"Got Game" shows how growing up immersed in video games has profoundly shaped the attitudes and abilities of this new generation. Though little-noticed, these ninety million rising professionals, through sheer numbers, will inevitably dominate business - and are already changing the rules. While many of these changes are positive - such as more open communication and creative problem-solving - they have caused a generation gap that frustrates gamers and the boomers who manage them. "Got Game" identifies the distinct values and traits that define the gamer generation - from an increased appetite for risk to unexpected leadership skills - and reveals management techniques today's leaders can use to bridge the generation gap and unleash gamers' hidden potential.
The Kids are Alright
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shop the Amazon.com Textbooks Store and save up to 70% on textbook rentals, 90% on used textbooks and 60% on eTextbooks. |
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Those who are looking for a contrarian view of video games will find it in these pages. While many parents fret about their children’s minds turning to goo as they squander hour after hour absorbed in electronic diversion, the authors argue that gamers glean valuable knowledge from their pastime and that they’re poised to use that knowledge to transform the workplace. Beck (The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business) and Mitchell (DoCoMo—Japan’s Wireless Tsunami: How One Mobile Telecom Created a New Market and Became a Global Force) base their claims on an exclusive survey of approximately 2000 business professionals. That survey, say the authors, provides the first data showing a direct, statistically verifiable link between digital games and professional behavior in the workplace. The authors express their analysis in clean, crisp prose devoid of jargon, making it accessible for non-gamers, especially non-gamers who are managers. "Gamers believe that winning matters," Beck and Wade contend, and gamers also place "a high value on competence—wanting to be an expert in the first place"—all of which makes the video game generation, estimated by the authors to be some 90 million strong, an influential force in the work place. The book touches on a handful of other ways in which gamers differ from non-gamers and provides suggestions on how employers can take advantage of their unique values and skills. Some readers may find themselves grinding their teeth at many of the authors’ upbeat conclusions about the benefits video game players will bring to the business world, but most will find the pair’s findings fascinating and provocative.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Got Game deserves credit for drawing attention to an issue...in 200 bright and breezy pages." -- The Financial Times, 21 October, 2004
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a book comparing the attitudes and work habits of two groups of people: those who grew up playing video games and those who didn't. The basis of the book, the jumping off point for Beck and Wade's analysis, is a *lot* of data collected in surveys by the authors. The analysis is based on how much gaming you did growing up, not how much you do now -- I don't get credit for my mastery of Rise of Nations. That makes sense given the number of hours involved. I'm fifty-two, I was old when the first computer games came out, but my children don't know a world without them. They have literally thousands of hours more gaming experience than I do.
You can call this a generation gap -- the authors analyze the data by age as well as gaming experience -- but over and over again the data suggest that gaming is more important than age. I can see the parts of my own personality that resonate with games, blowing away monsters as well as solving puzzles in resource allocation, but that's a coincidence reinforced by choosing games I like. My children, the data say, have been molded by games.
Have you ever used a slide rule? My father used one routinely, but although I know how, I've never used one to solve a real problem. It's just not part of my conceptual tool bag. When you bump into a business problem, do you reach for a metaphorical slide rule, recall a metaphor from Wordsworth, or make a list? Gamers hit a key or button or mouse, and they do it as fast as they can. Trial and error (and speed!) have been built in to their wiring from their first video game on. That's not the only characteristic discussed in the book. There's a list of twenty in the introduction, including expecting the world to be simple, logical, structured, rapidly learnable, forgiving of error, fair and ultimately solvable.
You can argue about what a terrible thing this is, just like the ancient Romans complained about sloppy togas on their teens. Trial and error wouldn't have built the interstate highway system, got us to the moon, etc., etc. But trial and error is an excellent strategy for taking advantage of a rapidly changing environment. I could quote the control theory to back this up, but that's the point: gamers would have tried four or fourteen or forty new ideas while I was building the model.
Beck and Wade analyze the data, illuminate the differences that gamers bring to a business environment, untangle benefits from prejudices and discuss how managers can manage and motivate gamers to take advantage of these benefits. Even if the idea of yet another corporate team-building exercise makes your skin crawl, you're better off knowing how your younger colleagues think. The book is an excellent combination of data and discussion, so it should be useful and accessible to anyone. Other than gamers, of course; they never read the manual.
You can call this a generation gap -- the authors analyze the data by age as well as gaming experience -- but over and over again the data suggest that gaming is more important than age. I can see the parts of my own personality that resonate with games, blowing away monsters as well as solving puzzles in resource allocation, but that's a coincidence reinforced by choosing games I like. My children, the data say, have been molded by games.
Have you ever used a slide rule? My father used one routinely, but although I know how, I've never used one to solve a real problem. It's just not part of my conceptual tool bag. When you bump into a business problem, do you reach for a metaphorical slide rule, recall a metaphor from Wordsworth, or make a list? Gamers hit a key or button or mouse, and they do it as fast as they can. Trial and error (and speed!) have been built in to their wiring from their first video game on. That's not the only characteristic discussed in the book. There's a list of twenty in the introduction, including expecting the world to be simple, logical, structured, rapidly learnable, forgiving of error, fair and ultimately solvable.
You can argue about what a terrible thing this is, just like the ancient Romans complained about sloppy togas on their teens. Trial and error wouldn't have built the interstate highway system, got us to the moon, etc., etc. But trial and error is an excellent strategy for taking advantage of a rapidly changing environment. I could quote the control theory to back this up, but that's the point: gamers would have tried four or fourteen or forty new ideas while I was building the model.
Beck and Wade analyze the data, illuminate the differences that gamers bring to a business environment, untangle benefits from prejudices and discuss how managers can manage and motivate gamers to take advantage of these benefits. Even if the idea of yet another corporate team-building exercise makes your skin crawl, you're better off knowing how your younger colleagues think. The book is an excellent combination of data and discussion, so it should be useful and accessible to anyone. Other than gamers, of course; they never read the manual.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
To start, it's not about how it's OK to hole-up and game all day. But it does make a solid case for gaming---and that means your current point-of-view is to going to quickly shape your reaction to this book. But hang in there...because you really can't ignore the truth of the impact on risk-taking, perseverance, innovation...and it's role in shaping managers. No matter how you feel about gaming...and whether you game or not...this book provides and insightful look into what's shaping the next crop of managers. Resource scarcity shaped my grandfather; the boundless optimism of the 50s shaped my Dad. TV and "instant solutions" (read "this quarter...") shaped me. Games are shaping my son. I think he's the one to watch.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The video game generation is growing up. If video gamers have not applied for a management position posted at your company, they soon will. When they do, will you know how many of the stereotypes of video gamers are based on fact? After all, we have received decades of hyperbole on the bad effects of video gaming. In Got Game, Harvard researchers Beck and Wade give a refreshing, social-scientific treatment of the topic. They definitively argue that gaming is not an embarrassment in your employee. In fact, if you agree with Got Game's message, you will find yourself adding "video gaming" to the list of desired skills on your next management job posting.
The book is relevant to business in my locale, central British Columbia. The conclusions are based on interviews with hundreds of business professionals in the United States, and the demographics are close enough a fit to give useful insights here. Got Game gives a roadmap to the behaviours a video gamer will bring into management.
The key insights this book asserts about gamers are:
* The gamer is comfortable in a world where they are the centre of the process. Video game entertainment is designed to make customers the center of an experience, so the concept of "the customer is always right" is ingrained early on in the gamer. Gamers are used to making decisions that have life-and-death impact; and the gamer is confident - after all, in games, they are the expert.
* For those growing up in the gamer generation, the world is not so big anymore. Gamers assume there is always a solution, "it just may be hard to find on this level"; gamers are more comfortable than others in adjusting to new contexts - they can be surfing one minute, and strategizing against Napoleon the next; and gamers suffer less from ego-bruising - after all, trial-and-error is always the best methodology.
* Gamers relate very well to others. Playing video games is no longer an isolating pastime - it is a new and extremely prevalent way to socialize. Gamers see relationships as structured, but are able to switch between structures easily and confidently. One minute the gamer is the sworn enemy, the next she is telling her brother the secrets to get to the next level. One moment the mentor, the next an ally, the next an enemy.
Got Game is at its most interesting when the authors review recent business trends through the "gamer generation" lens. The authors' explanation of the "dot-com" technology company crash in the late 90s was intriguing. The behaviours identified in their research seem startling relevant, and make the crash understandable. They depict young dot-com presidents able to play their way through the requirements of setting up a public company. If the company went bankrupt and the game was lost, the true gamer simply counted it as a learning experience, and would still be able to say they were presidents before the age of 30. Press reset, and the business game could start again.
The book is a worthwhile read for HR professionals, and those hiring management. Beck and Wade estimate that there are 90 million gamers in the US workforce now. Drawing a simple comparison to Canada's population would put 9-10 million into the category for us. In short, you can expect to see gamers applying for your jobs soon, and Got Game gives a good roadmap to understanding how to harness the skills of the video game generation.
The book is relevant to business in my locale, central British Columbia. The conclusions are based on interviews with hundreds of business professionals in the United States, and the demographics are close enough a fit to give useful insights here. Got Game gives a roadmap to the behaviours a video gamer will bring into management.
The key insights this book asserts about gamers are:
* The gamer is comfortable in a world where they are the centre of the process. Video game entertainment is designed to make customers the center of an experience, so the concept of "the customer is always right" is ingrained early on in the gamer. Gamers are used to making decisions that have life-and-death impact; and the gamer is confident - after all, in games, they are the expert.
* For those growing up in the gamer generation, the world is not so big anymore. Gamers assume there is always a solution, "it just may be hard to find on this level"; gamers are more comfortable than others in adjusting to new contexts - they can be surfing one minute, and strategizing against Napoleon the next; and gamers suffer less from ego-bruising - after all, trial-and-error is always the best methodology.
* Gamers relate very well to others. Playing video games is no longer an isolating pastime - it is a new and extremely prevalent way to socialize. Gamers see relationships as structured, but are able to switch between structures easily and confidently. One minute the gamer is the sworn enemy, the next she is telling her brother the secrets to get to the next level. One moment the mentor, the next an ally, the next an enemy.
Got Game is at its most interesting when the authors review recent business trends through the "gamer generation" lens. The authors' explanation of the "dot-com" technology company crash in the late 90s was intriguing. The behaviours identified in their research seem startling relevant, and make the crash understandable. They depict young dot-com presidents able to play their way through the requirements of setting up a public company. If the company went bankrupt and the game was lost, the true gamer simply counted it as a learning experience, and would still be able to say they were presidents before the age of 30. Press reset, and the business game could start again.
The book is a worthwhile read for HR professionals, and those hiring management. Beck and Wade estimate that there are 90 million gamers in the US workforce now. Drawing a simple comparison to Canada's population would put 9-10 million into the category for us. In short, you can expect to see gamers applying for your jobs soon, and Got Game gives a good roadmap to understanding how to harness the skills of the video game generation.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Understanding the impact of computer gaming
An excellent book for understanding both the impact of computer gaming and the goals or thought processes of the generations that grew up doing it (there are two you know). Read more
Published on July 6, 2009 by HankC
5.0 out of 5 stars
RTFM!
In Got Game, the authors put forth the theory that gamers aren't just suited for business, but that business is suited for them--in essence, that business IS a game, and thus those... Read more
Published on March 26, 2009 by Michael J. Tresca
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting thesis
I found this book to be an interesting read. I'm not sure I buy into their thesis that the gamer generation is different, due to growing up with electronic games, but they did... Read more
Published on July 31, 2008 by D. Dietrich
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but doesn't add a lot to the literature
I work in the video game industry and so have an awful lot of experience with people whose lives have been shaped by video games - they develop them for a living. Read more
Published on July 2, 2008 by Don McGowan
3.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat insightful, but needs an update
While there are some good points made in this book, it was hard to get past the outdated nature of the examples and data that is included. Read more
Published on February 9, 2008 by Daniel Wearsch
1.0 out of 5 stars
dishonest
It is profoundly dishonest to have published this book under a different title--with no warning in the book--than Got Game. It is the same book. Read more
Published on August 4, 2007 by Casey
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good insight into the younger generation
This book had me from the beginning with the Socrates quote. I really like how the authors broke the generation down to how they think. Read more
Published on July 8, 2007 by T. Stanley
2.0 out of 5 stars
Got Game- How to Sell A Book on Generalizations
Beck and Wade have decided that all business interactions can best be explained by grouping people into 2 groups and assigning one major attribute to them. Read more
Published on February 25, 2007 by T. Taylor
3.0 out of 5 stars
Same text, different title
Maybe I just missed something major in the book description, but this is EXACTLY THE SAME TEXT as the authors' other book, "Got Game: how the gamer generation is reshaping business... Read more
Published on February 22, 2007 by library maven
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Kids are Alright: How the Gamer Gereatin is Changing the Workplace
This book has been an "eye-opener" for our entire family. Our 14 year old grandson is a "Gamer" and we used to worry that he was wasting away his valuable growing years. Read more
Published on February 16, 2007 by Patricia E. Platt
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 9
books:
See all 9 books this book cites
3
books
cite this book:
- Digital Game-Based Learning by Marc Prensky in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Population Projections (Series PP2) by Office for National Statistics in Back Matter
- Game Over by David Sheff in Back Matter
- The New Leadership: Managing Participation in Organizations by Victor H. Vroom in Back Matter
- Charles Schwab by Vault Reports in Back Matter
See all 9 books this book cites
- Social Intelligence: The New Science of Success by Karl Albrecht in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- How to Talk So People Listen: Connecting in Today's Workplace by Sonya Hamlin on page 31
- Fasten Your Seatbelt: The Passenger Is Flying the Plane by Nawal K. Taneja on page 215
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
|
|
