Exploring The Effectiveness of Online Role-Play Gaming in the Acquisition Of Complex And Tacit Knowledge

We report the findings from an experiment concerning the impact of gaming on the acquisition of simple vs. complex knowledge, as well as tacit knowledge. An experimental study involving 35 novice World of Warcraft gamers shows that gaming leads to knowledge acquisition, which is higher for fact-based knowledge than for complex, planning- type knowledge. The results also indicate that subjects acquire more knowledge than they are able to recall. Results concerning the impact of chauffeuring, i.e., game demonstration by an experimenter prior to subjects’ own task work are inconclusive, but hint at the value of chauffeuring to flatten the learning curve.