[FanaHOVA]

"They're rewarded... for showing up (like an MMO). That's not how you get good at things in real life."

It really is though. If you show up every day and put in the work, you WILL get better at whatever you're doing. That's also something your colleagues and the people who surround you appreciate, see Cal Ripken, Jr. for example. He wasn't an outstanding player, but he didn't miss a single game for 16 years, he showed up every day, no matter what.

Not sure what sports you played and at what level, I played basketball growing up at national level but also competed at LANs across the country on COD4 and learned lots of lessons from both.

[whysonot]

I should have clarified that there's a difference between showing up and mindfully playing / practicing and simply showing up. You and Cal Ripken Jr showed up to practice with the intention of getting better. If you're to actually get better at your job, you show up and try and get better at your job. But if you show up and just go through the motions (the real-life equivalent of clicking a bunch of buildings to mine resources) you will be squandering your potential. I think we agree--I just wasn't clear enough in my first comment.

[emsy]

In competitive games (UT, Quake, CS etc.) you get better by playing and critical analysis of your and your enemie's playing. In WoW, you get better through, more or less, mindless grinding. At least so mindless that you can pay peons to do the work for you, so you can enjoy your level 100 character.

[Fomite]

Having once been a fairly serious raider in WoW, there's a ceiling in WoW wherein you no longer get better through mindless grinding. A level 100 character is nice and all, but serious end-game raiding or PvP requires more than just "Push button, collect loot."