Great article about making serious games work for business, from Clark Aldrich, who writes well and often about this subject.

Further thoughts and related links after the jump……

Turning Work into Games is a good discussion by the excellent resource H+ magazine.

Microsoft Office has a new game to allow you to learn the program.

First of all, work isn’t play. There are rules, and you can’t QUIT if you just get bored. And what if the game is not one you like; for instance if you like first-person shooters but your workplace is a strategy simulation, for instance. It sounds out of line, but seriously, think how many times you liked a game, an online game or group, and then just left because of just one person. (Seriously, that’s not just me, right?) If you insist on using gaming as team-building and incentivising in the workplace here’s three for the B(usiness).

1. Update your employee manual to reflect the organization’s relaxed stance. For instance, if you encourage Facebook groups to market your business and your brand, make certain the words “directly workplace related internet activity is sanctioned” from your Employee manual. People won’t participate if they have to check incident by incident with upper management to see if they’ll be disciplined.

2. Understand the personality of your workplace. Don’t use training that’s “over-the-edge” just because it’s trendy if the age or the attitude of your workers will be offended or just downright unresponsive.

3. Try to be age-conscious, without being ageist. I’m in my 40s and still play games, but many people in their thirties feel any type of game-playing is counter-productive to the work environment. And remember conversely, there are many who are OCD about games, and can’t quit after just one session of one hour or so (one hand slowly raises……………………….)

Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.