Video Games & the Workplace
As the generation that grew up with video games enters and assumes leadership positions in the work place, computer and video games are being increasingly used to conduct business. A growing number of major companies, from automobile manufacturers to beverage producers, employ video games to find and train employees and increase sales among their younger tech savvy customers. With the video game industry booming and its products gaining broader acceptance, the use of games in the work place is certain to expand in the years ahead.
Recruiting
In recent years, organizations across all sectors have discovered that computer and video games are effective tools for raising awareness and generating excitement among young job candidates and current employees.
In collaboration with Enspire Learning, Sun Microsystems developed two computer games, Rise of the Shadow Specters and Dawn of the Shadow Specters, to recruit new employees and teach new hires about the company’s structure, history, business strategy and office culture. The games are set in an alternate fantasy universe called “Solaris” that has been settled by colonists that share Sun’s core values. Solaris is divided into five worlds, each representing a different business unit within the company, and players must use a different product or philosophy to save each world from the “shadow specters” that threaten it.
The Government Communications Headquarters, the surveillance arm of British intelligence, embedded job ads within games such as Ubisoft Entertainment’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent to attract young recruits. The Australian Defence Force has also created Advanced Urban Ops, a game that follows Australian soldiers patrolling an abandoned village, to increase its recruitment. A spokesman for the Defence Force, which maintains six similar games on its network of Web sites, said that approximately 16 percent of people who enlist do so from their sites’ games section.
Companies also use video games to appeal to potential job candidates and boost the morale of current employees. Offices are abandoning ordinary break rooms and creating game zones where employees can relax and relieve stress. PopCap Games, a Seattle-based video game developing company, takes potential employees on a tour of their game room during interviews to give them a sense of the company and its culture. However, it’s not just companies in the video game industry that see advantages of an in-house game room. Host Hotels & Resorts, based in Bethesda, Md., offers employees a game room complete with a big-screen TV and a video game console along with pool and foosball tables. The company’s game room was highlighted in Washingtonian magazine’s“Great Places to Work” article in 2007.
Training
Because the costs can be less and the learning experiences more engaging, video game training offers public and private sector organizations a better way to train employees. According to a study by the Entertainment Software Association, 70 percent of major employers utilize interactive software and games to train employees. Additionally, more than 75 percent of businesses and non-profits already offering video game-based training plan to expand their usage in the next three to five years.
Canon U.S.A., for example, uses a video game to train new copier technicians. To play, technicians must drag and drop parts into the right spot on a virtual copier. IBM developed INNOV8, an interactive, three-dimensional educational game to teach graduate students a combination of business and IT skills. Meanwhile, railroad giant Union Pacific designed a video game to train employees to safely maneuver cars and locomotives in its rail yards and is now using it in 45 locations across the country.
In 2007, UPS began experimenting with using video games to train newly recruited drivers after finding that 30 percent of candidates failed the company’s traditional training program. In one video game, trainees are placed in the driver’s seat and charged with identifying various obstables, while another puts the trainee’s avatar in a room where he must identify competitors’ packages. Of the 1,629 trainees who have completed the program since its inception, only 10 percent have failed. Additionally, the Hilton Garden Inn introduced the first interactive training game for the hospitality industry in 2008. Ultimate Team Play, created by Virtual Heroes, places employees in a virtual hotel interfacing with customers and fielding typical guest requests. Players’ responses are then evaluated and rated based on Hilton’s Satisfaction and Loyalty Tracking system.
Even professional athletes use video games as a training tool, crediting the quality of sports simulations in games such as FIFA Soccer and Madden NFL with helping them improve their physical and mental skills, or to help maintain their skills while recovering from injuries.
The use of video games as a training tool has led to the creation of new companies to serve this growing demand. Marc Prensky founded Games2Train.com, where he has created more than 100 software titles for companies such as American Express, Bank of America, Charles Schwab & Co., Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., IBM, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Nokia Corporation, and Pfizer Inc. Stanford University education professor Dr. Byron Reeves founded Seriosity, which applies “game elements” to the human resource issues of Fortune 500 companies.
The public sector is also embracing this trend. The U.S. Army created its own video game unit and will invest $50 million in designing game systems to prepare soldiers for combat. That effort will build upon current Army training practices that utilize modified versions of commercially available games, such as DARWARS Ambush! A new research lab at Parsons The New School for Design aims to develop video games for training public officials, students and professionals in various fields. Carnegie Mellon University recently developed a video game to prepare police and fire departments for terrorist attacks involving biological or chemical hazards.
Marketing
As the computer and video game playing population expands and diversifies, marketers are increasingly using in-game advertisements and advergames to reach potential customers. The market for such advertising is expected to expand enormously in the years ahead. According to Massive Incorporated, a creator of dynamic video game advertisements, the market for video game advertising is expected to reach $1 billion by 2014, a 13-fold increase from the $75 million level identified by Nielsen Media Research in 2006.
Anheuser-Busch, Inc. and Adidas Ltd., set the tone for computer and video game advertisements in Bally Midway’s Tapper and Moby Game’s FIFA’s International Soccer in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, the automobile industry is building on that. Toyota Corporation released a promotional video game for Xbox 360 to build awareness among 20-somethings about the company’s new Yaris. Nissan Motor Company Ltd., eager to build a buzz around the GT-R sports coupe, unveiled the car to the public in downloadable computer games. Finally, Mazda Motor Corporation and Nissan both launched new car models in racing games like Sony’s Gran Turismo 3 and Electronic Arts' Need for Speed: Undercover long before the actual cars rolled out to the public.
The automobile industry is not alone; food and beverage companies are using video game advertising to tempt customers. South Beach Beverage Company (SoBe) paid Ubisoft Entertainment to design the main character in Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent to reach for the company’s product when thirsty, hoping gamers would do the same. In 2006, Burger King produced and sold several games featuring the company mascot, “The King.” The fast-food chain reportedly sold 3.5 million copies of the $3.99 games.
Go Figure
- 1 billion - Expected market, in dollars, for in-game advertising by 2014, according to Massive, Inc.
- 75 - The percentage of companies whose managers said their employees like video game-based training more or the same as traditional training, according to a 2008 Entertainment Software Association survey.
- 1983 - The year Anheuser-Busch, Inc. first included advertising in Bally Midway’s game Tapper.
- 135 - The number of the world’s leading companies that will have adopted gaming for learning by 2012, according to The Apply Group.
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