A Gamer has grown up in a world influenced by Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo. A person from this generation, now a teenager, has short attention spans when it comes to conventional lecturing. They are used to gaming for fun and learning, constant pumping of adrenalin for stimulation, instant feedback and cheat codes!
What do these gamers look like? These kids, while still in school, have their own cell phones, MP3 players , laptop computers and many other Gizmos. They live in the world of internet and video games. Some of these kids spend more than 2 hours daily in the virtual world of internet and video games.
In the next few years these gamers will enter the workforce. Is the training industry prepared for it?
Attributes of Gamers:
Analytical/Problem Solvers – When gaming, Gamers are confronted with problems, which is almost every few seconds. They spend substantial part of their gaming time analyzing and solving puzzles, working through mazes, keeping characters happy or even killing some characters. Unknowingly, they have learned to break down the game environment into its very basic elements and then determine how each element fits together in the jig-saw. It is like learning the logic of Analysis and Design by playing games!.
Multitasking A Gamer is used to multi-tasking as a way of life. Invariably, Gamers have multiple screens of computers open at the same time. They keep juggling seamlessly through various screens. Imagine a 15 year old school child working on a computer. You are more likely to find multiple screens open at the same time, maybe, one email software for checking emails every few minutes, MS-PowerPoint for creating a school project presentation, maybe MS-Excel as well for number crunching, few dozen web pages, a chat window. Imagine this person with ears plugged to an MP3 player. At times, music playing in the background, while this person chats to a friend on the mobile phone while surfing through web for information and simultaneously creating MS PowerPoint presentation for next day’s submission!
Probably you are saying, “That’s impossible!”. You just have to look at a teenager working (should I say working or playing!). Gamers have learnt to work with distractions. Information overload? – they don’t seem to understand this term. In the world of internet, they have learnt how to find the precise needle in the internet haystack.
Competitive – Games are all about winning. Gamers love challenges, love to compete and love to win. For Gamers, competition is the law of nature and that they must always compete. How competitive will these kids be in the workplace? - that’s just anyone’s guess.
The Cheat Code Generation? Gamers love cheat codes. For Gamers, rules are made to be broken. Bending the rules and working at the edge is the way of life! Will this generation have higher percentage of cheats in the workplace? – well that’s anybody’s guess.
Training this work force – are we ready?
I think most of us working in the training industry have not even thought about it. However, writing is on the wall!
What do these gamers look like? These kids, while still in school, have their own cell phones, MP3 players , laptop computers and many other Gizmos. They live in the world of internet and video games. Some of these kids spend more than 2 hours daily in the virtual world of internet and video games.
In the next few years these gamers will enter the workforce. Is the training industry prepared for it?
Attributes of Gamers:
Analytical/Problem Solvers – When gaming, Gamers are confronted with problems, which is almost every few seconds. They spend substantial part of their gaming time analyzing and solving puzzles, working through mazes, keeping characters happy or even killing some characters. Unknowingly, they have learned to break down the game environment into its very basic elements and then determine how each element fits together in the jig-saw. It is like learning the logic of Analysis and Design by playing games!.
Multitasking A Gamer is used to multi-tasking as a way of life. Invariably, Gamers have multiple screens of computers open at the same time. They keep juggling seamlessly through various screens. Imagine a 15 year old school child working on a computer. You are more likely to find multiple screens open at the same time, maybe, one email software for checking emails every few minutes, MS-PowerPoint for creating a school project presentation, maybe MS-Excel as well for number crunching, few dozen web pages, a chat window. Imagine this person with ears plugged to an MP3 player. At times, music playing in the background, while this person chats to a friend on the mobile phone while surfing through web for information and simultaneously creating MS PowerPoint presentation for next day’s submission!
Probably you are saying, “That’s impossible!”. You just have to look at a teenager working (should I say working or playing!). Gamers have learnt to work with distractions. Information overload? – they don’t seem to understand this term. In the world of internet, they have learnt how to find the precise needle in the internet haystack.
Competitive – Games are all about winning. Gamers love challenges, love to compete and love to win. For Gamers, competition is the law of nature and that they must always compete. How competitive will these kids be in the workplace? - that’s just anyone’s guess.
The Cheat Code Generation? Gamers love cheat codes. For Gamers, rules are made to be broken. Bending the rules and working at the edge is the way of life! Will this generation have higher percentage of cheats in the workplace? – well that’s anybody’s guess.
Training this work force – are we ready?
I think most of us working in the training industry have not even thought about it. However, writing is on the wall!
quite true . Trainer's should be cautious.
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