Posted by Ron Jooss, CUES Editor
Earlier this week, I read this article in The New York Times. I'm 45 years old. I'm not a gamer. I played a little Centipede back in the day. I actually bought a version of Madden at the urging of some friends, but never got the hang of it. After watching some 14 kids in Best Buy go at it like Tom Brady and Peyton Madden, I was convinced I never would. My son is four and he already lives a pre-literate sort of lifestyle described in the article. At least three times a week, he finishes watching a show on PBS and asks me to log him on to pbskids.org, where he can play learning games. He also has a Wii, whips my butt about half the time and tells me I'm lame. The point is, Gen Y and all subsequent generations are not only gamers, but gaming is the way they learn, read, problem solve and interact with the world. In short, the world going forward will be shaped by gaming.
I know credit unions are aware of Gen Y's love for gaming. I get press releases that tell me how many credit unions are giving away Wiis and Xboxes to entice new young members. But have you thought about how the future of your financial literacy programs, Web sites and home banking programs are going to be shaped by gaming? I can almost guarantee they will be. Most innovations in the financial services industry come from other business sectors. Where will credit unions come up with the brainpower to ride this wave and come up with the next generation of gaming-generated learning tools, Web apps and/or home banking applications? Probably from their CUSOs. Cooperation is key and CUSOs will have the time and bandwidth to come up with ideas. The important things, I think, is to start thinking and talking about it.
A Filene i3 team talked about credit unions and gaming ... Check it out in "Virtual Finance: Pushing us Out of Our Comfort Zones."
