What the Success of Elden Ring Teaches Us About Learning and Development
It’s now been just over two months since FromSoftware’s DLC for ‘Elden Ring’ took every gamer's free time up. Once again, earning accolades for its challenging gameplay, rich lore, and expansive open world.
Whenever there’s a major trend in an industry, we should pay attention. Beyond the entertainment value that Elden Ring offers, there are valuable insights into learning and development (L&D) that can be applied in our much more “boring” corporate setting.
We’ve previously spoken about How Looking at Game Development Can Help Shape the Learning and Development Space when we interviewed Ryan from Autumn Pioneer, but let’s delve a little deeper into the key lessons L&D professionals can draw from this groundbreaking game:
- Embracing Challenges: For those who don’t know, FromSoftware is known for creating steep learning curve experiences where players often face tough and complex problems and puzzles. Why is this method so popular in a world where people usually take the easy route? It’s about getting people attached to a growth mindset.
What we should learn from it: Encouraging a growth mindset within your organisation is crucial. Just as the players in Elden Ring learn from their failures (and there are many!), they gradually improve. Employees should be encouraged to view challenges within their teams as opportunities for growth, and this is only done when we provide them with a safe environment to make mistakes. Build your learning landscape with this in mind.
- Self-Paced Learning and Exploration: Elden Ring has a vast world, and people explore it at their own pace, solving puzzles, defeating bosses, and finding new information (“Lore”) independently.
What we can learn from this: Self-paced learning is a powerful tool that can empower employees to take charge of their own development. Offering a variety of learning paths and resources instead of just one simple eLearning rollout can change things dramatically. To summarise, adaptive learning paths cater to diverse needs and the more needs you cover, the better the outcome, it’s that simple.
- Intrinsic Motivation: Intrinsic Motivation is when someone is motivated to perform an activity for its own sake and personal rewards, unlike extrinsic motivation, which is performing an activity to earn a reward or avoid punishment.
What we can take away from this: Fostering intrinsic motivation by connecting learning objectives to personal and professional growth can lead to more meaningful and sustained engagement, so much of learning and development is run by “fear of not completing the compliance courses”, start using the right motivation.
- Community: The game has a vibrant community where players share tips and strategies and support each other through forums, social media, and cooperative gameplay. They even leave notes/messages on the ground within the world itself.
What can we take away from this: A sense of community and collaboration within your organisation can enhance learning experiences. Creating platforms for knowledge sharing, peer-to-peer learning, and collaborative projects encourages a culture of continuous learning and mutual support. If you just have an LMS that’s only used to host scorms and run compliance, then you’re missing out on creating a solid learning culture.
Elden Ring is proof that a challenging, yet rewarding experience is still desired. By taking inspiration from games such as Elden Ring, no matter how distant the concepts are from our usual day-to-day workings we can start to transform traditional corporate training into more effective, engaging and meaningful learning experiences.
To explore how these principles can be integrated into your organisation's learning and development strategy, reach out, Tarnished.
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