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Corporate Gaming Is Good For Business
Posted by
Soulskill
on Wed Aug 27, 2008 01:53 PM
from the just-doing-my-part,-boss dept.
from the just-doing-my-part,-boss dept.
The Economist is running a story about how gaming is on the rise in corporate environments, and how games are also becoming a popular tool for advertising. From internally developed games to commercial offerings to simply creating a framework in which employees can interact, game-based competitions and community building are leading to increased productivity, even for Fortune 500 companies. Quoting:
"Take Microsoft's own experience. Before it releases a new version of its Windows operating system, it asks staff to help debug the software by installing and running the system. In the past, project managers had to spend a great deal of time and effort persuading busy Microsoftees to help them with this boring task. So for Windows Vista, the system's latest incarnation, Microsoft created a game that awarded points for bug-testing and prizes such as wristbands for achieving certain goals. Participation quadrupled."
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Well duh (Score:2, Funny)
If they award points for finding bugs, of course participation is going to go up. It's so easy.
Re:Well duh (Score:5, Funny)
Explains a lot.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Awarding points? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Awarding points? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just like Slashdot what will happen is people will do what it will take to get the points. So say you got a point for each bug found. You find one bug, assume this bug is called from multiple spots. Call this bug on each spot and report it for every occurrence and rack up points. Vs. saying it is just one bug.
The same thing happens on Slashdot, if you want the points then you better make sure your post is Pro-Linux and GPL. Trying to show that Windows may be better in some circumstances or the GPL as many flaws and in some ways it contradicts its core values will not lead to points. Thus discouraged and reducing objectivity in an open forum.
Parent
Re:Awarding points? (Score:4, Interesting)
The same thing happens on Slashdot, if you want the points then you better make sure your post is Pro-Linux and GPL. Trying to show that Windows may be better in some circumstances or the GPL as many flaws and in some ways it contradicts its core values will not lead to points. Thus discouraged and reducing objectivity in an open forum.
Yeah, but here it's sometimes really satisfying to be modded Troll or Flamebait. I've got some unpopular opinions here that I fly proudly and it doesn't bother me at all to smell the karma burn (I'm one of those people that think that music/movie/software piracy should remain illegal and am convinced that pirates hurt the industries - Gasp!)
It's actually kind of the same here at work. We often have crossword puzzles or word hunts that we can do in hopes of some cheesy prize. Mine get shredded - If I'm at work and wasting time, I'll be posting here or reading the news - Otherwise I'll be working. The same with the safety-awareness games and similar - Those are what get me in trouble. Just because I don't want to waste time playing safety-Pictionary doesn't mean I'm not committed to safety, it just means that I consider most of the games a waste.
Although if there was some interesting prize (not a plastic bracelet) that I could earn just by doing my job well or taking on a couple of extra tasks (beta-testing, whatever), I may be tempted.
Parent
Yeah... (Score:2)
So for Windows Vista, the system's latest incarnation, Microsoft created a game that awarded points for bug-testing and prizes such as wristbands for achieving certain goals. Participation quadrupled.
There's a piece of genius there... Worked like a charm. Keep it up.
Obligatory Dilbert cartoon... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
G.O.O.D Job (Score:5, Funny)
I know a good game, one that really motivates me to work more. It's called "Show Me The Money".
I thought they would speak about the need for good 3D cards in office boxen for lunch-time BF1942 smash-up between coworkers. This is boring. Corporate games as they describe it, are for suckers.
Re:G.O.O.D Job (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re:G.O.O.D Job (Score:5, Insightful)
Because often morale games work, would you rather have the cube, the office, or the corner office? How about free coffee and soda?
I can tell you right now taking away those things will lose you more people than simply not giving out raises that year instead.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, I tend to react negatively when I notice people playing stupid little psychological games with me. Forced "fun" at work is one of my least favorite of them (and one of the most common).
Some work environments are genuinely fun. Some work environments are "fun" as defined by whatever "cutting-edge" management book the boss happens to be reading at that time.
Vista (Score:3, Interesting)
Where they focused more on the game than on actual bug testing?
Where there that many bugs that a quadrupled test force still allowed it to be shipped as it was?
I mean really...I don't know what to think other than they should have released a better product if they had quadruple the bug testing as previous versions. With any luck those wristbands were actually shock collars to deal with the consequences of allowing so many bugs to go out the door.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
> I'm not really sure how to take the news that bug testing in Vista was quadrupled.
That's not exactly what they said. They said that employee participation quadrupled. Since employees are not focused testers, they likely hit the same bugs, resulting in many reports for the same, easy to find top level bugs resulting from mostly normal use.
The amount of effort hitting deeper levels likely didn't change much.
Note that the focus of this article is that the rewards upped participation. Microsoft's direct
Attention spans (Score:2)
"When life is just a game, who's to blame?" -- Green Jelly
Results? (Score:5, Insightful)
Participation may have quadrupled, but what about productivity or tangible results?
Re:Results? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, this is awesome.
"Dude! Office just ate the report for the stockholders and corrupted all my working copies! I've gotta get last year's copy from backups and hope neither God nor the SEC catch me! I'm gonna win for sure!"
Unless your company is playing The Game, which you just lost. And your only hope of regaining your standings is to mod me up. I think I'll take Insightful? That sounds good.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You have to be careful not to breed a Defect Black Market [thedailywtf.com]
Basically, you have developers colluding with testers. The developer intentionally drops a minor bug into the system (inverting an AND and OR, for example). The tester magically "finds" it. The tester gets the reward, and splits it with the developer. Repeat until the system is scrapped.
And it worked.... (Score:5, Insightful)
just fine.
See how good Vista is?
One place I worked we had 'suggestion drives'. You got prizes for making suggestions, and such. The only result is that we got deluged with worthless suggestions - and we'd have to spend days writing justifications for denying totally boneheaded ideas.
I'd love to see the quality of the bug reports they got as a result.
Reminds me of an old Dilbert (Score:2, Funny)
in which the employee who fixed the most bugs won a car.
When asked what he was up to Wally said,"I'm coding up a Lexus!"
Napoleon invented gamer accomplishments (Score:4, Insightful)
"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of coloured ribbon" - Napoleon
The concept has been long-observed that people will work their asses off for a symbol of accomplishment.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Part of a Larger Principle (Score:2)
Make the employee feel valued (Score:5, Insightful)
Anything a company can do that shows they aren't just a replaceable grunt leads to better morale. A good company will make great efforts to express their gratitude to the employees for being there and making the company what is has become. More often than not, though, you have companies who treat their employees as thin mints. Use them for a while, then spit them out, because, "you can always be replaced." Picnics, luncheons, gift cards, on-line game tournaments...if this is what it takes to encourage more productivity, then do it! Productive workers make a company more money.
Re:Make the employee feel valued (Score:4, Insightful)
The problems is when they provide picnics, luncheons, gift cards, on-line game tournaments...AND treat their employees like replacable grunts. And they wonder why their "incentives" aren't making their people happy.
Parent
Vista! (Score:2)
Sad... (Score:2)
It's sad when we can no longer convince Americans that the work that they do is work that they should want to do because it's what the company pays them to do.
Now, Americans are convinced that work must be entertaining, enjoyable, and come with a reward that is supplemental to the salary that they work for.
What's going to happen next? Will workers at McDonalds not serve us unless we dangle a dollar in their face and tell them, "If my meal is ready in the next 60 seconds, you get this reward?"
Re: (Score:2)
It's sad when we can no longer convince Americans that the work that they do is work that they should want to do because it's what the company pays them to do.
Now, Americans are convinced that work must be entertaining, enjoyable, and come with a reward that is supplemental to the salary that they work for.
What's going to happen next? Will workers at McDonalds not serve us unless we dangle a dollar in their face and tell them, "If my meal is ready in the next 60 seconds, you get this reward?"
It's because companies no longer have any loyalty to their workers. Why are you suprised that workers have no loyalty to their company? People who work hard still get outsourced so why try.
Re:Sad... (Score:5, Insightful)
What planet are you from? When did humans ever do work they didn't have to do because they were supposed to do it? It's not like the company doesn't play the same game in reverse. They may keep you at a lower wage by promising retirement benefits, but then outsource your job to another country before they have to pay those benefits. There's no altruism in business, and there never has been.
Parent
Free beer is best (Score:2)
Andy
Will Disney execs read this and go "huh?" (Score:2)
Cuz, gee, wristbands = $$$ (Score:3, Interesting)
Greg Mankiw was right.
Economics is a load of bullshit.
If you can quadruple productivity of well-paid individuals by giving them junk jewelry and alpha-wave stimulation, then you really shouldn't have had to pay them well in the first place.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
They didn't quadruple productivity, they quadrupled participation in the program. Participation and productivity are different metrics.
Economics only seems like a load of bullshit if you don't understand it and don't make an attempt to.
It amy ahve quadrupled (Score:3, Interesting)
becasue management made a big deal out of it.
It's like when they were studying ways to increase productivity at Ford when the noticed dimming the lights a little bit increased performance.
What was actually happening was that the employees realized they were being watched and stepped up the appearance of production.
This turned out to be a short term effect.
Rolling D&D monsters to learn a new system (19 (Score:5, Interesting)
Back when I was fresh out of college (graduated in 1978), I found myself constantly having to learn new operating systems (mostly mainframe and minicomputer), new editors, new compilers (and languages), and so on. Heck, in my first year out of college, while at General Dynamics/WDSC, I worked on four different computers (CDC mainframe, Perkin-Elmer minicomputers, a Harris hybrid analog/digital computer, and some other mini-computer that I can't remember at the moment -- other than that I could tell what stage the compilie/link process was in by the noise the hard drive [5 MB and occupying a box the size of a 2-drawer file cabinet] was making).
So, one of my 'coming-up-to-speed' techniques was to write a program that interested me. In this case, I wrote a program that would randomly roll up and print out D&D monsters and NPCs, complete with stats. By the time I had that program working, I pretty much knew how to use the system and how to do software development on it. I think I still have some of those printouts in my files at home. ..bruce..
The first prize was (Score:4, Funny)
You know you're growing jaded and cynical when... (Score:3, Insightful)
-your first thought when seeing the title is, "Well, of course. Gaming the system is always done for profit motives." And on good days, you also say, "But selfish systems always collapse from corruption-rot in the end." And on not-so-good days you add, "Of course, they'll take the rest of us down with them when they go."
-FL
Re:QA (Score:5, Insightful)
I can only assume the Microsoft example is meant to serve as an illustration as to why you shouldn't entrust your QA to whatever random employees you can convince to run your software in exchange for lame prizes.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:QA (Score:5, Funny)
Only 5? Hmmm... You know, I really want my employees to express themselves. If you think that 5 pieces of flair is enough just because you're getting by and doing the bare minimum, I'm a little disappointed. We really want to encourage team players. ;-)
Parent
Re:QA (Score:5, Insightful)
There is a difference between a "bug" and a poor design decision. For a Windows release, Vista isn't all that buggy, it's just user-hostile. You certainly can't blame them for the driver issues that caused most of the bugs early on.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, once the novelty effect wears off, I doubt it has any long term benefits.
Re:Obligatory comment (Score:5, Interesting)
Reminds me of this: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Defect-Black-Market.aspx [thedailywtf.com]
Parent
Re:Makes a lot of sense (Score:5, Insightful)
What they're talking about is that it is more productive to present some boring task in game form than it is to just require people to do it.
A spoon full of sugar does indeed make the medicine go down...It's about time corporations clued in to this basic facet of human existence. Work is work, and play is play, and if work can be a little like play, people will work more.
Parent
Re:Makes a lot of sense (Score:5, Funny)
The problem being that the accounting department has been grinding productivity marks all day, and now are fully clothed in epic accounting gear.
Now we in the engineering department can't go to the water cooler without being ganked. :P
Parent
Re:Makes a lot of sense (Score:4, Funny)
At least they're not teabagging you...yet.
Parent
Re:Makes a lot of sense (Score:5, Funny)
It did marvels for Vista indeed.
Parent
Re:Makes a lot of sense (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, I'm wondering if those "bracelets" were the shiny metal kind that take keys... and that's how they kept Vista testers at it. I can't imagine any other way to get people to actually use it :-)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
sure there was: The programmers had less time to write code~