originally posted 3/16/2009 4:18 pm
I’m a geek!
I freely admit that I am, although I am way out-geeked by some folks I know.
Like millions of others, geeks and non-geeks alike, I am also on Facebook. Like a smaller population of Facebook users, I play a number of the games created by Zenga for users to play for free. I still haven’t joined the gazillions of folks playing the pay-to-play online games like World of Warcraft, but I digress. The Zenga games I play involve a few basic actions: create your persona, use energy to do missions, buy properties to increase your hourly currency so you can buy more abilities/weapons/etc so you can do more missions. Throw in level increases based on experience and you’ve got a very rudimentary RPG. I love RPGs (role-playing games) and am still playing Dungeons & Dragons with paper, books, and dice. (I know, off topic again.) So, these games also allow you to attack other players to gain experience and currency. I don’t get into this much myself, but there are some folks I know who love to do this.
I hit my Facebook account a few times a day at minimum. At least a couple times a day, I go to the games I play, do missions until my energy is gone, spend or bank my currency and logoff. Yes, I am able to hit Facebook from my computer at work, and yes, I do hit it now and then (during periods of downtime, over lunch when I’m still at my desk, or for a two minute break from coding —see my job is even geek) to change my status or even hit the games quickly. When I open the games I usually have notes that I was attacked by someone or someones, frequently multiple times if they beat me.
Recently, I’ve noticed an interesting trend which lead to this post. When do you think the heaviest hits on my characters takes place? Over the weekend or evening/night during the typical work week? Nope. I see very little activity on the weekend. Almost all the real damage to my personas and their properties takes place during what would be considered by most to be the standard work day in the North American time zones. Now, as I’ve said, I do ocassionally hit these games during the day, but the amount of time I spend compared to the amount of time it takes for all the attacks I suffer during the day is very small.
I know a guy who keeps one of these games open for a large percentage of his time at work so he can do missions and attack other gamers. He also watches for when he gets attacked to that he can respond. As far as I know, he is the only one in his office who does this, but I have to wonder how many of these guys are out there at work with their game of choice open all day. Add this time to time spent reading news, chatting with co-workers, etc. and you can easily see where my title came from.
Now, some would argue that if we block sites so people can’t get to these time wasters, productivity would go up. I fervently believe otherwise. Block these sites and people will spend more time talking, reading print media, etc. The only way to increase productivity is to have something productive for people to do and have a manager who makes sure they are getting the job done. If the workers get their jobs done quickly, let them be rewarded by a few minutes of downtime. Let them take a quick break from a stressful task to hit a leisure site (that’s tasteful, non-offensive, etc.) without having to take a coffee or smoke break. It keeps them at their desk where they can still be reached by email or phone.
Of course, I’ve now skewed in a different direction than intended, but I guess that’s ok. It’s my blog after all.
Comments:
Old Bob wrote (3/17/2009 9:20 pm):
The last paragraph sounds like the basis for a Dilbert strip. All we need now is the pointy-haired boss and Catbert.
No comments:
Post a Comment