Didn't notice if this was mentioned or not, but there are some commercial solutions like deathswitch.com

They fire off emails to you on a schedule. If you fail to respond, then they suspect maybe you are pushing up daisies... other fail-safes kick in (they check with a designated friend, etc.). If you are, indeed gone, then they spew whatever you want to whomever you designate. You can even program in a follow up or two for later. A year after you are dead, a nice parting practical joke, eh?

What??? Game Programmers are NOT secretive at all. We share virtually everything! I'm sitting right now at the tail end of GDC where we spent a week of doing nothing but sharing. Where did you get that notion?

Seriously.... a book?

Just Google what you want to know.

If you've done C#, then look at XNA. It lets you do game stuff in C#. You know how to program, now just pick up things you don't know to build on that toolbox. On sites like http://create.msdn.com/ you can find all the information you need, and better yet, full functioning examples projects to pick apart and learn from.

Why back in my day there was no Google machine. Much less any book son the subject. Now there is so much information out there, for free, you have no excuse to not just trip over it even if you take 10 seconds to look for it.

ROWE was initiated at Best Buy internally and has grown way past that. It may be the one great thing Best Buy ever came up with.

You can be snarky about it. Or... educate yourself.

Actually, I don't care either way. For those of us who live it, there is absolutely no going back. Ever.

Yes, I was being hyperbolic to make a point and get attention.... :D

We did away with formal vacation time, sick time, etc.

You have unlimited amounts of it.

ROWE is a system where an employeer treats their employees like competent adults who know how to manage their time.

Does everyone know how to do that? No. And those people fail to get good results under ROWE and get fired.

Is measuring results hard? It's as easy or as hard as you want to make it. You can do 360 Reviews and all that BS if you want. Or you can keep it more informal, like we do.

ROWE increases productivity and employee's become amazingly loyal.

The biggest difficulty with it is for the boss(es) who feel like they are somehow losing control. Who fear that the day after they start ROWE no one will come into the office anymore. Know what really happens? People come into the office, they get work done, and they feel far, far less stress.

It is amazing. Its simple. It works. And of all the BS systems that have come and gone, this is the one that just flat out does what it says.

We'd never consider going back. Ever.

At my company, we did away with vacations. You get no vacation time. At. All.

But that was just for starters, we also did away with sick time. None.

Personal days? Don't make me laugh.

I am proud to say that was my initiative.

One might think this could have some impact on moral. But when asked during on camera interviews, how much would people have to pay you to leave? Some said at least double, and most said they couldn't even think of a number.

If you want to know how that's possible, then Google ROWE. Results Only Work Environment. And you'll understand why.

I give talks about our transition to ROWE, and it's been nothing but phenomenal.

David

Does this mean things that patents that were previously invalidated by prior art will then be patentable again?

I know that's the common belief, but that's not technically accurate. It is not "illegal" to not buy health insurance. You might be subject to a surtax that's basically the same as the premium, if you don't. I say "might" because there are exemptions.

For the boring details: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/H.R._3962/Division_A/Title_V/Subtitle_A/Part_1/Subpart_A#Sec._501.

Yes, they exist to offer their services. They don't own the concept of ROWE, just good insight into implementations of it.

The book is good, but a little hyperbolic. We also had them come out and do a one day course. That was semi useful. Geared more towards the corporate environment than we had already.

But the concept is sound, practical and really makes work a much better experience.

Telecompute is so.... 90s. I hate to say it. But we've moved past that.

The future is ROWE. Results Oriented Work Environment. In a ROWE only results matter. Not how you get it done, or where you get it do it.

In essence, if you can get your work done from a tropical island (with good wifi), then by all means do it. You are not paid for putting your butt in a seat, but rather for your productivity.

ROWE treats employees as adults who know how to manage their own time. Telecommuting, "flex time" and the like are just ways of rewarding employees with what they should already have... control over their lives.

ROWE came out of a successful experiment at Best Buy (HQ not retail stores). Its been adopted by a lot of big name companies, including Netflix.

To learn more, check out: http://gorowe.com/

I switched my company to ROWE last year after months of due diligence. And we've never looked back.

David

Yeah, so we set out to do something about it. We spent 20 months building Fantasy University on Facebook (now in open beta).

One of the things we did was decide we'd make a game first, and layer on only the minimal trappings of social game mechanics. There was a gnawing feeling all along, coupled with data from those who knew better, that this would be a tough road.

The good news is we did create a game that's got tons of depth, serious game play mechanics and great content that can be entertaining all by itself. But our microtrans and social elements remain rather unsophisticated. At least if you measure them by the so-called psychological tricks that are used. Sure we give some benefits for having your friends play and such, but its not about that.

So is that a good idea? We have a promising start, but it's too early to tell much. But I can see that massive volume is all about playing the meta game with those who come to your app. And I'm not certain that's the sort of business we want to be in....

So we are in a bit of quandary on which way to take it.

** spoiler alert **

I sorta of like the fact you had to cap her out of her missery... but then they really wused out in the ending. It made no sense that your character was still alive ("It's not your time yet") even though he hurtled himself into the sun... and then the chick will just be hanging out in the spirit world waiting for you when you want to bang her. Yeah.....whatever.