The Kids are Alright: How the Gamer Generation is Changing the Workplace
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By John C. Beck, Mitchell Wade
Produced By Harvard Business School Press; 1 edition
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An eminently accessible book, this slimline, 200 page tome uses casual friendly language to describe the view rather contrary to mainstream imagery, that videogames are producing a generation of businesspeople unlike any who have come before. The mindset of the gamer is producing successful business people with a paradigm shift in view to the older generations.

Using the CES gaming industry show as a vivid example, the book starts out by contrasting the very different approaches to serious business this insider only event highlights when the generations are compared en masse.

While many parents fret about their children?s minds turning to goo as they squander hour after hour absorbed in electronic diversion, the authors argue that gamers glean valuable knowledge from their pastime and that they?re poised to use that knowledge to transform the workplace.

The authors express their analysis in clean, crisp prose devoid of jargon, making it accessible for non-gamers, especially non-gamers who are managers. "Gamers believe that winning matters," Beck and Wade contend, and gamers also place "a high value on competence?wanting to be an expert in the first place"?all of which makes the video game generation, estimated by the authors to be some 90 million strong, an influential force in the work place.

The book touches on a handful of other ways in which gamers differ from non-gamers and provides suggestions on how employers can take advantage of their unique values and skills. Some readers may find themselves grinding their teeth at many of the authors? upbeat conclusions about the benefits video game players will bring to the business world, but most will find the pair?s findings fascinating and provocative.