Slashdot Mirror
Designing A Corporate Game Room?
douglawson writes "We're designing a virtual PC team game room for the corporation I spend my days at. The idea here is to create an internal space for team gaming, both for recreational and executive team-building events. If you could dream, what would be in your ideal space? What games, what seating, what sound system, what else?"
I'm going to short your stock.
What corporation is this? Are they hiring?
Two words: MORTAL KOMBAT
and a water dispenser
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
What's meant by "Team Gaming"? I'd focus on turn based strategy games, and maybe puzzle games, even if you can just find single player ones (get a couple people to play them at once). Think about also buying board games, war games, etc., just sitting around playing Quake and other FPS (team based or otherwise) doesn't seem like it would build camaraderie to me.
As an aside do places like your work really still exist? I thought that sort of thing had gone out of style with the dot-coms.
My first thought upon reading this was team based games, mostly FPS or RTS -- Tribes2 and Starcraft popped into my head immediately.
But upon rereading it, I can't imagine why you'd bother, from a corporate perspective. Unless you're planning on pitting department against department or project team against project team.
(I totally get it from a recreational point of view; but I can't imagine a corporation shelling money or space for this unless they've just got too much to burn.)
If you're deadset on the competitive game play, I'd split it into two or more rooms, of course, so that teammates could talk to eachother without having the "enemy" overhear. And, you'd want, whatever game you picked, some method so that people could store their profile, so that no matter which computer they sat at, they'd have it set up to their liking. Windows on a domain can do this with roaming profiles, or if you have a small number of games, you can simply see how they store their config files and write a small app to fetch someone's specific files from a repository and overwrite them on a computer.
They could use that as an incentive to finish projects quicker... or...
PHB: This project is truly shoddy. Smithers, delete his character...
Employee: Noooooooo.... I'll do overtime! I promise! For free!
PHB: Agreed. This time. Next time it's the Newbie Hunting Ground for you!
The company I used to work for got it into its head that it should provide this kind of "game room" for its employees, and I can tell you what happened as a result: Productivity dropped faster than Howard Dean's approval ratings. Folks, I realize that this might be a shocker, but (get ready for it) you are at work to perform work, not play games. If you believe that employees will limit themselves to "15 minute" game breaks, you're being totally naive. It was not unusual for people to spend an entire afternoon in the game room (charging it all to the company, of course.)
After a month, we realized that the game room was a rediculous failure and dismantled it.
The bottom line is this: We live in a capitalistic society, and the creation of wealth is the cornerstone that keeps this country on top of the world. Paying employees somebody else's money so they can sit around and play video games is not capitalism. In fact, it is very close to capitalism's opposite, whose name I dare not say (might trip the corporate Internet filter and invite some unwanted attention.) Keep the games for before 7:00 AM and after 5:00 PM. The work day should be spent (gasp!) working and being a productive member of our society.
It's not 1999 anymore!
The dot-bombs are all out of business!
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
Assuming that you either have 10 or more people regularly, and/or plan on having internet access. Enemy Territory is a blast. Moreover, it relies on teamplay, if all you have is a bunch of people running around, playing death-match or Lewis and Clark the videogame, your team tends to lose, fast. And, best of all, its completely free, you don't even have to pirate it. Though, it does require a good bit of horsepower. Nothing under a P4 (not Celeron, never Celeron), and at least the GeForce 4 Ti4800 or better (note: GeForce FX 5600 Ultra is not better), and at least 256MB RAM. Granted, at the moment, this probably isn't an overly expensive rig, but when multiplied by several machines, it'll cost some money. But, if this setup is really for gaming, you should probably be shooting at about these specs as a minimum anyways.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
Games like Natural Selection (naturalselection.org I think) and Return to Castle Wolfenstein are both excellent team oriented FPS that are team oriented (as opposed to say, a normal FPS where even if you have a Red vs Blue team, its not really "team work" that wins).
RTS games like SC or WC3 are good, although perhaps going with single player "adventure" games (with puzzles and such) and havng the team work as a group to solve the puzzles, with the winning team being the one to beat the game (or a set number of puzzles) first.
I like a previous posters idea of a "seperate room" thing, if you cant talk to each other, its hard to be a "team".
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
My first thought upon reading this was team based games, mostly FPS or RTS
I imagine you have to be very careful with bad losers if you go team vs. team - people can be very touchy about this, especially when they lose publically. A better option could be teamplay vs. the computer. Totally depends on the people you are playing with.
This is surely a good way to get a raise...
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
Oh, and also look for stories about the height of the dot.com.
My personal opinion, is that it should be as relaxed a room as you can manage. Someplace that is relatively sound proofed from where people would be doing "real" work. So don't put it right next to where a call center is. That'd sorta destroy moral for that department if they didn't get to use it regularly.
Get very comfortable chairs, good lighting. The desks or tables don't need to be anything more then flat, and avoid sharp edges that cut into your arms. I'd arrange it in a circular fashion around the outside (that's where I'd put computers), also having a "strategy" table in the middle for meetings. White board walls everywhere. If you are going whole hog, have a video splitter on each computer, and allow for any given computer to be projected on a wall, so you could have spectators without crowding the individual players. Possible with a video demuxer so you could project everyones screen onto the wall. If you want competitive play, obviously, you might need two rooms, or a way to divide into two different relatively private sessions. So possibly have enclosed spaces adjoining them (hmmm, conference rooms that are used for other meetings adjoining it might work).
Have a supply of food there, possibly a refrigarator.
Kirby
A game room? The economy is tanking and corporations are considering a game room? That's management for you.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
I was tech support @ an isp for a couple years. My job was essentially to play quake 2, UT, and whatever else I could bring in on our support machines.
Despite the distraction of playing video games ALL day (8-10 hours depending) I was still one of the highest rated tech support people there. It was really a very good idea to be able to frag others online while dealing with the user (four letter word) on the other end of that phone.
The only thing that would have made it better would have been a 2nd computer so I wouldn't have had to alt+tab all the time.
As far as I can tell, a 'virtual PC' is one of those cardboard faux computers they put on the display desks at office supply stores.
Maybe I'm incorrect. Are there simulated PCs in some of the games I haven't played? Now that I think about it, there's a computer in one room in 'Day of the Tentacle' that you can walk up to and play Maniac Mansion on.
Is that the sort of thing you're talking about?
A Good Intro to NetBS
Why have a separate room? Why not just play in your offices, say over the lunch hour, and save a few minutes to talk about it afterwards?
Actually, just the opposite. We played Quake3 together a bunch where I work. (Only past tense because we have moved on to other games). Those were some of the best times because of the extremely simple gameplay, very large possible player limit and short amount of time required to play.
Also consider Enemy Territory. I really promotes teamwork, and, best of all, its free. Outside of an FPS, when are you going to be able to feed your boss a rocket then have a good laugh about it later? Just remember, don't get too heated because you are still at work and can't be sexually harrassing people when you make them your bitch.
...title of post says it all...
Let's see.... I think a big solid wood table, surrounded by plush leather executive seats.... and a set of buttons by my chair so I can drop random people into the firey pit!
Oh, and a big tank filled with killer sea bass with frikkin lasers on their heads.
And I'd need a really massive plasma screen... no, make that a holo-projector built into the table... so I can hook into the corporation's satellite network, and spy on random people... just because I can.
Yeah. That would be a good entertainment room. I can only dream, eh....
(Spudley Strikes Again!)
just buy couple of used arcade games, preferably with not just one type of games.. but like, one sega rally(2)(or few linked), some fighting game, some puzzle bobble type of game and if possible some classic game from '80s. heck, add a shooter to that too.
if it weren't a company i'd recommend building a mame cabinet and loading it up with all the games, but it could end up quite bitchy, right?
generally you wouldn't have people standing in front of them for all day long but the games would still be fun once in a while. heck, you could even make them take coins and use those coins(would also cut on keeping on playing on them for all day long even if it was just pennies per game) for financing some corporate bbq parties or something else that meant jolly-good time for everyone, or have competitions or whatever.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I think that anyone who has replied that you shouldn't have a game room in the first place is bitter. We have one in my office w/ an Xbox, Ps2, Gamecube, and Dreamcast. Nobody really uses it much, but I think that is only because it is not comfortable. It is just an empty office with a tv and two seats. A game room needs to be inviting. A sofa would be the biggest improvement we could make.
That you WILL work late and unreasonable hours (and weekends).
This is pretty much just a heads-up to anyone who owns or runs a development company.
I went to interview at a company in New Orleans several years ago. They were very proud to show me their beautiful gameroom with ping-pong, pool, several card games and a couple of arcade games. Right when I walked into the room I knew for a fact that I would be turning that job down.
A company that feels the need to boost moral by installing a game room or something similar is a company that expects you to be there night and day, day and night. They realize that your being there all of the time with nothing to take agression, etc out with will be bad for moral and make you constantly consider quitting.
Take these two situations. Two companies expect you to work 60 - 80 hours a week. One has a game room, one does not. The one with the gameroom typically also has a looser environment and lighter dress code. Their employees are much happier than those at the company with no game options... but, they are still OVERWORKED!
No thanks... I took company number three that expects you to put in 40 hours (+- 5) per week. They're out there... they're all over the place as a matter of fact. And... none of them have game rooms. Their employees are happier because they have time outside of work to fulfill themselves... not because they can play the latest shoot 'em up on their 5th break of the day at 9 at night.
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor
Ok, if you're serious about doing this kind of thing (and others have more than adequately covered the reasons why or why not to), then have you considered buying a Xbox or PS2 instead of PCs? They'll need less maintainance and are styled more toward same room playing than PCs. You'll need one or more consoles, and some large TVs. This'll be a lot cheaper than PCs too -- even with a large (50") TV, you can skimp on the TV -- you don't need high def, and large SDTV sets are dirt cheap now - under $1k. Heck, one TV and console per seat would probably still be cheaper than a high end gaming PC.
If you are going with PCs, don't even buy speakers for them. Buy decent quality headphones instead, but ones where you can still hear the rest of the room. Nothing's worse than a half dozen PCs playing sound through speakers for the same game -- since the sound is invariably oriented toward the individual player on the PC.
Consider how you're going to divide the room up -- if you have competitive games, then you'll need to provide some dividers to ensure you can't "cheat" by looking at a competitor's screen, or by overhearing shouted instructions/information. Doing minimal soundproofing that's configurable will be a hell of a challenge if you want to do this right.
Chairs? Buy what ever is the office standard. For God's sake don't buy better chairs for the gaming room than the rest of the office. That'll just piss people off and you'll either end up with the gaming room chairs disappearing (and regular chairs appearing if you're lucky) or people spending more time than you expect in the gaming area just because the chairs are more comfy.
Games? Consider co-op vs computer oriented games heavily. That's pretty key for team building. For after hours playing, employees are more likely to want competitive games though. I'd actually suggest UT2003 here for both -- the Invasion mode (in one of the free expansions) is a decent co-op mode, while every other mode is obviously competitive. There are damn few co-op modes out there now, at least if you want decent computer oponents (UT2k3 doesn't have decent computer opponents... it merely relies upon tons of enemies which get tougher and tougher).
If you go with PCs, you'll probably want some way of displaying the action from any one PC on a large screen for observers. Just get PCs with svideo output, a switchbox (either with remote control or accessible by observers), and an aforementioned large screen TV. Consider that you'll want one screen per "area", with the ability to easily block off viewing a competitor's screen.
I'd honestly consider ditching running competitive games, since that's where most of the difficulty comes in if you want to do it "right". That or do it and tell people not to cheat by the obvious methods, or to deal with it occurring.
If you have any local LAN parties or gaming cafes, go to them and see how they do things. They're in this for the competition/money and certainly know more about this than I do.
On the other hand, I think game-playing in the office is going to have a lot of pitfalls. What if everyone doesn't want to participate? What if you can't pry people off of the games? Do you really think game playing is going to make people more productive throughout the day? Somehow I doubt it. Not to mention shareholders and corporate mgmt. will probably be very wary of an endeavor like this.
The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.
I play on a Duron 900MHz, with a GeForce 2 MX.
And it's just fine. I can't imagine you'd be able to buy a machine now that wouldn't be able to run ET passably (for non-hardcore players).
Disclaimer: make sure the machines are reasonably similar.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
That's so 1998.
Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
To win a BF1942 match with the odds stacked against you (Axis to Allies ratio of 2:1 or better) takes teamwork and coordinated attacks. Like counterstrike, each a player can choose between different roles (engineer, scout, etc.). One of the best matches I ever played had a "leader" as a scout coordinating the attack from far away with binoculars.
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
A pinball table. Pinball lends itself to short gaming sessions and friendly competition. It'll also appeal to a wider cross-section of staff.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
There are some great team-building games AND competitive games from that time. Some games were cross-overs (could be either).
Think about games that have become classics. They were meant to run on the older machines. Titles such as Star Craft, or even better Command and Conquer: Red Alert provide either head to head, team vs. team, or team vs. computer play styles. Did you get eliminated? Well, breaks over - back to work.
Or the earlier combat flight simulator games like F-15 / F-16. Those will play head-to-head also.
And one benefit to older FPS games like Duke Nukem was the ability to EASILY custom build maps - for example, a copy of your office... or the whole building... or even go older, to DOOM, and craft a bad guy to look like your boss...
Then again - your office, and the community in general, would probably be better off (Karma-wise anyway) if you used your older machines as donations to area schools (particularly underprivileged areas) and instead left work early twice a week to go mentor some kids.
First, you need a time machine. Set it for... 1998 or so. Shouldn't you people be working?
BTW, nice to take those HR enforced 'team building excercises' and turn it into a round of 'frag the phb'. That's thinking outside the box.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
I would recommend going with consoles over PCs. They are more personable. The games are easier, and more suited to short gaming breaks. They're also more personable, everyone can see what you're playing. As a bonus, it is unlikely anyone will surf for porn on your 36" TVs.
Make sure you have at least one big-ass TV. After that you can put in somewhat smaller TVs.
For chairs - go with couches and lounge chairs. Think comfee. At the same time make it clear this is not a junk room.
For game management, buy a few CD binders, have a physical sign out list. This will stop the games from walking.
Set an initial game purchasing budget of how many dollars, then have a monthly budget for continual purchasing of new games. Allow interested employees to submit requests to whomever is in charge of game purchasing.
Online play is certainly possible but I don't see any need for it, this is for your employees playing together and having fun. I'm pretty sure you can netowork X-boxes and have massive Halo tournements without going online.
In terms of what platform, I would recommend you choose either PS2 or X-Box. There isn't really a need for multiple platforms. This isn't supposed to be the room where people get to play specific titles for specific platforms, this is the games room. The X-Box for example has lots of great games, it should be fine if you go with all X-boxes. Because of Halo, I think this may be the best choice.
---
I support spreading santorum
Tribes 2, for example, where one side can win when they're all playing lone cowboys, but a side playing as a team will completely crush them, even if the team is outnumbered. The obvious examples: some of the weapons aren't really effective unless you have a teammate with a targeting laser. Most of the vehicles require multiple people on board to be anything other than a way to get from A to B.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Like counterstrike, each a player can choose between different roles (engineer, scout, etc.).
The only "roles" you can pick in counterstrike are "Terrorist" and "Counter-Terrorist." That's more like a team than a role...
Maybe you meant Team Fortress?
"Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit." --Oscar Wilde
Auggh! 90s flashback! It's a good thing "That 80s Show" was a flop, or somebody would be already creating a hilarious situation comedy about a code shop in San Fransico, with "internal space for team gaming."
That's what I meant. Sorry. I guess I should dust that off and play it again, hungh?
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
It's nice to know dot-com accounting is still in action today. Game on!
At my company I work in a large (AND PROFESSIONAL) lab enviorment. Pretty much every day during lunch (unless its really nice out) most of my co-workers and I hunker down at our computers and fire up counter strike. We have an outdate version, because some comps are limited and can't take the latest version, so we only play LAN games. And we proceed to frag each other like no end. We have 45+ guys calling each other campa (yes campa, we are near Boston :) ) Anyway, point is we all have a lot of fun, are more open with each other, work better together, and are more energized after lunch as a result. It was not planned or anything, it just kinda happened, I think in order for this to work, you have to have good group chemistry to begin with.
SirT
Don't overlook board games. There are many good board games that provide a greater level of human interaction than computer games, which is useful for the stated object of team building.
Check out boardgamegeek.com for a comprehensive database of board and card games.
Ones that I would recommend include:
Tastes differ, however, so a decent selection would be a good idea (and probably cheaper than one PC).
Most board games also have the added bonus of an intrinsic limit. It's a lot harder to say "just one more round".
fnord
Monopoly, Stratego, Hungry Hungry Hippos and Twister.
Plus a single Apple with Number Munchers and Oregon Trail.
That should satisfy your needs.
Personally, I think the money is better spent giving it back to the employees in forms of bonuses, gifts or what have you. Try giving your employees a PS2 or XBox instead.
...as long as it has lasers you should do all right. (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Don't forget the greatest boardgame ever concieved: Junta!
;-)
A great game of intrigues and backstabbing in the south american republic of Los Bananas.
Enormously entertaining and fun for all. The trick is that no player can win it on their own steam, you have to intrique and play the others against eachother to profit, but don't be to obvious about it, or they'll gang up and overthrow you.
Beware of whoever wins constantly at this game. That person is likely a sneaky, manipulative bastard you should better keep both your eyes on.
On a sidenote I've noticed that most of the good players I met does well in business.
Not all that surprising I guess...
Sadly this great game is out of print, but if you're lucky you could still get your hands on a copy somwhere.
"First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end."
put a real game in there: a pinball machine
Learn about pinball machines on www.flippers.be
I'd heavily suggest a ping pong table, a pool table or an ice hockey table. Or perhaps foosball. :P
For computer games, a nice FPS like Quake, Doom or Half Life for the quick, "gotta kill something" for stress relief. Any of the Sim games (not the Sims, but Sim Ant, Sim Tower, Sim City, etc...) for management and organizational skills. And then for team competitions, perhaps a game like Age of Empires/Empire Earth/WarCraft, etc, any nice RTS game really that you can have teams...
Julie Moult is an idiot.
Of course, it depends on your company very much (number of employees, organisational structure, type of work, etc.), but I would suggest you first start with the computers you already have and experiment. You might want to limit this initially to mid-day and after-work W3 matches or something (the games depend very much on the tastes of the workers).
But if/when you are ready to move to a dedicated game-room, I have the following suggestions:
1) for recreation: if you want people to spend short gamebreaks playing individually, use some arcade games, or Unreal Tournament, or something else that would not cause people to spend too much time playing (somethat that is easy to start and finish - spending as little time as you have).
2) for team-building: it doesn't really matter what kind of games it would be, as long as someone is responsible for making it team-building activity. It doesn't happen by itself. If you want more than people becoming friends with each other, someone should spend time doing something like training people to play CS in teams. Teach them strategy, communication skills, etc. Watch demos after the games and discuss what went wrong/right, etc.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.