that you want, you will need to solve this equation.

      Finally, on the subject of math, are items. Anyone who plays these types of games wants the best armor they can find. In order to do that you can’t simply go by what looks good. You need to understand some simple formulas and equations and how to work a spreadsheet. For the sake of this argument I decided to use the priest archetype from World of Warcraft. The Priest’s most important skill is widely argued, but of the stats to talk about I am focusing on spirit. Spirit enables a priest to regenerate mana which is the substance that allows a priest to use its abilities. If this is still confusing, say a priest has a mana pool of 100/100, in order to cast a spell that priest must use 30 points of his/her pool. The spirit a priest has will allow him/her to regenerate the spent points. So to calculate this you would need some sort of spread sheet and an ability to graph your results. An example of this is:

and the graph would look something like this:

All of this information was found on the World of Warcraft forums . As you can see there is a lot to think about when picking your armor. This is but one stat of many that a player must balance in order to be a successful player in any MMO. To truly understand the depth of these calculations I offer you to visit some of the sites that are in my bibliography. There you will find pages of calculations and conversations between players sharing what they think would be the best make-up for a character.

      To wrap things up I want to end with something that everyone wants to achieve. That is to climb the ladder in any job to eventually reach a point where you are in charge. This is something that drives us all. While we all may not want to be a CEO or President we do want to get rid of our bosses. What if there was a way to climb this ladder faster? Sounds impossible, I know. I mean let’s take a moment to think about this. To be an efficient leader anywhere it takes time. You have to learn many skills that are only realized through actual interaction. Being a leader is not something that can be taught in a school, well how to be a good one anyway, right? I am here to say that MMO’s provide the perfect place to speed this learning up. While the world and challenges themselves may not be real, the people that are undertaking them are. To be an effective leader in any game you must quickly learn how to motivate people, while not pushing so hard as to make them angry with you and leave. In any MMO it is just as easy to quit a guild or a group and go find another one that is equal. So in all reality you must work harder in game to motivate and maintain happiness amongst your “co-workers”. Seriosity, a group of MIT students, did a study where they studied the workings of guilds and groups for more than a week. They came to the conclusion that every player in a position of power must balance the Sloan leadership model.

While all dimensions of the Sloan model are present, there do appear to be differences one being relating. These complex games reward leaders that are good at relating and inventing. Leaders must recruit and retain the good will of top players who have critical roles for guild missions, and they must invent procedures to organize players according to moment-by moment tactics linked to the challenges in the game (Seriosity).

      Relating is an extremely important leadership trait. Anyone that has ever been in a role where they are the one in charge knows that it is important to give the impression that you know the people you are working with on some sort of personal level to maintain happiness. A quote from a player in the Seriosity report states “The toughest thing about being a guild leader is maintaining relationships with all of your members on a personal level, and realizing that no matter what, you’re not going to please everybody.” Understanding something like this without ever having to fail in the real world is an important lesson. Understand that guild leaders are not dealing with just a few members, but an upwards of 40 to 200 individual people. To maintain a guild is an amazing task especially if you are younger.

      Inventing is the second most prominent Sloan dimension found in these games. The mainstream games provide a structure and narrative that define the actions necessary for advancement, but it’s up to the groups and their leaders to decide exactly what to do and when. Consequently, there is a premium on leaders who not only hold a group together, but also figure out the best way to accomplish tasks (Seriosity). The rest of the players look to the leader for direction and in encounters the leader must quickly direct the people under him/her to achieve the goal. If the leader is weak or slow to initiate a plan the group fails.

      The fear of failing is something that these leaders do not posses. They understand that failure is something that occurs and cannot be helped. Instead failure is viewed as a learning experience. This method of learning is probably the best because you experience what will and will not work. A person is not afraid to try new things.

      All of these traits help to form great leaders. To have a foundation like this before ever even reaching the work force is an amazing head start. The possibilities for advancement are endless. If you feel that this is not the case simply refer to some of the countless articles where people have been hired solely because they are a gamer. One such case was published on an online website called “Wired”. There the author describes how one man was hired over the other competition because he was the leader of a top guild in World of Warcraft. Even employers are starting to understand just what it takes to play these new games.

      In conclusion games are not what they used to be. The mindless repetition of jumping from platform to platform or killing millions of bad guys just does not exist anymore. Instead gaming has evolved to reach out to both adults and children. In doing this more advanced games have emerged challenging both the brain and social skills of players. Games are no longer only used for enjoyment, but used to train airline pilots, military personnel, policemen, and even firefighters. While MMO’s are not used to teach, it is my belief that they are an untapped resource. We are so quick to judge things in our society that we rarely try things before writing them off. It is my hope that this paper opens the eyes of those people and encourages them to try these new sources of learning. While I feel that school itself should not be replaced with online gaming, I do feel that it is an excellent tutor. It will allow children to have fun and at the same time show the real world applications of the things they learn in school. Let’s face it how many of us have said during our years in school, “There will never be a time I will need to use this.” Years down the road we find ourselves doing the things we were so quick to forget. So the next time you see your child in front of the computer screen maybe you will think twice before yelling at them to go outside or do something else. Because, that option may truly be what is rotting their brain.