corporate computer games

In the last two decades, video and computer games have become the most dominant form of entertainment for American youth. It didn’t take long for companies like Leap Frog to realize that educational games would be the wave of the future for kids to learn the basics, and edutainment was born. Now the games are used as an educational tool for children and adults alike. Best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Poor Dad uses board games, computer games, and is even working on a multiplayer web-based game to teach financial literacy. What is then the next frontier for the video game? Believe it or not, corporate America is getting on board.

Today’s workforce is inundated with twenty-somethings who grew up playing computer games and have continued to play well into adulthood. This affinity for interactivity, even with a computer, has made traditional corporate training methods like seminars and manuals obsolete. This group of young adults, which has been crowned Generation Y, represents the largest increase in the American workforce since the baby boomers, and they definitely play by different rules. While corporations still have standards to meet when it comes to company policy, for many the method of delivery is changing. Traditional e-learning has become widely accepted in the corporate environment and has gone a long way in bridging the generation gap, but some of the big boys, like Hilton, Johnson & Johnson and Alcoa, are taking it a step further by deploying full computers. . games in your business training curriculum.

Simulations have long been recognized as the most effective way to teach someone to do something, whether in real life or in a virtual simulation. Computer games allow companies to create a virtual simulation of any aspect of their organization and take advantage of it in a training environment. The benefits for the company and especially for young employees are undeniable. The Gen Y workforce will generally be familiar with the game format, they will be engaged, which will ultimately be a much greater transfer of knowledge to job skills. Games also give immediate feedback, another thing Gen Y tends to feed off of. These things can go a long way toward building loyalty in a group that isn’t known for that attribute.

While the initial cost may be high for creating a corporate game, it is surely on par with the cost of traditional methods that require hiring corporate trainers, having employees travel to training centers, and printing training materials. The difference is that creating corporate games is a one-time expense with a measurable return on investment.