The last few months of the work year have been a ride, on top of the typical end of year work that needs to be done to close out the year.

A few things that i’ve observed that i think would be interesting to share, and i, in a nod to my new people manager, will try to use video games as a way to describe my observations.

- history repeats itself

Just like a “game over” screen in any video games, it just seems like the same things will repeat across time

- there’s always a main guy that does most of the work…

Remember the game Halo? Master Chief does most of the work… the rest are just “NPCs”, or non-playing characters

- Talk to anyone/everyone. Ask questions

Other than obvious action games, most RPG games start off by making the gamer go ask questions with every NPC in the game to find out about questions. In some games, you’d even find the NPCs coming back to review your knowledge

- Work together & have a fallback

In Pro Evolution Soccer (ala Winning Eleven), you can work towards a goal (score goals and win matches), but always have an alternative co-player to pass the ball to

- Know each other’s strength & weaknesses

Linking to the above point, each person have their difference. Passing the ball to me and expect me to run 100 yards in 10 seconds is going to be unrealistic. Let me do a “Jan Molby” pass in the middle of the field and i’ll send the speedsters down the right way…

- No standard documentation

In my PC gaming days, Quake is my weapon of choice. Primary goal: survive and kill the other players’ characters.

Step 1: get weapon

Step 2: seek others

Step 3: kill others

Step 4: repeat until you win

How to actually go about doing it comes with experience, knowledge, speed, and any other shortcuts that you might think of.