If you remember season 3, episode 3 of the office, it was about how the Stamford branch plays Call of Duty together as a team-building exercise. At that time, you must have thought, ‘What a waste of time.’ Today, things are different in office spaces. More businesses are opting for collaborative office spaces to keep their employees active and productive. Here they also keep video games that help the team to relax and also build coordination. A study in BYU information systems by four professors indicates a 20% increase in productivity among employees who play video games for just 45 minutes. Another study at AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction adds new literature on the positive side of introducing video games in workplaces.

There has been an increase in video games in the work environments of major organizations. Microsoft has its own video games for training purposes that are replacing the eLearning platforms. The researchers are curious to know how effective video games can be in a productive workspace. Let us look at some of the video games that are showing positive results to improve the work environment for employees.

Videogames in Collaborative Workspaces

Video games for collaborative workspaces

Foldit

Foldit is a simple yet ultimate Rubik’s Cube. It is designed to implement collaboration and crowdsourcing to solve real-world puzzles. The game became famous after making a significant discovery in AIDS research. In 2011, a team of Foldit players produced a model for an enzyme that plays a significant role in developing a virus that shows similar properties to HIV. It was a problem that helps researchers back for over two decades. Foldit is a free-to-play game made especially for healthcare or life science businesses.

CSGO

Like Call of Duty, CSGO is also a multiplayer shooter game requiring a set of tactics to win the rounds and ultimately the match. Action video games improve the probabilistic interference of players/employees. It helps them make quick decisions based on partial information given by team members. It also improves the pattern recognition for players that they can use to counter their barriers. Games like CSGO and COD can also be effective in network stress testing.

SimCity

Another great example of a collaborative workspace game is SimCity. It allows players to create a lifestyle in a simulated world and solve problems that interfere with their character’s journey. Although the game is a bit toyish, players can learn the management of their resources while making the right decisions as a part of society. Players also learn how to meet the demands of their constituents that affect their city. The original SimCity became successful among major corporations and made several dedicated games like SimRefinery to train non-engineer employees for oil refinery operations. There have been several SimCity versions ever since. However, all the games are focused on teaching about complex systems of the organizations in different industries.