From ‘Training Grounds’ to Sociotechnical Actors: Do MMORPG’s Presage/Prestage the Futures of Leadership and Work?

Abstract

Historically, researchers have positioned MMORPGs as “training grounds” for leadership competences. This conceptual paper takes as its point of departure a reversal of contemporary literature on the transferability of leadership skills purportedly learned in MMORPGs to articulate new questions about how these games do not so much “mirror” organizational contexts or serve as learning grounds for leadership competences, but have in fact participated in the very shaping of leadership models in the 21st century. We undertake an analysis of World of Warcraft as a paradigmatic MMORPG to explore the following questions: To what extent do MMORPGs co- articulate or prestage the new cultural/organizational forms that they purportedly provide the “training grounds” for? And – if the game is the message - how might MMORPGs exert agency not just upon new leadership models, but also upon emerging modes of production - from new modes of knowledge creation to emerging forms of affective labour in globalized economies?