Do gamers make better employees?

Just when you thought you'd heard it all, IBM executive David Laux tells the BBC that video gamers make good employees. "We have found across the board, if you look at different categories of games, they all have the ability to develop unique skills."

It gets worse: "That's from the casual games which improve memorisation and the ability to discern details, to console games and shooter games that develop rapid decision making and to role playing games like the World of Warcraft that are very unique in producing leadership skills." (emphasis added)

Now color me unconvinced, but I strongly reject the notion that sitting alone in your underwear eating Hot Pockets and drinking Jolt has anything to do with business -- even it is combined with controlling a cluster of pixels designed to look like an imaginary creature bearing an axe you can use to buffet an Adlin Pridedrift.

On the other hand, an employer that can find someone lame enough to spend days cramped in his room without showering or talking to friends and develop a way to channel that energy into work might have an extremely productive employee on its hands.

But World of Warcraft as the breeding ground for the leaders of tomorrow? I doubt it.