Meanwhile, back at the addiction...

A very frivolous post tonight, in honor of the warm, lazy-feeling evening that the storm front has left at its back. In fact, I think that I might just make a tradition of "Frivolous Friday."

But about that addiction. I've gone more or less dormant for 20 days in Facebook's "Medieval Empires," mainly because I was on the cusp of leveling up, and didn't want to do so without considerably more firepower. That meant salting away income at a punishing 10% penalty. There was a short skirmish with my conscience a few days ago when I saw that my one and only "ally"--whom I consider an adversary, really--had made huge gains on my attack level. But patience paid off and I again command in excess of a 3:1 advantage. Whew! Glad to know that the Universe has been restored to its rightful proportions... [eyeroll]

One thing that bugs me about "Medieval Empires" is that the profile page for any player includes buttons for repeatedly attacking them and even "raiding" them (which actually reduces their current attack level). I see people do that all the time. I see that it's happened to me when I log in, and I see on the "recent activity" pages that others (including my so-called ally) do it to others. That's just cheesy, in my considerably-less-than-humble opinion.

But the phenomenon prompts an idea: Why not use a relatively simple text-based game like "Medieval Empires" as part of the job interview process? I'm thinking that you could set it up to be available on the off-hours, so interviewees don't have to take time off from work to "play" the game. The key is that you can't make the objectives known. Because you're not really interested in how many bazillion bling-y gold tchotchkes anyone racks up. You're interested in how quickly they latch on to the rules--written and un-. You're interested in whether they find the cheats--and whether or not they use them when they do. You're interested in how hard they push back against constraints. And you're particularly interested in whether or not they will screw over their "allies" if they think they can get away with it.

Now, undoubtedly, this sort of "game" would take considerable programmer-hours as well as beaucoup consulting hours (from your local psychologist) to set up. Additionally, a certain percentage of folks will always shy away from the competitive aspects, which undermines the value of the exercise. Truth be told, I'm not much of a gamer unless the alchemy of personality is involved. Aside to K.S.: One day, I will crush you at "Settlers of Catan!" Mark my words: Victory will be mine, I tell you! Mine!!! ;-)

Ahem.

Most importantly, you need to understand precisely what traits you're looking for. And I do mean precisely: gnothi seauton is the operative phrase here. But for cryin' in yer' beer, the absolute last thing you want to do is allow the archetypal HR Dept. anywhere near the scores. This sort of thing is intended to be a supplement--actually, make that an antidote--to the usual Buzzword Bingo and B.S. Bossa Nova that pass for vetting your co-workers.