Can WoW make you smarter?

[Punko]

I think MMOs can make one smarter, just like pretty much every other activity that can be imagined. Eureka, anyone ?

It just depends on the persons ability to pick up things.

[Drtyrm]

Originally Posted by Goliath

It definitely makes most people way, way dumber.

Everquest on the other hand, is a different story. And no dumb fucks, not because of nostalgia or anything else, but because in WoW you have "Frostbolt 1-100, Firebolt 1-100, Lightning Strike 1-100 and Regrowth 1-100." In EQ you had shit like "Color Flux, Calamity, Beguile, Jylls Zephyr of Ice, Translocate, Alacrity, Stupor, Tupor, Abscond, Modulation, Malaise, Nullify, Annul" and my god the list goes on for a year. Then, you had to figure shit out without staring at a map looking for shiny things and gold marks and alt tabbing to wowhead to get a location. WoW is built for the laziest of the laziest mind, and it gets fat with stupidity.

Yeah, EQ is so much more challenging than WoW and so demanding on your faculties that most people play 2 or 3 characters at the same time.

[Zarcath]

Originally Posted by Drtyrm

Yeah, EQ is so much more challenging than WoW and so demanding on your faculties that most people play 2 or 3 characters at the same time.

Christ you're stupid. There's a difference between difficulty and button mashing. Do you think quicktime events are inherently more difficult because you can't do two at the same time? Hey, I can't play two DDR's at the same time, fucking infinitely more difficult than playing 2 games of chess.

WoW isn't that bad for players. I think it instilled a greater sense of accountability in me. Started my new position and the work is such that I do some and then wait around to get it approved. WoW raiding has made me more self-conscious about "lazying" about, I think as a result of being constantly vigilant about DPS meters and WWS. In my raiding guild, we didn't sugar coat anything. If you fucked up on meters they'd tell you, and everyone read WWS after fights and could see who was fucking up.

Also I'm a lot more into theorycrafting. I never did anything like that in EQ. Now I have a tendency to break shit down into it's base components and then figure out whats really needed, min/maxing, I guess. A lot of regular/casual gamers don't do that, I come off looking OCD'y.

[Occido]

After playing WoW for nearly 4 years, I can say that... No, WoW does not make you smarter, but in the end. Makes you dumber than a 10lb box of shit.

[Awanka]

I would take it as a positive if my surgeon was an avid WoW player, especially if they had a high arena ranking. That would mean a slight chance of better wire reflexes than the average surgeon. I would feel even more comfortable if my surgeon was a champion Counterstrike player.

Uber-guild leaders learn a lot of useful soft skills playing MMORPGs. To get a bunch of megalomaniacal fucks together to accomplish something teaches a lot about managing people, especially the chapters concerning manipulation, human weakness, and most of all perseverance.

[Goliath]

Originally Posted by Drtyrm

Yeah, EQ is so much more challenging than WoW and so demanding on your faculties that most people play 2 or 3 characters at the same time.

Stupidest post of the year.

[Soygen]

MMO's make you smarter. When you stop playing them.

I'm currently stupid.

[Twobit Whore]

I'd say that some MMOs can make you smarter. Hell, I learned a lot of obscure words simply from the spell lists in Everquest. Trepidation? I'd never used that in a sentence before. Quite a few others as well that I can no longer remember (thanks pot!).

WoW has bred a whole new breed of MMO-learning, but it's not for everyone... just the hardcore theory-crafters. Unfortunately most of the people employing the complex equations and formulae are already smart. Maybe a little rubs off on others but I doubt it's significant.

So MMOs certainly can be a source of education but it shouldn't be used as such.. it's just a bonus. Though I do know a psychologist who was looking into a project for abused introverted children using online games to teach teamwork and social structure in an environment they were comfortable with. Don't think it ever happened though.

[brekk]

Originally Posted by Goliath

in WoW you have "Frostbolt 1-100, Firebolt 1-100, Lightning Strike 1-100 and Regrowth 1-100." In EQ you had shit like "Color Flux, Calamity, Beguile, Jylls Zephyr of Ice, Translocate, Alacrity, Stupor, Tupor, Abscond, Modulation, Malaise, Nullify, Annul" and my god the list goes on for a year.

ROFL I remember doing well on vocabulary in Junion and Senior year partially, because of all the words I learned in EQ. So many of these were used as "advanced" vocabulary words.

[x1hundredregrets]

Originally Posted by brekk

ROFL I remember doing well on vocabulary in Junion and Senior year partially, because of all the words I learned in EQ. So many of these were used as "advanced" vocabulary words.

My Junion year kicked ass because of Everquest as well.

[brekk]

Originally Posted by x1hundredregrets

My Junion year kicked ass because of Everquest as well.

lol i don't know how that even happened.

[masteen]

Originally Posted by Goliath

Tupor

Was that Tupac's younger brother?

[owakefka]

Originally Posted by Moontayle

Actually, there has been research that proved that surgeons who spent even a small amount of time playing video games were quicker and more precise with their movements. That whole hand-eye coordination thing.

In that study the video games were First Person Shooters, more specifically Counter-Strike.

[Zarcath]

the PDF for the research paper was posted

haven't gotten to read the whole thing but the table on page 27 is nice to look at.

http://website.education.wisc.edu/st...Duncan2008.pdf

[Dabamf]

glad I'm not the only one who can credit to everquest a large portion of his vocabulary that exceeds the average population's