The NIC Sentinel

Issue date: 3/24/08 Section: Opinion

Jory Buechner

Video games will become the future form of how office work is performed. At least that is what Robert Ashley reports in his article "All Work and All Play." This article gives a rather in-depth look into offices that have created a video game work environment. The basis of the article indicates that office work and playing video games are closely related particularly with MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game).

According to the article, "The irony is that work and play are strangely familiar. In games, we endure endlessly repetitive tasks (shoot the Covenant!), manage complex resources (mind the salary cap, coach), overcome seemingly impossible challenges (hard mode) and team up with (at least in online games) incredibly annoying people."

Some offices have made changes to make work seem more like a video game than work. Seriosity, a business software developer, created an E-mail client called "Attent" at their own offices.

Attent is used to mainstream the important information and filter out the junk. What if the New York Times, or any newspaper for that matter, adopts this method? What about government organizations such as the Intelligence Agency?

"Yeah, sorry, Boss. I would have sent you an E-mail about the terrorism threat, but I used all my Serios to E-mail Bush about the latest info on the sex scandal involving Eliot Spintzer," said the dubious intelligence agent." Sorry, but it sure was a good laugh."

OK. Maybe that example is a bit extreme, but communication is too important to have a program hinder it. This process will never catch on in most organizations or businesses. If there is a problem with employees sending their employees and/or supervisors useless junk mail, then fire them or hold a meeting to discuss the importance of employee E-mail responsibilities. On top of all that, Attent awards badges depending on how the employees use their Serios.

According to the articles, "Users can earn badges for things like trading Serios with a large number of coworkers or for achieving a favorable ratio of Serio-attached E-mail to normal mail."

The point of this is to award employees for doing an efficient job. Isn't it the job of an employee to work efficiently without an award? We shouldn't pat employees on the back every single time they do their job right. This doesn't make them a better employee or person.

Don't reward employees if the job's done right, but fire employees if the job's done wrong!

Continued...

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