Richard and I were riffing the other day on how the whole social structure that we are familiar with is rapidly changing, possibly becoming unhinged. It all starts with youth. The youth market has always been more prepared to embrace change than the adult market. I remember from my time in music and radio - and the launch of FM in Australia. Much easier to establish a youth oriented radio station than an older demo one. Kids are more likely to change the dial.

Same is happening now. New business models - kids have no problem with them. And once they are established and viable they migrate to the older demo. In fact one of the reasons that kids dont have any problem with new business models is that typically they dont pick up the tab anyway. It is the parents who pay!

So look what is happening in the games business and tell me where this is going to lead as it migrates up the demographic food chain:

First the observation that was made in Got Game about gamers:
Some of this is considered in a piece that I read today that suggests that this is going to build a better society of people  - but you can read this in multiple ways. As kids create their in game personas and avatars and do battle with each other in MUDs are they really not just creating learned schizophrenia? Is this society that is evolving at warp speed going to help solve the very real problems of global warming and financial irresponsibility and fantasy that we are saddling them with?