????12歲時，布萊登?奧爾森就自稱為“虛擬世界癡迷者”。當時的他熱衷于早期版本的《阿斯龍的召喚》（Asheron's Call）——世界上最早的虛擬世界游戲之一。

????“從此以后，我清楚地知道自己究竟想做什么了。”奧爾森說。盡管他那時還不知道什么是創業者，而且直到上大學時才結識了一位創業者。

????10年后，現年23歲的奧爾森通過諾威爾公司（Novel Inc.）將他的兩個愛好——創業和虛擬仿真——合二為一。這家成立兩年的公司旨在重塑雇員求職和雇主招聘的方式。該公司希望將求職申請和篩選過程開發成一種視頻游戲。在游戲中，求職者可以體驗一系列的模擬工作場景，然后再決定這份工作是否與他們的個性和技能相匹配。

????奧爾森在2009年創建了這家公司，并擔任CEO一職。他說：“總的來講，玩家既能玩得開心，又能學習到一些具體的東西，幫助他們判斷自己對意向的工作到底是更傾心了，還是覺得索然無味。”

????諾威爾公司正在完善其產品，奧爾森預計將于今年末推出。他說，目前該產品主要面向求職者，但最終雇主也可以用來篩選和培訓員工。奧爾森的商業模式是什么？他打算按照玩家/求職者人數向企業收取少量費用。

????諾威爾公司已經吸引了多個知名的合作伙伴，并引起了媒體的大量關注，這在很大程度上應歸功于奧爾森的熱情。他正與耐克（Nike）、星巴克（Starbucks）和阿拉斯加航空公司（Alaska Airlines）的人力資源部主管合作，為潛在員工打造合適的模擬工作環境。

????奧爾森已經從總部位于加拿大溫哥華的麥克林集團（McLean Group）和著名的硅谷技術投資家吉姆?貝特徹等投資者手中獲得了200萬美元風險投資。上個月，在《財富》（Fortune）雜志每年一度的“頭腦科技風暴大會”（Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference）上，他參加了名為創業偶像（Start-Up Idol）的創業公司籌資競賽，結果輸給了人工智能應用程序開發商克萊沃森斯公司（Clever Sense）。

????他甚至聘請了《阿斯龍的召喚》的主要設計者托比?拉加尼擔任諾威爾制作公司（Novel Studios）的副總裁。

????諾威爾公司還與華盛頓大學（the University of Washington）達成了合作關系。為美軍研發類似模擬場景的行為科學家布魯斯?阿沃利奧正為該公司從事研究工作。“（諾威爾的項目）是可行的。我們有充分的理由可以這么說。”阿沃利奧稱，“跟年輕人聊聊，你會發現，其中至少有3/4的人說他們都在玩虛擬游戲。”

????說不定奧爾森的虛擬游戲甚至可能會使某些求職者意識到，為別人打工還不如自己創業。

????譯者：千牛絮

????At 12 years old, Brayden Olson was a self-described "virtual world nerd," playing an early version of Asheron's Call -- one of the world's first virtual world games.

????"From then on, I knew exactly what I wanted to do," Olson said. Never mind that he didn't know what an entrepreneur was and wouldn't meet one until college.

????A decade later, Olson, now 23, has combined his two loves -- entrepreneurship and virtual simulation -- at Novel Inc., a two-year-old firm that aims to upend the way prospective employees and employers find each other. Novel wants to turn the pre-job application and screening process into a video game, in which candidates go through a series of simulated workplace scenarios to determine if a job is a good fit for their personalities and skills.

????"You'll basically be having fun, but you'll be learning some specific things and you might find yourself more attracted or less attracted to the job," says Olson, who founded the company in 2009 and serves as its CEO.

????Novel is still tweaking its product, which Olson expects to release later this year. For now, he says, it will be aimed at job hunters, but it could eventually be used by employers to screen and train workers. His business model? He plans to charge companies a small fee per player-slash-applicant.

????Novel has already attracted big-name partners and quite a bit of press attention, thanks in no small part to Olson's enthusiasm. He is working with human resources executives at Nike (NKE), Starbucks (SBUX) and Alaska Airlines (ALK) to create the right simulation situations for would-be workers.

????He's secured $2 million in venture capital from investors such as Vancouver, the Canada-based McLean Group and Jim Boettcher, a well-known Silicon Valley tech investor. Last month he was a contestant in Start-Up Idol, a fundraising competition at Fortune's annual Brainstorm Tech conference. (He lost to artificial intelligence app maker Clever Sense.)

????He's even hired Toby Ragaini, a lead designer on Asheron's Call, as vice president of Novel Studios.

????Novel also has formed a partnership with the University of Washington. Behavioral scientist Bruce Avolio, who has developed similar simulations for the U.S. Army, is providing research. "There's a variety of reasons this could work," Avolio says. "When you talk to young people, you find that at least three-fourths of them say they play games."

????And who knows, Olson's game may even help a few job seekers realize that instead of working for someone else they really should start their own companies.