Can playing World of Warcraft make you a better citizen of the real world?
Perhaps.
A study by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Constance Steinkuehler found that WoW players were more likely to listen to and reason things out with their fellow Azeroth residents.
Steinkuehler spoke on the benefits of digital worlds at a museum in Madison last night. As reported by the Capital Times, her remarks included:
Learning how to navigate [the online world's] diversity is “in the big scheme of life” about citizenship, she said…
Video games… push social norms and practices because those things are necessary to succeed at highly complex MMOGs like World of Warcraft, Steinkuehler said…
Her work included analysis of message boards where World of Warcraft players get together… She found that 65 percent of the discussion was “evaluative” vs. 30 percent “absolutist” — “My idea is right and not open to discussion” — and 5 percent “relative” — it’s just opinion and no one is right.
In contrast, she said studies have found that the U.S. population is only 15 percent evaluative, 50 percent absolutist and 35 percent relativist…
Steinkuehler likened the efforts of gamers to President Obama’s neighbor-to-neighbor tool where, for example, volunteers surveyed their neighborhoods and updated the campaign’s database.
Article Source: www.gamepolitics.com.