It is unlikely that there are many islanders in the Southwest Pacific that have access to television let alone game consoles. They probably have never heard of Manchester United or The New York Yankees.

What this particular part of the world does have, though, is documented examples of religious movements which are generically known as “cargo cults.”

Cargo cults come to exist in isolated societies after their first interaction with a technologically advanced, warring or colonizing country. Regardless of which one, the military is usually the initial contact they will have. The indigenous population will observe the soldiers’ arrival, see them build ports and runways, then see ships and planes come to deliver cargo. Broadly, the native society assumes that the soldier’s day-to-day activities are a way of communicating with the Gods or Spirits, that the goods are actually meant for them, and as a result mimic the behavior of the soldiers in order to try to get cargo themselves. This behavior can be as simple as marching up and down with wooden sticks in place of rifles and as complex as ceremonies with full size planes and control towers built out of wood.

I’m sure anyone reading this who works in the game industry has experience of when you’ve told someone what you do that a common type of response is “you get paid for doing that, it must be fun?” To which you very rarely bother telling them of the long hours, late nights, blood, sweat and tears you’ve spent trying to hit milestones and deadlines. Conversely, the dictionary’s main definition of a game is given as “an amusement or pastime” and because of the name, people think that games and therefore what we do is easy—it’s "kids stuff."

How many times have we seen people or companies from outside the game industry who view games this way try to get into the industry with little or no understanding of what we do, or what makes the medium we work in so compelling? Indeed, most of the time they just see huge revenues and think they can make the big bucks from something which they view as ostensibly “easy.” These same people mostly fail horribly after wasting vast amounts of cash.

We need to understand that our name—game makers—implies something that is fun, and that there is a complete lack of understanding from people outside our industry of what we do, similarly to how movies, music, television, books and sport are also perceived. These are more established entertainment mediums and there is much we can learn from them. Also, there are many areas in which we are ahead and they can learn from us (this is something we will come back to and explore later in this series).

There are many facets within what we do as an industry and we need to define these ourselves if we are to continue maturing and progressing. We also need to move away from the way that we label things and in this respect game companies are as guilty as those from outside the industry. Many game companies will jump on every bandwagon, and with each new buzzword that is thrown around, will set up divisions to deal with these new areas which they don’t fully understand, simply because everyone else is talking about them.

For example, “outsourcing,” “online” and “casual” are all simple terms, but which cover a huge range of individual parts. I am not arguing that the use of these words is wrong, as many times they are perfect to let investors, clients or media know what they are investing in or broadly discussing.

It is not the case that to set up a new studio that you can simply rent some office space, get some high spec PCs and development kits, and hire a random programmer or artist. The main catch-22 here is that you need to secure the right talent to get the deals and the right talent will not come unless you have the deals.

It is in these instances that the game industry adopts a cargo cult mentality, when they set up that new studio or outsourcing strategy without really understanding what they are trying to achieve. Subsequently, they are surprised when the deals do not “fall from the sky,” or the strategy fails and it ends up costing more money to correct the mistakes made.

We need to learn and respect the fact that we are an industry—we are the games industry. Maybe we’re the interactive entertainment industry. Regardless of the name we’re here to make money out of something we love. This is not about taking the passion out of what we do—it’s about recognizing that we’re part of a very big global business and incorporating that thinking into continuing what we do.

The best way that I can illustrate the above is to talk about something that generates immense amounts of passion: sport. The two biggest sports teams globally are Manchester United and The New York Yankees. Both attract some of the best players in the world, both are owned by U.S. billionaires and both are run ruthlessly as businesses whilst providing the success that any sporting fan craves of their team.

It was interesting then to hear the Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, arguably the most successful manager/coach in modern sporting history, speaking recently and describing football as an industry. Here is someone who has won everything and still maintains the passion for what he does but fully recognizes it as being a business at the same time. Without the fans’ passion, which in turn drives ticket sales, retail merchandising sales, television revenues, advertising revenues, sponsorship and other endorsements, sport would not exist. But at the same time we must remember how dependent a team’s ongoing success is to all of those things.

The same goes for games, without our audience and their passion for our games (and with both the direct and associated revenues that they bring), our industry and so our jobs would not exist. We have a duty to run our businesses properly, to succeed, but we cannot let this be clouded by the misplaced assertion that it is purely our creativity that brings that success.

As with sport, if we are successful, then a major portion of the revenue gained can then be ploughed back into making the next, even more compelling game for our fans, or to build up our teams with even more talent. There is a need for excellence in all areas of your business.

If not, then you may just be looking hopefully up at the sky.