Monthly Archive for Februar, 2010

Is your Life just one big RPG?

Published on 22. Februar 2010 in Game Culture. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This is a extremely interesting speech of Jesse Schell from Carnegie Mellon University at the DICE 2010 about the future of Gaming and how it could affect our Life and it is just a must-see, watch it!

Especially interesting was the part about Grading, Jesse Schell mentioned a experience system for grading, used by Lee Sheldon at the Indiana University, however students get experience points for participation, homework, assignments and everything else. This led to an increase and advancement in the class.

Additional the future could be scaring, which Jesse Schell predicts, he is correct this gaming aspect could be beneficial for us, as I has to admit achievement points are motivating for me.

Team Shepard saves the Universe

Published on 18. Februar 2010 in Human Resources. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Blizzard Picture from Diablo but still it is a Video-Game Picture

Probably some of you will have played Mass Effect 2 until now or at least heard about it, so I will try to avoid major spoilers. Vaguely speaking, this game is about a hero who assembles a team of aliens and humans in order to defeat an evil enemy. However, it is interesting that Bioware, the developer, stresses the interaction and the atmosphere between team members and the hero/leader. It is essential to raise the loyalty of every team member in order to succeed in the game, as these team members work or fight better if they trust the hero. Special at Mass Effect 2 is that Shepard (the hero character) searches for team members based on their skills and not based on their race. Therefore, he seeks for example a weapon specialist, an assassin, a warrior and several other extraordinary talents. However, contrary to the general tone in Human Resources, these talents are cutting edge in their field because of their race. Another example, the scientist in the team is a Salarian. “Salarians excel at invention, preferring to use cutting-edge technology rather than settle for anything less.” [1] As you can see, it is obvious that Shepard is choosing a Salarian as scientist having the best cultural requirements for the job. This demonstrates a key finding in my research field. Choose the best and use the cultural background. Sure, it is easy to do such things in a video game, where there is a big evil at the end, which destroys everything, however it is still necessary to forge a team, and this game shows a great way of forging. Beside the common goal, it is important to establish trust and loyalty observing the team leader. In Mass Effect 2 Shepard helps the team members to solve issues of their life, finding the lost father, defending by a trial. Sure not realistic in the world, but still it is interesting to watch. Shepard teams up with the best in the universe, who also are sometimes the scum of the universe, helps them to solve their past, gives them purpose to show their skills and, additionally, contribute to a project, in this case save the universe. Somehow excessive for the common job world, but still fascinating to see the parallels between multicultural high performance teams and Team Shepard.