IBM exec’s in touch with global gamers
David Laux is among the few people lucky enough to have created his own job. He was part of the investment team at IBM that encouraged the company to throw more effort into grabbing a piece of the gaming industry, not knowing he would end up leading that initiative in 2003.
That choice might seem like a no-brainer, but at the time, video games were mostly for simple entertainment and Laux’s interest was primarily as a gamer. However, Laux — who leads the venture from IBM’s offices in Hazelwood — accepted the chance to lead the new venture because he believed in the potential for new and expanded uses for gaming.
His team has since helped create simulators for education with real world applications, such as training engineers to work on oil platforms. Additionally, the team develops the gaming infrastructure that has allowed for more robust playing of multiplayer games such as "EVE Online."
Laux’s passion for gaming at work bleeds into his personal life, and he spends much of his free time mountain biking, go-karting and practicing karate, interests that compliment the creativity that drives his work. However, the result of the real-world games has often been more painful than not — Laux has broken every bone in his body, except his right arm.
How is the economy affecting the games industry?
The biggest problem the games industry has right now is it can’t hire people fast enough. The industry is growing leaps and bounds — depending on whose resources you look at — some say 37 percent year to year, some 54 percent, that’s kind of the range.
It’s growing hand over fist and that’s not really capturing the total industry, because that only captures the revenue for games companies that report themselves as games companies. We’re seeing almost every consumer packaged food company that focuses on children introducing games content. And almost every entertainment-oriented media source introducing games, such as MTV games. Hasbro. Mattel. Lego — all of these companies are developing a significant amount of games technology.
Why were you interested in the job when it was presented?
What appealed to me then was probably just the excitement of games. I was a gamer. I’m (now) not as much because I travel more. But, yeah, I game quite a bit, a few hours a week (at) minimum playing games of various types. I have four kids, so I get to play four different types of games with each of them. It’s really quite a social experience for us.
… The most thrilling thing at the time probably was the games content. Now the most appealing thing is probably the social impact and the ability to use what was a game, an entrainment venue, to really drive increased intelligence by the user. It teaches lessons and people can really leverage these skills and games techniques in the real world.
It’s exciting because we really are at the turning point of this hockey stick. The industry has gone from a cottage industry to a real industry. I think we’re just at the cusp of change in the technologies that are being introduced, the acceptance of games as not this anti-social type of environment, but as a thing where there is room for my life and I can learn things from (the games) instant payday loan.
Your background is more about management and understanding clients than the nuts and bolts of technology, right?
Yeah, which shows the evolution we’ve seen the games industry go through, from a pure technology industry, really, to aligning it from a business perspective and understanding customer management.
When games just started it was truly about the technology underneath it and it appealed to the hard-core gamers that were massive consumers of technology. Today, we see that it crosses all demographics.
I understand you speak annually to students at Soldan High School about gaming. What’s the content of those talks?
It’s typically targeted at the freshmen and sophomores. … I make this presentation nationally about once a month. … Everybody sees the games industry as, ‘Oh, that’s hot. That’s sexy. That’s what I want to go into.’ Very rarely do even my own kids take into account what are the skills necessary to be successful in the industry.
So I work with the Soldan team to outline to the students what are really the necessary skills if you want to be successful in this space. Math and science are going to be core to being successful in the games industry. Very rarely do people take that into account because the games are just shooting things or building puzzles. But it’s all based upon math and science.
Sociology is a huge piece of the new social front — how do people interact? What is the right interface for people to interact? Psychiatry and psychology — what response do these flashing lights elicit from people and is it the response that we want?
Art is a very obvious skill. But I’d still say 70 to 80 percent of the industry is built around math and science. And most high school kids haven’t really taken that into account.
With all the broken bones, it seems that you’re spending a fair share of time in both the real and virtual worlds. Does that make you atypical among gamers or executives?
One of the stereotypes that is consistent is that people that play games lock themselves in a room. …(But people who play games) have a competitive spirit about them. If you look at it, they really do feed each other: active mind, active body. … You’ve got to get out and be active.
Honestly, one of the best things (about my job) is the ability to be flexible. Having four children, but at a global job, I have the ability to work, get the kids on the bus, work until the get the kids off the bus, then spend time with the family. And because it’s a global role, once the kids get to bed, I go in the office and work.