"Blessed are the geek: for they shall inherit the earth." (inspired by Matthew 5:5)
So you've been a geek from as long as you could hold a game controller or climb up to sit in front of the computer. You were the first kid on the block to tie up your parents' phone lines with a dial-up modem. The letters FPS, RPG, and RTS are more than just alphabet soup to you - they're in your blood. You know more people from the online gaming community, and perhaps you know them better, than you know your next-door neighbor. Years of working on in-game tactics and practicing your hand-eye coordination have left your wits and reflexes sharp.
But maybe your parents, your friends, your teachers, or your spouses think that you've wasted your time on what can be interpreted as a fairly expensive hobby. After all those nights spent gazing blearily at a computer or television screen and shouting yourself hoarse over Ventrilo or Xbox Live, maybe you're thinking that they're on to something; have you been wasting your time and energy on something that doesn't actually have any merit in the real world?
The plain truth is you, as an online gamer, have been building a set of all the tools you need to become an incredibly effective leader in any situation. Let's take a look at three core skills you needed to develop in order to be successful in an online team environment, for example:
Knowing your teammates. Whether your team is competing against computer-controlled bad guys or it's facing off against another team of real live players, knowing both your own strengths and weaknesses and those of your other teammates is imperative. If each member of your team fills the role they at which are the strongest and with which they're most comfortable, success will follow.
Knowing what you're up against. Just jumping into any situation without doing at least a little research first isn't always the best course of action. Yes, fortune favors the bold, but things will go much more smoothly if you or another one of your teammates looks into the kind of things you can expect to encounter in your coming adventure. Sometimes the line between success and failure is razor-thin; just a little extra information can bump you and your team from one side of that line to the other.
Knowing that you can always try again. Let's face it: there will be times that your team may fall short of their goals. Just because you didn't go the distance this time, however, doesn't mean you won't succeed the next time you try. Keeping a positive outlook in the face of adversity means regrouping with your team, taking an honest look at what went wrong and what needs to be done differently, and then motivating each other to get back in there and do it all over again.
It's obvious how these three learned skills - knowing your strengths and weaknesses, knowing what you're getting yourself into, and knowing that minor setbacks can't keep you down for long - can be applied to practically any situation, online or in the real world: whether it be in school, at work, or in your personal relationships, all of these skills can make you successful at whatever you do.
So fire back with those little gems the next time someone runs down your favorite passion. It's not "just a hobby" and it's certainly not mindless entertainment, either! And they said that video games would rot your brain. Shows how much they know!
David DeMar has been an avid gamer since his parents brought home an IBM PCjr in the early 1980's. He currently leads an Alliance-side World of Warcraft guild on the Argent Dawn realm with his fiancee, Pam. To learn more, visit [http://www.pagefiftysix.net]
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