A NEED TO UNDERSTAND
And then consider the case of Japan. An outsized reason for the country’s stature among politically-minded wonks is that large numbers of people, particularly men under 40 in the rich world, have, at some point, played and enjoyed a video game designed, produced and written there.
This is not to say that the influence of video games is wholly positive: One reason, I think, for the emergence in the West of a slightly naive account of what drives economic growth is that a generation of policy wonks grew up playing games in which, if you simply push the button marked “invest” or build the right infrastructure, you are rewarded, reliably, at every turn.
If you grew up playing SimCity 4, for example, it is easy to kid yourself that drawing a square and calling it a “business district” is the beginning and the end of the story.
But it is the case that anyone who doesn’t understand what motivates gamers – even, or perhaps especially, those playing the trashiest mass-market games available – is going to struggle properly to understand what motivates and shapes the political, social and commercial decisions of large numbers of people in the rich world.
Even if today’s politicians don’t plan on buying a Nintendo Switch 2, their future prospects in part will hinge on understanding the millions who do.
