Business: it's just a game.

Yesterday I heard a story on NPR Marketplace about a new book, Got Game, from Mitchell Wade and John C. Beck.(Note to future game-technology authors: please please please come up with new catch phrases for titles. Don't try to be cute. It's all been done.) In a brief interview, Wade talked about how video game training has influenced the next generation of business people and entrepreneurs. Some of his research sounds interesting and worthy of further investigation. For example, game-raised workers exhibit:

1. Willingness to take measured risks - gamers learn this innately long before they get to business school.

2. Different way of interacting with others. For example, less respect for hierarchy and seniority. In game world, anyone can be beaten by a 12-year-old. Gamers tend to respect ability, not seniority.

3. Seriousness about expertise, and being rewarded for that expertise. No matter how many times you fail in a game, if you REALLY want it, you CAN beat it. No doubt a helpful attitude in business.

One other thing Wade emphasized was that these characteristics were found in their research pool regardless of whether the subjects play games currently; the important thing for the data seems to be that they had played games.

Comments

[Bowler]

"3. Seriousness about expertise, and being rewarded for that expertise. No matter how many times you fail in a game, if you REALLY want it, you CAN beat it."

Unless they played the original Battletoads or Fallout 2 v 1.0 (the retail release). ;)

[Robyn]

I'm such a nerd, but the respect for hierarchy and seniority thing sounds fascinating. I work in a HUGE company IT company and i support a sales team - all of the reps are young (under 35, easy). They basically cold call, but i wonder if the same influence that causes people to respect ability vs seniority allows these reps to more easily interact with CEOs and such - in that they are not intimidated by them in the same way that previous generations would be. These guys pick up the phone and call into companies all day long, 100's of companies. They are generalists as well, so they probably fall into the seriousness about expertise as well, they know what they are talking about, and respect their customers if they do too.

Interesting Jane, thanks!

[roBin]

Funny - there's been a lot of talk about how the business of games isn't exactly open to questioning authority, or taking measured risks these days... As back-channel chat about quality of life issues becomes increasingly public, perhaps the entertainment software industry will... rub off on itself?

[ElusiveSpoon]

There's now a post on Slashdot about a possible class action suit against EA.

[eric]

business is just a game. the reason that most people do not recognize it as such is that there is no reset button or savegame to return to, and money loss is possible, and so it appears to be risky and stressful and less fun.
i definitely think that gaming informs my business decisions. well, pretty much all of my decisions for that matter.