Gamers of the World UniteA new book numbers the new generation that follows the older Xers and the Baby Boomers at 90 million. They represent what we’ve called the Millennial generation, plus a large proportion of the younger Xers.
There are more members of this new generation than there are Baby Boomers. Some 56 million of them are old enough to be in the workforce, and to be employees, managers, and even executives. As a generational cohort, they behave differently than anything we’ve seen: They learn differently, and they want different things. They are going to shape the future, but they are going to do it their own way.
The men and women of this generation present a challenge and an opportunity for managers. They have skills and attitudes that no other generation possessed in the same quantity and quality. They have expertise, drive, and confidence. Among the many things that define them and make them different from other generations is that they have less patience and see fewer obstacles in their way.
And what has made them the way they are? The overriding common factor seems to be that they’ve grown up playing video games.
What are some of the ways this generation is making an impact? For one, it’s harder to get their attention in traditional ways. Television broadcast networks have been losing viewers for years. We can blame the remote control, the myriad options offered by cable and satellite systems, and the Internet. Nielsen Media Research last fall found that young males ? the target audience most coveted by advertisers ? watched 12 percent less prime-time TV than the year before.
In a recent article in Wired, David Raines, who determines Coca-Cola’s advertising spending, said, “It’s not that men 18 to 34 have stopped watching TV, but they’re doing a lot of other stuff, too.” They’re watching DVDs, surfing the Net, and playing video games. And so, that’s where ad dollars will go to get their attention. Hence, the trend of buying “product placement” in video games and movies. But there’s a fundamental difference in the way young men of this generation perceive things versus the rest of us.
Jim Lentz of Toyota USA sums it up this way: “This younger generation has a filter mechanism. They can be doing their homework, listening to music, watching TV, on the PC, and on the phone, all at the same time. You assume they’re just screwing around ? but they’re not.”
Apparently, this generation has a more nimble brain-functioning capability. Theirs is a world that is always turned on. In order to avoid overload, they have adapted so that they can selectively tune out whatever they want. “They have a total ability to block out anything they don’t want to get through,” Lentz says. “From an advertising standpoint, that’s what makes this animal so scary.”
Americans spend more money on video games than on movies, and they spend more time playing games than they do on movie rentals.
According to Got Game: How the Gamer Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever by John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade, games deliver a reality unlike those in the outside world. The authors identify the following five attributes:
The player’s the star. “You are the center of every game, unlike Little League, where most kids will never be the star,” they write.
The gamer’s the boss. “The world is very responsive to you. You can choose things about reality, or switch to different experiences, in a way that is literally impossible in real life.”
The gamer is always right. “Like shopping, the whole experience is designed for your satisfaction and entertainment; the opponents are tough, but never too tough.”
The gamer’s an expert. “You have the experience of getting really, really good ? especially compared to others who actually see you perform.”
The gamer’s a tough guy. “You can experience all sorts of crashes, suffering, and death ? and it doesn’t hurt.”
The authors also found that the gamer’s experience colors his view of the world in five fundamental ways:
There’s always an answer. You might be frustrated for a while, you might even never find it, but you know the solution exists.
Everything is possible. You see yourself or other players consistently do amazing things, such as defeating hundreds of bad guys single-handedly, or beating the best NBA team ever.
The world is a logical, human-friendly place. Games are basically fair. Events may be random but not inexplicable, and there is not much mystery.
Trial-and-error is almost always the best plan. It’s the only way to advance in most games, even if you ultimately break down and buy a strategy guide or copy from others to succeed at the really hard parts.
Things are (unrealistically) simple. Games are driven by models. Even complex models are a lot simpler than reality.
As a result, gamers tend to relate to other people in certain specific ways. Got Game identified five relational characteristics:
It’s all about competition. You’re always competing; even if you collaborate with other human players, you are competing against some character or keeping score.
Relationships are structured. To make the game work, there are only a few roles people (real or virtual) can fit into, such as competitor/ally and boss/ subordinate.
We are all alone. The gaming experience is basically solitary, even if played in groups. And you don’t experience all of the activity, for any sustained time, as part of a group.
Young people rule. Young people dominate gaming. Paying your dues takes a short time, youth actually helps, and there is no attention paid to elders.
People are simple. Most people in games are cartoon characters. Their skills may be complex, multi-dimensional, and user-configurable, but their personality types and behaviors are simple. There are big and strong, wild and crazy, beautiful and sexy, and a few other types. That’s it.
And, what messages do gamers take from the gaming experience? The authors identify these five key principles:
Rebel. Edginess and attitude are dominant elements of the culture.
Be a hero. You always get the star’s role; that is the only way to succeed or get satisfaction.
Bond with people who share your game experience, not your national or cultural background. It’s a very global world, in design, consumption, and characters, and in the phenomenon of the game generation.
Make your own way in the world. Leaders are irrelevant and often evil; ignore them.
Tune out and have fun. The whole experience of gaming is escapist. When reality is boring, you hop into game world. When a game gets boring, you switch to one that isn’t.
So how does all this translate to what gamers will turn out to be as consumers, employees, managers, and executives?
First, Beck and Wade assert that this generation has disguised its intense commitment to professional excellence. They are proud to describe themselves as experts, even deep experts. But it goes beyond their sense of their own skill. It also speaks to the nature of their accomplishment: They have spent hours in a world that has given them tangible rewards and which has provided them with constant, immediate feedback. The authors point out that that represents an ideal training ground for skills deeply relevant to the professional world.
Gamers believe that winning is important, and they see competition in all aspects of life. They have a drive to perform, and the authors were surprised to find that they have a highly developed set of skills that apply to teamwork and a strong impulse to be part of a team. This indicates this generation’s strong sense of commitment to companies they work for.
Also the gamer generation is able to multi-task with much more ease than the rest of us can. They can perform many routine chores the rest of us would have to think about. Games teach them to prioritize their attention ? and regulate their concentration on the most important thing at hand. This clearly has implications for their success in today’s fast-moving business world.
Based on these observations, here are seven likely developments we will see:
Managers who deal with gamers and learn to decode their behavior will be rewarded with excellent work and loyal service. For example, you’ll need to look past the swagger, and recognize the pride these young people have in what they do.
Managers who can harness the rapid pace of problem-solving abilities this generation possesses will find their contributions to be practical and feasible. Remember, these gamers were trained in trial-and-error techniques. Give them a context, and they’ll find their way through it.
Gamers may appear to have a tougher time learning to make group decisions. However, they tend to take solid responsibility for their actions, and to ask their subordinates for input. Managers who teach the collaborative nature of business to these individuals will find willing students.
Gamers and their idiosyncrasies are going to have a huge effect on advertising. This generation is going to be hard to surprise. “Hard sell” techniques won’t work at all.
Advertisers who employ techniques such as viral marketing will have a better chance of catching their attention. Therefore, we expect these approaches to become increasingly prevalent over the coming two decades.
Politicians will find it comparatively difficult to influence this group of people. Gamers don’t distrust leaders, but they think they’re irrelevant. Similarly, complex moral and religious issues will be met with disinterest. Their focus will be more on the here and now than we’ve seen with the Boomers and the older Xers.
Gamers will be particularly well-suited to the just-in-time learning environment that will increasingly become part of the continuously evolving work context. They will be less prone to lock into a bureaucratic pattern than their older co-workers. They’re likely to view a new product, a reengineered business process, or another workplace challenge with the same enthusiasm they bring to the latest release of a video game.
References List :
1. Wired, August 2004, "The Lost Boys," by Frank Rose. ⓒ Copyright 2004 by Conde Nast Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.2. Got Game: How the Gamer Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever by John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade is published by Harvard Business School Press. ⓒ Copyright 2004 by John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade. All rights reserved.
