It seems these trends also showcase a significant shift from learning to entertaining as my overly simplistic generalization is that most games are consuming attention without teaching and improving people's lives. I for one am searching for examples of how gaming is improving society at large?
I am a living example that gaming indeed teaches useful skills for life. I started gaming at 9 and then I started having contact with the English language and learning it much more actively than taking a course, which made me able to access a whole new part of the internet and learn much more from that. Also, games that are more difficult, "soulslike", taught me how determination and looking at problems from different perspectives are important for moving forward. Some games I played involved a lot of puzzle-solving, which also helped me in the IT carreer by making real world problems feel fun to solve. These are just some shallow examples that came to my mind.
I for one learned a very key skill of breaking down bigger tasks to smaller more achievable tasks. I also learned to have plan B ready and come up with plan C on the fly.
I guess this can be summed up into "decision making" or "prioritization".
'Games are problems that are so good and satisfying to solve, people end up paying money just to gain access to'. It depends what you are comparing gaming to, but I would argue that between studying/teaching/learning and straight up passive consumption of anything, people these days have even more option to pick from, in the middle of this spectrum. Gaming is a very flexible media, whether you use it the way its primarily designed to or not. New generation of developers even has their humble beginnings in lua scripts and roblox.
To answer your question I'd say the interactivity alone prompts active problem solving in all sorts of ways, and for young people and for us as a whole, its a good thing.
Ah yes I like that perspective and I shifted my perspective because of it. Thanks. You are right that games are brain exercises that create thinking/logic skills that have real-life application with workflow optimization, resource management, problem solving, and prioritization. Perhaps the smartest people I know are gamers. But man the time sink reality also consumes so much time of people I know who can get trapped in their games and disregard other important things.
I don’t mean this glibly: why do games need to teach? Can’t they just be entertaining? Society has plenty of other learning resources 🙂 books, YouTube lectures, etc.
It is a great question and it taps into our own respective world views, I suppose. I think teaching/learning is the way that we open minds, expand perspective and make a positive difference in the world and I see plenty of examples of excess in gaming/entertainment that is a negative time sink that depletes people. That said, I agree that balanced entertainment makes us well rounded.
Another great article. I wonder if there’s a Substack model that could follow something similar: normal newsletters are free but you add something gamified behind a paywall.
Excellent article Andrew. Love the graphs and historic examples. The level of game play / arcade really struck me. Thanks for sharing. I see the consumption patterns in my own kids. Immersive activities fully engage them. They are not passive consumers they are interacting and sharing.
Also having lived through the Brexit saga in the UK its build up was 20 years of unprofitable journalism (exceptions being financial times and the guardian) and everything else went down the click bait agenda for political and ideological reasons (and probably trying to generate some cash against the endless burn).
100%. Thank you for this analysis, Andrew. I read this early AM with a fresh set of eyes to digest diligently, like every other new content you put out there. With an amazing team, I've been developing a modular serious games platform that will support digital natives and Gen Z with behavioral skills. We are the only B2B SaaS company focusing on behavioral skills with games. Our game narrative/characters already validated with a community of 10K. We have Meerkats in the community (a reference I got from your book The Cold Start Problem in late 2021). We have engaged with 128 HR global leaders and already picked 5 financial services companies to work with us in our paid PoC phase that is upcoming. We've applied for SPEEDRUN on May 9th. Thank you so much 🙏
What business models will emerge with an emphasis on Web3 ownership? Like tokenomics, tokenizing RWAs with real-world transactional value. And owned by the token holder. Then generating revenue from these daily commercial transactions on Web2 models. IOW, the platform network offers the tools for the creator users to build these quantified assets with real value.
Farcaster and Lensprotocol are not the solutions to Web3 For the mainstream masses. The reason Starbucks Odessey failed. Everybody is looking for the model. The Atomic Network is the pathway. Mine is the Hydrogen network. The secret lies with Web2.
It seems these trends also showcase a significant shift from learning to entertaining as my overly simplistic generalization is that most games are consuming attention without teaching and improving people's lives. I for one am searching for examples of how gaming is improving society at large?
I am a living example that gaming indeed teaches useful skills for life. I started gaming at 9 and then I started having contact with the English language and learning it much more actively than taking a course, which made me able to access a whole new part of the internet and learn much more from that. Also, games that are more difficult, "soulslike", taught me how determination and looking at problems from different perspectives are important for moving forward. Some games I played involved a lot of puzzle-solving, which also helped me in the IT carreer by making real world problems feel fun to solve. These are just some shallow examples that came to my mind.
I for one learned a very key skill of breaking down bigger tasks to smaller more achievable tasks. I also learned to have plan B ready and come up with plan C on the fly.
I guess this can be summed up into "decision making" or "prioritization".
'Games are problems that are so good and satisfying to solve, people end up paying money just to gain access to'. It depends what you are comparing gaming to, but I would argue that between studying/teaching/learning and straight up passive consumption of anything, people these days have even more option to pick from, in the middle of this spectrum. Gaming is a very flexible media, whether you use it the way its primarily designed to or not. New generation of developers even has their humble beginnings in lua scripts and roblox.
To answer your question I'd say the interactivity alone prompts active problem solving in all sorts of ways, and for young people and for us as a whole, its a good thing.
Ah yes I like that perspective and I shifted my perspective because of it. Thanks. You are right that games are brain exercises that create thinking/logic skills that have real-life application with workflow optimization, resource management, problem solving, and prioritization. Perhaps the smartest people I know are gamers. But man the time sink reality also consumes so much time of people I know who can get trapped in their games and disregard other important things.
I don’t mean this glibly: why do games need to teach? Can’t they just be entertaining? Society has plenty of other learning resources 🙂 books, YouTube lectures, etc.
It is a great question and it taps into our own respective world views, I suppose. I think teaching/learning is the way that we open minds, expand perspective and make a positive difference in the world and I see plenty of examples of excess in gaming/entertainment that is a negative time sink that depletes people. That said, I agree that balanced entertainment makes us well rounded.
Another great article. I wonder if there’s a Substack model that could follow something similar: normal newsletters are free but you add something gamified behind a paywall.
Excellent article Andrew. Love the graphs and historic examples. The level of game play / arcade really struck me. Thanks for sharing. I see the consumption patterns in my own kids. Immersive activities fully engage them. They are not passive consumers they are interacting and sharing.
Also having lived through the Brexit saga in the UK its build up was 20 years of unprofitable journalism (exceptions being financial times and the guardian) and everything else went down the click bait agenda for political and ideological reasons (and probably trying to generate some cash against the endless burn).
Good article, Andrew! Honoured that you like my graphic about the evolution of music, films and videogames industry 😍
The content model looks for people who have nothing to do. And finds them.
100%. Thank you for this analysis, Andrew. I read this early AM with a fresh set of eyes to digest diligently, like every other new content you put out there. With an amazing team, I've been developing a modular serious games platform that will support digital natives and Gen Z with behavioral skills. We are the only B2B SaaS company focusing on behavioral skills with games. Our game narrative/characters already validated with a community of 10K. We have Meerkats in the community (a reference I got from your book The Cold Start Problem in late 2021). We have engaged with 128 HR global leaders and already picked 5 financial services companies to work with us in our paid PoC phase that is upcoming. We've applied for SPEEDRUN on May 9th. Thank you so much 🙏
What business models will emerge with an emphasis on Web3 ownership? Like tokenomics, tokenizing RWAs with real-world transactional value. And owned by the token holder. Then generating revenue from these daily commercial transactions on Web2 models. IOW, the platform network offers the tools for the creator users to build these quantified assets with real value.
Farcaster and Lensprotocol are not the solutions to Web3 For the mainstream masses. The reason Starbucks Odessey failed. Everybody is looking for the model. The Atomic Network is the pathway. Mine is the Hydrogen network. The secret lies with Web2.
What'sApp??? Signal, Telegram. A better way is coming.