Workplace Romances – Jared Woods

7 Things HR Can Learn From Video Games

// March 3rd, 2010 // Employment Branding, Internal Communications

I love video games. I have loved them since I first had a computer that required a knowledge of BASIC to get the games running, It had a cassette drive. I’m not kidding. I’ve played habitually on almost every system, and enjoyed some of the tastiest fruits that the gaming tree had to offer. While the gaming industry thrives on entertainment, there are certainly some good lessons to be learned. Here’s just a few;

Pretending to be a nice guy will only get you so far. (Frank Fontaine, BioShock)

In BioShock, the historical story tells you of Frank Fontaine, a man who came to the fictional city of Rapture, Rapture, built on Ayn Rand’s principles of objective realist capitalism, was a city with no religion or socialist agenda. Fontaine established himself as God-fearing and concerned with the workers, which earned him points with the general population. Fontaine eventually revealed himself as a conman and sadist, so eager for control that he led his followers in a war against the status quo, sacrificing them for his personal glory. Even as the city lay empty, dying and filled with the insane, domination was more important than the thing he was dominating. His lust for control overcame the reason the thing he wanted to control existed, and quickly changed a vibrant metropolis into a dormant, dysfunctional dystopia.

If (like Frank Fontaine) your goal is personal glory, have the courage to admit it outright. Pretending your goals are corporate altruism or team play when they aren’t doesn’t just make you a liar. Eventually, it makes you unemployed.

Teams of Different Skills Can Be Hugely Effective Against Contingencies (X-Men, Warcraft, Command & Conquer, Overlord, etc)

Games that employ more than one potential protagonist are built around the premise of ‘specific skill for specific challenge’. Archers are good against footsoldiers, cavalry good against archers, etc. These games, while teaching us that each sub-set of your overall force has a specialty, also teach us how best to combine those specialities into a dynamic effort. Particularly when the problem you thought you were attacking turns out to be something else entirely. Teams with different skill sets offer different perspectives and advantages, but also give us quick resources when the game changes. They teach us that analysing your challenges and strategies isn’t as much about finding the right tool for the job as it is about finding the right tools for solving the problems around the job as well. It’s one thing to plan for when things go right, but another to have the right people on the team if something unforeseen happens.

It’s Not Your Competition You’re Up Against. It’s Expectation. (Every racing game with a time trial mode. Ever)

In a lot of racing games from the early to mid nineties, the goal was just to win. Complete a course in the fastest time and avoid crashing, and you’re in line for champagne and enormous crockery. As console gaming started getting smarter, the idea that it was your opponent you were racing started to change. It isn’t. It’s the best possible outcome that you’re trying to beat, or at least match. Other competitors crash in the same way you do – they miss turns, take bad corners, hit rails and (occasionally) pile into fences too. It’s the ghost time you’re trying to beat –the best possible application of skill on a particular challenge. Beating someone else who is as fallible as you are might have been enough when being better than the others was a good marketing strategy. These days, it’s about beating expectation, about beating the perceived ideal. And that’s a lot harder.

Move or die. (Frogger, and the million variations thereon)

Frogger is one of the all time greatest games for simple entertainment. The goal is simple – move, or die. There are a million threats waiting to take you down as you navigate from the bottom to the top, again and again. And in fact, the game isn’t about making it to the end, because you have to do it over again and again. Frogger is about making small moves in the right direction, sometimes lateral, sometimes forward, to get where you’re going. And the only sure way to die is to stand still when you need to make a move.

If It’s Easy, It’s Not Going To Be Satisfying (Ninja Gaiden, G-Police, Battletoads, Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins, Contra)

Videogames can induce swearing on an unprecedented scale. Also controller throwing, TV breakages and serious psychological meltdowns. Why? Because they’re TOUGH! Games like those listed above were games that required every ounce of skill, focus and determination to get through. You fought the same challenges over and over again because, if you got through one level (ONE LEVEL!!!) of these games, you were proud. The first gamer reputations began when people would crowd around arcade machines to watch the best players finish a game previously thought unfinishable. They were gods.

If it’s not challenging to beat, it’s almost certainly not going to be satisfying for you. If you’re not having trouble completing a challenge, it’s time to step it up a notch. Good management involves (at least to some extent) pushing the envelope of your skills. If you are doing something that’s unsatisfying, you need to up the difficulty level. Sure, you’re out of your comfort zone. The reward for flourishing there is so much stronger than fighting a battle you know you can win with one hand.

Reward is important (Mario Bros)

Every time you finish a mammoth trial in the original Mario Bros franchise, you heard the same old thing. “Sorry – our princess is in another castle.” Effectively – ‘Thanks for all the effort you put in. You’ll get a reward next time, I promise. Now, back to work!”

I don’t think this needs to be spelled out, do you? (Also, for Portal fans – the cake is a lie. Don’t promise me something I’m not going to get.)

Innovations are gateways to new opportunity. (Half Life 2, Portal)

In both the games above, plus hundreds more, devices change the way you interact with the world. Technology changes your focus, from seeing things as background, unnecessary items to potential weapons, different ways of navigating obstacles, and even an extra dimension to a story. In these two games particularly, the new technology adds an extra dimension to the game, and changes the way the player sees opportunity. As we interact more through technology, publish more and connect more with each other, embracing technology isn’t just keeping up with the pack – it’s about leading them, and finding new ways to challenge traditional thinking. I’m not done – just done for now.