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Does Gaming Reduce Productivity?
Scott Taulbee writes "Bob Mandel of AVault has given us his interesting views on why playing games does not reduce productivity, but rather is a stimulating alternative to 'snoozing, daydreaming, overconsuming food and beverages, or sitting like a mindless slug waiting for time to pass.' He suggest that '..compared to other forms of recreational activity that could be enjoyed during work breaks, computer gaming has the greatest chance to hone skills useful for productivity in the workplace.' Should we all take this article to our bosses with requests for installing a GameCube on every desk?"
Only when you have something to do
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ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
People that will waste time with games when they could/should be doing something else will waste time doing something else (posting on slashdot). I don't see having an outlet like a game changing that.
Does gaming reduce productivity? Hell yes it does. I remember those Marathon (bungie) matches before exams as an undergrad. I remember what Deus Ex did to my productivity as a graduate student as well. Come on, be honest here. My most productive hours are usually in the evening and if I am playing games at those hours, I am not writing my dissertation or grants or papers.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
Exactly what useful skills am I honing? Mouse skills? Spatial relations? Ye olde Hand-I co-ordination
If anything, it increases my odds of going blind, getting carpal tunnel syndrome, and losing social skills, (Thou it might help my 733t h4x0rz r4p).
You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
But there is always someone who will ruin it by playing games all day instead of working. Then policy will be passed to ban all games from work computers.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Didn't they try something like this at all those dot com companies? Oh, look how well it worked for them.
Let's face it, the only reason anyone does any work at work is because it's marginally less tedious than the alternative activities that you can engage in until 5pm. Excluding the ones in the stationary cuboard with your secretary of course.
Beep beep.
Reality:
You code in the shower in the morning and transcribe your ideas into your IDE. You take long breaks at work to figure out problems. You think best when your hands are occupied or when some other minor task is distracting you slightly. You frequently work late or at home because thats when your mind is working. You are paid based on an avarge number of the lines of code you write per time measured. Big, time-consuming projects are intersperesed with smaller, less intenstive projects.
Your Boss's Fansty World:
From 8:00AM to 5:00PM your mind belongs to the company. You are able to transform business ideas into code every minute of that time and can do so without fail, regardless of the problem being presented. You are interchangable with other programmers and need not understand the whole project you're working on at any given time. You are capable of producing bug-free code on the first revision given normal working conditions. Application code is a commodity and is of the same quality, regardless who wrote it. You frequently work late because you are a salary employee and can be demanded to make more application code per work-day. You are paid per workday rather than code per average unit time.
The result: You sneak goofing off when you're able and end up working more 'off the clock' hours.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Likewise, the last thing most bosses want is to be seen with an unproductive team. So even if you are just posting to Slashdot, it appears much more acceptable. Hell I get jumpy when a website has too many pictures on it! (And lets not even talk about the celebrity photos on imdb.)
Also there is that dangerous line where work is made to feel like home and you just end up hanging around work all the time, being neither really productive or having much of a life.
How times have changed since the dot.com bubble eh? Gone are the days of playing Tony Hawk on the playstation at work... hell we don't even have a stero at work, much less a playstation!
See, this is a big problem with video games- the term is so broad!! We lump any interactive entertainment that's on a computer into the video game catagory, which I don't normally havea problem with, until you get to this issue. This article is pointing to the minesweepers and solitares of the world, not the Quakes and the Half-Lifes (speaking of upcoming time wasters... drool...)
You would have an easier time convincing me that I'm made out of 100% metal than you would convincing me that EverQuest is on the road to productivity.
For those of you who actually RTFA, those who take breaks doing what they want to do during those breaks will be more prepared to tackle the chores in front of them back in "the real world." To which I agree. If I were able to play a little Civ3 here and there throughout the workday, I'd be a much happier camper than how it is now, where I go and BS with my coworkers (who, although I really like 'em, they're not as fun all the time as a non-emotional computer game).
Of course the obvious ability to abuse such a system exists, but when it is encouraged as a stress reliever for little breaks here and there, rather than discouraged completely, it becomes a VERY USEFUL "tool" in the workplace. IMHO, anyways...
I know it. Imagine if we farmed out our development projects to the Chinese prison system. There, they only eat, sleep and write software. Every bug discovered by your manager results in a 100 volt zap to your left nut.
The problem with western people is they don't understand they are alive to serve their manager, nothing more. Eastern people however... they have a long and elustrious tradition of efficiency. India still has their wonderful caste system, the perfect social system for labor. China just prefers to use "prisoners" for the real dirty work.
The Americans better realize that you cannot be both free and be productive. If you have to work, you better shut the fuck up and do your job at all times you are conscious and not eating, sleeping, defecating, fucking...
I don't read or respond to AC posts
Actually, most people who game with a keyboard and mouse are better at using a computer in general. I have a friend where I work who does a lot of customer service work, using the mouse and keyboard simultaneously to work in multiple apps. None of the other people on his team are even half as fast as he is.
So how did he learn to use the mouse and keyboard simultaneously? By playing Quake, Warcraft, and Castle Wolfenstein to name a few.
I would say without a doubt obsessive game playing reduces productivity. Every time I get hooked on some new game there's the terrible tendecy to jack in and play for oh, 24 hours straight, during that time, NOTHING gets done. I can't imagine how these people that get hooked on Everquest and TheSims manage to have lives, especially if they're working all day (yeah, I know someone will toss in the inevitable "they have no lives" comment).
One of the saddest aspects of my college life was meeting these people who were involved in MUDS who literally spent all their time online, in their dorm rooms or holed up in the library sleeping on cots. They would LIVE online, have relationships with people online, and let's just say their "real world" lives suffered. And this was over text-only virtual worlds. I can't imagine what these people do today with realistic games. Probably a one way ticket to the insane asylum.
Conversly, I think though, used in moderation, games can stimulate productivity. Especaially if you use it to blow off some steam, or get into game creation, hence improving your skills in the real world. But, anything in moderation can be good. I don't think most people have the tendency to get obsessed over games, and if it wasn't a game, it'd be alcohol, heroin or donuts.
And lastly ... unless you're going into game programming I have yet to find any good reason for putting "Reached level 88 Amazon in Diablo II" on your resume. Gaming has little worth in the real world. I'd go so far as to say it has a negative stigma attached to it ... for anybody over 30.
The problem with that is that you've completely reversed cause and effect. People aren't motivated, because the company sees people as 'Human Resources'. I was told in my second performance review 'Most people here work more than 40 hours a week. If you want to do well, you have to work over 50.' I imagine a lot of people will look at that and say 'only 50?!'... Well, guess what? That sounds a lot like the company could care less who is shoved into the 'engineer' slot. So why should I care about it's opinion, hmm?
Lack of consideration is just a two way street, that's all. The companies started it, employees are just going with the flow.
I'm not shy, I'm stalking my prey
everyone needs a break.
YOU SUCK BALLS!
I couldn't disagree more. I think the best employees are those who love what they do, and would continue doing that as a hobby even if they weren't being paid to do that. It's been discussed here and elsewhere before: success comes not from following the latest business fad, but simply from doing what you love.
It's amazing how many people keep dividing their lives between work as something they don't like but they are forced to do, and free time in which they do things they love. How few people have fully grasped the satisfaction from creating new things, which is much more than the apparent pleasures from consuming and following.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Not that it matters, really.
If you need to take a break at work I think that going for a walk or working out on your lunch hour would be a better break than playing games. Office people do enogh sitting.
The addictive potential of the drug is highly overrated.
Speaking from years of personal experience, I painfully disagree with your "coke ain't so bad" dismisall. It is a bad, bad, dirty drug.
I know MANY people who get far more work done using stimulants than not...
Maybe for a year or two.
Check back on your superstar buddies in a few years. I've seen both crank and blow destroy MANY people, included ace programmers.
You're pro-drug bias needs to be reality checked, it sounds like you're probably too young to have witnessed your friends going down hard from drugs... hopefully you won't see that.
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
I'd rather make 24K/year and be my own boss than make 100k/year and have to put up with bullshit everyday.
You certainly don't have kids or care to have any. 24k/year would never be enough if you care for them.
There is something to be said for Quality of Life.
That is true.
My future co-workers will be able to set their own schedules (with the exception of support).
If you're looking for a bunch of geeks that walk and code around, that's fine. If you're looking for a team, there should be some common hours where everyone has to be there - would it be only for meetings.
There's nothing more irritating than coming there in the morning and seeing your mailbox empty when you expected something from a coworker and you don't know what state it's in...
Don't forget also that rules and standards are what makes a bunch of people a team.
I'm not going to be the boss
??!!?
I'm going to be a co-worker (that can fire people)
Ah, ok, you're going to be the boss.
As long as my teams are achieving their goals persuant to the companies goals I don't care if they work 20 hours a week. Just get the shit done and go live your life.
Again, a team needs communication and that is not something that comes naturally if you don't do anything to enforce it (even gently). At least in the companies I've worked for.
I am also going to require 16 hours of community service a month (2 paid days off to do something the co-workers care about). There was nothing worse at my first job than them riding your ass about not doing shit in the community but turning around and making you work 80+ hours a week and work on weekends.
That's good.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
ummm..encourage community service, support it, give incentives. but do NOT require it. In schools or in workplaces. It defeats the fundamental concept at it's very core. If you create an environment where cs is easy and well respected, people will participate. But DO NOT require it. Thats not their job, however ambivalent and idealistic you may be.
The colors of this site definitly reduce my productivity. And make my vision go all blurry. And leave a faint headache behing the eyes.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Ok, let me chime in here about the most popular games on the planet. Microsoft Solitare and Microsoft Mine sweeper.
Typicaly management frowns down on these two games, and it's not unusual for the boss to ask for these to be removed. A careful reminder, before that choice is made is imporant. Both games are excelent for hand-eye co-ordination skills and serve to promote mouse instruction. You may think i'm nuts for saying this, but working with older people who didn't play video games who don't have much in the way of computer experence are not going to be the best at operating a mouse... so bad that often times I see the simple click motion translate into a forward motion, and they ask why the computer isn't doing what it should be doing.
As far as me personaly, switching from a standard issue mouse to a trackball, I found quake II to be invaluable. This could apply just as easily to solitare.
So would I say playing solitare on the lunch break improves productivity. I'd say, "YEP, SURE DOES". It teaches inexperenced users how to operate the mouse, it helps users to become familar with the particular choice the work place made on mice.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
So whats the difference? Sports or computer games...one is physical, the other mental...and you can only see the use for the physical break, above the mental one?
Anyway, working 9-5 is highly unnatural; it's about time we put all that psychological research to good use by implementing it's findings and changing the workplace to a place where people would actually be more productive while feeling good.
Burnout rates would drop, saving money right there. Stress would be reduced, making people happier, upping morale. The only reason this doesn't happen at more places is because people tend to stick to traditions, no matter how dumb they are.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
Today's video games are too time consuming. Back when arcade games were popular, they'd be a nice break because they only take a few minutes to play and leave, but most of today's console games take over half an hour before you get somewhere satisfying in them. They often space the opportunity to save far apart so if you spend less than half an hour you lose your progress. Simply having to save your progress is a nuisance, because you have to remember where you are after you stop, which means the game stays on your mind after you return to work. Arcade games always let extra players join in at any time, but today's console games force you to restart if you want to change the number of people playing. Startup screens alone now take over a minute. Some Gameboy Advance games are pretty brief, but it's low tech, uncomfortable and only supports one player per unit.
The sad fact is, today's console and PC games are designed to take over your life, which is just what the boss won't allow on the job.
Treat them with respect and they will do the same. Treat them like shit and they will work 1/10th as hard (that's how it is at my current job).
I guarantee a work slow down every time someone at my job gets bitched out because the boss doesn't know any other way to motivate.
Granted, people can take advantage. But if you're a good manager and have good managers/workers around you it's less likely some bad seed will slip through.
I'd rather make 24K/year and be my own boss than make 100k/year and have to put up with bullshit everyday.
You certainly don't have kids or care to haveany. 24k/year would never be enough if you care for them.
Not yet, however I own all my cars, I own my house outright and my bills in Oklahoma (very inexpensive to live here) are around $800/mo. I'd be willing to bet I could make it work with kids.
BTW my mother made 11K/year in the late 80's early 90's in KC, MO and we survived just fine, poor as shit but fine.
My future coworkers will be able to set their own schedules (with the exception of support).
If you're looking for a bunch of geeks that walk and code around, that's fine. If you're looking for a team, there should be some common hours where everyone has to be there would it be only for meetings.
My first job was at Arthur Andersen and I've worked at 4 or 5 (memory?) companies since then. Some private, govt and consulting. I've found one thing in common at all places. You plan together, you implement alone. I've yet to find a keyboard where two people can type at the same time in the same program.
We would obviously have some core hours 10-12 or 11-1 for short meetings and we would schedule any large ones. Where I work now we never meet (bad) but my parent company is the opposite, ALL they do is have meetings (bad). I'm looking for a middle ground.
There's nothing more irritating than coming there in the morning and seeing your mailbox empty when you expected something from a coworker and you don't know what state it's in...
Don't forget also that rules and standards are what makes a bunch of people a team.
I'm not going to be the boss
??!!?
I'm going to be a co-worker (that can fire people)
Ah, ok, you're going to be the boss.
There is a difference. Its the attitude. I guess you've never worked at a place that isn't axe to the grindstone. Until you've worked someplace like what I'm describing it's difficult to describe the difference in workers morale, the amount of work that gets completed and the ability to make deadlines without stress.
As long as my teams are achieving their goals pursuant to the companies goals I don't care if they work 20 hours a week. Just get the shit done and go live your life.
Again, a team needs communication and that is not something that comes naturally if you don't do anything to enforce it (even gently). At least in the companies I've worked for.
So you have never experienced it. I hope your cynicism evaporates over time.
I am also going to require 16 hours of community service a month (2 paid days off to do something the co-workers care about). There was nothing worse at my first job than them riding your ass about not doing shit in the community but turning around and making you work 80+ hours a week and work on weekends.
That's good.
Andersen was the job that busted my balls. However I will say I learned more things there than at all my other jobs combined (cooking the books aside! lol... what a bunch of crap, don't get me started)
Oh well, I guess it all depends on your attitude. No offense but you're exactly the person I would avoid hiring. If you cannot fathom a positive workplace, you'll be doomed to live in the world you've created for yourself (self fulfilling prophecy). Or at least IMO!
I only want people who give a shit about the world around them. If anyone who ever wants to work for me cannot find one thing to contribute to society, then they are worthless to me already.
This is a good weed out question on interviews as well.
I am not religious, however a few of the people I've started the company with are. I give them the ability to do activities with their church (as long as they affect people outside their congregation) and I respect their beliefs.
Requirement stays until I get a good reason someone wouldn't want to help anyone.
Hell my dad is an evil fucking republican and I guilted him into doing Meals on Wheels for 2+ years. Believe it or not, helping others can help yourself as well.
Oh btw I work in long term care. Working with elderly people who have no one left in the world can be a eye opener.
snoozing, daydreaming, overconsuming food and beverages, or sitting like a mindless slug waiting for time to pass.
add reading slashdot to that list - that's certainly my biggest waste of time while at work.