Many of the people I meet who are familiar with the video game industry only through the mass media, often have a very skewed perspective on what video games are and what they are all about. I often recommend to them a book called “Got Game” which provides another perspective on video games in our culture.

One of the key things that falls out of this book is the premise that games have created a true generation gap. Forget Gen X, Gen Y and all that. There are boomers and there are gamers. If you grew up before the Atari 2600 you have one view of video games. If you grew up with the Nintendo SNES, Sony Playstation, or more advanced systems you have a very different view of games.

What’s interesting about this book is that it articulates certain values and attributes of the gaming generation. Namely that they are:

2. Fearless. There is no penalty for failure. If fail you just hit restart. No big deal.
4. Trial and error is the best teacher. This results in a corraly which so many parents, adults and authority figures find disturbing; and that is no (or little) respect for seniority or authority. It’s not anarchy, it’s just that when these kids were growing up NO ONE OLDER THAN THEM knew anything about what they cared about most. Video games. Imagine growing up playing Piano but there were no Piano teachers, no masters, no one to follow. For practically all of the 90′s this was the case. You had to figure it out for yourself.
6. ROI Machines. Gamers are all about getting it done faster, better, with less effort (cheaper). They are ruthless in their drive to optimize.
8. True Meritococrats. Gamers value skill above all else. They are so used to looking at avatars that race, creed, background are irrelevant to them. They may not know where their opponent sits, what they look like, or how they dress, but they know what they can do and THAT they respect.
10. Value Diversity. Go into an online dungeon with 5 warriors and your party will get wiped out. Go in with a well balanced team (the holy trinity of Healer (cleric), Tank (warrior) and Damage Dealer (wizard) and you will dominate.
12. Great Team Members. Solid team play is more effective than individual skill. Clans in games like counterstrike, or World of Warcraft Battlegrounds always overcome the talented but disorganized opposition.
14. Altruists. The games are almost never about the money. They are about saving the princess, or the world. However, if money is how score is kept then gamers will maximize that. They keep score, but the motivation to “win” is often very different from the world their parents grew up in.
16. Relentless. Gamers feel they wouldn’t put you in a level (or a job, or a situation) unless you could complete it. You just have to stick at it long enough (that Trial and error thing).

These are just some of the lessons of the gaming generation. And I find them to be particularly interesting. But the real point of the book is how to change your management style to more effectvely employee people with these common attributes because what is so surprising is that the common thread is no longer race, creed, geographic location, but game experience.I highly recommend this book it’s worth a read.

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