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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?"
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
We bought The Simpsons Pinball Party for the office here last spring. Most people (even the girls) play it daily. We're all pretty good at it. I think the game is a positive thing for the company. It helps contribute to the relaxed, informal atmosphere here.
I wouldn't recommend a pinball machine for most workplaces though. It would be too much of a distraction in a cubicle farm/concrete hive.
It works for us because we're really more like a think tank. We're inventors. A quick pinball game is a good way to give the creative wells time to recharge.
Of course, I like pinball myself and find the "creative wells" line is just a way to justify purchasing a pinball machine for the office.
Kind regards,
Michael Judge
President
SurveyComplete
...so that is one way of looking at it. Here's another:
* We learn through games
* We do build connections with others when we share common games
* Just like the Internet, gamerooms by themselves do not damage productivitity. Poor management does.
I cannot believe all of the resistance to this idea. I'm excited and inspired by it. One of the things that corporations do poorly is promote constant education among employees. Training is often an intermittent and uncertain activity.
A Gameroom would be a tool that could be used to encourage continuous education. I would want someone in my finance department to put in 3 hours a week monkeying with Sim City. I would love to have my purchasing manager play with The Sims, or even my system administrator hacking away at Doom III.
In some cases, there is education and learning taking place during the game. And in some cases, I'm supporting behaviors that would normally have to be taken offsite for me.
And again, this is just like the opposition that managers had to the Internet when it first became possible to have it in the workplace. Workers will not fritter away their time at work with things like this because they have jobs to do.
If you have someone who will indulge an addiction for game playing in a corporate game room, they will do that out of your sight when you don't provide the outlet. The difference is, they will not be available to you in your work. What startup companies often do is rationalize (believably) that when workers have a way to exercise their whimsy a little bit on the job site, they will stay for longer hours.
And to deny the positive benefits of a resource on the basis of fear that some may spin out of control in its presence denies reality in two ways. First, to believe that it won't happen anyway, just out of your sight. And second, that most of your people are operating without any measure of self-direction, and where they exercise it, it is not directed by any motivations that you share.
You know what the truth is people? Your workers share your desire that your company be excellent. It is a great honor to work with an excellent company and if you operate one, then your people are proud of that.
And if you're not running an excellent company, then start doing that right this minute! Get over the idea that people who work for you are mindless cogs who cannot be trusted to find the right answer without your wise counsel. Abandon the notion that only you can see the way that your workforce will become more effective and powerful in its association with your enterprise.
Someone once said that, "Anyone who doesn't think that Education and Entertainment have nothing in common doesn't know much about either." So get this clue if you wonder whether you've created an excellent organization or not.
People learn when they play games.
Got that?
All people.
We don't all enjoy the same sorts of games, but we all learn something from them. So a training resource is a good reason to have a game room.
---v