Games at Work

Entrepreneur.com posted up an article about corporate offices constructing gaming rooms to help alleviate works stress and increase productivity. I've seen company gyms, eateries, and game rooms before. This was started back in the 90's, I believe.

I know that taking work breaks is recommended. But does actively changing your setting and activity for short breaks really increase productivity? I would imagine it would be beneficial to not succumbing to work "burn out", but I would think having to come down off a brain "high" like sports or gaming would take longer than walking outside or reading a book.

The article interviews two interactive media companies (PopCap games and Critical Mass), both of which could consider video games to be research. Banner & Witcoff sound like a bunch of lawyers who grew up on Atari, and Edmunds.com seems to have taken the approach of gaming keeping employees happy.

Certainly there could be many reasons to create a game room at work. But part of me thinks private companies just want to have fun and blow off steam. This thinly-veiled productivity disguise is just bull. Really awesome bull.