“It’s the one game you can expense at Shopify,” says its CEO, Tobi Lütke.
Factorio is a real-time strategy game that follows an engineer who crash-lands on an alien planet and must harvest resources and create industry to build a rocket to escape.
The reason why Lütke allows Shopify employees to expense the game—and is a big advocate of video games in general—is because it simulates business decision making in a low pressure environment. Players have to employ systems thinking and constantly trade off between short and long term outcomes.
Unlike in the business world where people only get to make a few bets per year, strategy video games allow players to make many bets, many mistakes, and allows for many iterations in a short amount of time.
Video games can help players develop an intuitive feeling for strategic decisions, which then leaves more mental energy for solving complex, human challenges in the real world (i.e., if we know what the right strategic choice is, how do we convince and influence others to buy into that vision?).
Video games can be good!
H/T: Aaron Edelheit’s article on video gaming and it’s benefits for business and investing.