The future of work is play: Global shifts suggest rise in productivity games

Shifts in global, societal, technological, economic, and socio-political trends will shape the future of work. The culmination of these distinct trends across multiple facets of societal and technological advancement will lead to an increased use of game mechanics in the workplace of the future. Over the last several years, several Microsoft teams have deployed “productivity games” to improve software engineering processes through the application of game mechanics. Augmenting a business process with game mechanics has led to significant productivity improvements. These lessons support the notion that games can - and will - be an important component of the workplace of the future.