Seduction 2.0

What do IT guys -- and yeah, they're mostly guys -- do after setting up servers, partitioning hard disks and connecting networks for us computer idiots all day? Well, many are more likely to be at home advancing to level 65 on World of Warcraft instead of out charming the ladies.

While to them, dissecting the guts of a PC usually comes second nature, holding a conversation with someone they find attractive often does not. And when they do try, total system crash is often the result, since many in the crowd during Ladies' Night at the local bar aren't that interested in talking about bandwidth and RAM over their cosmopolitans.

But help is on the way for the budding IT engineers at Potsdam University, just south of Berlin. The 440 students enrolled in the master's degree course are getting lessons in flirting--it's part of the curriculum. There will be hints on how to write saucy text messages and e-mails, how to navigate a party and banter with some success and finally, how to bounce back from rejection instead of disappearing completely inside their Blood Elf or Warlock characters in Warcraft.

It's all part of a social skills section of the IT course that aims to ease students' entry into the world of work and interaction with carbon-based life forms. Besides the flirting part, participants will also learn about body language (stop slouching!), public speaking, stress management and presentation skills (enunciate!).

"We want to prepare our students with the social skills needed to succeed both in their private life and their work life," Hans-Joachim Allgaier, a spokesman for the university, told Reuters.