I'm starting this in the Off-Topic Discussion because the point isn't what game you played or how you played it (although I'd love to know) but whether you played at all. Specifically, at work.
I know plenty of you probably have a DS in your pocket or bag when you're at work in case of lunch breaks or waiting for the train or whatnot, but how many of you have flagrantly violated your employers' trust by playing games on the clock in lieu of actually performing any work?
When I had just graduated from my first university I worked as manager of a twin-screen cinema in a small town in the South. The movies started at 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 and there was about half an hour of work to do selling tickets, helping concessions people, whatever around those times. The next 90 minutes were completely idle. It didn't take me long to bring in my Xbox and hook it up to the security camera television. I completed GTA3 and Vice City to 100% while I worked there.
Another time I was working for an oilfield service company completing wells. There's a lot of really dangerous, heavy labor in those jobs, but there's also a lot of paid downtime while you're waiting for another company to do their thing on the wellhead. I kept a 360 and a 15" widescreen TV in a Pelican case I took from worksite to worksite. We'd sit around the trailer while we were waiting for somebody else to finish and play Halo 3, Dirt, or GTAIV.
Overall I've probably been paid around $10,000 USD to play video games in my lifetime. I stress though that this was during times when I had to BE at work, but didn't really have any well-defined tasks to perform. Oh yeah, I could have been field-stripping ethanol pumps or inventorying popcorn or whatever, but there was never a moment when something needed doing and didn't get done because I was massacring the Covenant.
What's your gaming at work story? Do you feel guilty about it? How much have you been paid to play in your "career?"
I know plenty of you probably have a DS in your pocket or bag when you're at work in case of lunch breaks or waiting for the train or whatnot, but how many of you have flagrantly violated your employers' trust by playing games on the clock in lieu of actually performing any work?
When I had just graduated from my first university I worked as manager of a twin-screen cinema in a small town in the South. The movies started at 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 and there was about half an hour of work to do selling tickets, helping concessions people, whatever around those times. The next 90 minutes were completely idle. It didn't take me long to bring in my Xbox and hook it up to the security camera television. I completed GTA3 and Vice City to 100% while I worked there.
Another time I was working for an oilfield service company completing wells. There's a lot of really dangerous, heavy labor in those jobs, but there's also a lot of paid downtime while you're waiting for another company to do their thing on the wellhead. I kept a 360 and a 15" widescreen TV in a Pelican case I took from worksite to worksite. We'd sit around the trailer while we were waiting for somebody else to finish and play Halo 3, Dirt, or GTAIV.
Overall I've probably been paid around $10,000 USD to play video games in my lifetime. I stress though that this was during times when I had to BE at work, but didn't really have any well-defined tasks to perform. Oh yeah, I could have been field-stripping ethanol pumps or inventorying popcorn or whatever, but there was never a moment when something needed doing and didn't get done because I was massacring the Covenant.
What's your gaming at work story? Do you feel guilty about it? How much have you been paid to play in your "career?"
