Game on!

Entrepreneur, Nov, 2004 by Mark Henricks

YEARS OF PLAYING QUAKE AND SIMCITY HAVE CREATED a new wave of employees and executives very different from those who grew up playing kick the can and touch football, according to John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade. In Got Game (HBS Press, $27.50), these authors say video garners are better at group communication, creative problem solving and risk taking than nongamers.

Garners aren't necessarily better employees overall, they say. But if you employ any of the tens of millions of people who grew up during gaming's ascendancy, you can use this information to manage them by, for instance, understanding that garners would rather be leaders than followers.