Customer Reviews

The Kids are Alright: How the Gamer Generation is Changing the Workplace

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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.

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.

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.

Ever been bored by management's endless sports cliches? 'We're in the right ball park.' 'He's playing Monday morning quarterback'. 'We're on a sticky wicket', etc. Ever note that senior management talks a lot about male ball sports, but yet can now barely walk around a golf course, and look more like a football than a player? And have you noticed that without a hint of irony, these smug boomers neither respect nor understand the games that millions enjoy daily?

Got game zaps the smug boomers. It explains that video games teach tons of skill, build self confidence and, yes, you knew it, encourage good team behaviour. And it points out that these benefits are mostly lost on the boomer generation.

The authors lay out their research that shows how these skills really give an edge in business. Gamers develop the leadership and entrepreneurial edge that managers say they want. If only they knew how to spot it.

For those of us who never quite understood why whacking balls had much to do with making money, Got Game is refreshing look at how the gamer generation can contribute so much more.

The dot com boom owes a lot to the Gamer generation. All that energy, innovation, risk-taking was intense, just like a game. Yes, there was the dot com crash, too. But you are reading this on Amazon, aren't you?

If you are in business, especially if you are over 40, this is a must read book to gain an understanding of one of the factors shaping the next generation of workers. I am one of the ones who "dismiss" the game players, even the one in my own house, without ever really thinking about the impact of gaming on the development and attitudes of the younger generation. Why didn't I notice this, even though my son plays for hours a day? Of course it is having an influence! Got Game lays all the facts out there for you, with data backing up their research, on just how much of an influence growing up playing games has on an individual. It also tells you how gamers think and what their natural expectations are of the world around them. If we as managers do not understand the people working for us, not only will we not tap into their amazing potential but we will also lose out when they take their business else where due to dissatisfaction. This is a serious business book about an important topic, but Beck and Wade present it in an easy to understand and enjoyable manner. I would recommend this book even if you are not in business, because gamers are all around us and they are not going away!

A most interesting book that definitely takes the contrarian view of computer game playing. The television news lambasted game playing to a fair the well. The games were going to rot the brains of the kids. I suppose that the television networks wanted the kids sitting passively in front of the tube watching the afternoon drivel.

Game playing teaches a desire to win. Game players have learned about measured risk taking, have an amazing ability to multitask, and have unexpected leadership skills. Sound familiar, these are exactly the traits a lot of business books are saying that we need to seek in new employees.

Ok, so it isn't what we did when we were kids. But some kids still play sports (and games); some kids didn't play sports when we were little either, girls especially weren't allowed. But what we did drove our parents just as wild, remember their thoughts about Elvis.

This book is based on a series of surveys of the hiring experiences of companies to explore how gamers are different as employees, as managers, and as executives and what managers, made up of mostly Baby Boomers, need to do in order to capitalize on gamers strengths and hidden potential.

And just think, if you were trying to hire kids to learn to drive a tank....

This is a well written book that uses real data to show that gamers are succeeding in business because they (1) are accustomed to working in teams and like team-based success, (2) are willing to take calculated risks because they have done so thousands of times, and (3) have no fear of failure because they have experienced it over and over again and have lived (and re-spawned) to play again. All three attributes are big plusses in business world. Book seems pretty topical, and if you read it you are obligated to hire at least one gamer into senior management of your multinational corporation.

The authors of "Got Game" are onto something. While the baby boomers have been preoccupied with defining and refining their own lifestyles, a whole new generation has materialized with a radically different world view. We often hear of generation X and their younger siblings, generation Y, but Beck and Wade conflate the two into one "game generation" based upon their common obsession with video games, and the common set of attitudes, skills, and values that gaming instilled in them during their formative years. So what are these? Increased competitiveness, concentration, and a strong sense of self-worth, for starters. Gamers are also adept at multi-tasking, and at ease swimming through oceans of data--both valuable skills in today's high-stress business environment. What's more, they are "latent heroes," a trait that might interest military recruiters and other high-risk enterprises. Though the authors seem to have become enamored of their subjects, they are not fawning advocates, and warn against certain gamer traits, such as arrogance and self-involvement. What makes this book particularly valuable is that it is not simply descriptive. It is prescriptive as well, laden with tips on ways that employers can harness the game culture's skills and personality traits.

Now that the "game" has been exposed by Beck and Wade, no one interested in the world's young adults and how they work, play, plan for the future--or "whatever," to use a favorite gamer term--should ignore this ground breaking book.

As an over-achieving boomer who barely took time for fun, let alone games, I feel I have been introduced to a whole new world by reading Got Game. I have raised, taught, and managed gamers without knowing the extent to which they functioned in a world very different from my own. Oh, we all recognize the concept of "generation gap", but even so we don't often have the opportunity to have the details of that gap explained to us in the enjoyable way we do by reading Got Game. Beck and Wade make the exploration of the gaming phenomenon an insightful and fun journey into the minds of people we work with, or perhaps even members of our own families. It was a real wake-up call. I've even been phoning my own now-professional children to ask them about their gaming experiences.

As a former college-level business instructor, I see an important application for this book not only in business but in business education. It should be on the must-read list of all educators.

One more thing--I've decided I have to get a Game Boy!

Whether you agree with the premise or not, Got Game provides a well written, interesting view of the influence of video games on the skills and attitudes of the next generation. As the director of a large global marketing and licensing company, the gamer generation is a market that one must understand. It is the future. Their perception and their skill will shape the world to come. As a baby boomer, the world of video games and gaming is foreign and, perhaps, misunderstood. Like so many of my generation, I tend to stereotype avid gamers as hopeless slackers and, in some cases, worse. Got Game puts a whole new spin on the skills that the gamers develop and their perception of the world. The book is must read for anyone in the marketing business.