RPG recommendation for work

[Lord_Potato]

Like the OP, I am also a passionate proponent of playing RPGs in the workplace I've been doing it for years and never been caught. My career does not suffer either. Seems like a win-win situation for me. Even my employer profits from it, by getting a more efficient and less stressed employee...

Anyway, in the last years I've played Dark Sun, Fallout 1,2,Ressurection and Nevada, Icewind Dale 1&2, Arcanum, Another War and several modules of Neverwinter Nights. Plus, a lot of Heroes of Might & Magic 3 and Age of Wonders.

In order to be able to do it, you need to meet several requirements:

1) Work fast and efficiently, so that you can get this hour or two a day for gaming without sacrificing the quality of your work;
2) Have decent bosses, so they don't spy on you and only care about results;
3) Don't be overly ambitious and aim at managerial positions; you won't get much time there. Plus, there are always dozens of people who want to steal your time;
4) Have your own cabinet. Or if you share one, sit with your back to the wall;
5) If you are lucky and have your cabinet, bring your own laptop. Playing on the work PC is always tied to risks. Plus, you usually can't install shit on computer you get from your employer.

In my experience turn based games are better for this than real time (if you really want to play these, choose RTwP). I use to play older titles during work, because the laptop I have there should propably be placed in a museum (from 2006). Fortunately, after New Year I will exchange it for a netbook (from 2011) that my wife has no longer use for. 3 times lighter and with twice the RAM. Should be able to run games produced until 2007 at least. We'll see.

As for the OP's question, the HDD limitation of 200 Mbs is quite harsh. So, we should focus on older titles (from before 1995, when games started being enriched with voiced dialogues and cinematic cutscenes which took lots of disk space). Too bad he already played Dark Sun. Blobbers have more options (Wizardry and M&M series). I guess more modern games that can be recommended are the ones made by Vogel. Geneforge, Avernum, maybe also Eschalon (Basilisk games). Turn based, isometric, and not too hard on the eyes.

For the older titles, Gold Box games and Magic Candle series are worth a try. So, there are most definately quality options there.

 

[hackncrazy]

In order to be able to do it, you need to meet several requirements:

1) Work fast and efficiently, so that you can get this hour or two a day for gaming without sacrificing the quality of your work;

This is a gold rule actually. In my case, I never, NEVER even think of doing anything if I have work to be done. I have total knowledge that I'm there to work, so I don't stop work until there's no more work to be done. Since some friends prefer to have 2 hours of lunch, 15 minutes of coffee break for every hour and other things, I just arrive, sit on my fucking desk and to what I have to do. Once I'm done, then I fire up some game or something.

But yeah, the other requirements are important as well. You have to have at least a little bit of privacy to be able to do this. If you have coworkers/bosses that sit behind you forget it. Even an Ascii game is dangerous because at some point they'll ask what the hell is that and you'll have a bad time. Mobile would be the only safe bet.

 

[Daemongar]

Not new, but plays in a browser Castle of the winds

holy shit, never knew such a site even existed

Yeah, it has Civ II - which for some inexplicable reason (the Wonder Videos?) is my favorite Civ ever, which also causes me to stay up until 5:00 am everytime I even start it...

What incentives there are, excactly, to tell that you need more work?

There are good reasons. I've had temps, interns, and employees who believe that once their work is done they are free to do whatever they want to do. That is, get on Facebook, YouTube, or have 30 minute conversations with co-workers. Or, in the case of an Intern, sit at their desk and just stare off into space. Waiting for their next assignment.

Ultimately, it annoys everyone when people goldbrick. They'll bitch to me, my boss, the president of the company, their boss, or whoever will listen. Then they think you can't control your people or think hiring lazy slobs is acceptable, or you are too stupid to see the guy is a lazy slob. Whatever, people at work are all horrible and do horrible things, and perception is everything.

So an employee who says "I don't have anything going on, need any help?" Is awesome. They are thinking about how they are perceived. They want to be known as a hard worker, and want to help me.

 

[Diggfinger]

You want my recommendation for work?

DO SOME ACTUAL GODDAMN WORK!!!

 

[Jimmious]

In case any young people are reading this thread DO NOT GO WITH THESE IDEAS IN MIND WHEN YOU START WORKING.
Playing games in your workplace can cause serious trouble for you and your career. Some people here do it successfully apparently but it is highly NOT recommended

 

[Darth Roxor]

In case any young people are reading this thread DO NOT GO WITH THESE IDEAS IN MIND WHEN YOU START WORKING.
Playing games in your workplace can cause serious trouble for you and your career. Some people here do it successfully apparently but it is highly NOT recommended

reptilian detected

 

[Urthor]

idk how you can consistently play RPGs at work day in day out from 3-5 o'clock after you finish your work in 6h and want to run the clock to 8. I would legitimately feel guilty and bad that I'm not contributing to my own long term well being and resume. Yeah there are plenty of days where you've been very productive, know you're on track and feel okay to mentality clock off, but every day on the regular seems way excessive.

In the real world yeah you are judged on your milestones at work depending and nobody will give a shit about what you alt tab to once you have made it past the junior employee fresh out of college who is not trusted stage. But just randomly taking a 2h block out of your day when there has to be something not mind numbingly dull and contributing to a long term project seems random and dumb. Mostly safe for work entertainment like random news sites, forums and the codex alongside the aforementioned online courses is way more safe and stops you being "that guy who plays games" around review time.

Also Exit Fate for your under 200mb goodness. I don't know how modern you are demanding though but Suikoden 2 and Suikoden remakes have aged well.

 

[jungl]

also sometimes what kind of boss you have and how physically attractive and charismatic you are. I know a guy that looks like christopher reeve and makes bank playing video games at work and spends his weekends getting laid with multiple girlfriends and still gets annual 3 percent raises lol. His boss some old partially senile woman probably makes her moist. There a lot of factors that go into it. What kind of job you have and who is your boss, how much of a push over are you and are you smart enough not to get caught.

 

[Catacombs]

also sometimes what kind of boss you have and how physically attractive and charismatic you are. I know a guy that looks like christopher reeve and makes bank playing video games at work and spends his weekends getting laid with multiple girlfriends and still gets annual 3 percent raises lol.

You sound bitter about this.

 

[laclongquan]

Successfuls should just explode!

 

[Renevent]

Just an update, as if anyone cared, but I did play Card Hunter for a bit and it was a good recommendation, but didn't last too long not a fan of the card based combat system. I just picked up Into the Breach on GOG.com though and it's perfect game for work. Small (300MB), runs flawlessly in a window, and even has a windowed mode where you don't have to alt-tab out of it and can just move the cursor out of the window. Only played 4 missions so far but it's pretty awesome. Not sure you can classify it as an RPG as it's basically a rogue-lite turn based tactics game, but you do level up your mechs.

 

[Snorkack]

Check out Desktop Dungeons! It's a really nice little time waster. Something between a puzzle, a roguelike and an rpg. A round lasts 10-20 minutes and it's almost like it's made for being played while at work.

 

[Renevent]

Check out Desktop Dungeons! It's a really nice little time waster. Something between a puzzle, a roguelike and an rpg. A round lasts 10-20 minutes and it's almost like it's made for being played while at work.

Yeah that's a great one too, only played the online free version though maybe when I am done with Into the Breach I'll pony up for the full version.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Looking for some recommendations for an RPG to play at work. Just got done with Dark Sun which was pretty fun, though not as fun and little more clunky then 12 year old me remembers. Anyways since this will be played while scripts run, on my work laptop, and in between people popping in and out of my office, it needs to be:

1) Light on system requirements (ie CPU/VC)

2) 200MB or less

3) Turned based, and if not turned based then something at least fairly slow paced where I can pause and I don't have to be furiously controlling it and calling un-needed attention to me and not giving away that I am playing a game.

4) I do kinda want something a little newer, I was thinking about buying the Gold Box pack from GOG.com but I've played them before as a kid and not crazy about having to re-learn and deal with the clunky UI.

5) Runs in a window and able to paused and tabbed out easily and quickly.

-or-

6) Plays in a browser window

Any ideas or suggestions would be great, and I def am more interested in free/browser based stuff as that would be the easiest to play at work.

Angband. Rogue-likes are perfrect for work.

 

[Nael]

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

The boss ALWAYS think he pay his workers too much. ALWAYS. It's a hidden code line inside the job, and anyone ever has to wear the boss hat, will, sooner or later, think that way.

Logic doesnt come into that.

So if you are smart, you dont play game at work. If you do, try to use ASCII games with good boss app.

Dont even show that you are playing games at work to your coworker. Morals, ethics, and calculation aside, you might infect your less-than-you worker with the attitude of it's okay playing game at work. you owe your boss at least that consideration.

(OF course, there's some bosses say and appear to not mind you playing games at work. That is because you are a too-valuable-to-lose-over-this-issue smartass, so they have to salvage what they can. If you are no longer valuable, yeah, well, out the door you go.)

You need a better boss. I had a team build a Mame cabinet as a team building exercise. They researched all components, got the gear and divided up the responsibilities. Some on the cabinet and control panel design, others on electronics and controls, others on system and Mame config. It was a highly successful build and exercise for the team. They had boisterous Street Fighter II tournaments every day at lunch.

An line with what Revenant said, if you have a 'job' you are probably having to show that you are efficiently working all the time. If you have professional career you are likely judged on results, but you can still run into good or bad places to work. Hopefully you find one of the good jobs ASAP.

 

[laclongquan]

"seek a better boss" is like the holy grail of worker~ It's not a method, it's a goal.