At Esports Summit, Skillshot Media and NASEF honored Sue Bohle with the Legacy Award for her lifelong impact on the games industry. This well-deserved honor is based on her pivotal role through decades of evolution of the technology industry and game world and, more recently, facilitating the visibility and expansion of game-based learning.

Sue Bohle has a long history in the game world. She founded her own PR agency in 1979, after 10 years with two national public relations firms. The Bohle Company initially focused on tech clients. She worked directly with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft to launch MS-DOS.  She was also responsible for launching Epson America and built Packard Bell into the No. 1 manufacturer of the PC.

But in 1983, Sue was invited to pitch Atari. At the time, any PR for game companies was done in-house. The Bohle Company became the first PR firm serving videogame clients. Over the next two decades her agency helped ID make Doom the top selling first person shooter; launched products like NEC America’s TurboGraphix-16; Trip Hawkins’ 3DO system; and Alienware. The Bohle Company also helped grow IGN into the largest online gamer site, helped make GDC the industry’s leading developer gathering, and pushed Penny Arcade to expand into a series of gamer events around the world. During this period the agency also launched The Matrix for Warner Brothers and promoted many Paramount and DreamWorks games.

In the early 90’s, Sue championed the development of a standardized curriculum for a game development major in higher ed.  Ten years later, Sue started the Serious Play Conference to leverage the power of “play” in training and education. Serious Play Conference helps instructional designers and teachers create games to teach K-12 and higher ed students, as well as training workers and professionals in government, the military, healthcare and business. She has long been a promoter of education.

A recent conversation with Sue was energizing. She is inquisitive, insightful, and inspiring. She was full of curiosity and enthusiasm for NASEF, and summed up the organization’s mission by saying, “It’s not just esports—this is e-careers!”

From her early days launching MS-DOS with Bill Gates to her storied career building brands for top games to her recognition of the value of games in education, here is a summary of Sue’s strategic focus and lasting impact.

Working with Bill Gates

Bill Gates was only about 26 when he launched MS-DOS.  I was 38.  He came across as a very geeky guy, totally focused on computers, not very social or friendly.  

Sue noted that Microsoft’s operating system had already launched, but it was not gaining widespread acceptance. She stepped in to make the benefits of 16 bit power understandable to the masses. She had to push Bill to step into the spotlight.  He did not yet understand the value of media visibility.

At the launch press conference at Great America in San Jose, Bill spoke from a tiny scrap of white paper, on which he had written about 10 words. He grasped the podium and sort of swayed when he talked, but everyone wanted to hear every word, because he was talking about  a small device that would be as powerful as a mainframe computer.  

We were using 35mm slides to illustrate his talk. At midnight, the night before,, after our dress rehearsal, he decided he wanted to remove a couple of words from a slide. You couldn’t do that then, and you didn’t argue with him. So, I used dark red nail polish to cover the words up. 

Bill didn’t want to spend time on PR; we had to lobby Steve to get him to do interviews. After we generated some momentum for Microsoft in the trade press, we got a call from Newsweek requesting an interview. That was a big coup, a national consumer magazine. Bill refused to do it; he had other plans for that day, that week.

Building Top Brands

Sue worked with many teams that developed cutting-edge products.

We primarily worked with start-ups, so I had the good fortune to work directly with CEOs, most of whom were young, bright men focused on technology. They weren’t schooled in marketing, so some of them let me counsel them in that area. That created the best result, a teamwork approach.

She described launching a tech stack product that was very complicated.

I kept asking the engineer to describe it to me again and again, because we needed a better understanding of how it was different from similar products. I finally had an a-ha moment, and I said, “Oh, you mean you layer the plates crosswise, like you put hot dogs on a barbeque grill?” That ended up being the basis of the description that we used for the launch.

She used those same skills as she worked to support the launch and marketing of some of the top game titles.

I’m not a gamer myself, so the strategies I developed for promoting a game or a game developer have always been based on my instincts as a journalist. I asked my clients “What is unique about your game (or your company)?”  “Have you achieved anything new, anything different in creating your game?”  “Are you using new technology or technology in a different way?”  “How is your game different from other games in your genre?” 

Besides understanding the unique qualities of the game or company, Sue’s creativity helped make titles stand out.

In addition to developing good press materials for a game, you need to provide great assets, like video footage, and have multiple samples so you can give different outlets varied materials, including exclusive shots or video for the most important media. You also need a spokesperson who has had intensive media training, so he or she can seamlessly deliver the key messages about your game, be quotable, and handle all the tough questions he or she might be asked. A great spokesperson can expand the coverage you get for your game.

When you have the budget or opportunity, try to add something creative to the mix. For a game called Alien, we arranged to have passengers on an airplane lean into the aisle of the plane holding classic “alien” face masks mounted on a stick in front of their face. The photo looked like a plane load of weird outer space creatures. We sent out the photo with the pitch, “Aliens are coming to CES. It was more than attention-getting. 

To introduce a game set in the Victorian era, my staff donned period costumes and wore them in the booth all three days at the trade show.

When we got a client so close to E3 but we could not get exhibit space or a room at the convention center for a press conference, we staged the First Midnight Press Conference the night before the show and offered reporters food and drink at Madame Tussaud’s. Reporters were looking for something to do when they arrived, and wanted to get something to eat, so showed up in droves. Then they went to their own hotels and filed stories, which generated 250 clips for attendees to read as the show opened the next morning.

Of course, Sue, herself, has been impacted by technology.

With my long biological history, I have to say that the introduction of the iPhone was the most significant. And yes, online services like Google Map and the ability to buy everything (including cat sand!) online and delivered to my door, are examples of things that caused radical change in my life.

The number of women in critical roles like Sue’s has increased over her career. While she was a pioneer in that area, she doesn’t view herself that way. 

My success with The Bohle Company wasn’t about being a woman in a very male tech world, actually. It was really about what we did for clients that made those companies successful and therefore built our reputation. I was also unwilling to fail. I worked a lot of hours, and I found joy in each new product we were given to promote.   

I did have one CEO who showed up to meet the new PR firm his VO of marketing had just hired. He walked up to one of my account executives and asked to meet “Mr.” Bohle. She hesitated for a second, not quite knowing what to say, and he insisted, “Look, I’m in a hurry.”  So she decided to just walk him over to where I was standing, put out her arm, and said: “This is Mr. Bohle!” 

I have a few stories like that, but in general, my acceptance was based on the fact that I was strong enough to counsel men on how to position their products as well as business strategy and could turn what they were doing into media coverage. And sometimes we generated our own news coverage by being creative. But that was a learned skill; I improved as I went along.

Another reason I was successful was that I retained my integrity as a journalist in dealing with editors. One of the proudest moments in my career happened during a conversation with an editor at Electronic Engineering Times. He said to me, “you know, you’re the first PR person that I feel I can talk to and trust. You understand news value.

Value of Games in Education

After many years promoting games, Sue founded the Serious Play conference. She describes how that came about.

I used to stay late at the office to organize my thoughts for the next day. The gamers in the agency would stay late, too, sometimes to midnight, playing games on the conference room computer. I was amazed at how addicted they were. Every night, they would play games for hours.

One day, a guy called me on the phone and said, “I’d like you to help me promote my game.” I said, “OK, tell me about your game.” He said, “It teaches kids math.” A former high school teacher, I was intrigued. Teach kids math? How fabulous it would be to use games in education. I was excited to have that client.

To generate learning, students must be engaged. If a teacher Inserts elements of game play in a lesson, the topic being studied gets more attention, and research shows that students have more recall.

A few years later, The Bohle Company was hired to promote a small conference on the East Coast called Games for Health. We generated a ton of publicity, and I became further interested. Thinking we could use a conference like that on the West Coast, I had the first Serious Play Conference at a site in the Pacific Northwest a couple of years later.  

I thought the audience would primarily be teachers but trainers came from the military, government, healthcare, corporate and non-profit; educators came from K-12 but also higher ed. And everyone that came begged me to keep that spread, because the field was new and designers and self-creating game makers could learn from sessions run by people using serious games in other fields. 

After a few years, pedagogical research began to show that these “serious games” – i.e. designed for education or training not entertainment – are more engaging, and the learner retains more of the information, because of the play elements. 

So analysts and psychologists tried to define just what made people get addicted to playing games.  Eventually, they broke down the elements of successful games. They learned that most great games had 1. Multiple Players; 2. Information (available to players); 3. Challenges (expressed as missions in entertainment games); 4. Competition; and 5. Some kind of ranking for the players.  

Summing up, introducing “play” elements into traditional classroom study programs offers an additional way to improve learning for K-12 students and participants in all forms of training.

Have you seen educational games evolve over the years?

Oh my yes, but even simple games can be effective. A teacher using an online or even paper version of the matching game “Memory” can make learning animal kingdom categories fun to learn.

Commercial game developers have made some great games that can be used for specific education or training needs. And I’ve seen great online tools, for instance, that show teachers how they can get students to collaborate and create AR and VR programs or design their own quizzes and games.

Some subjects, like math, need to be taught in a chronological way. So we now have great, playful programs for math instructors. But teachers don’t teach subjects all the same way. So commercial education games have had a tough route to big success. 

At Serious Play, we try to help teachers learn how to introduce “play” into their classroom and we have peers do that across all the subjects. The attendee at Serious Play Conference is probably not looking to buy a program. He or she is a creator, someone that is interested in being a better teacher or trainer and feels that he can improve the learning his student does by adding game elements. They start out incorporating an idea or two, and then they go further the next semester. One of my favorite sessions was given by six middle school teachers who now teach history for their students as a yearlong game. 

Sue discussed the differences between gaming, gamified learning, and esports. Describing scholastic esports, she said:

I’m impressed with the evolution. I love the way kids are now being introduced to entrepreneurship – that’s the basis of our democracy. And it addresses a serious problem. Before, kids were “educated,” but given little help choosing a career direction. Scholastic esports is giving students exposure to different aspects of business and practical experience that will help them move in a direction that will not only allow them to earn a living but, potentially, be happier in their long years working. 

Reflecting on her life and the impetus for success, Sue said, “My father set an example for me. He was an award-winning football coach. And more than that, he was the first person in his family to go to college. He was driven.

“I was also always willing to grab the brass ring – an old saying about riding a carousel and reaching for a ring that let you ride again free.  Whenever I had the chance to do something, I reached for it! I did it.

I would say my other reason for success was fear of failure. I dared to start my own company, and I just wouldn’t let myself fail.”

Sue Bohle is a shining example of creativity and grit. She has definitely built a legacy, leveraging her own skills to broaden adoption of new technologies and games for decades. Our hearty congratulations are offered for her selection as the recipient of the 2024 Legacy Award.