2009 Aug 18    

The Philadelphia Weekly on Kevin Werbach, "Wharton's 'Warcraft' Professor"

Philadelphia Weekly features a profile of Kevin Werbach, professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton and an avid World of Warcraft player. As Werbach explains:

"So much of what I do in my life is very hardcore, intellectual, focused -- it was nice to have something that's just 'Let's play a game... But of course, for me, it has become something that’s an extremely intellectual experience as well."

Werbach describes how the online game can generate real-world insights:

"I think it's significant in terms of being a microcosm for lots of things," said Werbach. "It is a huge simulation engine so you have real people running around doing things that you can watch in this environment, and even when things happen by accident you can learn from it."

In one incident, Werbach says, the game's developers incorrectly coded a disease -- which started spreading much faster than its creators anticipated. An epidemiologist looked at the game's data on the disease's spreading and how players reacted. The results matched scientists expectations of what would happen if a similar disease were to spread in the human population.

"That was not even intentional, but Warcraft and things like it, I think, can be a great laboratory for studying phenomena that involve people," Werbach says.

The full article is available online:

• Philadelphia Weekly - Wharton's 'Warcraft' Professor