Games I play while listening to investor calls
Applying game design principles to Hasbro’s investor meetings shows the real agenda.
The Sonny Rollins Quintet precedes the April 2024 Hasbro investor call. The choice of music is a lilting piece of jazz that lets its passion out in the delicate piano melodies and alternating horn solos. It’s contemplative, and as far as slow jazz goes, it’s hard to get better than I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face. But this playful, organic movement, which presses against predictable patterning and asks for engaged consideration, is an ironic choice for a company that just wants you to pass go, collect your money, and buy more property.
When the investor call starts, the delivery from the Hasbro execs is scripted and flat—non-engaging. It’s a speech delayed by rote memorization that could make even attentive students doze off in class. Amid endless mentions of profits going up even when profits are going down, there's a language of game design embedded in specific information given. It’s an encoded phraseology that feels both familiar and incredibly distant. Mastering corporate public relation-speak is not just an art, it’s a carefully calibrated back and forth that attempts to elucidate on the nature of the business without ever giving too much away and while also leaving a lot of room for the investor’s imagination. The way to do this is pretty simple; lots and lots of stat blocks.
