All of life should be a game for everyone. With technologies creating an abundance of goods and services and reducing the need for human labor, people will need something productive to do. So work should feel like playing a game. Make the use of technologies feel like playing a video game. Make the cooperation of people feel like being involved in a game.

What makes playing games enjoyable? Some play games for the thrill of winning, while others play for the enjoyment of play with other people. Under capitalism, some play games in the hope of winning money, while others earn money for just playing the game. In the age of Abundance, people will play games in the hope of gaining knowledge. People will design games in the hope of teaching players some knowledge. The concept of money will be replaced with the concept of knowledge as the ultimate reward for playing games. Beyond teaching knowledge, playing games will also create goods and services, through the use of technologies in the games.

The creation of such productive games will be made easier and enjoyable through the use of info technologies. Once designs are created, production of games are fully automated. Inspiration for game design will come from the entertainment industry, which has vast knowledge of what people enjoy doing when not working.

Few people want to do things that are difficult. Given a choice of doing something the hard way or doing it the easy way, most will choose the easy way. Video games should be easy to play. The creation of video games should also be easy. Technologies should make the creation of video games  easy. Video game corporations include Acclaim, Activision, Electronic Arts, and of course Microsoft.

Universities, government agencies, and chambers of commerce should get involved in the creation of video games. Entertainment corporations such as AOL-Time Warner, Disney, News Corp., and Sony should be getting involved in the creation of video games.

People like to listen to music, but not many can produce enjoyable music to listen to. This situation will change as the production of music is automated through the use of info technology. People will be able to combine parts of their favorite songs to create new songs. People will be able to choose the voice singing, the instruments used, the lyrics of songs, length of the song, etc.

Microsoft can take a lead in the music industry by creating systems that enable people to create their own music. Through its' Media Player, Microsoft can take the lead in creating systems that enable people to create movies, shows, games, and music.

Microsoft will enter these industries as they lose market share in the operating system market to open source operating systems like Linux. These operating systems will control the functions of robots. Microsoft will also create operating systems for robots, but their focus will be on creating application software for robots.

Microsoft will also be creating educational software that teaches how technologies work. Once knowledge of technologies is achieved, people will use Microsoft tools to use technologies in creating goods and services.

Microsoft can take the lead in entering the Age of Abundance by creating software tools that enable people to design goods and services, and software tools for the Media Player that enable people to create movies, music, games and books.

Microsoft set out to get into the center of every personal computer, and they had tremendous financial success in doing so. As personal computers gained in popularity, Microsoft software was in most of them controlling their activities. Microsoft should follow a similar strategy in the personal robot industry, by creating systems that control the activities of robots.

Personal robots should gain in popularity faster than personal computers, as they share many traits as personal computers. The easier robots are to understand and program, the quicker they will gain in popularity. Microsoft is well positioned to dominate the personal robot industry, but they first have to treat the operating system for personal computers as a Cash Cow segment of the1r bus1ness. They w1ll miss out on controlling the personal robot industry if they devote most of their resources defending their share of the shrinking personal computer industry.

Of course, in the Age of Abundance, success is no longer measured by financial measures. It is measured by contributions to knowledge networks. Microsoft will gain tremendous knowledge of technologies by creating software that controls the usage of technologies, which the personal robot is just one of many. By acquiring and creating knowledge of technologies, Microsoft will find the transition into the Age of Abundance quick and painless.

By clinging on to their success in the personal computer industry, they will find the transition into the Age of Abundance quite painful, perhaps fatal.

As the Age of Abundance approaches, values of goods and services will continuosly decline. Businesses that rely on increasing prices will struggle to survive. Those with fixed expenses such debt payments and upkeep of plant and equipment will fail. Those who keep focused on acquiring and creating knowledge of technologies will survive and be well positioned to contribute to networks of knowledge about technologies.