Gamesbeat Summit is Coming

TL;DR: I like this conference a lot. I’m an advisor and I have a discount code if you’re thinking about going. GBS19WGROSSO.

I don’t really think of myself as part of the video-gaming industry. I’m an AI guy. I’m a data guy. I’m a mathematics guy, I’m a behavioral guy, and I’m an economics guy. If you want to get fancy, I’m an algorithmic-optimization guy. But I’m not, not really, a video-games guy.

But I am a guy who does a lot of work in video games. Why? Because, to paraphrase Willie Sutton, that’s where the data is. The data about human behavior inherent in video games is fascinating, and the possibilities are extraordinary (if you do the math on how much people play games, how much they watch other people playing games, and how many different actions and behaviors are require to play games, the potential for reinventing all of the behavioral sciences is staggering). In short, I stand by everything I said at the Wolfram Data Summit in 2014.

So, as a guy who works with video games, but isn’t a gaming guy, I love Dean Takehashi. He is a gamer, he loves gaming and all its details, and he and his co-authors at Gamesbeat do an amazing job of keeping me informed about the video-game industry.

And, once a year, they put on a small, and highly-curated, conference.

I love being an advisor for Gamesbeat Summit, I love getting dozens of emails from Dean about potential topics and speakers, I love being on the advisory board, and I love going. I love all of this even though I can’t quite shake the feeling that I don’t quite belong.

It’s a very good conference and I recommend it highly.