CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio recently had an interesting documentary about computer game players of the 1980s. A few studies are showing that these people have become much better at solving business and technical problems and advanced further in their careers than those who did not engage in computer gaming.

I did a little research on the internet and found that "eLearning" using games and simulations is still very much in its infancy. It seems many educators are recognizing its potential, yet uncertain of how to make it effective. And many elaborate eLearning projects have—for reasons that the experts don’t quite understand—never had much success. The links below provide some interesting articles.

A good example of eLearning has been online poker. Before online gaming, the better poker players spent years in the poker halls honing their craft before earning professional status, respect, and profits. With online poker, however, aficionados can gain much of this same experience in one to two years. There have been more than a few under-25s making it to the world’s top poker tables. It seems that online poker has become an essential step to an aspiring poker player’s career.

If we are to extrapolate the poker experience, it seems possible to train entry-level professionals to make executive-type decisions early in their careers. When they become executives, they already have a lot of executive experience under their belts—and need not go through the entire school of hard knocks in an executive position to learn the executive ropes.

Currently, the computer gaming industry is focused on entertainment. Any education has, at best, been just a side benefit of any computer game. Game developers seem unlikely to move into more education-prioritized games. So this leaves an interesting market niche quite open in many fields.

This niche will be well served by those who can develop "games" that are both engaging yet have a very strong educational purpose other than just mastery of the game.

I believe OilFinancier is already there. Not only that, OilFinancier is going to get better. I also have other ideas for reality-based learning for the mining industry, business, and the social-economics field.

I really believe that, somehow, I have acquired a knack for putting the pieces together to make great eLearning games and simulations. But perhaps it’s better for the success of OilFinancier to speak for my talents.

I estimate automating OilFinancier will require an investment of about $500,000. My plan is to offer a private placement to potential investors after I prove its market potential. This could happen in 2007.