GoVentureWorld gamifies the entrepreneurial experience

Mathew Georghiou already knows how to play the startup game. Now he wants to help others get in the game.

Georghiou, CEO of MediaSpark Inc., recently launched GoVentureWorld, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) for entrepreneurs to learn business skills through interactions with players around the world.

CommerceLab recently connected with Georghiou about his plans for the global business game’s coming launch and what they hope to achieve with a gamified simulation of real-world business.

Q: Explain GoVenture World to us in your own words.

A: Unlike other business games, GoVenture World is not something you play while sitting at a computer for hours. It’s not an avatar-driven 3D virtual world. Instead, it’s a live role-playing experience that becomes integrated into your daily life – almost in an augmented reality way. Not through fancy goggles and head gear, but through every day technology devices.

GoVenture World is a global business game that is always on. Players can choose to start manufacturing or retail businesses. They can choose to be lawyers, protecting intellectual property and mediating disputes. They can be marketers, helping companies promote their products and services. And, they can be investors, providing debt or equity financing to other businesses, or purchasing stock on the GoVenture World stock exchange.

Q: What made you want to launch a gamified simulation of real-world business interactions?

A: We believe that the future of learning will be experiential, social, and gamified.  We have been developing such products for well over a decade. We wanted to take what we have learned over the years and apply new methodologies that demonstrate our vision for the future. This culminated into GoVenture World.

Our goal is to create the most authentic business game ever. By authentic, we mean that the experience you gain through playing the game is as real as it would be by running a real business.

And, if we are successful, to create a billion-dollar business opportunity.

Q: Who do you believe will be the primary consumer of GoVenture World?

A: We believe there are many different types of people who will want to play GoVenture World and we have modeled a number of personas. Statistics show that a high percentage of people are interested in business and many of those wish to start a business some day. Very few will ever get the chance to do so in the real world, but we can allow everyone to exercise their interest in business through GoVenture World.

Gaming is also a big industry that continues to grow. More people are playing games than ever, including people of all ages who do not consider themselves gamers. We believe many people are interested in playing a realistic game that is more meaningful and more deeply social than many of today’s popular games.

We also believe there are opportunities to license the platform to organizations that want to have private worlds, such as universities that want to foster entrepreneurship with students, faculty, and alumni.

Q: What sort of gamification models did you use to build out the environment and player interactions?

A: We are applying several common gaming models but doing so in new innovative ways. For example, we have challenges where players have the option to take some action to gain rewards.  But, our challenges are designed to teach you about business using brief casual games.

We also have minigames that are directly integrated into the gameplay. For example, one of the main features of GoVenture World is manufacturing products.  You issue a production order to your manufacturing plant and have to wait a certain amount of time (hours or days) for the products to be created.  But, if you do not want to wait, you can choose to play a manufacturing mini-game that allows you to create products immediately and these new products feed into the larger gameplay.

We have achievements, badges, experience points, levels and other extrinsic motivators.

For intrinsic motivation, we have patent-pending innovations in our gamepl y designed to create an authentic business experience in terms of how players run their virtual businesses and interact with each other.

A: What influence do you think the game will have on future entrepreneurs?

Our vision is quite ambitious for the influence that GoVenture World can have.  We believe it has the potential to be the single biggest innovation in the history of entrepreneurship education because of its authenticity and scalability.

We believe it is possible that potentially millions of people will gain business experience using GoVenture World, that many of them will add this experience to their personal resumes to further their careers and start businesses, and that it is truly possible that playing and being successful in GoVenture World may some day hold more value than a university business degree.