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I’m currently reading a book called, “the kids are alright - How the Gamer Generation Is Changing the Workplace” by John C Beck and Mitchell Wade, both parents. As I read this book, I cannot help but think of the current Gen X & Y learners.

Finding out what and how gamers both learn and collaborate is essential to understanding how to teach and work with Gen Y. This book looks at many interesting facts about this thing we call “Gen Y” and while I wont give you a huge list of the facts in this post, I would like to share a few of their thoughts with you.

“Over 92% of American kids from age two to fifteen have regular access to video games.” Many of us have grown up with video games and most households have some kind of game console. Games and game consoles are becoming cheaper and large corporations are spending big bucks on marketing with Microsoft reportedly spending three quarters of a billion dollars on initial marketing for its Xbox game console.

“Americans now spend more money on video games each year than going to the movies, and more time at home playing video games than watching rented videos”. This is not even touching on the Korean and Chinese market.

This book assures us, after its many surveys and studies, that what the younger generation is learning from video games and virtual worlds, is not only good, but enables them to handle reality in better ways than we do. The skills that kids are learning from games is being hard wired into their brains. So what are they learning?

“The ninety million kids who grew up gaming are more social, more loyal to their teams, more sophisticated decision makers than their counterparts who didn’t play video games in their formative years”. This book reminds us that with all their new skills, they still need some help adapting to our non-gamer world.

I will share more of this book with you as I get further into it, but I thought I’d share this;

7 Habits of Highly Typical Gamers

(adapted from “the kids are alright - How the Gamer Generation Is Changing the Workplace” by John C Beck and Mitchell Wade)

1. Everyone Can succeed. By being dedicated and working hard enough, everyone can succeed at just about anything in games. That experience gives these young people great courage, ambition and persistence, the trick though is to keep the “game” interesting, challenging and fun.
2. You Gotta Play the Odds. This generation grows up playing games of chance. The surveys conducted by the authors of this book reveal that gamers are twice as likely as baby boomers to believe that success in life is due to luck! This is where they need some coaching.
3. Learn from the Team, Not the Coach. Coaching needs to be subtle, gamers are great at teamwork, they love working together and helping each other. The “game” stays more interesting when everyone in the room has more competitive ability. In the world of video games, there is no adult present to learn from. Gamers don’t practice, they learn by doing. Research suggest that rather then “teach”, you’d do better to introduce gamers to a problem and then just get out of the way.
4. Kill Bosses, Trust Strategy Guides. This generation knows that the boss is to be ignored or destroyed. In many games the “Level boss” is the obstacle to get past to achieve your goal. So gamers have issues with traditional authority. They LOVE strategy guides, books, web-sites and peer networking where they get inside info on how to win. So position yourself as a fellow player and offer some strategy tips!
5. Watch the Map. While video games are complex, they are more transparent then the world we know. Gamers count on a “meta map” that shows where they are in relation to other players, goals, obstacles, and resources. These people function better if they know exactly where they are, what they need to do to win, and who’s ahead or behind them. Real life rarely provides this, so it’s suggested you teach them how to develop their own maps, or how to operate without one!
6. Can’t See It? Ignore It. The action in games, is on the surface and there are never unseen enemies, in contrast to human organisations, families, companies or communities where you may be weakened or frustrated by decisions from people you can’t confront. This generation is often confused, baffled and even made furious by unseen forces. Suggestions are to make processes clearer and head off nasty surprises.
7. Demand the Right Team. In gaming, it can be frustrating playing with someone who doesn’t “get it”. Multi-player games offer different regions for players of different levels, and some not so competitive environments for the new players. Good gamers will flee places that don’t suit their skill level. They do the same in life. Help gamers find groups that match their skill level and their passion for a particular challenge and prepare to be amazed!

Can you see these qualities in your students and young colleagues? What do you think about these points?

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