Based on this research, games such as Fortnite, Warzone and League of Legends seem to offer very relevant opportunities in the context of work. They are very popular games characterized by a large and lively community (Steam, Youtube, Twitch) and these games lead to the broadest development of skills compared to the other games that were investigated (Wim van der Linden, communication advisor Randstad Belgium).
The labor market of today and the future increasingly revolves around the continuous development and employability of skills. Although playing games traditionally leads to a lot of misunderstanding, in recent years there has been increasing support that playing games can contribute to the development of so-called 'soft skills' that are useful throughout the career. This is now also confirmed by research by HR service provider Randstad among 3,763 respondents, which examined whether there are relationships between playing games and developing skills.
A total of eight games were analyzed: Minecraft, League of Legends, Apex Legends, Public Grounds Unknown Ground (PUBG), Call of Duty: Warzone, FIFA, Fortnite: Battle Royale and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild/ Left Awakening/Skyward Sword. The participants were asked about their experience with the chosen game and could indicate from a list of twelve 'transferable skills' which they think they would develop by playing the chosen game. For each chosen skill, a diagnostic test was performed based on the experience of playing a specific game to determine the skill level.
As many as nine of the twelve skills are developed by playing at least one (or more) of the eight possible games: leadership, teamwork, communication, critical thinking, visual perception, multitasking, perseverance, decisiveness and self-motivation. The three skills for which there is currently no evidence that they have been developed are problem solving, conflict management and time management. Further research should clarify this. Based on the theory, there is a good chance that evidence will still be found for this.
Self-motivation and teamwork are most often developed during gaming
It also turned out that self-motivation (5), teamwork (4) and critical thinking (3) are the skills that are developed in the most number of games. The strongest associations include: found between self-motivation and Public Grounds Unknown Ground, leadership and League of Legends and critical thinking and Warzone.
The game that develops the most skills is Fortnite with no less than six skills (communication, critical thinking, visual perception, self-motivation, perseverance and teamwork). However, Fortnite only comes up once with the strongest connection between the game and the skill and that is with visual perception. This while League of Legends can present three times the strongest connection (leadership, multitasking and perseverance).
Games that lack a clear goal to work towards appear to be less effective for skill development. For example, think of 'sandbox' games such as Minecraft. Although the game has very clear goals, Zelda (decisiveness) even had a negative effect. One possible explanation is that the level of difficulty in Zelda rises so quickly that people do not progress by developing certain skills, but by desperately trying until they almost accidentally make it one step further. Something that often characterizes Japanese games.