Is Gaming At Work The New Hotness?

[radio667]

from g4tv.com ........... Corporate analysts and rah-rah Capitalism types have always encouraged fellowship among worker-drones. It used to be trust falls, and drunken Christmas parties, but, according to CNET some employers are actually encouraging employees to play video games together. (Your employer, however, does not encourage this behavior; in fact, why are you reading this? Get back to work, serf!)

One huge advantage gaming offers over more traditional “getting to know you” work activities is that gaming is usually done sober. There’s a lot less risk of a drunk driving calamity after an all-office Mario Kart throwdown than there is after a happy hour drink-off. But gaming also offers employees a chance to let off steam by breaking the hierarchy of the office. In Left 4 Dead, the boss is the best player, no matter whose name is on the office door in the real world.

As you’d probably expect, the companies on the cutting-edge of this trend are tech companies and game companies themselves, where employees meet for hierarchy-free frag sessions with upper management in games like Left 4 Dead and Combat Arms.

Kim Pallister, the director of content planning at Intel's visual computing group, spoke to CNET about her firm’s game use. “We do quarterly gaming nights where we'll...get over a hundred people participating. We'll set up...high-end PC gaming rigs for multiplayer, and we'll have consoles set up for things like Wii Sports, Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, etc. It's not only good for team-building, it gives everyone a chance to 'eat our own dog food' and see how games play on our hardware."

That’s all nice for companies that make games and game equipment, but what about run-of-the-mill wage slaves? I wonder if this trend is extending into more mundane workplace. At G4, game-playing is part of the gig (don’t hate!), but what about your office? What’s the game situation where you work? Do you openly game, or are you more sneaky about it? Do you see any signs that at-work gaming is becoming acceptable?

[SkaarjMaster]

I used to work at a place where instead of going home at 5pm, we'd play Doom2 for 30-45 minutes before leaving. This lasted about a year I believe; we only had 3 guys in one satellite office, so it was no big deal. But when the office got a little bigger and we actually got a secretary then the party was over though.

[DeadMeatGF]

I miss Quake Friday

[SkaarjMaster]

One of my nephews in Baton Rouge used to or still does have Quake Fridays at his office.

[SuperApe]

Friday gaming was a staple during my animator days. It's good team building, it's good release and clears the head. Way back when, during the heyday in silicon valley, it used to be beer Fridays. Times change, I suppose.

[DeadMeatGF]

Quake Fridays were always preceded by lunch at the pub - then again, most afternoons were preceded by lunch at the pub back then