Before the internet was available those who wanted to play interactive games had several choices.  They could invite friends over to play games with each other.  This was a social interaction that created friendships or enemies depending on the competitive nature of the participants.  Another way was to play through the mail.  This will date me but I remember playing chess with a friend through the mail.  You sent your move via letter and waited for the returning move.  This usually took a week or so.  The game did not progress very quickly.  This was also a form of social interaction since you got to know what was happening with your friend since the letters contained more than just the move.  It also contained news from my friend.

With the advent of the internet, the old parlor games have pretty much gone away.  They are now replaced with games found online like world of war craft, EverQuest or Diablo II.  These games can be player versus player or player versus computer.  There is also a social interaction involved with these games.  Only the difference is that many times in these online games the players do not really know who they are playing against.  Many times the players use fictional names and also become fictional characters.  So they get to know the person through the fictional character and perhaps not the real person.  This can be a problem since they do not really get a chance to develop social skills.  The players develop how to interact socially with in a set game format but not within a life format.

Many online games come with the ability to develop into guilds or clans and work together to progress within the game.  This creates situations where a person learns leadership skills since they become the leader of the guild.  This can be good if they also transfer that to a real life scenario.  But if they can only be a leader in a game situation, can they actually be a leader in an organization?

There have been developed situations on television shows or movies where an actor cannot deal with real life.  They try to hide behind some technology that allows them to become someone that they are not.  This is dangerous since it is not real life.  We need to develop real life social skills so we can deal with actual job, marriage or some other social situations that naturally come up.

I think it is very concerning the apparent addiction that is being created.  The internet online games are creating potential zombies.  Where will that leave us when these players become our leaders?