The ignorant perceive gaming as a waste of time, money, and energy, but the educated know that there’s more to gaming than meets the eye. Gaming is essentially a relaxation activity but much is gained in the process than escaping the inevitable vicissitudes of life. One of the areas that benefits the most from online gaming, and that has been benefitting a lot recently, is the global economy. As more people realize how fun and exciting gaming is, the global economy is expanding significantly, and economists are standing in awe as they witness the gaming industry positively impacting the world’s economy. Let’s open up this thing and see what makes it tick.
Buying and Spending
Over $100 billion of the world’s economy comes from the gaming industry alone. The entertainment industry is one of the most lucrative industry in most countries in the world, and most of the income in that industry is mostly from the film industry. However, recently, the gaming industry has picked up considerably, to the level of competing with the film industry. Virtual reality and augmented reality are technologies that promise to make the gaming industry have the most impact on the global economy as far as entertainment is concerned.
Generation Z has been raised in a world of video games, 3D screens, online gaming, smartphones, smart TVs, Virtual and Augmented Reality. Most individuals from this generation are not very good with outdoor games. They have been raised by the internet and on the internet, and the technologies that work on this platform. As such, these individuals spend most of their money on gadgets and devices that facilitate what they know; gaming. The average gamer’s age is 35 years – which means most of these individuals, as long as they are not couch potatoes, are persons who spend a significant amount of their income on gaming. Most parents of the Generation Z are gamers themselves, considering that most of them are likely to be millennials. This combination of Millennials and Generation Z implies that a lot of these individuals rely significantly on gaming for relaxation, fun, play, and most of all, socialization.
The revenue generated from gaming is not necessary from the gaming consoles and software alone, but also from all other products that are associated with the respective games. We are talking gaming conventions, action figures of the assorted gaming characters and heroes, and even T-Shuts, Mugs, and everything else related to the various games. From this perspective, you can see that the gaming industry reaches far and wide, and the economic benefits to the world’s economy cannot be ignored.
The virtual economy is economy that exists essentially in a virtual realm; like an online game such as World of WarCraft. In such an online game, gamers acquire virtual currency and alternative valuable items which they can trade to get more valuable items or more virtual currency. The thing is that these things often become so important to the online gamers that they are willing to offer real currency in exchange for the virtual goodies from someone who is talented or skilled at acquiring them at the virtual world. This has been a trend over the years as people have been looking for individuals who are gurus at locating and acquiring these virtual goodies, and willing to pay a reasonable or unreasonable amount of money just to be in possession of the virtual goodies of their liking. And here is yet another way the gaming industry contributes to the world’s economy. Mind you that online games are mostly played by international gamers. Hence, this has a direct impact on the world’s economy as currency shifts from continent to continent.
Furthermore, most people spend time playing online games mainly due to the fact that they are not just playing against a virtual character being controlled by the computer, but against a virtual enemy being controlled by someone else like them, on the other side of the world. This is more real and exciting to most online gamers. It’s less predictable and the possibilities are endless. Also, the idea of playing against someone from another country other than one’s own is very exhilarating to most. Hence, people will spend a lot of time playing games like poker; a game that is very interesting and the financial gain can be impressive if one wins. A lot of currency is exchanged across such online gaming platforms. You can only imagine the impact this has on the global economy.
Employment
More and more people are realizing how lucrative the gaming industry is, and its future potential. More and more software developers, particularly those focused on gaming are emerging every day. More and more people are majoring in computer science and software and video game development. The industry is getting flooded fast and the competition is getting stiffer with each passing year. Only the best developers are being targeted as each gaming company aims to create games that are as real as possible, yet maintaining the thrill and entertainment most gamers are after. Be that as it may, more personnel are required in the gaming industry than software and video game developers. There are people who will manage the offices, oversee the assembly of action figures, package the action figures, market the video games, sell the video games, and the tasks are endless. This is a large industry, and as it expands, more room for employment is created, and the more the industry contributes to the world’s economy.
Education, Simulation, Learning
Perhaps the biggest impact online gaming has on the global economy is the ability to monitor and enhance it. Gaming presents a virtual world where people can create a virtual economy, and manipulate it to their liking just as they would a real economy. This enables economists to create virtual economic situations like inflation and alternative circumstances, and then see the impact it would have. Furthermore, these virtual conditions can also be introduced to young gamers, giving them an opportunity to learn about the economy, what makes it tick, and how to manipulate it, while at the same time having fun in the process. In fact, there are games that have been developed specifically for this purpose; for instance, The World Game of Economics. This enables young economists to learn hard lessons about the world’s economy without risking real assets, and also enables professional economists to learn about strange and rare economic circumstances without necessarily risking real assets.
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
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