Got Game: How the Gamer Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever

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Summary: Like It or Not, Here They Come
Review: 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....

Rating:
Summary: Got Game
Review: 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!

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Summary: Gaming - A whole new dimension
Review: Boy am I old! As Beck and Wade so painfully point out, there is a generation gap between baby boomers like myself and members of the gamer generation. This book opened my eyes to the existence of a whole new generation and how gaming has shaped their attitudes toward achievement and work. Having a 15-year old daughter who does not game, I was truly amazed to learn about this new generation.

In this easy to read, well-written book, Beck and Wade walk the reader though the impact of the gamer generation on work. The book includes personal interviews as well as the results of a survey designed to explore the impact of gaming on the gamer generation. Beck and Wade highlight specific areas in which gaming has a positive impact on this future generation of employees and managers. For example, in the world of gaming, failure is not an option. If one strategy to blow up the world doesn't work, try another. The belief that failure is not an option has the potential to create employees who are innovative and look for alternative solutions when "plan A" doesn't work.

Got Game also lays to rest the belief that gaming has "no nutritional value" and is simply another way for teenagers to rot their brains. It is the application of their survey results to address these issues and others like them that makes Got Game an important book for non-gamers. Quite simply, we need to understand what drives this new generation and how the skills of gaming can be harnessed to create and build better managers and better businesses.

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Summary: Got Game zaps smug boomers
Review: 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?



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Summary: A "Must Read" for all managers today!
Review: It's nice to see someone has finally begun to understand and explain the gaming generation. The generation gap is definitely there. The other day, I was on the phone with a friend at work and we were discussing playing PS2 online later that day. I brought up my troubles with "hosting" a game and my manager looked over and had a strange look on his face. When I got off the phone, he asked what "hosting" meant. I had to laugh. After I explained what I was talking about, he understood what I meant. However, a lot of my terms and vocabulary is lost to many of the people in my office. I am one of the few "under 35" crowd, being 27 myself and an avid gamer. From a gamers' perspective, this book definitely shows others how we gamers look at the world in a different way than our parents and many of our co-workers. Trust me, if you are a manager today or will be in the near future or want to know how to get along better with your younger co-workers, this book will help you build the tools to do it. Well worth the money and a quick read that will keep things moving with examples and detailed insight into the life of the "gaming generation."

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Summary: Life is a Game for the Now Generation - So Get Used To It
Review: 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.



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Summary: A global generation
Review: The book defines the "Gamer Generation" real well, in a way that makes anyone who have interacted with any member of this generation will automatically relate to the book. Born and raised in a different culture, and traveled and lived in many countries, I can tell you that this book have identified a generation that exists all around the world. Many companies now have to go globally, either for resources or markets, hence a clearer awareness of such existing generation is extremly helpful. Thanks for offering such insight on this global generation.

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Summary: Cheat codes for managing gamers
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Who Knew?
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Are you kidding me?
Review: With all due respect - what a load of hooey! The tone of the book is insulting, and the inferences drawn from survey data are often leaps of imagination. This book, apparently written by aging boomers who are fearing for their jobs, treats gamers like an alien invasion. There are nuggets of useful wisdom, but you have to pick through the work with a fine-toothed comb to find them. The book's central message - that games are a part of American culture now and are as much a driving force as movies and television - should be obvious to anyone who does not live in a cave in the mountains and is not worth the pages of repetition the authors spent on drilling it home.