1) A professor argues that companies should hire gamers for their unique analytical skills developed through gameplay, such as data analysis of character builds and loot drop rates.
2) One gamer posted a detailed spreadsheet analysis of gameplay and loot box mechanics in Star Wars: Battlefront II, demonstrating the type of statistical analysis skills valued by businesses.
3) The professor sees gamers' online posts of character models and stats as showing the same problem-solving and data analysis skills taught in business schools. He believes gamers will be viewed as valuable job candidates within 10 years.
Specialize in a MSc within Biomanufacturing, and work part-time as Process En...
Turn Your Gaming Skills into a Job
1. ALL OF THOSE HOURS YOU’VE LOGGED PLAYING VIDEO GAMES MIGHT BE
THE KEY TO LANDING A JOB, AND A GOOD ONE, TOO.
Turn your gaming skills into a job
Sound unrealistic? One professor at a prestigious business school doesn’t
think so. He thinks talent scouts at financial services companies and other
white-collar firms should be racing to hire gamers and their unique skillsets.
In other words, he thinks they should hire the next analytically-minded gamer.
One Reddit® user recently published a post on Reddit’s page for Star Wars™:
Battlefront™ II titled, “It Takes 40 Hours to Unlock a Hero. Spreadsheet and
Galactic Assault Statistics”, demonstrating the kind of statistical prowess useful
in business. Based on meticulous and exhaustive spreadsheets populated
with data from the poster’s own research, the post asserts that Battlefront™
II was stingy in awarding credits for actual gameplay, pushing players wanting
to upgrade their characters to pay real money to try their luck with purchasing
loot boxes.
The post prompted game developer Electronic Arts™ to respond on Reddit. EA
also suspended microtransactions when Reddit users rose up like a feisty rebel
army following the developer’s initial apology.
Score one for the Alliance.
And score one for gamers, says Dr. Curtis Nicholls. He sees gamers posting
the kind of hard-core data analysis for character builds or for loot drop rates
that financial companies want to hire.
“Think of the trading and online marketplaces that exist in Eve®, or other MMO
[massive multiplayer online] style-games. I’ve seen players build pretty massive
online spreadsheet systems made by players looking to exploit systems and
work on the margins. It’s profit and loss models. It’s basically coming up with an
economics statement.”
Nicholls teaches management and financial accounting and reporting at Bucknell
University. He’s a serious teacher of serious subjects and writes serious papers,
including one titled “The Current State of Cash Flows; An Evaluation of Reporting
Trends in Statements of Cash Flows.”
“The whole idea of gaming is becoming more and
more acceptable in the workplace.”
He looks at the sophisticated character mods and statistical game analysis
populating the internet and sees the financial advisors of the future. “There’s
problem-solving in this, and it perfectly fits with the data analysis I teach,” he
says. “I teach models, and companies are looking for these models.”
Nicholls is also a longtime, semi-serious World of Warcraft® enthusiast. As
a child of the 1980s, he grew up playing games dating back to the Atari® era,
meaning he’s a little more at home in the game scene than many others in
academics or finance.