Corporate Gaming Is Good For Business 151
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."
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.
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QA (Score:1)
There may have been a lot of participation, but in Vista's case QA went right out the Window(tm)
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.
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The moral of the story is actually:
Don't let your development teams participate, 'cause they'll just keep throwing in more bugs till they win!
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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. ;-)
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.
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Maybe the "game" actually worked?
There's a lot more to making such games work than just saying "let's have a game!". Keeping a human relationship with your employees where they feel comfortable playing, and where the results of such a bug-reporting game can actually be reported and used effectively, is very real work for a good manager.
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I wouldn't call it "user-hostile". More like "user-condescending". It seems more like one huge misunderstanding of what people wanted in an operating system.
If you want examples of "user-hostile" apps, I'd turn to the Unix world first, despite being a fervent Linux supporter myself. vi, Pre-X.org-X, and sendmail's configuration file all come to mind.
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.
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.
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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.
How about a merit based pay increase?
That is the best "prize".
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How about a merit based pay increase?
That is the best "prize".
My kingdom for an actual merit based pay increase. I complain to management every year that the difference between the raises for people that bust ass, work many extra hours, and are damned good at their jobs versus the people who just pick their noses and post on slashdot all day is only ~0.2%. Not much of an incentive to take my finger out of my nose, but I get my job done anyway just because I care about it and want to go home feeling good about myself at the end of the day.
I know, I know... GB2W.
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So, the pirates are kind of like Robin Hood.
The pirates use the proceeds from armed robbery to bribe the commoners into supporting the return to power of a king who has been off fighting a religious war?
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I thought your post was going to turn out to be a sarcastic burn. But you appear to be serious. Sure the oil companies are making pretty big profits (though in the UK I think about 40% of the price of fuel is in taxes, maybe even more) - but if you don't like that, stealing is definitely not the way to go about solving the problem. It never is, and you're likely to end up in serious trouble in the end. I'm still hoping you were just kidding though.
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First off, piracy isn't stealing, it's an infringement of
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Piracy = being just as much of an ass-hole as those who overcharge. You're not Robin Hood. If enough people pirate, it's likely to drive prices up for those that do pay. If everyone stops buying, it will drive prices down. Gas in the US is about half the price or less than it is here in the UK, yet you feel hard done by and think you can justify stealing because you can't afford something?
I don't have quite so much of a problem with the whole copyright violate issue (yet I still buy my own music and movies)
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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.
My experience with a similar program generally contradicts this. Most people don't want to think too deeply about the bugs they submit; the just want to get get credit for finding the problem. I've seen a few folks get overzealous and submit questionable bugs, but most people are just interested in reporting the bug quickly and going about their business.
Of course, depending on how you do the point system, you could have folks who get really abuse the system, but if they are few, those can be fairly easily
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Ah, but it's not just limited to Microsoft and Linux. I would add the following to the list:
1. Ron Paul and Libertarian ideals
2. Making a joke relating to masturbation
3. Talking about how evil software patents, and patents in general, are
4. Telling of how the RIAA is pure evil
For those of you who are hyper-sensitive: this post is not a criticism, but merely a realistic statement of fact.
Do you know people from our QA group (Score:2)
'cause I once got a set of bugs against my documentation where each instance of the same typo (a function name) on the same page was entered as a separate bug. Wow, you guys found 5 bugs today! What phenomenal QA work.
Whichever dimwitted misanthrope came up with "number of bugs found" as a metric for QA "engineers" should be shot. And then drawn and quartered. And then dipped in boiling oil. And then forced to use Vista for a month.
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Whichever dimwitted misanthrope came up with "number of bugs found" as a metric for QA "engineers" should be shot. And then drawn and quartered. And then dipped in boiling oil. And then forced to use Vista for a month.
You're a cruel, cruel person.
Cue the Hindenburg disaster speech.
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Actually you should get points when a bug that you have reported gets fixed, confirmed and closed. The quality of a software tester should be measured not by the amount of bugs filed, but rather by the care he has taken to write a good report.
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I'd say it's more better for 'gamers' than 'gaming' simply because there are more games available. There isn't really anything getting in the way of actual gaming on Linux, even the 3D driver issue is pretty well covered these days and IMO that was the only real issue before.
I use OSX for computing at the moment, and my PS3 for most of my gaming. I never used to think I'd be a console man, but now that consoles can go online for patches and game add-ons, there aren't many reasons to stick with PC gaming unl
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)
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)
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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.
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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.
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Because money does not equal happiness, nor does money lead to happiness, and many companies know this. Some of them also know that happiness often leads to money.
If you are happy at work, you will work harder, be more productive and more loyal. How many times have people left large paying jobs that made them miserable and took a pay cut to do work that makes them happy?
Money does not lead to happiness. Money only leads to wanting more money. Most people that say they would be happier with more money are re
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Whatever it is, suggest positive ideas rather than complaining that they are trying to have fun at work.
I'm not, I'm complaining that they're treating their employees like children, who need to be coaxed into doing their jobs, and then expecting it to increase morale. For all I know, it does: maybe some people like being treated as children rather than equals. But
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One thing to bear in mind is whether you are the target audience or not. These kinds of tactics can be quite effective when targeted at the right intellectual group.
For a lot of people freedom equates to happiness. Freedom to choose what you want to do when you want to do when you want to do it or for the more intellectual types, freedom to think about what you want to think about when you want to think about it, ahh, the luscious flow of lost in thought brain chemicals. Work is always going to be a dirt
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As it turns out, the development team would find 365 bugs on the first day.
...
I used to work for a (10,000 employee+) company that did a bonus for finding bugs. They didn't allow the development team to be part of the program for obvious reasons. People still got around that by collaborating and splitting the bonus money. Some of the developers would write easily found bugs in obscure parts of the program and then tell their QA buddies where to find them, then they'd split the money afterwards. For a wh
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
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I'm not really sure how to take the news that bug testing in Vista was quadrupled.
Here's one possible way to take it: all the people who were supposed to be fixing the bugs instead got involved in the competition to find them. Results: a buggy release with an internal buglist 20 miles long. I mean, who wouldn't rather sit around pointing out what's wrong than be productive about making it right? If you can win prizes for doing so, all the better! Guess that's why SP1 has been so popular. Maybe a few of them got put back on fixing detail.
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.
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Earlier this week, our MD had an Excel 2007 spreadsheet (on Vista, if that matters) that wouldn't even get the result of a subtraction of two cells until after he rebooted. He used to be an accountant so he knows his way around spreadsheets, and yes the cells were set to auto-update and formatted correctly. But for some reason it wouldn't calculate the total until after he rebooted.
I pointed him to the service pack, hopefully the issue is now fixed, but WTF. MS have been making Excel for over a decade, how
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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.
Frequent crashes (Score:1)
Wristbands? (Score:1)
Sure I'll spend extra hours out of my day debugging vast company code to get some of that super-sweet wristband good-ness. I mean, who needs money or time with your family when you can have wristbands!
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!"
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They got paid per bug fix, and Wally was coding himself a Winnebago.
Winnebago being a funnier word.
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.
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I've heard it paraphrased as "Give me enough medals and I'll conquer the world"
Except there's a difference here: when you see some guy wearing a CMH or Silver Star, you know that what he did really was above and beyond what your average citizen would do. Putting his body between his beloved home and war's desolation, and all that.
When you see some guy walking around the Redmond campus with 12 wristbands, you know he did what? Screwed off with Vista for a couple of weeks?
I find it surprising that Microsoftie
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to the original poster:
NAPOLEOWNED! ... Sorry, had to say it.
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"A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him." - Napoleon
Either he didn't consider pieces of colored ribbon to be petty distinctions or he contradicted himself.
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My favorite symbols of accomplishment have pictures of dead Presidents on them.
Though I don't usually keep them around (except for one with Jefferson on it) because I can get things from other people in exchange for giving them to them.
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.
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?"
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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.
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Oh jeez..
These people have a thousand priorities to manage, and get called to task when there late, even if it is the fault of a manager changing priorities.
So get this 60 hours done this week, AND find time to test.
Comparing this work to taking order at McDonalds is laughable.
Inspiration (Score:1)
--
Burninating the peasants
Coming Soon to X-Box Live! (Score:1)
Vista Whack-a-Bug! Enjoy this new game from Microsoft where you try to smash every bug from Vista before the end of service life timer runs out. Featuring 45,000 unique levels as well as multi-player levels for no more than 10 simultaneous players!
A great game for only 3000 points!
Uh... (Score:1)
Welcome to Japan 10 years ago... (Score:1)
...you short-sighted bean-counting jackasses. I hate you. Where the hell is my cellular porn?
Free beer is best (Score:2)
Andy
Positive feed back is cheap. (Score:1)
I run the protein folding software on my PS3 cause they give me points.
lovely lovely points.
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More valuable Microsoft QA (Score:1, Flamebait)
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.
And nothing of value was gained.
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sure there was: The programmers had less time to write code~
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.
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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..
Call of Duty (Score:1)
That explains it! (Score:2)
Vista is like it is because they created more bugs in order to win more prizes!
Advertising through fun, of course it works! (Score:2, Funny)
Obviously, promoting a business or a product through the use of a web based game, of course it makes sense! The trick is to create a game appropriate to the business and/or product you wish to push onto people.
It's a nice form of advertising and most of all, it provides a strong form of interaction. Imagine a game to promote Vista.
You make it work on other platforms, say on Mac and/or Linux :) The object of the game is to shoot off boxes that represent all non-Windows based OS off the screen. Kinda like
The first prize was (Score:4, Funny)
Office space (Score:2, Interesting)
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
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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]
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and that's why they used wristbands in microsoft's environment, not money. while you can reach a point where you say: "okay, that's it, i've got enough microsoft-branded wristbands and gimmicks", the same does not apply to money and useful gadgets you can sell.
if microsoft isn't offering anything that'd actually sell well as a reward, it'd make a decent system. it shows appreciation without being efficiently exploitable.
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QUAD DAMAGE!
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.
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
Re:Makes a lot of sense (Score:4, Funny)
At least they're not teabagging you...yet.
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A spoon full of sugar does indeed make the medicine go down
A spoonful of sugar, sure. But a wristband? What the hell do I want with a wristband?!
Re:Makes a lot of sense (Score:5, Funny)
It did marvels for Vista indeed.
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 :-)
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This makes a lot of sense.
It sure does! [thedailywtf.com]