Do you like spending your evenings on Star-craft, Assassin’s Creed or other Final Fantasy and you’re a little ashamed to talk to your boss about your passion for video games? You should not, on the contrary! Explain to him how many good reasons he has for wanting you to play.
The video game is becoming more democratic
The advent of casual games and games on mobile has largely contributed to democratize the video game activity, previously reserved for hard core gamers. Where World of Word craft had 12 million active players at its peak in 2010 (making it one of the biggest blockbusters of all time in the hard core category), the same year FarmVille (Zynga) boasted of its 75 million active players every month.
If it is, then, in 2014 your employer does not disdain to make a detour by Angry Birds during breakfast (50 million players per day) or to play a game of Candy Crush Saga (93 million players per day!) in a hurry between one meeting and the other.
But there is so much more than fun
In addition to allowing people to change their minds, a specific advantage to any recreational activity such as reading a good book or cycling with friends, video games can be used for other value-added learning for you and your Boss. Here is a small list, probably not exhaustive.
- Understanding the rules
Any game (video or not, by the way) is based on a system of rules, more or less complex and articulated. It turns out that all work also obeys a system of rules, or even several rules systems at the same time (those related to the profession itself, those imposed by the society in which the person works, and often also to a system of rules more or less unspoken type “we do not say this”, “we must do like that”, that we learn on the job). The ability to quickly appropriate a system of complex rules, which must be understood, memorize and know how to apply wisely is therefore a considerable asset in most job market and mental gymnastics you learned it through games.
- Endurance and perseverance
A good video game is a video game that “hangs” but in which we do not win right away: indeed, without a challenge to take up the game would surely be very boring. Failure and repeated attempts to get things done – whether it’s passing Candy Crush Saga level 152 or beating Guitar Hero’s best friend on a piece of Guns N ‘Roses – are part of integral part of the game world. To succeed means to be persistent, never to give up, to endure hard knocks, to cash in defeats and to get up to go forward.
Knowing how to feed on medium to long-term challenges instead of waiting for an immediate reward is surely an important prerogative in the professional context, in which efforts pay very little in the short term. Your boss will be happy to know that you have the fiber to overcome the difficulties of work and persevere until the success of your missions.
