Comments

I get fired up when people write because they have the opportunity to lay it out on the line. They put their name and their reputation at risk in order to let free an idea, to build more on society's experience, to enrich others, to stir change, etc.

However, I have a very difficult time getting fired up about this post. I am both sad and angry to read a post that's mediocre in content and incorrect in grammar.

I apologize for being blunt, but errors made while pursuing hard after excellence and lofty goals are expected. In contrast, we must be extra careful when writing on less risky topics such as the Playstation. We shouldn't risk our reputation when such little return is available because we fail to proofread our writing.

Embrace the risk of error only if your passionate pursuit will lead to radical progress.

Posted by Brad Respess at January 15, 2006 11:06 PM

Damn Brad, you need to get laid!

Posted by Jeffrey A Summers at January 16, 2006 2:38 AM

Take a chill pill Brad!

Some might say that you are risking your reputation.

After all - what is a point if it is pointless?

Posted by Andre Googe at January 16, 2006 5:35 AM

Take a chill pill Brad!

Some might say that you are risking your reputation.

After all - what is a point if it is pointless?

Posted by Andre Googe at January 16, 2006 5:35 AM

Sorry not to live up to your standards, Brad. The readers of tompeters.com are very good, however, at taking small observations like this and launching into good conversations. Our goal is provide the spark that starts those conversations.

Personally, as a marketer, I'm fascintated that my son could relate the outcome of a football game in January of 2006 to a product's 2007 version.

Posted by Steve Yastrow at January 16, 2006 7:43 AM

Firstly - Mr. Summers and Mr. Googe - both of you LEAVE BRAD ALONE !

Secondly - the post is so average I was cringing reading it. (Not bad - just below average.)

Thirdly - the rest of the world doesn't follow the same pastime games as the U.S. - so PS or Courtside - it doesn't mean a bean to me.

Posted by Joe Miller at January 16, 2006 7:49 AM

I agree with Steve Yastrow's clarification on the events of today affecting the products of tomorrow.

As for the structure of the post, it really doesn't matter, after all, he did post on a weekend. Cut him some slack.

Posted by Dave Guerra at January 16, 2006 9:40 AM

Ahhhh, but in 2007, your son will be using a P3 with the Cell chip (which you will gladly get him for his birthday!). It'll be so real, he'll have bruises.

http://www.forbes.com/home/free_forbes/2006/0130/076.html

Posted by Jeff at January 16, 2006 9:59 AM

As an anthropologist, it's always interesting to me how the artifacts we create around cultural interests come back to affect the interests themselves. So we have sports for recreation. Then we have college/pro sports to replace recreation with consumption as enjoyment. Then we have sports sections to cover the consumption. Then we start finding some sports sections covering TV sports coverage as though the reporting about coverage of a consumer good artifact of a recreation opporunity was an actual recreation.

When I worked as a baseball stringer, I was amazed occasionally to overhear daily sports reporters hectoring professional ballplayers about trying harder to achieve certain things (like stolen bases or, for pitchers, strikeouts) so the reporters' rotisserie teams could accumulate more points. The artifact of the interest -- rotisserie -- affecting the interest itself.

Posted by jeff angus at January 16, 2006 10:00 AM

Brad, if we embraced risk only when radical progress was a possible outcome, we would seldom take risks. Radical progress is made in very small steps, which cumulatively give birth to something bigger in time. Being overly pedantic when action is needed will prevent radical outcomes to a much greater extent than poor grammar will.

Personally, I found your comment to be as gramitically flawed as Steve's. That said, neither was flawed to the point of causing misunderstanding.

Your inability to extract anything interesting out the gaming industry's efforts to link actual team performance on the field to performance on the PS screen doesn't mean that the post isn't worthy. Gaming is as popular as it is BECAUSE that realistic, real-time link that Steve referred to is made and incorporated into the play.

None of us will be moved by every post on this or any other blog. What interests you might bore me.

Joe: Steve's use of American football is merely an example in context to the issue. The same modeling is done with PS soccer games (David Bechham Soccer). Geez, are we going to demand political correctness to this extreme?

Posted by Tom O'Leary at January 16, 2006 10:26 AM

Yeah, it is an integrated universe and the kids get it. My nephew (I started calling him yoda when he visited during Christmas) has been computing since about the age of two. His dad was, and still is, a big gamer (and a Major in the U.S. army). Anyway, Seth is now 5 and the ease with which he manipulates a laptop (sans any help from dad) is amazing. He also seems to be incredibly bright. I think that gaming (solving visually complex problems on a computer) is making him smarter.

I read about a study (wish I could recall the source--think it was a Wired article) from am authority on IQ and it seems that Global IQ is rising and the people that track this stuff are dumbfounded with respect to an explanation. This particular author presented a plausible argument that gaming might have something to do with it. I personally believe that he is onto to something. Gaming requires complex pattern recognition and so does "learning" in general.

I think that the kids are far better of gaming (with respect to their intellectual development) than in front of the tube.

Posted by Carlos Leyva at January 16, 2006 10:41 AM

This post is a valuable one if you look at the history of Sports on Radio and TV!

Most sporting event dogs these days are wagged by the "tail" of TV! Their schedules are coordinated with broadcast days and times!

Game consoles are becoming so much more powerful, interactive, linked to the internet and capable of a lot more than just play games! They have powerful processors that may reach the convergence of home, internet, communications, entertainment before staid computers do!

If you think that the game console "tails" will not start wagging the Sports dogs sometime soon, think again!

Posted by Nari Kannan at January 16, 2006 10:58 AM

Au contraire - the more "mundane" the more interesting Steve and sad Brad!

The Colts and Bears radical upsets as of this ML King day are of interest in that the 2 black coaches were beaten as losers rather than celebrating [Dungy, Lovie] this fab USA holiday!

Seahawks over Panthers by 4.5 pts and Denver over Pittsburg by 3 as of this morning - and then on to the fab Superbowl with the Stones playing live in Detroit's dome - now that is real fun.

Posted by Sean at January 16, 2006 10:59 AM

I agree, toys in general are more complex these days (very different from the train set I used to own). Over the Holidays I bought my 5 year old nephew a Transformer which changes it self form a robot to a truck to a plane with multiple motorized parts. I spent about an hour to complete all three transformations for my nephew who sat next to me on the floor and had them completed in about 10 minutes. Not sure what this says about me but I was nothing less than completely amazed to see this 5 year old and his ability to solve a problem through a basic skill of observation.

Posted by Matt Balachandran at January 16, 2006 11:07 AM

Steve, I apologize for being a jackass about the grammar thing. It just struck me after reading so much about excellence from Tom Peters.

Yes, I agree that the readers of this site are good "at taking small observations like this and launching into good conversations." And, I agree with Tom O'Leary who made a great point about taking risks even when the outcomes may not be radical progress.

I guess the question in my mind would be, "How critical is excellence in presentation?"

As Tom wrote in December, "Accept No Less Than EXCELLENCE! (Excellence, Pursuit thereof, Is the Only Thing That Vaults Everyone Out of Bed in the Morning.)"

Posted by Brad Respess at January 16, 2006 11:08 AM

A few of thoughts leap into my head

1) If kids are so good at this - at what point did we "forget". I guess when we started to fear the out come "I might break it" or "what if I can't do it"

2) How do we get out kids to master these complex skills AND put them to something useful!!!!!

3) Never mind the complexity of the Item - I can't even open the packaging!

4) Games are way more strategic than the past. A lot of games involve some form of finance, planning and then execution (Alas it is often literally execution!)

5) The userinterfaces in the avearge office are woefully inadequate to ge the best out of these people.

6) The little squirts still lack wisdom!

Posted by PaulH at January 16, 2006 11:51 AM

Carlos, I think you are right. I started programming when I was 10 years old (now 33). I always found it very stimulating. I stopped programming for ten years (from 13 to 23, more or less). I started again because I needed it at work. When I put my programming skills at work I soon realized I was outperforming all my work mates without anybody teaching me the programming things. It was like just going back into programming, though the language syntax and architecture had changed notably.

Posted by Felix Gerena at January 16, 2006 1:51 PM

A day after the game and a day after the post, I'd have to admit that my first reaction (to the post at least) was "so what?" Maybe in retrospect, though, there's one of those life lessons buried in here for Steve's son. There are a couple of choices as he points toward next year's Madden season. First, stick to your guns and be the Bears but play the Forty Niners, the Texans and the Saints. You'll win but life may be a tad dull on the virtual football field. Option two says to stick with the Bears still and take on all comers. But, before you do, read up on Tom's material. Be prepared to lose--to fail--but do it in a glorious way! If you go down, it'll be against the best. If you win, what a sweet win it will be. Go Giants! Oh......never mind.

Posted by Ed Di Gangi at January 16, 2006 2:57 PM

I took a look at what I had written earlier.

"The userinterfaces in the avearge office are woefully inadequate to ge the best out of these people."

Not only are the user interfaces going to be inadequate but the whole office work experience is going to be so lacking. How the heck are our humdrum companies going to attract them?

On another sadder note I notice that the wired generation (MSN and mail etc) are sometimes very reluctant to use the phone to contact customers. These kids may be smart and tech savvy but they do lack some of the basic human contact points

Posted by PaulH at January 16, 2006 4:17 PM

Many will underestimate the importance of this post. Gaming is changing everything. Take a look at Major League Baseball who suddenly want to own the rights to the statistics their league creates. A great deal is going down. Stay tuned. P.S. Go Hawks!(Minus the Points!)

Posted by todddoubleu at January 16, 2006 6:55 PM

I find the suggestion that gaming may be responsible for a heightened intelligence in our society very interesting; especially with recent reports showing that the US has fallen behind Asia and Europe in science and math. Perhaps they play more games than we do?

More importantly, however, I fear that while gaming might be strengthening our ability to recongnize complex patterns; it may simulatenously be having detrimental effects on our social intelligence and fitness levels.

Posted by Tom O'Leary at January 17, 2006 6:06 AM

I think games have always been a part of how people learn, ever since time began. As we have more and more complex technology available, it's only inevitable that this will be used to create complex games, which in turn will help the kids deal with the reality of their time.

This reminds me of an incident at a Farnborough air show a few years ago. Two elderly men and a young boy were waiting in line to get into the cockpit of a mock Eurofighter on display. After both men finished their turn, clearly uncomfortable in strange surroundings, the boy got in. He looked instantly at home. I heard the elderly gent say to his friend, "Look, my grandson was at home in the cockpit immediately, and he's never even been on a plane...must be all these video games he plays. Remember all those dials and knobs in our days!"

Posted by Chetan Dhruve at January 17, 2006 7:46 AM

Greetings Steve and a Happy New Year to everyone Nice to see such goodwill to all men! I am still trying to work out play station anyway so your post didn't upset me Steve - I am of a certain age you see :-) And as for 'football' - we invented the real football .... and soccer is the correct grammar of course :-) Yes I am ducking the missiles being hurled my way from over the pond!!

Posted by Trevor Gay at January 17, 2006 11:54 AM

Dan,
You badly missed the point. Steve's 13 year old son, however, did get it. While it's in his world, the loss of a team he likes just affected a video game. For my team (my company), this is further proof that we're on track with what we have said about the direction(s) that marketing is going. We signed a new client that owns one of the college bowl games. One of the single biggest requests for the player's lounge - video game units (either XBOX 360 or PS2) and big screen tvs - and Madden. With this influential environment, product placement can be huge! With the repeated exposure to 'placed' products in a game, the player is exposed repeatedly - whereas with a live game, there is limited exposure to the product (:30 commercial and/or a banner at the game).

And you wonder why the discussion of a video game is relevant???

Posted by Tony May / Mayday Media at January 18, 2006 9:09 PM

Hi! Was it not the Steve's boy missing the team spirit, the commitment to a group, strategic gaming , shared values of the team, accepting his group's seatbacks as opportunities to improve? Just wandering, he sounded more like an start in the making rather than as a member of any real soccer's team, and being a start alone doesn't sound appealing for the future of any child.

PS: please, try to take this ideas as for all of our children, not just to Steve's one.

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PS: please, try to take these ideas as for all of our children, not just to Steve's one.

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Wow! What Steve's kid demostrated was connective knowledge! Look, a 13 year old just correlated the outcome of a football game in January 2006 to a videogame version to be programmed and released the next year. Let us not be superficial at this. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today!

Posted by Simon Francis Blaise at January 21, 2006 12:22 PM

I don´t know if it is the point you want to stress Steve, but this weekend I´ve lived a couple of situations in which you can say the efforts of the advertisers and branders to build an opinion via designed messages clashes with the users experience of the product. The user makes whatever she wants with the product and you as brander shouldn´t focus on what you are telling your customers about it.

Posted by Felix Gerena at January 21, 2006 3:25 PM

I'd like to take a little deviation on this subject to point out a couple fascinating things I pull from Steve's post.

1 - His 13-year-old son was not only able to see the long-term strategic challenge that this loss would create, but he understood many of the complexities of the strategy and play calling used in the game. Pretty impressive to me.

2 - The power of the electronic media - specifically the gaming media. Here is an example of how a real life event is being projected to a yet-to-be released video game and what consequences it will have to his gaming style/choices.

To those gamer-bashers out there, I'd like to point out a couple things.

My 6-year-old son, who gets limited gaming time, just got his report card. He got the equivalent of straight A's. His ability to interact with technology and video games is phenomonal! He is able to hang in against me (an admitted 33-year-old avid gamer) on several games. viagra on line sales

My second point, is a series of studies noted in the journal "Discover" in August of last year. The article points out the highly complex pattern recognition needed to play most modern video games. More interesting, though, was a study on arthroscopic surgeons. Surgeons who played a minimum of 5 hours per week of first-person shooters (specifically Medal of Honor from Electronic Arts) saw their surgical error rates drop 80%. That is a HUGE number!

As one who has grown up in the gaming generation, I have often been forced to hide my hobby because of the generalizations and misinformation about gamers in fear of my professional reputation, and yet it is due to my gaming and interst in computers that has created the skill set that makes me a valuable commodity to my employers.

My current hobby interest is called "World of Warcraft" (www.worldofwarcraft.com)). While easily dismissable as a time sink and money sink (it requires a subscription to play), it is actually the single-most intense dynamic team building exercise that I have ever been part of. Completing a quest involves choosing the right mix of classes (needed skills) and the right mix of people (talent evaluation). These teams can be groups of anywhere from 2 to 40. Each team member has a role that must be met, and is important to completing the quest. This dynamic to me is both fascinating and hugely enjoyable.

Now for the marketing spin. World of Warcraft, or WoW as is called by it's players, has grown to be the largest online gaming environment in history. They currently have over 4 million people world-wide who pay to play this game. That is why companies like nVidia and Intel have partnered with Blizzard (the creators of World of Warcraft).

To patently dismiss this post by Steve would also dismiss a huge future marketing avenue. In-game adverstising is already generating revenue for companies, and I feel a huge potential marketing tool for the future.

Posted by Tony Brinson at January 23, 2006 1:10 PM