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."
Results? (Score:5, Insightful)
Participation may have quadrupled, but what about productivity or tangible results?
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.
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.
Re:Vista (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 direction of focusing that increased participation may not have been ideal, but the method clearly accomplished its goal.
Re:G.O.O.D Job (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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.
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.
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: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.
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: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.
Re:G.O.O.D Job (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.
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.
Re:Obligatory comment (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
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.
Re:Awarding points? (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
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