Report Indicates Workers Play A Lot of Games On the Job

A report released by casual gaming mecca PopCap Games indicates that white collar workers play games constantly throughout the day. The study indicates that as salaries and titles improve on the organizational chart, the amount of gameplaying in a given day increases substantially. "Considering that the casual games market is around 200 million people, PopCap estimates that the executive crowd is very much into casual gaming, with about 80 million 'white collar' workers playing. 24 percent of the 'white collar' employees said they do play at work, and that number jumps up to 35 percent for CEOs, CFOs and other senior executives. 98 percent said that they play casual games at home too." What's your favorite on-the-job casual title?

My prefered game?

[Anonymous Coward]

First posting.

Re:

[Kaenneth]

I actually found that mildly amusing.

Re:

[calebt3]

The parent post is not off-topic, he is saying that his favorite game is to try being the first person to post in /.

For most executives..

[QuantumG]

What's your favorite on-the-job casual title?

Their secretary. Oh, sorry, "Personal Assistant".

Re:

[Fizzl]

Heh, what's with labeling secretaries as "personal assistants" nowadays? I'd much rather be a secretary than "personal assistant". The latter sounds like someone who helps the CEO poop and pushes him around in wheel chair.

Oh...
I get it...

Re:

[greedyturtle]

Ahem... Administrative Assistant - there's nothing personal about it.

Favorite game? Slashdot.

[wcspxyx]

The end guy is tough.

Re:

[MikeFM]

I can never get past CmdrTaco.

Re:Kdawson

[Anonymous Coward]

Run around with a gimp and deny evolution. If that doesn't work, tell those pesky kids to get off your lawn.

Game playing by profession

[ajs]

I know that in my line of work, playing games during the day just isn't workable for the most part.

Basically, any game that I can't put down for 4-6 hours while I do real work, and come back to for 5 minutes would be useless. PBM games might be workable.

Game playing by posters.

[Anonymous Coward]

"And people wonder why Americans can't keep jobs. Sure some are good workers and get shafted, but the majority just need a place to slack off and get paid."

Hmmm, auto mechanic slack off. Hmmm, janitor slack off.

"I have no respect for any scumbag that gets paid 16 to 30 bucks an hour, and slacks off."

Would you respect me more if I told you I made below minimumn wage and slacked off because you were a cheap bastard?

"But see, I include a nice clause with my "employees". I don't hire ANYONE that has ever claime

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

Never paid my employees below standard. Always paid more. But I was also demanding. I pay well, and am just as willing to fire anyone that doesn't earn it.

Hell I used to buy lunch for my boys on construction sites (I was a teen at the time, working at my father's company), out of the petty cash box. I kept some good workers, but had plenty of scum too.

Those that worked, I was glad to pay well, and if they were willing we even used to discuss things that would help them further themselves financially, wi

Re:

[PresidentEnder]

There'd be something seriously wrong with not hiring a good manager, especially on construction, just because he was your son.

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

No... I worked on a construction sites I didn't do "management" until I was almost 20. Only "management" section of work I had was catching those who stole equipment or materials. I got really good at it too. I think its called "loss prevention" nowadays.

He would even deduct stolen tools from my paycheck. And to top it off, he'd cut my pay to zero for the day if he was displeased with my work ethic... that was our contract. The crew worked 8 hours with overtime... I worked alongside. If he felt unhapp

Re:

[JSchoeck]

What a sad childhood you had. You have my pitty, in all sincerity.

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

No need. It was fun. I've seen and done things most people only see in movies. Thanks for the attempt though, but there is no need for pity. I enjoy everything I do, even arguing on this board (as pointless as trying to sway socialists to take responsibility for their own lives can be).

Re:

[flamearrows]

Actually, you have my pity because of the attitude your father has instilled in you. There has to come a point on the road to success where you need other people to help you, even if it's just taking their or someone else's money. Hard work and so forth may limit the necessity, but it will never completely erase it.

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

You must've misunderstood what I've said.

Let me put it as someone I once knew put it to me.

"It isn't that I don't appreciate help when I'm down. It is only the fact that I don't demand help when I'm down, nor do I expect it. I don't ask that someone else be forced to help me, but if someone willingly does, then they have earned my respect and appreciation."

I accept help from private men and women, I just don't accept it from the government or its helpers. I've seen entirely too many strings attached to t

Re:

[flamearrows]

The only strings in contracts are the those that you agree to. Personally, the difference between what it is possible for me to earn (as a law student) and what is necessary to live within an acceptable distance to my university is entirely funded by the government. To refuse to accept that money out of principle is absurd.

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

Well you don't "receive it" you ask for it. I refused to ask for it. Isn't really that simple? I don't like paying taxes, because I receive no services for it, so after my first year, and learning about the downsides to being in debt to the government via student (or any other loans) I decided not to play that game, and instead finished my college work part time, over the last few years.

Its a preference thing, frankly speaking. You can live your life how you want, and I live mine my way. Simple enough

Re:

[lxw56]

I salute you. My company's owner pays below standard and fires anyone who screws up just a little. Of course, he can't keep good employees, but he gets along ok with the felons and drug users he has right now. I guess I could give him some kudos for employing the less desirable who otherwise would be out of work...

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

Thanks man... look, I know I seem to be vicious and aggressive, and those things I am... when it comes to business, I do what it takes to win. That being said, I've never treated those I work with any differently than I'd treat myself. That's why I used to buy the lunches when they did well (those 5 bucks subway/blimpie/quiznos subs add up quick). I love the camaraderie on a good crew, but I hate thieves and scumbags. You get all types, and sometimes they really are people who got a raw deal from "socie

Re:

[Zashi]

I work in the Superlab (server testing) at IBM and part of the job is slacking off. We go through testing cycles and sometimes we're slammed, and sometimes we have nothing to do. Even when we do have something to do, 20% of it is setting stuff up and the other 80% is waiting on what we set up to finish running. I try to make good use of my down time, reading pertinent materials, writing useful scripts, but there's only so much one can do. Is it really all that terrible I read slashdot while I wait for a ser

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

Hey, I understand that... but ask yourself this... when you return to a job site (contracting) and find half your guys flicking bottle caps off of empty beers... and they are already starting to stagger (so the "didn't affect me" excuse doesn't work) then you wouldn't fire them???

Re:Game playing by profession

[ShatteredArm]

I understand the argument, but it does not account for reality.

Some of us simply do not have anything to do. If you agree to pay me for 40 hours per week and just don't give me any work to do, it's your own fault. That's why I'm typing on Slashdot as we speak... I'm waiting for signoff and access to the platform.

It's nice in principle to demand eight hours of solid work per day, but in reality, there are occasions where there are only six or seven hours of work to do, or over the last week or so for me, zero to one.

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

Actually I have a REAL problem with "hourly" billing. My time is worth at least a pound of GOLD per week. Whatever that translates at in the local currency, I don't need to be paid in gold... cash is easier. If I get less than that, I see it as a loss on the financial side. If I do a job, I would sooner be paid PER task accomplished, than per hours wasted. This way, the price can be set to the importance of the task, instead of to how many hours are wasted or not in doing the task. This also frees up

Re:

[ShaggyIan]

Remember that in many IT fields, W-2 employees are basically paid for their ability to fix broken things in a hurry. I've always said that if a break/fix person has a lot to do, they probably didn't do something correctly in the past.

For construction, and most other jobs, contract outsourcing along the lines of what you're talking about would likely benefit everyone involved, and increase productivity.

My current (W-2) employer has told me to my face that they would rather pay me to sit in my chair "just in

Re:

[greedyturtle]

Every so often there's a question to Slashdot from a system administrator who's trying to figure out how to explain to their bosses what they do all day to get paid. Nailing down that quantity is harder than hammering in a rubber nail... with the proper hammer design, board media and time, it can be done, but it ain't always very feasible. (Hammering it into Jello always worked pretty well for me though...)

Again, it can usually be done, but it's usually a whole lot easier to just pay someone hourly or salar

Re:

[Quikah]

Pay for production causes other issues.

I did an internship in an Aluminum foundry one summer. Mostly did QA work. All the guys that worked in the permanent mold side were paid piece meal. They would prepared the mold, close it, then took a big ladle of molten aluminum from the furnace and poured it in. Bypassing the safeguards was a big issue (you had to press 2 buttons to close the mold, preventing you from losing a hand, half the guys would turn that off and close the mold via a switch). 2 people had

Re:Game playing by profession

[rk]

"I don't hire ANYONE that has ever claimed unemployment, unless they have a REALLY good explanation and can deliver it with a straight face."

WTF does one have to do with the other? I guess you wouldn't hire me, then, because I've drawn a whole six weeks of unemployment (3 in '91, 3 in '01) over the last 20 years of my full time working life, which in total didn't add up to the amount of taxes I've paid this quarter alone. I sympathize with you on someone stealing from you (even trivial stuff), but wow.

I suppose, given that you seem to have minarchist libertarian to anarcho-capitalist sympathies from what I saw in your journal entries, that you regard taxation as theft, and by extension, drawing unemployment as theft. Fair enough, but I recommend reading Dr. Walter Block, a dyed-in-the-wool Austrian economist as there ever has been, who would probably see it more as reappropriating what has already been stolen.

Re:

[Shados]

"unless they have a really good explanation and can deliver it with a straight face"

Considering you only drew 6 weeks in 20 years, I'm damn sure you can fulfill that requirement rather easily. So whats the problem?

Re:

[ErikZ]

It's because if someone claims unemployment against him, he'll have to pay a portion of it.

He's just being cheap.

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

You ever hire someone with "glowing" recommendations and find out they REALLY suck but their previous employer was scared of a defamation lawsuit so he said nice things about the guy?

Then you can't get rid of him because you'll pay his unemployment? Yeah I'm cheap. That's why I didn't have to go bankrupt.

Re:

[Zer0Her0]

"You ever hire someone with "glowing" recommendations and find out they REALLY suck but their previous employer was scared of a defamation lawsuit so he said nice things about the guy?"

Isn't that what the interview process is for?

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

An interview will NEVER prove how skilled a man may be. A guy may be able to talk the talk, but not walk it.

You cannot find out what someone knows until you put them out in the field, and let them show you their skills. An interview has never shown me a man's character or his skill or work ethic. Sure they can lie to me all day long, with a straight face. But once I get someone out in the field, I find out what they can do.

Everyone IS created equal... but that doesn't mean everyone remains equal through

Re:

[ErikZ]

Give me a break. You were given free training in a high demand field during the boom years.

You remind me of the guy who thought anyone who couldn't get a job in the IT industry was incompetent. He got this option because he bumped into someone during the dot-com years and they gave him the training and a high paying job.

Tell me this then. What do you do with someone who's previous employee gives him a horrible feedback? Do you just assume he's telling the truth? Or that you may have a highly skilled person

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

Give me a break. You were given free training in a high demand field during the boom years.

Interesting. My father always tried to teach all his workers. They always tried to steal from him. The ones that DID NOT were the ones that kept their jobs and were well paid. Period. When I learned this stuff I paid my very own, very hard earned cash.

Suffice it to say that when a guy tells me "I can make 35 bucks an hour in DC doing this", I said, okay, rent in DC is twice for a dump what you pay here for a nice

Re:Game playing by profession

[happyemoticon]

It sounds like you are a micro-manager who just wants people to look busy. My thinking on the subject couldn't be more different.

Ideally, their work translates into your money. If Alice completed the same amount of work as Bob at the end of the day, and they have the same job, with the same pay, what does it matter that Alice shopped for shoes because she finished early? As long as Alice is discreet about it, her slacking has no effect on your bottom line. Efficiency should be rewarded, not punished. Either give her more work and a raise or simply turn a blind eye to it and hope Bob learns a thing or two.

The exception, of course, is if one has no way to evaluate their productivity in an objective sense. Then, in my opinion, one is are unqualified to manage them. Yes, it's an art; not all business is reducible to some integer quantity of work done. But subjectively evaluating workers is pointless, because you are not paying them to look busy.

Re:

[fortunato]

You, sir, are the reason why corporate America sucks. They made a movie about you. Its called "Office Space." You should watch it some day. I manage a team of 4 people. In the real world there is seldom a constant stream of real work to be done. There is always down time and waiting around for tickets, for other teams to catch up, etc. For you to even make a statement like this pretty much pushes your opinions into the realm of unreality. When stuff needs to really get done -- there is a fire to be p

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

Yep, I jumped out of the IT field a couple of years back, when I realized that the only IT guys that actually do work are the contracting IT guys. The others are nothing different than insurance policy. Feel free to judge me as you will. I'm just finally venting all the angst I've been building up from socialists claiming they know what is best for everyone.

So yeah... call me an asshole, call me a bad boss. Most of the guys I hired for jobs in the last 3 years have been all too happy to work for me. I

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

Why not attach your name and email to that thread, I'd love to actually send you paperwork on how to do it. If you want to do legitimate business, without enforcing government oppression, instead of screaming for socialism, start a business and run it the way you want, with the people you want. That is what this country was SUPPOSED to be about, but the vast masses cry a river that the government won't employ them and tax those "evil" businessmen more.

Cry me a river.

Re:

[greedyturtle]

Not jumping on Daed here, because he values skill and ability.

The problem comes when all the people you 'want to hire' are white men. Convenient for me, not so convenient for some other people.

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

Ditto, I'm white (no secret), but I've hired Mexicans, without a second thought (some of those boys work ten times harder than whites, they just need direction, but the work ethic is impeccable). If they work, I keep'em, if they don't, I fire them. Same as with blacks, asians and whiteboys. I discriminate on quality and quantity of work, not on the color of skin.

I'm straight but I wouldn't hesitate to hire a homosexual either. So long as he/she knows that if I fire him or her, it ain't cause I don't lik

Re:

[EmperorKagato]

Mod parent up he's on a KILLING SPREE

Re:

[nonos]

Hope you are not writing this comment from your office, else, you would have to shaft yourself...

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

My office is wherever I open up my laptop :) I own the place, any money I make or don't make is my own problem :) Anyone that works for me has THEIR money set aside :)

Any other questions?

Re:

[WidescreenFreak]

Wow. You're the kind of closed-minded, micro-managing busybody that personifies the pointy-haired manager in Dilbert. I can only imagine how low the morale must be for anyone who works for you. Let me guess. You're also one of those who think that somehow we're only capable of performing our job if we have a shirt-and-tie and that somehow we lose 50 IQ points the second that we put denim on our skin, right?

To think that a person must always be 100% productive, 100% of the time is short-sighted and ar

Re:

[DaedalusHKX]

You get brownie points. That was the best and most thought out put down I've ever received. It was also ignorant as can be, pointing out that you didn't even read my posts before attacking me. You get the actual "closed mindedness award".

Actually no... I have great disdain for uncomfortable clothing. I wear jeans and shorts and do most of my office work on the road now. I can do almost everything from running my own IT, to building a house from scratch. Only thing I'd hire you is something I don't fee

Re:

[vux984]

You might check out Solitaire.

Its installed on 90% of PCs by default and has been the white collar time waster of choice since before most PCs were connected to the internet.

Re:

[ajs]

My work desktop, like my home desktop, is Linux, and doesn't include a solitaire version in the default install. However, I was speaking more about the sorts of games I like to play. Something turn-based might work, but I'd never go back to it. Typically, I just browse Slashdot when I need a mental break. That works just as well.

Re:

[vux984]

And I was just poking fun. :)

Solitaire and minesweeper have been THE staple time wasters in offices accross the globe since windows 3.0 was inflicted upon the world.

I just brought them up because they fit your criteria exactly -- probably one of the (several) reasons they were as successful as they were.

Re:

[SuiteSisterMary]

Several years ago, I was implementing Microsoft SMS on a small business network, and I wanted to try out the license enforcement feature. Basically, install a piece of software on every computer, tell SMS you have X number of licenses, and it will let X copies run; somebody else tries to run it, and they got a little window asking if they'd like to wait in line, so to speak.

So, I tried it out on Solitare. Told it that there was one license for sol.exe, fired up a copy on one workstation, then tried to f

DS

[mwvdlee]

I have a DS here next to me. Whenever I need to wait for something (like a batchjob, since I'm doing mainframe programming) I play for a few seconds then get back to work.
Would you believe the pace of my work has actually increased because of this?! I think it has something to do with not getting into a boredom induced paralysis.

TradeWars

[Anonymous Coward]

I personally keep my terminal open and have TradeWars running with a keep alive script. I can either run a script to get something done with minimal interaction, or just check it ever now and then to make sure i'm not getting attacked.

One of the best benefits of this is if anyone walks by while i have it in focus it doesn't look like a game since it's just a bunch of text.

That's called the Work Jerk

[spineboy]

To pass the time at the office.

igowin

[wozza96]

a freeware version of "the many faces of go" http://www.smart-games.com/igowin.html [smart-games.com]

Google Earth Flightsim

[nadamucho]

Now, thanks to Google, I can be distracted at work playing a flightsim and be a shortcut key away to looking up driving directions when the boss strolls by. SHWEET!

Re:

[morari]

I always liked the "hide as clock" key combination that the old Materia Magica client had...

My primary desktop at work is Linux

[Anonymous Crowhead]

So the answers is "None". Iagno, ataxx and same gnome got boring years ago. And klotski? Horribly borken.

Re:

[SynapseLapse]

Linux has this neat feature called a "package manager" where you can get new games! /sarcasm. Actually, in all seriousness, look into ScummVM for linux along with the freeware copy of Beneath a Steel Sky.

try FreeCiv or TuxRacer

[Green Salad]

Both are classics.

Which games are played?

[whtmarker]

Solitare, freecell, hearts, and minesweeper were 1,2,3 and 4 of the top ten.

Re:

[Presence2]

I still whip out solitaire when I'm in a dead spot at work, usually while waiting for someone else to catch up. Fully sanctioned LAN parties with with old school Starcraft (plays well on non 3D accelerated desktops) are also not out of the question during *very* slow days or after a major milestone has been reached.

Re:

[nijk]

I play nethack [nethack.org]!

It's perfect for my work because the colored ascii on top of the black background is very similar to my AutoCAD interface. It would take a second glance to notice I'm sacrificing monsters for artifacts instead of creating building elevations and sections. ;-)

This is news?

[amaupin]

I used to work in an office with a crusty old guy whose only job appeared to be watering the plants all over his desk and playing Windows solitaire. We called him "boss."

Sadly I got addicted to the casual game Jurassic Realm [gamesocks.com] about a year ago. Still play it at home occasionally.

I only played it at work a few times. Honest.

When I needed a break.

And no one could see my screen.

Re:

[rtb61]

I would think that pretty well describes what the meant by white collar workers(sic), corporate executive types who lack any real intellect to play challenging games, just basically sitting at work killing time, until somebodies else's idea drops onto their desk, that they can then claim credit for, once of course somebody else has actually confirmed that it is a actually a good idea.

I shudder at the thought that there are now sufficient of them out there to be considered a worth while marketing segment b

I get paid to play games

[Centurix]

It involves typing loads of stuff really quickly, then to earn points, what you type does something special. And then, someone judges your typing by 'testing' how special that something is. If that something special does what the piece of paper says, then you get a pat on the head and maybe a biscuit. You could play it for hours, sometimes you get on a roll, sometimes you bomb. They even have people called 'project managers' who make sure the gameplay doesn't get out of control.

Slightly related (perhaps)...

[Anonymous Coward]

I run adult (porn) web sites for a living, and have for the past 4 years. Our busiest traffic days are week days, with Mondays being the busiest. Weekends always see a large drop in traffic. The busiest traffic hours are also during "standard North American work hours". Between 11am to 7pm EST. A huge peak between 4pm - 6pm and a very sharp decline around 8pm or 9pm.

I'm assuming most types of web sites probably see the same thing. I certainly notice fewer comments on /. stories during the weekend. If I had

Dwarf Fortress.

[Darlantan]

Grab it at http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/ [bay12games.com]
An interesting title where failure is, while not always fun, at least usually pretty interesting. Google 'boatmurdered' for an example. Not for you overly graphical sorts.

The nice thing about open source games

[DaleGlass]

It's that you can make a text client for them to log in and chat, even if nothing else works.

I don't do that myself, but I've heard people discuss it.

Recursive

[Databass]

In theory, my favorite game to play on the job is Miss Management. It's a game about people working in an office space- and your objective on some stages is to help your employees get in a certain amount of video game time in during working hours!

In practice I don't play a damn thing at work because I work for the Navy and it's a lawful order not to play any games at work. And we're at the same base the NSA is at here so I know they ARE watching.

(You can play Miss Management at http://www.playfirst.com/game [playfirst.com]

Re:

[DangerSteel]

We play "Guess Who is quitting this week because they are tired of the BS". We have more turnovers here than the Pillsbury Corp. It's a very difficult game but much better than "Guess who just took hostages"....

Emulators

[dkrussian]

Let me clue you in on the best choice of action for work-games: the emulator. The reasons are endless. 1. Insta-pause anywhere in the game. 2. Resize game screen to just about anything. 3. Combine with awesome alt+tab action to keep that roaming boss behind your back at bay. 4. They run on just about anything (work rigs rarely include so much as decent ram and processor, much less some sli video card action) 5. With some pimp turn based titles like Final Fantasy Tactics and other RPG's such as Crono Trigger

I would post an insightful reply

[andi75]

But I'm busy farming primals...

Browser games for the win?

[shoptroll]

I dunno. I usually spend time reading and posting in forums for games I play. Although I usually log into Kingdom of Loathing on occasion to check up on stuff when I'm bored or having trouble with a problem and need to put it on the back burner to simmer for a few.

Sometimes you just need to take your mind off the task at hand and do something else for a few. It seems to work.

Favorite Game at Work

[gaffle]

I work as a database developer and spend a decent amount of time sitting around with a putty SSH open. I like to play a windows port of Rogue at work. It looks little different than the command line terminal I have open most of the time anyways.

Go

[MeditationSensation]

I play on the Dragon Go Server. It's easy to just spend a minute or two here or there without a big commitment.

http://www.dragongoserver.net/ [dragongoserver.net]