Prepared for the digital life

It used to be said that video games helped kids with their hand-eye coordination; this is partly true. Playing video games certainly helps kids with playing video games, but it doesn't help them learn to catch a ball in the real world, or how to juggle, or do a lay-up in basketball, all of which are arguably more important skills with lifelong application.

However, we're living in an increasingly digital age. More and more of our time is spent online, accomplishing routine tasks that have somehow become a part of our daily lives. Those of us who have parents of and above a certain age know the joys of trying to teach them how this brave new world operates. It can be an exasperating process, and part of this is because there is no good experiential analog for virtual life. It is its own reality, with its own rules and conventions, and you have to approach it on its own terms. Our kids, having grown up with all this craziness in place, will have developed the adaptability to make sense of any otherwise confusing interface, and consequently find an easier path through the digital future.

World of Managementcraft

Would you ever put "Guild Leader" on your resumé? Don't laugh; some do. When interviewing for a management position, experience is key. No company will hire a potential leader of employees who has had no actual cat-herding experience under her belt. While it may sound silly on the surface, anyone who has spent time coordinating the activities of a large enough raid group understands the rigors and stresses involved, and these do, in many ways, correspond to similar pressures found in the office environment.

Considering that the MMO space is bigger than ever, with no sign of slowing in popularity, there's a good chance that these skills will remain useful for many years to come. In fact, proponents of Second Life have been pushing for increasing usage of the platform to hold virtual meetings, conduct customer support, and the like. The two worlds of video games and big business are drawing together slowly, but inexorably. It would be far easier for employers to make new employees out of people who are already comfortable with this method of action than trying to convert existing employees into virtual office drones, especially when the people in charge might not understand what's needed themselves.

And despite public perception of the video game business as a lightweight, whimsical affair, it is still a business, with the same concerns over advertising, distribution, etc. that any so-called "real" business must contend with. So don't be afraid to mention just how much of a slave driver you may be with your guild -- as long as you can convert "coordinated 40-person raid on Blackwing Lair despite network latency" into something brick-and-mortar types can understand.