Gamer Ties

If I was a teacher and was forced to wear ties everyday, I would buy all of these and a few others.


(via Unpluggd)

Harrisonburg Video Game Theft

Get this, some guy at our local K-Mart had been stealing video games (I think it was his department) and selling them for cash. $15,000 worth. They caught him last week.

I've only been in that store for games a few times, all of which the place was pretty dead. He was probably so bored working in the electronics department he decided to find something better to do with his time.

Here's the news story.

Thanks Brent!

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.

Gameless Weekend

Between a wedding (7/7/07), IKEA, Home Depot and Lowes; Between driving to D.C. and back; Between sleeping and more sleeping...gaming hours this weekend equal zero.

I've been keeping up with the blogs though. Internet access on the phone is crucial.

I'm also happy to report that over the weekend, the coordinator for Child's Play got in touch with me over the Facebook over the group I started. It's now sitting at 75 members with $75 dollars raised.

Ok. Time for more sleep. I have lots of computers waiting for me tomorrow at work.