In some games your timezones night and day will also be reflected in the game. It means that from a certain point in time onwards the light settings turn to dusk or darkness and you have less visibility. In addition it also means that other creatures and dangers could appear in your game play reflecting actual threats that are bigger or smaller in night or daylight.
From a work related gamification perspective, using a day and night setting on your systems, may well be an interesting measure to curb over-working and “stayism” – where people stay just so they are not perceived to be slacking. Most of us are more productive when we take regular breaks and have a shorter working day. In one company they take day and night settings quite literally and they effectively heist up all the desks at 6pm to stop over-working and staying late culture.
With some European countries adopting shorter working weeks and even policies to prevent bosses from ringing employees after hours, the approach taken to shut off at a specific time may not be a standalone for the office mentioned above. From a productivity perspective this is also backed up by research, some studies even stating that optimal working weeks should only be 3 days long from a certain age.
I know for sure in some offices I worked in, it was nearly a competition on who could stay on the longest. Not that more was necessarily achieved, but perception to keep up reality. I personally find it hard to switch off when i know there is work to be done and I still feel relatively fit to do it. Other days when the mind is not in it, I have on occasion called it a day really early. Often the next day is a lot better. I do think it’s fun to aim for a hard deadline and desks moving into the ceiling is a very hard deadline.
From a gamification perspective, what would you limit access to after hours an why and what would you leave running?
