Online Optimism
Have you seen, I’m gonna go to the next question. Have you seen a correlation between the growth of gaming as an industry overall and the advancement of technology? Like as technology grows, like is there an expansion in gaming and who’s in it?
Lindsay Poss
Yeah, so this is a fun question because I think gaming is actually the thing that pushes forward technology in a lot of ways. Gaming is the reason why we’re even talking about AR and VR. I think that there’s a lot to be said about how gaming pushes the latest and the best and the fastest tech. Because if you’ve ever met a gamer, you know they really value hardware, high speeds, good tech specs, advancements, all of that.
Online Optimism
Mm-hmm.
Lindsay Poss
And it’s kind of a fun way to get introduced to new tech, right? Like if I put an Oculus on you and said you have to go to work with it, I don’t know that you would learn how to use an Oculus very well. But if I put an Oculus on you and say, here’s a dance game, wave your arms, figure out how to play it. Then you’re much more inclined to actually get used to that technology. So they feed into each other quite a bit. And I don’t think gaming gets enough credit for pushing forward technology. That being said,
Online Optimism
Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
Tech is also moving forward on its own. And the better tech gets, the better gaming gets. There’s no question about that.
Online Optimism
I have another question about who’s pushing who.
Do you think that it is like the employees and the tech on like the game side that are pushing growth and ideas? Or do you think it largely comes from gamers and like mods and like stuff that they’re doing? That’s a good question. Okay.
Lindsay Poss
Oh, I think it totally comes from gamers. I think that gamers are, I have met so many people in the past couple years doing this that said, oh, I saw this thing and it didn’t have what I wanted. So I built my own. I mean, every, every CEO, large, small, whatever is basically like, oh, there was a gap here. I didn’t like it. I started my own company to do this thing. I mean, it’s just, it’s amazing. So that’s kind of a, that’s a techie thing in general, but gamers is
Online Optimism
Yeah. Wow. Yeah. But to that point.
Lindsay Poss
Definitely fall into that category of, I’m just gonna do it myself.
Online Optimism
Absolutely. But to your point is that the employees pushing it or is the gamers, I think one of the key points is that the employees are gamers themselves. Yeah. And so they’re pushing whatever kind of they want to, right? They want it. They want to see this in the game or they want to see this in another game and start a new company or whatever it may be. So they’re pushing forward their own kind of thoughts. You would kind of like inspire this earlier when you’re talking about how
Lindsay Poss
Oh yeah.
Online Optimism
you, one of your coworkers or someone you knew was getting into blockchain and that’s kind of like what led your, what are your thoughts on the gaming NFTs? Have you seen that? Oh, jeez.
Lindsay Poss
So, oh yeah, oh yeah. I’ve actually had several debates about this because Ubisoft announced theirs in just a very, I don’t wanna say catastrophic because it wasn’t that dire, but just pretty much the worst way you could announce it. So NFTs are a really hot debate right now for a lot of reasons. And I have very mixed feelings on NFTs. I think that it is an incredible way to build a community.
Online Optimism
So I don’t see you in the back. I think I’m going to go back. Yeah. I’m going to go back to the front. I think I’m going to go back to the front. Mm-hmm. Uh-oh. I’m going to go back to the front. I think I’m going to go back to the front.
Lindsay Poss
to allow people to actually feel like they own something. And when you get a group of people together who are all interested in the same assets and the same thing, they can get together and they can build these communities and they can talk and they can trade and they can be excited in the same way that we once were excited about art. I just think that there’s so many scummy interactions right now with gaming and with NFTs. And…
Online Optimism
Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
if you take away the scuminess, it’s a really, really cool technology. So Ubisoft, for example, they decided that they were going to do in-game NFTs, which were only tradable through their also in-game platform. And you had to play an obscene number of hours to get the NFTs that were any, worth any value. It was something like 600 hours. And obviously there was massive backlash. And then Ubisoft kind of came forward and said, well, gamers don’t really value NFTs yet, and they should.
Online Optimism
Yeah. Right. Yeah. So, I think that’s a good point. I think that’s a good point.
Lindsay Poss
they should be excited that we did this for them. It was kind of a weird statement. And the guy made a good point that gamers don’t currently value NFTs, but I also don’t feel as if companies putting out a product and saying, you have to play 600 hours to get it, and it’s not gonna be worth anything, and you can only trade it on our platform. It’s necessarily a good introduction to this idea of building a community around digital assets that people own. So there’s definitely good, I think that there’s a really smart way to do it. I think that you can.
Create a community that cares about owning these things and have them trade them in the same way people cared about owning baseball cards or Pokemon cards or bobbleheads or any variety of other little collectibles. I think that it’s important to not have astronomical valuations on these collectibles and have wild news stories about the fluctuations in those valuations.
Online Optimism
I think that’s a really good point.
Online Optimism
And I’m wondering if you could talk about the value of the stories that you’ve written and tell us about the stories that you’ve written. Yeah, and there’s a lot of stories that, there’s so many stories about the high values of them and there’s so little understanding in the general population about what they even are. So it’s interesting to see that you only see the valuation stories and people are still
Lindsay Poss
I think that’s where that whole concept of NFTs really gets lost. It makes me a little disappointed because we’ve just had so many stories about bubbles and inflation and stuff.
Online Optimism
wrap their heads around what they are. I know that, you know. I also feel like there’s not enough regulation around them. Like there was that guy who was like doing some and he said that money was gonna go to charity and then he literally tweeted and he was like, change my mind, it’s all going to my wallet and then deleted his Twitter account. Yeah. There’s some weirdness behind it, I think. Yeah. Do you?
Lindsay Poss
Yeah, this is, oh yeah, tech policy is famously behind tech advancement. So that’s a huge question for regulators, but we’ll see what happens.
Online Optimism
Do you think there’s some like vulnerability in the like gaming NFTs because I know that like children obviously love gaming spend a lot of time doing it. Do you think that leaves like a vulnerability open? That they’re going to like be motivated into them?
Lindsay Poss
yet. Yeah. No, I mean, I think with those kinds of arguments, you can also say the same thing about the kids who take their parents’ credit cards and spend $3,000 on Amazon stuff. Yeah. Do I think NFTs are any right?
Online Optimism
Oh, that’s absolutely who I’m thinking of is those children. Yeah. Or the in-app purchases or something like that on phones. I had to coach my niece real hard that if something pops up, you show me the button before you press it. Exactly. Okay.
Lindsay Poss
Yeah, I don’t necessarily think that NFTs are any better or worse than any other ways that kids can find to spend money. And I don’t think that there’s a huge, I mean, frankly, they’re a little bit difficult to trade right now too. They’re a little bit difficult to buy and trade. Like there’s, you have to kind of know what you’re doing. I mean, OpenSea is a great platform, but OpenSea is basically permanently trending on Twitter for bugs and fixes and issues.
Online Optimism
It’s already like, it’s a natural obstacle. Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
if a five-year-old opened a crypto wallet. Yeah, if a five-year-old got through the steps of opening a crypto wallet and spending a bunch of money on blockchain transactions. Right, it will happen, I’m sure, but as of right now, I think that it’s a little bit too hard. The accessibility is a little too low, and I don’t think that there’s no sort of risk of, I don’t know, gambling problems or some of the other things that we’ve seen in gaming.
Online Optimism
I can’t wait to see that headline. Yeah, you never know. Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
Right now with NFTs, I can’t see the parallel there.
Online Optimism
Awesome. So next question is, do you think that esports and video game streaming are a secure career path? I would say both on the like, I would say like both the athlete side and the like your side of it, like the business side.
Lindsay Poss
I think asking if pro sports are. Ha ha.
Lindsay Poss
The business side is a lot more secure. It is hard to be one in a million when it comes to becoming a pro streamer. People who manage it are doing great, and yeah, it’s very secure once you get there. But getting there, I mean, I think it’s something like 94% of Twitch creators make under $300 a month from Twitch, or so. Again, I don’t remember the exact number, I just read a report the other day about it.
But the point is that the vast majority of people streaming on Twitch, well over 90%, are not making a sustainable living off of it. It has to be a labor of love. You have to have some talent, a mixture of talent and luck. To me, it’s very similar to being a professional athlete. It’s what, like 2% of college players become pros at something? So similar with streaming. Combination of talent and luck and meeting the right people.
Online Optimism
Yeah.
Online Optimism
Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
getting yourself out there in the right ways, but yep. Yep.
Online Optimism
Also have to have the personality and the time and yeah and just promoting it and everything like that. Yeah, it’s so much work. Lindsay, we touched on this a little bit, but when we talk about gaming and different global markets, how do you think it’s treated across the entire world?
Lindsay Poss
Mm-hmm.
Online Optimism
Where do you think the big push is coming from and who’s accepting it the most? And just what are your thoughts on how gaming has become a global industry? Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
Asia has always historically led the way on this. They were kind of the first ones to have really intense professional leagues. There is a lot more infrastructure built around gaming from cafes to internet connections to, I mean, everyone in South Korea has a good internet connection and StarCraft has even been on public television for 15 or 20 years now, StarCraft tournaments.
So Asia has definitely been the one that’s leading the way. When it comes to the rest of the world, there’s a lot of opportunity in developing countries to do more, especially now that phones are so ubiquitous. I think that there’s a lot more developing countries jumping on board. So a lot of people who are very excited about this kind of web 3.0 and blockchain based gaming idea in developing countries as a way to mine cryptocurrencies, kind of making it a job.
Online Optimism
I’m very happy to be here. I have a question for you. I think you have a very good example of how many of you need to get into the workforce. I think you have a very good example of how many of you need to get into the workforce. I think you have a very good example of how many of you need to get into the workforce. I think you have a very good example of how many of you need to get into the workforce. I think you have a very good example of how many of you need to get into the workforce. I think you have a very good example of how many of you need to get into the workforce.
Lindsay Poss
There is a whole debate around that for good reason. So I don’t want to get too deep into that, but just a note to say that there’s a lot of people out there excited about blockchain gaming in developing countries. We’re seeing huge amounts of investment in Western countries, of course, and in the Middle East. I think the Middle East is really, really actually in large ways leading us into the new era of gaming. And they have the obvious geographic advantage of being very near the Asian markets. So.
Online Optimism
Yeah. So that kind of touches on my next question, which is how do you think cultural differences affect the gaming industry as well? I mean, you’ve mentioned the impact of mobile devices and kind of that exploding as a market itself. But do you think there are other differences that…
Lindsay Poss
They could do that.
Online Optimism
come about in the gaming industry.
Lindsay Poss
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what those are, but I think globally and as a whole, and this is actually the exact opposite of your question because it’s what similarities do we see across the globe? I think, but I do think as a whole, people are exploring how to use their free time in different ways. And a lot of that could be social media driven, but a lot of it is just because we have much greater access to technology across all income levels across.
Online Optimism
Thank you.
Lindsay Poss
all genders, across all races, across everyone. We just have way more access to technology. When it comes to differences, I would have thought if you had asked me this question two months ago, I would have said that countries that have more authoritarian regimes and are much more socially conservative are going to have more difficulty in adopting gaming or getting a thriving gaming ecosystem going where a lot of funding is being poured into gaming in tech.
However, Saudi Arabia has basically flipped that entire idea on its head in the past month with just tons of investment and companies and stories about that. So I suppose. Oh yeah. In other countries as well. They actually just bought a big eSports platform. If I remember correctly, there’s been about, I don’t know if you all have been following. I don’t know how often, how much you guys follow gaming news, but in the past month there’s been.
Online Optimism
They’ve invested in companies themselves in Saudi Arabia or other countries? Okay, cool. Oh wow. Wow. I don’t know if you’re aware of the fact that the company that’s operating in the United States is a non-profit. I’m sorry. I don’t know if you’re aware of the fact that the company that’s operating in the United States is a non-profit. I don’t know if you’re aware of the fact that the company that’s operating in the United
Lindsay Poss
five huge merger announcements. So I’m sort of struggling to remember which one is which, but I’m nearly positive Saudi Arabia, and I can Google it really quick, bought a huge tournament platform. It was EGL or EGL, ESL. I can’t remember which one. Anyways.
Online Optimism
It’s okay. I only know about EA sports. They make the Sims. So will that make Saudi Arabia a major player in the gaming industry or is this them just getting their toe in the water? Where do they stand kind of globally?
Lindsay Poss
Ehhhhh
Lindsay Poss
So they have had the Vision Funds for a while now. I don’t know if you all follow the WeWork story in 2019. But the Saudi Arabia back to our venture fund. Again, now I’m mixing up all my funds because they’re Softbank and Masa’s Fund, and that might be the Vision Fund. But regardless, Saudi Arabia basically took a lot of its capital and put it into a venture fund.
Online Optimism
Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
in the late teens, I believe. And so they have been looking out for future tech projects ever since. I sort of thought that their social conservatism and the authoritarian government was going to keep them out of gaming for a while just because gaming has a lot of negative connotations, I think still, even though all those are total BS. And if anyone plays Animal Crossing, they absolutely know that. Not everything is all death and violence and blood. And in fact, a very small portion of it is. But anyways.
I thought that would kind of keep them out of it. So I have been pleasantly surprised. And I think that there’s a lot happening around the Middle East that is now getting attention. So it’s not just Saudi Arabia. It’s the UAE, it’s Qatar, it’s all of those places, Bahrain even, kind of forward thinking wealthy Middle Eastern nations that are now looking into gaming opportunities, trying to sort of become the new Silicon Valley type of thing, but for gaming specifically.
which has been a super interesting development to me. Cause again, I thought the social conservatism would kind of hold that back. Then if you would ask, again, if you would ask me this two, three months ago, I would have had a totally different answer and been like, yeah, I don’t know. All the countries that tend to historically be very misogynistic and hold people back are not gonna do great in gaming, but I’ve just been completely proven wrong on that hypothesis. So.
Online Optimism
and it’s easy to get the job. So it’s a good thing. Right. And if you can get the job, it’s either about being able to control it or it’s about being able to do it. So it’s a good thing. It’s a good thing. So speaking of misogyny, great segue in. How do you think that the gaming culture has progressed around its feeling towards women? And like, are you feeling optimistic about that? And-
I honestly, like how you’ve talked about how like the mindset around who is a gamer has changed. So do you think that it’s just grown and that it’s like, yes, more games that women play make them gamers? Or do you think that there’s an actual like change in like, yes, even the games that people think of stereotypically towards men are more accepting towards women now?
Lindsay Poss
So this is, I talk a lot about this on my podcast, which is called the Metta Woman Podcast. Everyone should go like and subscribe. We go through a lot of this and the general consensus from a lot of the people that I’ve interviewed is that things are improving, but they are not where they need to be at all. And I think that that’s sort of where we’re at. When it comes to games, accepting women more often, it’s one of the other things I’ve been learning about is it’s just really hard to undo.
Online Optimism
Thank you.
Online Optimism
Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
10 years of really bad toxic culture. And even with all of these reckonings, and I know I’ve talked a lot positively about companies trying to do DEI initiatives, a lot of those companies do it in a fairly empty way and still need to be held accountable and are not making great moves. I’m sort of hoping they wake up and realize that DEI does equal ROI. And come is actually following through on that. There’s been a lot of big talk lately. We’ll see what happens.
Online Optimism
Yeah. Do you find that most of that change, like genuine change is coming from like smaller and like art house studios versus like the big producers?
Lindsay Poss
Oh no, art house studios can be just as bad and gross. Um, no.
Online Optimism
Oh, they’re not even… I feel like they at least have more control because there’s less people to stand in the way.
Lindsay Poss
But there’s also way more incentive to just keep people on if you like them, too. Oh, the founder did something wrong. Well, too bad he’s the founder. Yeah, so there’s problems at all levels and I don’t think that any level is doing it any better than any other. Things are definitely improving. Where things are improving are with new games that are introduced, Valorant, for example, shooter game, typically a male dominated kind of genre. Valorant did an excellent job from the beginning of building a really inclusive environment.
Online Optimism
Yeah.
That’s fair. Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
There’s a lot of all female pro Valorant teams. There was an immediate, there was immediately very heavy moderation, even on chat, like voice chat, I mean, there was heavy, heavy moderation. And that’s the same company that has League of Legends. League of Legends is just like the most toxic cesspool of comments. But the reason why is because League of Legends was released, you know, 15 years ago-ish now. And it’s ingrained. Yeah, you can’t undo that.
Online Optimism
Oh, yeah. Yeah. The culture is ingrained. Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
and it takes a lot of time. Whereas, Ballerint, they started, they knew what they were doing, they’ve learned a lot in those 15 years and they launched something that was really, really open towards a lot of different people. So there’s definitely a question of, there’s been a lot of new companies that have arisen that are taking the right approach, but those ones that have always been kind of ingrained, they’re entrenched in their ways, they’re having a lot more difficulty pivoting and I find a lot of their pivots to be sort of empty. So…
generally things definitely moving in the right direction. A lot of women I’ve talked to are saying it’s moving much more slowly than they thought it would or than they wished it would. And a lot of companies are still really reluctant to kind of let go of the people who are maybe helping shape the culture at the top. So hopefully I’m hoping in three to five years, we’re having a way different conversation about it. But for now, it’s just been a lot of reckoning and not a lot of real lasting change, I think.
Online Optimism
Yeah.
Online Optimism
Yeah. It’s like sure they’re clearing the bar, but the bar is still way too low. And I think podcasts like yours, Lindsay, are going to help out with that. Like, you know, just making it.
Lindsay Poss
Mm-hmm.
Online Optimism
more inclusive, more inviting, and just bringing more women into the fold. I’m just wondering, I want to bring more women into the fold, and I’m just wondering if you have any thoughts on that? I think that’s a great question.
Lindsay Poss
That’s what I’m hoping. I had a really wonderful guest named Christina Amaya. She’s the founder of Latinos in Gaming, and she had sent a chart that I thought was really indicative of the experience that a lot of women and minority hires go through, which is basically that a company says, “‘We’re gonna do better with diversity.'” You know, they hire a woman, they hire a minority woman. The minority woman comes in, says, “‘You need to change this, and this.'” They say, “‘We’re not gonna change anything.'”
the minority woman starts to feel really outvoted, pushed out, and winds up leaving two years later. And I think that that’s a cycle that happens a lot with these sort of quote unquote diversity hires, where you’re hiring someone to say that you did it, not to impact meaningful change. So I’m still hopeful that there’s companies out there that want to bring on this change and aren’t just.
Online Optimism
Yeah. Right. Yeah. So, I still hold on to clothing stuff because I want to. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do that.
Lindsay Poss
filling their own heads with all of these ideas. But until we actually see women and people of color and other minorities in positions of power and able to speak freely and able to fully implement their ideas, we haven’t gotten to where everyone is bragging about that they’ve gotten to.
Online Optimism
So my next question is about traditional sports and esports. How do you envision their relationship growing?
Lindsay Poss
So every league has had a different approach. I definitely think that the NBA has done the best, but I’m also a huge NBA fan, so I’m totally biased when it comes to that answer.
Online Optimism
Who is it Josh Hart is he the one he’s like streaming all the time right? Yeah hilarious.
Lindsay Poss
Yeah. He streams like crazy. Um, but there’s several of them. I mean, yeah. Grayson Allen’s actually, he for a short while was one of the top 500 apex players, uh, in the country, which is a huge accomplishment. So, but other than that, the NBA also started their companion 2k league. So they have NBA 2k, a companion league that goes along with a lot of the professional teams, I believe like 20 or so of the franchises have signed on to have this companion league, which is really cool. Um,
They’re also the ones who have, if you all have seen commercials for the Oculus, it’s like watch an NBA game in VR. They’ve the NBA has truly embraced a lot of the tech and has remained really agile when it comes to incorporating it into their own fan experiences, which has been really cool. The NFL just.
Online Optimism
Yeah. Do you think it’s that? Sorry, but do you think that is that basketball fans are more inclined to video games naturally, or do you think it’s because of that partnership that lots of basketball fans are inclined to video games?
Lindsay Poss
No, I think that basketball itself is just a lot more adept at handling issues. So even social justice issues, all of that, they haven’t had near the same leadership that the NBA has had really talented leaders at the top for several years now who have supremely helped the league develop. When you compare and contrast with the NFL, it’s very clear what those differences are. I mean, just the international poll alone, the NBA isn’t necessarily…
Online Optimism
Yeah, they did a great job.
Lindsay Poss
the most popular sport in America, but it is probably the third most popular sport worldwide, which is a huge testament to its leadership. So that’s, I just, huge basketball fan, love the NBA. But anyways, that’s it. That’s a huge testament to them. Where I think that professional sports and e-sports kind of collide is a little bit of a tough question. The NFL just announced a partnership with a team.
Online Optimism
Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
I think a lot more pro sports leagues are looking to use video games as a way to interact with fans. So the NFL has done a lot of like, you know, bad in tournaments for fans or things like that, or they’ll bring players in to play video games with fans because that’s a kind of a medium where an insanely good athlete can connect with a more average person who might be really good at video games. So those physical barriers are much lower. I sort of the traditional sports and eSports get compared a lot.
Online Optimism
I’m going to go ahead and turn it over to you. So I’m going to go ahead and turn it over to you. So I’m going to turn it over to you.
Lindsay Poss
And I don’t know that that’s fair to either one because I just think that they’re very different models. Esports has sort of tried to follow the pro sports model and it hasn’t been wildly successful. And I think that’s because video games are ubiquitous. They’re available anywhere. They’re available to anyone of any skill level in a way that sports maybe aren’t. You know, at a certain level of basketball you just can’t be tall enough anymore. There’s no getting around it.
Online Optimism
I mean, like being in New Orleans, I had no chance to learn hockey growing up. No. But you have a phone.
Lindsay Poss
Exactly. Yeah, so right. So it’s just, it’s a little weird to compare them when it comes to pro versus pro. I think they’re just completely different. And I think that pro esports has a lot to, both its aid and its detriment has a lot more possibilities for how it organizes itself. What we’ve seen happen is that there hasn’t been a dominant.
organizational strategy thus far. And what I mean is there isn’t team-based models that everyone is super, super pumped about and really into that have been wildly successful. Or there isn’t a single tournament every year like FIFA where everyone just shuts down and everyone watches that for video games. But there’s a lot more possibilities and flexibilities because of the nature of the content itself. Pro sports is a little bit more rigid and how you actually have to play and organize because you need specific physical, uh, what’s the word I’m looking for?
Attributes, you need specific physical attributes, not only in the players, but in the fields of play themselves. So it comes to comparisons, the NBA is doing it the best in terms of their partnership with them. I don’t think you can compare and contrast them themselves as in pro versus pro because I think that eSports has a lot wider range in what they can do. That also means that they haven’t done as well as pro sports at the moment. But in 10 years, I think that we’ll be talking about that much differently.
Online Optimism
Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
Oh, just last part real quick. Yeah. So last, last part of that point is just that, um, I also think that. There is ways to do companionships and partnerships that are played to the strengths of both pro experiences. And yes, I do think the Olympics will have gaming.
Online Optimism
I think that’s what we need to do. I mean, it’s like, we’re going to have to do it. We’re going to have to do it. Gotcha. Yeah, sorry about that. Yeah, so do you think that there could be an introduction of an E-game segment at the Olympics?
Lindsay Poss
Yep, absolutely. I think it’s I mean, honestly, the IOC is an incredibly corrupt organization that has been very poorly run for years and years and years. It’s like one of the most corrupt. IOC and FIFA are like horribly corrupt. And at some point, fans are going to get tired of that. And gaming is also just such a natural way to bring in most fans. It’s something I keep. I feel bad because I keep spitting out numbers that I’ve read and I don’t remember the exact ones. But there is a statistic out there that says over 90 percent of Gen Z.
Online Optimism
Oh yeah. Yeah. I don’t think you’re gonna be able to do that. I think I’m gonna be able to do that. Yeah. And then you can talk about the
Lindsay Poss
are gamers. So if you want to bring more fans to the Olympics at gaming, why not?
Online Optimism
I believe that. Yeah. But is it winter Olympics or summer Olympics? I think it would be its own. Is it cloud Olympics? I think it separates. It’s something it’s something out there. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So our last question, at least my last question. Yeah. So you know, the big red flag parent, I wasn’t allowed to play video games growing up, because people talk about.
Lindsay Poss
Can have it at both. It can be the first crossover.
Online Optimism
addiction, influencing how people behave, video game abuse, do you see a real risk in that or do you think it’s like over exaggerated by the media?
Lindsay Poss
So there’s been just study after study after study that disproves this theory. On its face, I can understand why parents are concerned about violent video games. However, there’s about a thousand different ways to interact with games, violent or nonviolent. And it’s the same thing as anything else. If you’re too much junk food, I mean,
Online Optimism
Anything else? Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
too much, like you can overdo exercise and running, right? I mean, what’s Oscar Wilde, everything in moderation, including moderation. But no, video games are such a, and I’m a former athlete, right? So I can say this with authority. Video games are such a wonderful way to teach collaboration, teamwork, quick decision-making, confident decision-making, all of these skills that you might get from traditional sports.
It allows you to connect with people around the world in a way that traditional sports don’t. I can never go play for a basketball team where I had people from Spain and Brazil and Sub-Saharan Africa all on the same team with me at the same time in the same place. There’s so many components about video gaming that can be done well and be done properly and just make a kid’s experience and education so much better. And I also, I get a little, not tired, but…
a little exhausted of the addiction debate. And I’ve heard, I’ve had friends of parents say like, oh, all my teenage son wants to do is play video games. And it’s like, listen, if your teenage son was in a bad place before video games existed, they would still be in a bad place. Like maybe they would just be laying around all day. It doesn’t matter, like that bad, it’s not, oh, I’m choosing between being doing video games and doing all my schoolwork that I feel like doing. It’s-
Online Optimism
I’m not sure.
Online Optimism
I’m coming back to the place that I want to be with my family. Yeah. I don’t think I can do it without my family. I’m not going to be able to do it without my family. I’m going to be able to do it without my family. Yeah.
Lindsay Poss
I’m in a bad place and I can only motivate myself to do this one thing. There’s other issues at stake. Before video games were around, people ran into those problems, right? So I don’t think it’s inherently the fault of any games. There is of course addiction tactics within games the same way there is within social media. We’re all learning how to live with technology.
every facet of our lives. I don’t think video games are any better or worse. And I actually think that video games have the real chance to, when applied properly, really teach a lot of people who, and reach a lot of people who wouldn’t have otherwise been taught and reached. So I absolutely tire of this debate because everything says otherwise. And it feels like a whole bunch of people just sort of digging in their heels and not accepting where we’re moving forward with, with the future. One of the coolest things that
Online Optimism
I’m going to be talking about this in a minute.
Lindsay Poss
I’ve attended a couple of gaming conferences. One of the coolest things that really show the power of using technology. I remember going to a conference a couple of years ago where chemotherapy patients were being trained in virtual worlds to help deal with symptoms and side effects of chemotherapy. And it turned out that spending a long time in a virtual world that was set to be looking and mostly just look very cold, actually helped decrease things like hot flashes. There’s…
Online Optimism
I’m going to go ahead and turn it over to you.
Lindsay Poss
It’s the technology is amazing. So just to write it off because it’s scary and it’s new is ridiculous. And I think that you’re really selling yourself short and you’re selling your kids short when you do that kind of stuff. There’s always going to be mental health issues. There’s always going to be people that use gaming as a crutch. I think it’s more important to address the root of those issues the same way we would have had to before gaming existed than it is to just blame gaming and say it’s all gaming’s fault.
Online Optimism
I couldn’t agree more and I’m so happy to hear that from an expert because that’s how I feel too. And I think that gaming is a great way to introduce technology to people and really foster that collaboration and exploration that you’re talking about. Yeah, I feel like the question isn’t why is or like, or the issue isn’t that gaming is a crutch, it’s that they’re going to need a crutch, whatever it is, they’re going to find something. As an avid reader.
It’s weird because I’ll be reading and my parents are like, oh, I don’t want to bother you, you’re reading. But if I was playing a video game, they’d be like, oh, I’ll bother you, you’re playing a video game. Right, absolutely.
Lindsay Poss
I had the exact same thing growing up. My siblings used to tease me because I sort of used to get out of housework because I would just read and read and read and read. Ha ha ha.
Online Optimism
Yeah, you’re like, oh sorry, I’m building my brain.
Lindsay Poss
And the thing is, there’s ways to have… It’s so funny to me that my parents always believed I was always improving myself no matter what I read. And I was reading total crap, you know? I mean, I read good books too, but it’s like I read plenty of books that were absolutely wastes of time that taught me nothing and were just a crutch to get out of. Right, like come on. And so it’s just incredible to me that you would then…
Online Optimism
I’m just reading princesses and fairies.
Lindsay Poss
not have the same feeling about gaming where it’s like, oh, this could teach a really valuable skill the same way reading can. Yeah, anyways, that’s a whole debate, but I feel strongly about it. Thank you.
Online Optimism
Yeah. Well, hopefully that the culture, culture seems to be shifting, hopefully, and I think that you’re helping with that, Lindsay. So thank you for that. I think we’re gonna wrap up here, but I do want to make sure to open up the floor to you, Lindsay. I mean, is there anything that you want to chat about promote, you know, talk about on this on this podcast, because we want to make sure we make sure people know about your podcast and everything that you’re up to.
Lindsay Poss
Yes, if you want to learn more about gaming, please go listen to the Meta Woman podcast. That’s M-E-T-A. It’s called the Meta Woman podcast, but really we make a podcast for everyone. We talk a lot about building the metaverse, again, whatever that means. I am definitely a metaverse skeptic who talks a lot about the metaverse, so it’s a lot of fun. You can always find me there. I’m also on the Business of Esports live after show.
Online Optimism
If you want to learn more about the school, you can go to the teacher’s manual on the impact of the school. And we, in school development, we have a lot of great community support experts. So we’re going to talk about the impact of the school. What impact?
Lindsay Poss
That’s live on Wednesday nights. You can find that on any business of esports social channel. And then you can find me, I am at Lindsay Posse, that’s L-I-N-D-S-A-Y, P-O-S-S, on Twitter and LinkedIn. And I am Lindsay the Boss on Instagram. So everyone reach out to me, talk to me.
Online Optimism
I love that. Yes. Absolutely.
Well, thank you so much, Lindsay. That was amazing, super informative, really appreciate it. And we will make sure to like and subscribe to your podcast as well. And thanks for joining us. That’s it. All right, bye Lindsay.
Lindsay Poss
Thank you for having me, it was an honor.
Lindsay Poss
Bye.
