Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →In a GamesBeat interview published January 14, 2011, Dean Takahashi reported that Bing Gordon had been named recipient of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences lifetime achievement award. Gordon used the interview to argue that social and web games could reach far larger audiences than packaged games, and that games were becoming a “social lingua franca.” The headline’s “the future is Bing Gordon’s game” was the article’s framing of those forecasts. It was not a finding about how the industry actually developed. Everything below is attributed to that interview and should be read as Gordon’s opinion as of January 2011.
What the accolade was and when it would be presented
The award was the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences lifetime achievement award. According to the article, it would be presented at the upcoming DICE Summit, which the piece dated to February 9–11, 2011. The interview was published alongside the announcement, so it works as a snapshot of how Gordon was positioned at that moment rather than as a retrospective on his full career.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
From Electronic Arts to Kleiner Perkins
Takahashi’s profile frames Gordon’s career in two stages. The first was more than 25 years at Electronic Arts, which the article says began in 1982 and included a long stint as chief creative officer. The second was his move to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture firm, where he discussed investments in companies including Zynga and ngmoco as they stood in early 2011.
PC Slower Than It Used to Be?
A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Crashes, No Sound, or Screen Glitches?
Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteThe article presents the venture move as a second career, with social and mobile games as the growth area that interested him most. Roles and company positions described here are those reported in January 2011. The article does not cover what happened to those roles or companies afterward.
#1 Best Overall
The social-game thesis
Gordon’s central argument was that social games could reach much larger audiences than traditional games because they combine three things: clear goals, rewards, and friendship, all delivered through web platforms that make distribution easy. He also contrasted the audience expectations of early video games with the far larger audiences he saw on the web, and suggested that social games could make play a familiar social habit rather than a specialist pastime.
Reach versus intensity
The interview is not one-directional. The article notes a trade-off between how many people a game can reach and how intensely those people participate. Gordon’s case for social games rests on breadth of reach, so the depth of engagement is the weaker half of his argument and worth weighing separately when you read it.
Rank #2
What “social lingua franca” meant
When asked about the next 25 years, Gordon described games becoming a shared social language. The phrase is a forecast about how widely games would be understood and used across social situations, not a measurement of how many people played them in 2011.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Key quotes in context
These are the interview’s direct quotations, preserved with their attribution to Bing Gordon:
Rank #3
- On the next 25 years: “Games are becoming like a social lingua franca.”
- On business-model change: “In any business that grows big on one business model, transitions can throw everything in the air.”
- On Electronic Arts: “The future is in EA’s hands. It’s pretty hard to predict.”
The third quote is the most candid. Gordon was openly declining to forecast EA’s direction, which weakens the headline’s suggestion that he had settled the question of the industry’s future.
The venture focus: sFund, commerce, and virtual goods
Gordon discussed Kleiner Perkins’ sFund and his interest in the point where social activity, commerce, and entertainment overlap. The interview specifically raised virtual goods and e-commerce as part of that intersection. In his view, internet platforms and games were becoming more closely connected, with commerce built into play. This was an investment thesis as much as a description of the market, and the article presents it that way.
Figures in the interview and how to treat them
The interview includes numbers and comparisons. None should be carried forward as current data without a fresh primary source.
| Claim in the interview | Who made it | Date and scope | Status today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Named recipient of the AIAS lifetime achievement award | Reported by GamesBeat (Dean Takahashi) | Announced January 14, 2011 | Accurate as a 2011 report; this article does not re-verify award records |
| Award to be presented at the DICE Summit, February 9–11, 2011 | Stated in the article | Scheduled dates as written in January 2011 | Historical schedule only |
| Career at Electronic Arts beginning in 1982, including chief creative officer role | Stated in the article | Career as described in January 2011 | Historical; later roles not covered |
| CityVille reaching 100 million monthly active users | Gordon, as published in the article | Figure as stated in January 2011 | Not a current measurement; not independently verified here |
| Historical audience comparisons for Star Wars entertainment formats | Gordon, as published in the article | Comparisons as stated in January 2011 | Opinion-based comparison; not a current data set |
If you need a current figure for any of these, look for the company’s own disclosures or a dated industry report, and note its date and methodology alongside it.
Best Value
- PLAY & LEARN: Professor Noggin's series of educational card games encourages kids to learn interesting facts about their favorite subjects
- FUN FACTS: Get ready for a fun card game that teaches about famous discoveries, people of the Revolution, and African Americans in history! This kids card game makes learning history fun for all ages
- CARD GAME: Each of the thirty game cards combines trivia, true or false, and multiple-choice questions. A special three-numbered die is included which adds an element of unpredictability
- TWO-LEVELS OF PLAY: Easy and hard levels keep kids interested and challenged while of course having fun
- INCLUDES: 30 trivia cards, one three-sided die and instructions. ( 2 to 8 players ages 7 and up)
Reading 2011 forecasts in 2026
Use the interview as a record of what a well-placed industry investor expected, not as evidence of what happened. A few habits make it more useful:
- Keep “in 2011” or “at the time” attached to every forecast when you quote it.
- Separate Gordon’s opinions from numbers. Only the figures can be checked, and they need a current source.
- Compare the stated reach claims with the trade-offs the article itself raises about participation intensity.
- Treat company positions (EA, Zynga, ngmoco, Kleiner Perkins investments) as the situation in January 2011 only.
The interview is most valuable as a window into how social and web games were being pitched to investors and industry insiders at a specific moment, before many of the questions it raised had been answered.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
