The 800 pound Gorilla and Engagism

So, Steve Ballmer has pledged a "new era" for Microsoft, with a new focus on all those engagist activities like video games, MP3 players and the like. They will also be directing their attention toward online advertising as well as product placement in video games and other content-rich applications.

I'll be curious to see how (if) this works. With the shift to a more engagist culture has come a tremendous capacity for and demand for choice. Consumers will choose products that allow them to engage at the highest levels. In most cases, the quality of the product must be high enough to counterbalance any advertising or other negatives that the manufacturer has built in. Otherwise, they will choose to engage in something else. iTunes has done this somewhat successfully for most of the world. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can do the same.

One entity that has done an amazing job of catering to the engagist consumer is YouTube (www.youtube.com) Here, users have the ability to post their own video for viewing by others (pornographers need not apply). Site users rate their favorites, which are featured on the front page. This approach reaches what to me is the highest level of engagist activity, creation. People who are truly engaged in an activity often start feeling that urge to create on their own. That's one of the reasons why many video games are so popular -- players get to create their own outcome.

The important point here is that people aren't flocking to youtube because it has product placements in all the right places. Rather, it allows people to engage in their own content -- and to interact with other like-minded individuals. That is the core of engagism.