How teams can use gaming while working remotely
Lessons from Immersive Learning we’ve been using while working remotely with our team
It has now been many weeks since I last visited the office and I honestly didn’t think I would miss the ambience of the office as much as I actually do. It is true that working remotely has its perks. However, all my colleagues seem to have small children or animals to keep their spirits up (or maybe more likely testing their nerves) during this global lockdown.
All I have is my plant … Buster the Bonsai, who’s only contribution to the new home office culture to shed his leaves dramatically every time he feels too cold.
On the positive side, with only a few meetings and no distractions, I’ve been really productive! Every day since the lockdown started I’ve treated myself to a proper breakfast and enjoyed a freshly brewed coffee before sitting down and motoring through my work checklist for the day.
This has been incredibly satisfying; however, some of the negatives of home working are starting to become apparent, and even the introverted side of me is starting to miss a bit of human contact.
This feeling is markedly stronger on Friday afternoons, which is normally when everyone in the office sits down to play games together. This is primarily a business activity to think about how game mechanics and gamification can be used within the world of immersive learning, but is also a pretty damn good way to bond as a team, forget the stresses of the week and kick-start your weekend.
The importance of gaming for team dynamics
Despite the initial complexity that the whole team is in isolation, a part of me still refused to write off what is normally the best part of the week. This is partly because keeping routines going will contribute to my own (and hopefully everyone else’s) sanity during this dramatic change in circumstances, but primarily because playing games together is also a really valuable session that builds our skills as a team.
Beyond improving our communication skills as a group, gaming helps us appreciate every team member’s unique abilities.
Everyone will usually approach the same problem in a different way, which allows us to continually learn everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.
By now I’ve worked out who has an eye for stats and numbers, who is always thinking 3 steps ahead, who has seen the loophole in the rules and who will have optimised their build to stockpile all the resources.
Every strategy has taught me to see the world differently, identify who can help support me, and have the confidence to consider a range of solutions to most work-related problems.
Finally, it gives the team a tiny slice of time where we can be as silly and as creative as we want to be. This is de-stressing but it also makes the workplace a fun place to be. We have worked hard to make the office culture fun, open and creative, so I feel deeply that our online workspace should also reflect these values.
We may all be working from home at the moment, but operating as a single unit is still something that is still important for business success once the quarantine is over and therefore, we needed to adapt to these challenges and attempt to find a solution.
So, what solutions are there?
So, after some thought, and some testing. I’ve managed to keep our Friday afternoon games session in the diary. There are so many solutions out there, here are my top recommendations (so far) for keeping a small remote team together:
- Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes
This is a really short but fun game that focuses on communication skills for 2–5 people. In my opinion, playing this game over a phone or video call only enhances the tension in the game. The premise of this game is that you all collectively have to defuse a bomb before the timer reaches zero. One person (or team if you are using steam remote play) can see the bomb, its markings, wires and modules. The other person (or team) can see the bomb-defusing handbook. As the handbook is available to download online, only one person actually needs to own the game for everyone to take part.
Can the two sides work together quickly enough to succeed? To find out more go to: https://keeptalkinggame.com/
2. ‘We Were Here’ Series
This is a two-player escape-the-room style puzzle game. Each of the players will find themselves imprisoned and alone in a dungeon. Their only hope of escaping is to talking over their radio, and is they work together maybe they can solve the problems together and escape.
The first game in the series is actually free on steam here.
3. Online Board Games
If you want something more on the fun or strategy side, there are a number of online board games that have online modes that allow players to host a private game. My favourites at the moment are: Ticket to Ride and Lords of Waterdeep. However, just be aware that there is often the restriction that every player is required to own a copy of the game in order to play.
You can get around this by using Tabletop Simulator, which means providing all players own a copy of the simulator itself, only the host of the game will need to own the game for everyone to play.
4. Story Scenarios
So this is the homemade option. It is really a cross between; a game of Dungeons and Dragons, a choose your own adventure book and an improvised comedy show. These can be really easy to create and don’t have to be overly complex (there is no need to incorporate dice, create scoring systems, or tracking armour levels or hit points). There is also the benefit that it is really simple to do over a video call, and the activity costs nothing other than the time to create the scenario.
To get started everyone other than the gamemaster needs a character. You can indicate a theme to the players, but don’t let them know what specific task they will be attempting. All the players need to do to create their character is to decide 3 things; A character name, One tool/object to bring with them, and one skill/ability. Once this has been decided, you can start the scenario.
To do this everyone needs to be placed in a problematic scenario with a simple narrative and a clear mission(e.g. you find yourself locked in a room, abandoned on a desert island, attempting a bank heist). Then add in a couple of puzzles/challenges for them to solve along the way (such as some codes to break, people to question, machine parts to find and assemble).
The aim will be to create puzzles that allow players to solve them in a number of ways (e.g. a locked door can be bypassed by lockpicking with an appropriate item, through social engineering, sneaking through a window, or by finding the key). You will then find that often players work together and use their creativity to pass through each challenge. Sometimes in the way you expect, and sometimes in really unorthodox but awesome manner you didn’t consider.
The Future?
This is just a start at adapting the way we work as a company that allows everyone to work as well remotely as they do when they are together. Our office will not be alone on this mission, and as more teams around the world embrace remote working principles, a typical post-pandemic office working culture is likely to continue these practices in some capacity.
This will mean that “traditional team-building” activities will need to move online to keep team relationships strong, embed a healthy company culture, prevent silos forming and limiting communication breakdowns.
It will also create new challenges for those that create and run learning and development programmes. It will also be critical for training leads to help staff adapt to these new ways of working on a long term basis, to ensure that key skills are maintained, developed and transferred over an increasingly distributed employee network.
Immersive learning and gamification have already started to play a key role in this solution by encouraging staff to take an active role in their own career development.
I believe online Immersive Learning will have an increasingly important role to play, and I’m genuinely excited to see how the market adapts to distributed teams.
Most importantly, it is really encouraging to see the almost universal review of business operating environments to identify whether or not they are inclusive for everyone. That can only be a good thing for us all!
Emma Bentley designs, develops and delivers Immersive Learning solutions for chronyko.
