What Can Human Resource Management Learn from Video Games? An Ethnographical Approach to World of Warcraft

Abstract

In this paper I want to research World of Warcraft (WoW) with the lens from HRM and what HRM can learn from WoW. Using the method of cognitive ethnography (Hutchins, 1995) I combine my experiences from over six years of playing the game as well as observing the devel- opment to the current date. Based on previous research (Scholz, 2010) I already depicted the following essential principles for leadership: Bring fun back, keep raising the bar, living on the edge, trial and error, motivation beyond money. However HRM is not solely about leadership and therefore research has to be expanded to other fields of HRM too. WoW is a combination of elements from the game design and from the community itself. Game developers implement el- ements that are comparable to HRM, others are established through interaction and collaboration of players to achieve goals and master the game. Following up some exemplary comparison be- tween HRM and WoW.

Keywords: world of warcraft, human resource management, ethnography