Recently, I read two articles on the world of gaming (no, not the kind that is a form of gambling) and found them to be rather interesting.

The first one, “World of CEO-craft” (GigaOM) talks about a research paper published in the latest issue of the Harvard Business Review entitled “Leadership’s Online Labs”. They found that the best person who might be qualified to run an Internet startup might not need to have a MBA degree, but someone who is a Level 70 guild leader in the game, World of Warcraft.

And the second article (News.com.au | Technology) takes a look at behavioral problems and violent videogames. Two Harvard psychologists, Dr Lawrence Kutner and Dr Cheryl Olson from the Harvard Medical School have debunked the notion that parents and so-called ‘experts’ have had that violent games will lead to children becoming criminals or violent people when they grow up. Surprisingly, they found that boys who don’t play videogames are at greater risk of getting into trouble because videogames are a measure of social competence for boys in this generation. They also found that a lack of exposure to videogames is associated with problems including shoplifting and fighting. And they have published a book, Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games, based on the two-year study they did that was funded by the US Department of Justice.

You can watch a video interview done by G4-TV with the authors below:

You can read more about the study done in this article on the The Escapist.

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The World of Gaming originally appeared on Isaak Kwok dot Com on May 14, 2008.