Exploring The Effectiveness Of Online Role-play Gaming In The Acquisition Of Complex And Tacit Knowledge

53rd Annual IACIS International

Conference San Juan, Puerto Rico,

October 2-5, 2013

Christian WagnerVictor DibiaCity University ofHong Kong

• Interesting and captivating

• Useful skills?

• Only “how to” in the game world?

• Knowledge complexity

• Knowledge tacicity

• Difficulty in learning?

• Need for chauffeuring?

Role Playing Games are a genre of computer games where players achieve

• Class of games

• Thousands to Millions of concurrent users

• Playing against each other (PvP) or against the environment (PvE)

• Assume a role (purposeful play)

• Persistence and progression

• Social interaction

Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing

Games

• Immersive 3D MMPORG – assume a character

• PVE/PVP – “cleanse Azeroth”

• Expertise points and levels (non-linear) for solving quests (and learning)

• Most successful MMPORG of all time

– Over 10 million subscribers (peak)

– 62% market share (peak)

• “You play World of Warcraft? You’re hired!”(Brown and Thomas 2006)

PLAN(PLAN)Multiple cause-effect steps whichlead to achievement of a goal

Cause-effect (CE)hat happens when you ….

Concept (CON)Status information, non – physical

Physical Object Attribute (POA)Attributes of physical objects

Physical Object (PO)Questions about physical items …

Creating

Evaluating

Analyzing

Applying

Understanding

Remembering

Explicit -- Simple

Complex -- Tacit

(Complex) Knowledge

acquisition can be difficult

and has a steep learning

curve.

What would be the effect of an initial period of

“limited demonstration” chauffeuring on

knowledge acquisition and task completion ?

n Task 1 Task 2 Post Experiment

Group 1 15 ChauffeuredSelf

ManagedQuestionnaire

Group 2 20 Self-Managed

35 participants recruited by word of mouth and email, randomly assigned to two groups.

Briefing Task 1 Task 2 Questionnaire De-briefing

Role Playing Games are a genre of computer games where players achieve

What weapon

did your character wield ?

SK CK t p Completion Rate

All Subjects Mean 0.8086 0.5571 5.196 .000

Std.Dev 0.1792 0.1764

n 27 27

Chauffeured Mean0.8413 0.5000

5.531 .000 100%

Std.Dev0.1475 0.1775

n14 14

Self-managed Mean0.7735 0.6186

2.128 .027 65%

Std.Dev0.2084 0.1594

n13 13

1 hour long experiment.

27 out of 35 participants completed the tasks in the experiment.

• 85% recall rates for simple knowledge vs.55% for complex knowledge.Do players know more than they can tell? Can this be related to the organizational setting via serious games ?

• 65% completion rates for self-managed players vs. 100% for chauffeured playersFor complex games, an initial chauffeuring effort leads to better performance outcomes.

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4. Yee, N. (2006). The Demographics, Motivations, and Derived Experiences of Users of Massively Multi-User Online Graphical Environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 309 -329.