[Long time lurker. Please forgive me for length] I think the most obvious creation of value comes from my view of how video games increase the value of technol

[Long time lurker. Please forgive me for length] I think the most obvious creation of value comes from my view of how video games increase the value of technology. Video games tax the underlying hardware and software technology to its limits causing those underlying systems to shift towards greater utility under market pressure. If value is seen by its utility, then I would say that it is inevitably the result of market pressure to have a better product. Where money is concerned, profit pushes improvement. This is just part of the underlying structure the economy. If you are asking about social incentives, it is a personal one for the programmer. He feels fulfilled writing the program. Is it not the same self-fulfillment that his manager was seeking- the idea of meeting his ideal self's human potential? It may not be the same goal, but the main crux of the argument is in self-fulfillment. But all of that is off-topic considering the headline. If you are looking for an argument that would give merit that this job "creates value," I would say that it feeds the families of those who work at that company by making it more sustainably profitable. I'd weasel my way out of answering the question directly. I would counter that you can ask the same thing about what value marketing gives. Sure the companies have useful products, but what does all that money spent on image branding and market testing product color and style pallets give? Hell, even the TV programming they place it against can be absolutely vapid and lacking in any moral or mental fortitude. But back to my off-topic rant up above. When the general economy hires talent, we generally view that the use of such talent not only increases the talent pool by demand but also the training quality of future professionals by the increased use of such training facilities (universities, researchers, hardware, market). Relying on only measuring directly viewable metrics is a nice and dandy, but the big picture approach (although based on ideals and doesn't correlate 1 to 1 in reality) is a general notion that is hard to argue against. tl;dr The more you use a resource the more it improves (towards efficiency). This includes talent.