trendpreneur

This MMO Manager observation is by no means limited to MMOs, but it is related. Members of top guilds, clans and syndicates often work together using voice communication such as Teamspeak or Ventrilo as well as text-based chat. As a result, players are unknowingly trained in how to use online voice communication effectively, something which has direct relevance when it comes to teleconferences in the business world.

A few things your average MMO player, possessed of a microphone, an active guild and some degree of the desire to participate, might learn without realising:

• When to be quiet on voice chats
• How to get heard when you have 30 other people all with an opinion to share
• How to manage groups of people in a voice channel
• How to communicate effectively in real-time (i.e. when trying to accomplish something time-sensitive)
• Combining voice with text and written followups
• ‘Voice language’ cues such as when silence is silence, and when it’s a prompt to speak. Hard to describe, but you do get a feel for it.
• Greater comprehension of non-natively spoken English
• General level of comfort with talking into a headset

That’s by no means it, but it does strike me that the teleconferencing skills your average online gamer possesses are going to be surprisingly strong. I picked MMOs in particular since guild organisation is so similar to business management, and you run the gamut of social voice chat, small leaders’ meetings, large groups all trying to kill a dragon, etc. The only real difference between gaming voice and teleconferencing is the magic ‘push to talk’ key, something which makes gaming voice a little slower than proper telecommunication and may make you seem unresponsive until you get used to the difference.