Games "safe" for work

As topic says. What are some games that you can play at work???

Any might do the job but Im thinking on setting some boundaries, in order for them to be actually playable.

Like: They should be somewhat easy on the pc, they should be able to play windowed, pausable at anytime.

If I'm out of line here someone say so but in this economy you have a job and you want to play games at work? I refuse to help you. biggest_loser

[QUOTE="biggest_loser"]If I'm out of line here someone say so but in this economy you have a job and you want to play games at work? I refuse to help you. soolkiki

I like Sword of the Stars: The Pit. The game is completely turn-based, and windowed mode. If you stop playing, the game stops.

If I'm out of line here someone say so but in this economy you have a job and you want to play games at work? I refuse to help you. biggest_loser

[QUOTE="biggest_loser"]If I'm out of line here someone say so but in this economy you have a job and you want to play games at work? I refuse to help you. RevanBITW

I like Sword of the Stars: The Pit. The game is completely turn-based, and windowed mode. If you stop playing, the game stops.

Falconoffury

[QUOTE="Falconoffury"]

I like Sword of the Stars: The Pit. The game is completely turn-based, and windowed mode. If you stop playing, the game stops.

mr_chalupa

no, most people are too busy working or looking for work

*I mean seriously, they don't send you onto other projects to assist when you are done?  Your job sounds poorly managed.

Some jobs have a lot of downtime, where there isn't anything to do. Companies want employees to be there in case they are needed. So, some of you envy his position? Grow up.

I don't think that there is any one game that could be described as safe for work, but I would say that any SP game or just the SP portion of a game that has both MP and SP would be OK to play at work. In my line of work, I could often be waiting on something to be finished up to be inspected so I do often play games or watch DVDs. As I would not have access to an internet connection on a job site, setting Steam to offline allows me to play games without having to have that connection. 

Now, if you do not have free time, it is not advisable to be playing even solitaire at work or surf the web, read forums or the like, but if you have some free time (I have been on a job site for 20+ hours and only did about 2 hours of actual inspections and the customer wanted someone on the job site no matter what), then having a diversion isn't that bad if you do not require the need to log in somewhere to play said game. 

Crysis 2

Metro 2033

Skyrim with at least 50 mods

Remember to have speakers with a nice subwoofer to get your office to vibrate while you play.

How about Torchlight 2?

its easy, pausable, doesn't take much of a computer to run it, and it doesn't cost much.

If your job has down time I don't see an issue here. However, if you are supposed to be doing work, but gaming. I don't support that.  Too many people these days either aren't qualified to do their job ( yet have the "qualifications" ) Or people that just flat out refuse to do their job. (unfortunately, many of these people hold positions of power)

Rant over, and since you said you have down time, this isn't even an issue.

Oh a game I recently picked up that is relatively easy, fun, and unique is called Waking Mars. (also pretty cheap)

Crysis 2

Metro 2033

Skyrim with at least 50 mods

Remember to have speakers with a nice subwoofer to get your office to vibrate while you play.

sleepingzzz

How about Torchlight 2?

its easy, pausable, doesn't take much of a computer to run it, and it doesn't cost much.

If your job has down time I don't see an issue here. However, if you are supposed to be doing work, but gaming. I don't support that.  Too many people these days either aren't qualified to do their job ( yet have the "qualifications" ) Or people that just flat out refuse to do their job. (unfortunately, many of these people hold positions of power)

Rant over, and since you said you have down time, this isn't even an issue.

Oh a game I recently picked up that is relatively easy, fun, and unique is called Waking Mars. (also pretty cheap)

Lach0121

Some jobs have a lot of downtime, where there isn't anything to do. Companies want employees to be there in case they are needed. So, some of you envy his position? Grow up.

Falconoffury

Runescape man, Runescape ;)

I know that feel bro, I had a project-based job too like a year ago.

FTL, Wizorb, Gunpoint are all fun games that are windowed. FTL is challenging with its rogue-like design, but you can stop playing whenever and it's got tons of replayability. Wizorb is fun and breezy. Nice pinball meets very light RPG elements that make it fun for wasting some time. Gunpoint is brief, but it's a lot of fun for a day.

None of them are ridiculously violent, they're good time wasters. FTL is the best of the bunch.

[QUOTE="biggest_loser"]If I'm out of line here someone say so but in this economy you have a job and you want to play games at work? I refuse to help you. soolkiki

Don't Starve, Dungeons of Dredmor, FTL, Sword of the Stars: The Pit, Hotline Miami, Stealth Bastard Deluxe, Super Hexagon. All of these are games you can play for short or long periods of time, and you can quit/pause whenever you wish to.

Civilization IV, Tropical 4, Sims City(any Sims), Roller Coaster Tycoon, and the Binding of Isaac. Most of these games are relaxing, can be paused any time, and can be quite addictive. 

Civ V?

If I'm out of line here someone say so but in this economy you have a job and you want to play games at work? I refuse to help you. biggest_loser

You should ask your project lead what games he/she would like you to play while at work. :roll:

-Byshop

Wizorb seems good as well, its not a pinball but a breakout game. Terraria is not for me. i would feel to constraint with the way attacking goes Ive started playing FTL. Its such a nice game, puts me in a good mood except when i die of impossible silly stuff lol.mr_chalupa

What, in your mind, qualifies a game as being a "good" game to play at work?

-Byshop

[QUOTE="mr_chalupa"]Wizorb seems good as well, its not a pinball but a breakout game. Terraria is not for me. i would feel to constraint with the way attacking goes Ive started playing FTL. Its such a nice game, puts me in a good mood except when i die of impossible silly stuff lol.Byshop

What, in your mind, qualifies a game as being a "good" game to play at work?

-Byshop

As topic says. What are some games that you can play at work???

Any might do the job but Im thinking on setting some boundaries, in order for them to be actually playable.

Like: They should be somewhat easy on the pc, they should be able to play windowed, pausable at anytime.

mr_chalupa

Are you looking for browser based games or real PC games? I personally have a lot of fun with Tetris Friends. It's free, you can turn off all sounds (or just not turn on speakers), you can pause at any time. You don't have to login to play. (with an account it keeps track of high scores)

"The Office" isn't too far off from the truth.  A lot of jobs have a surprising amount of downtime.  I still wouldn't feel right playing video games at work though.

i work IT desktop support.... if something isnt broken, there is nothing for us to do. my company wants us there if something breaks or someone calls in with a problem. otherwise, we have hours of down time. so yeah, i typically break out my VITA or something.

in IT... if you have down time... you are doing something RIGHT. dont envy, get more efficient. if your company deems it necessary to pay you to just "hurry up and wait" because they want that security, then you are fulfilling your mandate and your job duties. there is nothing wrong with it unless it is specified otherwise.

i work IT desktop support.... if something isnt broken, there is nothing for us to do. my company wants us there if something breaks or someone calls in with a problem. otherwise, we have hours of down time. so yeah, i typically break out my VITA or something.

in IT... if you have down time... you are doing something RIGHT. dont envy, get more efficient. if your company deems it necessary to pay you to just "hurry up and wait" because they want that security, then you are fulfilling your mandate and your job duties. there is nothing wrong with it unless it is specified otherwise.

Geminon

This applies only to crap support jobs, not IT as a whole. There is no circumstance where anyone working on one of my projects should be sitting on their hands waiting for something to do. If they find themselves in that position, the good employees find me and ask what else they could be working on. The crappy ones jump on Youtube.

-Byshop

"The Office" isn't too far off from the truth.  A lot of jobs have a surprising amount of downtime.  I still wouldn't feel right playing video games at work though.

Ross_the_Boss6

[QUOTE="Geminon"]

i work IT desktop support.... if something isnt broken, there is nothing for us to do. my company wants us there if something breaks or someone calls in with a problem. otherwise, we have hours of down time. so yeah, i typically break out my VITA or something.

in IT... if you have down time... you are doing something RIGHT. dont envy, get more efficient. if your company deems it necessary to pay you to just "hurry up and wait" because they want that security, then you are fulfilling your mandate and your job duties. there is nothing wrong with it unless it is specified otherwise.

Byshop

This applies only to crap support jobs, not IT as a whole. There is no circumstance where anyone working on one of my projects should be sitting on their hands waiting for something to do. If they find themselves in that position, the good employees find me and ask what else they could be working on. The crappy ones jump on Youtube.

-Byshop

*rolls eyes* bullshit. that is really all i have to say. in a managed environment, when things are working as they should, and regular maintenance is done to ensure that things are running as they should, there is a -lot- of downtime. especially at large corps where the people doing the IT support arent the ones making the decisions on what is and is not added to the environment. in most large corps, with large IT departments, you cant just up and decide to change the environment, work on a new project, or investigate new objectives just because your employees have significant downtime. if the systems that have been put in place are up and running with no problems and leadership is happy with the status quo, then your job is done. "crap support jobs" my ass.... my salary isnt a "crap salary" so clearly my job isnt a "crap support job".... just because your environment isnt stable, and needs to be altered constantly doesnt mean that is how everyone operates. come back and let me know when you work for the largest private employer in your state, and you try to "do your own thing" when a small change could impact 10K users or more.... we will see if you still have a job in a month.Geminon

LOL. There is so much more to the world of IT than the miopic bit that you're describing. Support and admininistration are only small pieces of the big picture. You are assuming that my job is like yours, when it very much is not. I used to do IT admin and support, but I moved on from that almost a decade ago.

What you're describing is Change Management, and it's the sort of thing that I design for a living for companies who manage more than 10,000 -servers- and the number of users are in the hundreds of thousands to millions. When every member of my team is billing to the client between $150 to $250 an HOUR, you're damned straight that if I found someone on my team screwing around then heads will roll.

-Byshop

By the way, you now have 666 posts. :D

-Byshop

[QUOTE="Geminon"] *rolls eyes* bullshit. that is really all i have to say. in a managed environment, when things are working as they should, and regular maintenance is done to ensure that things are running as they should, there is a -lot- of downtime. especially at large corps where the people doing the IT support arent the ones making the decisions on what is and is not added to the environment. in most large corps, with large IT departments, you cant just up and decide to change the environment, work on a new project, or investigate new objectives just because your employees have significant downtime. if the systems that have been put in place are up and running with no problems and leadership is happy with the status quo, then your job is done. "crap support jobs" my ass.... my salary isnt a "crap salary" so clearly my job isnt a "crap support job".... just because your environment isnt stable, and needs to be altered constantly doesnt mean that is how everyone operates. come back and let me know when you work for the largest private employer in your state, and you try to "do your own thing" when a small change could impact 10K users or more.... we will see if you still have a job in a month.Byshop

LOL. There is so much more to the world of IT than the miopic bit that you're describing. Support and admininistration are only small pieces of the big picture. You are assuming that my job is like yours, when it very much is not. I used to do IT admin and support, but I moved on from that almost a decade ago.

What you're describing is Change Management, and it's the sort of thing that I design for a living for companies who manage more than 10,000 -servers- and the number of users are in the hundreds of thousands to millions. When every member of my team is billing to the client between $150 to $250 an HOUR, you're damned straight that if I found someone on my team screwing around then heads will roll.

-Byshop

let the horn tooting begin... *rolls eyes*Geminon

Is that not what you were doing when you made comments like "come back and let me know when you work for the largest private employer in your state" or "when a small change could impact 10K users or more"? I guess I must be "horn tooting" since my scale numbers are bigger. :lol:

Working support tickets, while necessary, is entry level work. Most large companies don't even use full time employees in their tier 1 and tier 2 groups but instead using contracting companies or even outsource this to places like India or the Philippenes.

Think about it. Your servers are likely hosted in a datacenter. Do you honestly think that the guy who architected your datacenter makes the same amount of money as someone who works support tickets? How about the guy who designed your Active Directory infrastructure? Do you think guys at this level get paid to sit on their asses and play Tetris? What about the guys who develop the custom Line of Business applications for your company?

That's great that you work support tickets and that you have downtime when nothing is breaking, but don't presume to tell me that I must not be doing my job right if I don't also have downtime because what you do and what I do have absolutely nothing in common.

-Byshop

[QUOTE="Geminon"] let the horn tooting begin... *rolls eyes*Byshop

Is that not what you were doing when you made comments like "come back and let me know when you work for the largest private employer in your state" or "when a small change could impact 10K users or more"? I guess I must be "horn tooting" since my scale numbers are bigger. :lol:

Working support tickets, while necessary, is entry level work. Most large companies don't even use full time employees in their tier 1 and tier 2 groups but instead using contracting companies or even outsource this to places like India or the Philippenes.

Think about it. Your servers are likely hosted in a datacenter. Do you honestly think that the guy who architected your datacenter makes the same amount of money as someone who works support tickets? How about the guy who designed your Active Directory infrastructure? Do you think guys at this level get paid to sit on their asses and play Tetris? What about the guys who develop the custom Line of Business applications for your company?

That's great that you work support tickets and that you have downtime when nothing is breaking, but don't presume to tell me that I must not be doing my job right if I don't also have downtime because what you do and what I do have absolutely nothing in common.

-Byshop

Some jobs have a lot of downtime, where there isn't anything to do. Companies want employees to be there in case they are needed. So, some of you envy his position? Grow up.

Falconoffury

i do im stuck playing kingdom of camalor on my phone lol..Phone games are ok but i wish they had other games lol..

yes actually, the guys that administer our AD do get paid the same as i do. also, our server engineers, aside from running reports, do have down time. finally, we have probably 100+ application analysts, not just a few "guys".... and based on the amount of work that we do to prevent tickets from even getting to them, i know they have down time. and no, working support tickets is not entry level work. saying so is just ludicrous. just shows how big of a head you have. just because your company puts highschool students on working support tickets, or non english speaking indians, doesnt mean every IT group in the world is organized to have people with no experience or education in that role. some companies actually want quality and efficient support, and fill positions like watching interfaces with "entry level" candidates. a quality desktop support candidate with have a minimum of 2 certifications, a degree and 5 years in an enterprise level environment. that isnt entry level. so **** off, and follow your own advice. dont presume that your big head knows everything, and that all IT groups are structured in the apparently inefficient and horribly managed way that your company is.Geminon

I'm amused by the fact that even after all this you still have no idea what I'm talking about. I asked you about AD Architects and you think I'm talking about sys admins. I'm not talking about system administrators, I'm not talking about the rack and stack guys in the DC, and I'm certainly not talking about the guys who work IRs on a daily basis.

I'm talking about the guys who design and build the ticketing and monitoring systems for worldwide companies. I'm talking about the guys who design and build private cloud solutions for national banks. I'm talking about the guys who design the entire IT infrastructure for an automobile manufacturer. There is a world of difference between what these guys do and what desktop support techs do.

When I talk about support organizations, I'm not talking about my company. I'm talking about the Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies and state/federal government organizations that I do work for. Everyone's support org is a little bit different. Taxonomy and structure vary according to business needs as well as what IT ops framework they modelled themselves after (MOF, ITIL, COBIT, etc) but there are some things that are usually pretty constant, like the fact that Tier 1 and Tier 2 support techs are about the lowest skilled positions in an ops organization. Yes, these guys will have downtime from time to time, but they also don't get paid anything like what solution architects make. There are many, many jobs in IT that carry more responsibility than being the guy who tells end users to reboot their workstation.

As I said, the reason I'm ragging on you is because you came in here and told everyone that if they don't have downtime then it's because they are not as efficient as you because (in your imagination) every IT job must be like yours. They are not. I can't even imagine the level of dumbass that goes into making a statement like that, but you're starting to help me understand. :P

-Byshop