Over the past few months, I’ve become a gamer. I didn’t seek out gaming, but it has infiltrated my life so subtly that I’m convinced it is going to be one of the hottest trends in companies, homes, and even on my daily commute over the upcoming years, thanks to companies like Nintendo who are targeting the mainstream, casual gamer and providing incentives for smart people to adopt the technology.
At the end of fourth quarter, my company turned one of our conference rooms into a game room, stocked with a 52-inch LCD flat panel and a Nintendo Wii plus games. I can’t prove it, but my theory is that this is one of the best things the HR department can do for a company. It makes sense: gaming promotes teamwork and relieves stress through laughter and work breaks, which increases productivity and engagement, which increases the bottom line and employee retention rates.
Of course, putting a game room in won’t work at every company – actually, it will work at very few companies judging from the feedback I’ve received from people at other companies. My company has a younger, laid-back workforce where nobody glares at their coworkers for leaving their desks to play an energized match of Wii Tennis. Where the managers cheer us on as we rock out on Guitar Hero. If it weren’t for the company culture, the game room would sit empty and be a huge waste of money.
So it seems that the first step is getting a company and its employees to buy into mainstream pop culture in the workplace, which is happening already with Web 2.0. I think many companies will get there eventually… or not be able to recruit Generation Y, one of the two.
The gaming benefits don’t end at the workplace. In fact, my husband and I recently bought a Nintendo Wii for our home, after I took him to Best Buy four times to play for free. He finally caved, and now our Nintendo Wii is just about the only thing we can agree on, aside from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. On a serious note, Nintendo Wii brings families together. It works in the workplace to span generational differences, and it will work at home too.
The final benefit of gaming is that companies are finally coming out with games that aid in personal development, which is what Twenty Set is all about. Nintendo found me through Twenty Set a few weeks ago, and after a few meetings decided I’m a huge fan of Nintendo (I am, they are marketing geniuses). So they sent me a pink pocket-sized Nintendo DS Lite in the cutest BCBG Maxazria bag I’ve ever seen. The irony of the pink case is my husband, who isn’t sold on the benefits of my blogging career anyway, can’t steal my Nintendo DS Lite for his own use. Points to Nintendo for that one.
The system also came with two games, Mario Kart (my favorite childhood game from Super Nintendo) and another called Brain Age. I first read about brain neuroscience in the December issue of Vogue – the idea is that as we get older, our brain gets accustomed to using the same neuropaths to disseminate information. (Maybe that’s why older generations seem so stuck in their ways to us twentysomethings.) It turns out the best time to start combating this brain aging effect is in your twenties, and games like Brain Age make it easy, fast, and fun to re-train your mind (read more here).
The Nintendo DS Lite is perfect for urbanites interested in personal development on the go; who commute to work and want to spend those 20-30 minutes productively. In other words, me. And Brain Age is a much more productive use of my time than Brick Breaker on my Blackberry.
By the way, I’m helping host a party for the Nintendo DS Lite, and you are invited, as long as you are a female between the ages of 25ish and 40ish (I’m 24, so there is leeway) and you want to come to Chicago the weekend of April 11th-13th. Email me if you’re interested: m at twentyset dot com.
Monica O'Brien is the Director of Digital at Fizz and author of the book Social Pollination, which helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth!
