Do Gamers Need 10,000 Hours of Practice to Be Great?

Have you ever wondered what it really takes to be a great at just about anything? Be it music, gaming or your career?

Bob Lefsetz (a music analyst and blogger) recently railed against the music industry’s love affair with youth at the expense of talent.

I’m not saying you’ve got to be old to make it, maybe you just have to be doggedly focused. Not only on making it, but rehearsing, getting it right. The music industry has lobbied against this. It has not encouraged its stars to practice.

Can his rant be applied to gaming? Dave Knox, a brand manager with P&G says, “those that are great in their industries, be it sports, music or science are not great based on talent alone”. Dave’s argument is based on Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers”. In it he argues that hard work and practice (Rock Lee style) is the only way to become great in your field.

Innate talent, pure desire, they’re not enough. Sure, Mozart started writing music when he was six, but he didn’t compose a masterwork until he was twenty one, after he’d put in 10,000 hours of practice. How can you have accumulated 10,000 hours worth of practice if you’re not even close to twenty one? Turns out that’s the rule. You’ve got to have 10,000 hours.

Why does that matter to gamers or even professional gamers? Try thinking about your competition on Xbox Live or WoW. What seperates the novices and casual players from the pros? It’s likely time, dedication and focus.

This explains why professional gamers can pull in six figure salaries. They probably devoted 10,000 hours (that’s 416 days) of their lives to each game they play professionally. And most people don’t.

[Via Dave Knox & Bob Lefsetz]

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