Week 10: What Leadership Lessons Can We Take from Gamers ?

Interview Questions:
1. Which kinds of games do you prefer, single player or multiplayer?
2. Which game do you play more than any others, and why?
3. How do you find people to play with in this game?
4. What qualities do you look for in others you play this game with?
5. How do you make decisions about game play with others you are online with?

My interviewees this week were my son, a 7th grader, and one of my students, a sophomore.  My son has been gaming since he was about 9 years old - he got his X-Box when he was 10.  He spends a couple of hours a day gaming, and more on weekends.  He owns a few games, but as they are expensive, and he tires of them quickly, we subscribe to a service called GameFly. He can rent games and return them when he is done - which is good because sometimes "done" can happen in 15 minutes! It's far more economical than buying. So games come and go, but occasionally he lands on a favorite that he just never wants to return - GameFly lets you buy those at a reduced price.  When he first began gaming, he really liked racing games, like motocross, and car racing. Over the past couple of years, he moved on to games like Call of Duty and Modern Warfare, which were a big deal at first but now are not played often.  What we have learned is that most of the time his interest in a particular game has to do with how the "community" likes the game - thus his long flings with Call of Duty and Modern Warfare - everyone was playing them.  However, one game has taken top spot over the past year and a half, and although other games are played occasionally, this one still has the podium - yes, it's Minecraft.  So when I posed my interview questions to him, naturally we were talking about this particular game.

For him, multiplayer is definitely a preference.  I could speculate and say it's because he's homeschooled and it's the social aspect that he loves, but plenty of kids in school with very active social lives love multiplayer as well.  At age 13 he's not too reflective about these kinds of things, and tells me that he simply likes multiplayer because it's more fun to play with others.  He always plays Minecraft with the same core group of 3-5 kids, which includes a couple of cousins, and a couple of boys from his basketball team.  There is one cousin he no longer plays with because they would get into such terrible fights that it would cross over into "real life".  (We finally had to step in and tell them to stay off of each other's Minecraft servers). He says reason he plays with this particular group of boys is because they like to do the same types of things, like creating new buildings or towns, or discovering new ways to mine. In other words, they tend to be looking for the same types of challenges. When I asked him how the group made decisions, he didn't quite understand what I meant.  I don't think that they really think of their play in this more grown up way, as in having a leader, making decisions, etc. They just "do".  I clarified by asking him if any of the things they did were his idea - and he answered that of course, they were all his ideas!  Further questioning finally got to the heart of it - he really can't pinpoint with whom ideas originate, but what he meant was that he always contributes plenty of ideas - so does everyone.  He says that when he as a good idea he says it but then starts to do it as he's talking about it.  If he does this, most of the time, others join in.  However, he said that if he takes to long just talking about an idea, it usually doesn't get done, and the others move on to somethings else.  My guess is that the talking interrupts the flow, and in the midst of play, no one wants to stop.  Plus, in a three-dimensional environment, nothing explains better than showing.

My other interviewee is a sophomore in high school, and has been a student of mine since he was in 6th grade.  He has always enjoyed working with technology, has learned to program, and is currently in the process of building a computer. So what does this sophisticated techie like to play best? Minecraft again - the very same game my own much younger son loves. There must be something to this! Although I have not played Minecraft myself, I have watched it played, and read quite a bit about it, and I can see why it would appeal to a kid like him.  He says he doesn't always prefer multiplayer games, that it's about 50/50, but also said that he really hasn't played much else besides Minecraft for the past year.  There is a crowd of kids from school who he regularly plays with, in small groups of 2 or 3, or sometimes as many as five. He mainly plays with this group because, according to him, they all share the same commitment to the game. "It's not a game that you can just play a little bit then stop. If you start something you have to be committed to finishing it." I ask him how long it takes to "finish", just to clarify. He shrugs his shoulders and says one never knows, it could take days, weeks or months. The point is, the group has to be committed to seeing it through.  I ask if he gets this commitment up front.  He says no, but if they're into it, and they love it, they'll stick with it, and that's why he plays with this particular group, because they all love it. When I asked him about leadership in his group, he admitted that often he took the lead, although he couldn't say exactly why.  He's not a bossy kid - very level-headed and friendly, and his friends recognize and respect his abilities and knowledge about technology. So I suspect that gives him a bit of elevated status as unofficial leader for them. I asked him if they came up with ideas as well, and he said of course.  Then he said something that really surprised me - he said that people would explain an idea by just doing it - almost exactly the same thing my own son had told me.  This confirms my ideas about flow being such an important aspect of the dynamics of this kind of game play.

What both my son and my student explained to me about Minecraft confirm what Thomas and Seely Brown explain about groups of players having the same tacit understandings from prolonged periods of indwelling in their gaming worlds.  They are inhabiting the same space, with the same challenges and same goals, and working to adapt to the changes along the way.  This kind of "knowing" that they share helps to create the synergy between the players that keeps the game so exciting and engaging.  In their book on game design, Salen and Zimmerman echo this idea when talking about meaningful play. "Meaningful play engages several aspects of a game simultaneously, giving rise to layers of meaning that accumulate and shape player experience." (Salen, Zimmerman, 2004).

Games like Minecraft and World of Warcraft have become such a phenomenon because they are what James P. Carse characterized as "infinite games" in his book, Finite and Infinite Games.  He says, "A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, and an infinite game is played for the purpose of continuing to play. The rules of a finite game may not change; the rules of an infinite game must...The finite game player aims to win eternal life; the infinite player aims for eternal birth."  This speaks to the ability of a player in Minecraft to create their own worlds, and continually open up a series of never-ending challenges. You don't "win a level" in Minecraft, you master your own challenges. The beauty of it is, the challenges are richer, more complex, and more engaging when more players are involved.

I'll go back to Papert again this week, because I'm always so impressed when I read his stuff from the 80's and 90's. In an article he wrote for Game Developer Magazine called "Does Easy Do It? Children, Games, and Learning", Papert is writing in a time of exploding games, most of which are still single-player, and leveled. Still, he extols the benefits of these types of games, and the critical thinking and learning skills these encourage in players.  However, he keeps going back to game design and game creation - asking the "what if" questions about kids creating their own games.  He says that type of an experience would be even more enriching, as they would be able to design their own play.  I wonder if he imagined a place in the not too distant future where engaging play and game design and creation would merge - into games like Minecraft and World of Warcraft.

What leadership lessons can we take away? It's easy to see how effective a group can be if they are engaged, passionate, and have synergy - so what conditions can a leader control to create that for a group? I think looking at it from that perspective, can help us to think about what leaders need to do to support a group in many ways to help them perform at their peak.

What lessons can gaming teach us for the classroom? The lessons are very much the same - as the instructional leaders in the room, we want our students to be engaged, passionate, and have synergy - we know that groups who have this are motivated to learn, to overcome challenges, and are more likely to employ innovative solutions to problems - so how can we support them? Thinking about how we design the problems/tasks for them is a big part of it. I think it's a whole new way of looking at curriculum so that it's really powered - "designed" -by the students.

Resources:
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, Ky.: CreateSpace?].

Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2003).Rules of play: game design fundamentals. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Carse, J. P. (19871986). Finite and infinite games. New York: Ballantine Books.

Papert, S. (1998, June 1). Does Easy Do It? Children, Games, and Learning.papert.org. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://www.papert.org/articles/Doeseasydoit.