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Why Work Is Looking More Like a Video Game
james_bong666 writes "According to the New York Times, business software vendors can learn a great deal from how video games are designed.
This makes a lot of sense — how many professionals like working with their software in the office as much as gaming after hours? Developers can deal with looking at tables and grids full of data to make decisions and get things done, but other types of workers (executives, salespeople, etc.) have little to no attention span and need a picture to be worth a thousand words, i.e. their software designed completely differently."
You mean
"Gaming is more like work nowadays"
?
...I thought it was because of the genetically engineered monster roaming the cubicles. Otherwise known as "Diane from Accounting".
From here:
h hhhhH!"
Another user rings "I said what I wanted was more space on my account, *please*"
"Sure, hang on"
I hear him gasp his relief even though he'd covered the mouthpeice.
"There, you've got *plenty* of space now!"
"How much have I got?" he simps
"Well, let's see, you have 4 Meg available"
"Wow! Eight Meg in total, thanks!" he says, pleased with his bargaining power
"No" I interrupt, savouring this like a fine red at room temperature, with steak, extra rare, to follow; "4 Meg in total.."
"Huh? I'd used 4 Meg already, How could I have 4 Meg Available?"
I say nothing. It'll come to him.
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggg
Does this mean that in order to advance to "the next level," you have to kill the Big Boss at the end of the current level?
When your workplace starts looking like Doom 1, you probably need glasses.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
My workplace occasionally start looking like Doom 3, but the generators usually kick in pretty quickly.
I actually made the comparison between a video game and my work just a few days ago, though not in the manner being discussed in the above article. Here is an example:
;)
I was tasked with setting up the Outlook profiles of 3 new users in the accounting office. This should be a very straight-forward, brain-dead job. To complete this, however, involved me eventually having to replace a machine in the office, which meant a trip across campus to the purchasing office in order to locate a spare box. The purchasing guy wouldn't give up his spare box willingly unless I performed another task he needed accomplished and which had been far lower on IT's priority list. To complete THAT task, I had to drive to another location, speak to yet another person, fix yet another problem, and finally wind up back where I started.
Had someone asked me to climb a magic mountain to retrieve an ancient artifact in order to unlock some secret spell would have made as much sense.
On the flipside, I gained +750 EP, +200 gold, and rose 2 levels.
I see where they're coming from - my work resembles World of Warcraft. I'm a Level 2 Helpdesk Officer, work with trolls and orcs, don't have nearly enough gold, and have to grind for ages (often repeating the same missions multiple times) to get enough experience to level up.