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“If you add up all the hours that gamers across the globe have spent playing World of Warcraft since the MMORPG first launched in 2004, you get a grand total of just over 50 billion collective hours or 5.93 million years. To put that number in perspective: 5.93 million years ago is almost exactly the moment in history that our earliest human ancestors first stood upright. By that measure, we’ve spend as much time playing World of Warcraft as we’ve spent evolving as a species”

(McGonigal, 2011, p.52).

Benefits of MMORPG for Education

Games bring together ways of knowing, ways of doing, ways of being, and ways of caring: the situated understandings, effective social practices, powerful identities, and shared values that make someone an expert. (Shaffer, D. W., Squire, K. R., Halverson, R., & Gee, J. P., December 2004)

Limitations of MMORPG

While the benefits of MMORPG are significant, the limitations of gaming should be explored. Limitations can be categorized into three general areas: Behavioral issues, gender problems, and other issues.

Applications in Education

“Play is an important mediator for learning and socialization” in school and in life (Rieber, 1996). The MMORPG offers a unique framework for play that encompasses social interaction, simulation, and experiential learning.

Agenda for Future Research

MMORPGs offer a “new model for learning through meaningful activity in virtual worlds as preparation for meaningful activity in our post-industrial, technology-rich, real world” (Shaffer, D. W., Squire, K. R., Halverson, R., & Gee, J. P., December 2004)