The gaming industry is missing the boat. Kids are super engaged with video games, but their excitement and expertise hasn’t been leveraged to help acquire new audiences or influence parents to buy more games.
Let’s consider these data from a recent survey we fielded with about 50 kids ages 7-13:
- Kids learn technology faster than anyone in their house. Both parents and kids agree: 64% of kids said they learn faster while 59% of parents said kids do too.
- Although both kids and parents admit that parents know more about technology overall, they also agree that parents and kids know unique things about technology. Kids know more about entertainment type technology like playing games, working game consoles (Wii, Xbox 360), using iTunes, iPods, and iPhones, and social networking using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and cell phone texting. Parents know more about things for work like email and word processing, financial things like buying stuff online and banking, and how to fix the computer when it is broken.
Observing kids teach their parents new technologies also shows that kids can be good teachers too. This video shows Ronan, a 7 year old, employing known educational psychology teaching methods to teach his mom how to play the Wii.
So, given all this, why hasn’t the gaming industry leveraged kids’ knowledge about gaming, ability to learn fast, and teach gaming to capture new audiences or influence parents to buy new games? To capture parent audiences, game makers could:
- Create teaching modes within games that would help kids teach their parents how to play in a fun environment
To influence new games purchases game makers could:
- Allow kids to get trial versions of games so they can learn them quickly and then use what they’ve learned to ‘demo’ the benefits to friends and family.
- Kids could review games online, make recommendations to friends and even recommend ones their parents would enjoy.
Think: “Most Valued Player” programs for kid gamers. Think: converting users into spokespeople and trainers. Think: ka-ching.
Gaming industry: get on the boat.