A former student and basketball player of mine from a few years ago was ignoring all of his school work in favor of playing World of Warcraft. When his parents came to me for help, I was dismayed to learn of his problem. I sat down with him to ask why he was playing so much. I asked him why he enjoyed it so much. I asked him why he was skipping out on his responsibilities for WoW. My questions were dripping in skepticism.
His response wasn't what I thought it would be. I thought he would offer some platitude about how WoW was more fun that school and that he would fix his ways. Instead, he said something that resonated with me: WoW provided him with not only a sense of accomplishment, but also a sense of identity. I think his exact words were "I feel like I'm actually doing something." I was still skeptical, though now of his habits, not of his reasoning.
I'm not saying I've done a 180ยบ turn in my first week or so of gameplay, but I'm starting to get it a bit now. I have found myself playing when I've had spare time (even, on two occasions, on my honeymoon, to wicked laughter from my wife -- "Go, get your WoW on!") and I have enjoyed it much more than I expected to. I realize that all of the components of this course are not there for us to enjoy, but for the skeptical among us, it's an important piece in encouraging student buy-in.
The thing I could see WoW being valuable for educationally is in helping people develop their problem-solving skills. Many things, including how to play, how to fight, how to collect items, etc. are not clear initially in WoW. I told myself at the start of this game that I would learn by doing and not Google, and so I've had to search throughout the game and its controls to figure those things out. It's been a refreshing experience, and I can see how the quests would force people to think critically about certain problems with in the gameplay.
