Americans spend more time at work than any other country in the world,adult brestfeeding sexe video and our individual productivity is terrifyingly high. That said, we sure as hell don’t spend all of our time at work actually working.
Playing games at work is a time-honored tradition. Windows computers come with Minesweeperand Solitairefor a reason, you know. But getting caught by the boss slacking off on company time isn’t terribly good for your paycheck. If you’re gaming on the clock, you need to be playing something that lets you cover your tracks.
Some games used to ship with a “panic button” that let you quickly switch away from the game screen to a fake spreadsheet, in case your supervisor paid an unexpected visit to your desk. Here are some titles that either blend in perfectly with office activities, are playable in a normal web browser, or otherwise let you disguise your slacking in innovative ways.
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Here’s our selection of 11 games perfect for wasting time at work.
Initium
Most MMORPGs require you to pay near-constant attention to the game world if you want to succeed, which isn’t a good idea if you’re slacking off at work. Initiumthrows that out the window. The turn-based exploration and combat means you can shut it down in a panic if you hear your boss coming. The game is still in development, but it already has PvP, an economy, and even player-created areas. Even cooler, you can log in from your phone as well as your computer, so if you want to have some game time in the bathroom, it’s all good.
868-HACK
Australian game designer Michael Brough produces systems that devastatingly mix apparent simplicity with incredible depth. Most of his games are available on iOS, but 868-HACKis also on Steam. The turn-based roguelike puts the player in command of a “hacker” investigating a heavily corrupted system. The graphics are primitive, the sound is awful (but you should have your speakers off anyways), but it’s impossibly addictive and, at first glance, looks less like a “game” and more like “you should maybe call IT and have them fix your computer.” That said, this game might change your life.
Torn
Here’s another browser-based game, but this one is set in a modern-day dystopia as opposed to a fantasy world. Tornbills itself as the “world’s largest text-based multiplayer game,” and that might actually not be an exaggeration. When you first create your character, you’ll be a petty criminal at the bottom of the ladder, but by committing crimes, robbing from other people, and generally wreaking havoc, you’ll grow in power and influence. If being at work makes you have antisocial fantasies about tearing down capitalist society, this is going to be the safety valve you need to not go full Tyler Durden.
DEFCON
We’re trying to make sure the games on this list will work on whatever piece of crap machine that your IT department has saddled you with, so no cutting-edge graphics abuse. Introversion’s breakthrough 2006 game DEFCONis a perfect pick. It’s not going to tax your desktop too bad, and it’s not flashy enough to draw attention. The gameplay draws heavily from Cold War flicks like War Games, with predictably downbeat results: you’re basically guaranteed to lose millions of civilian lives, you just need to make sure your enemies lose more.
Urban Dead
One of the most long-lived browser-based games of all time, Urban Deadis the common ancestor to hit titles like DayZ. The game, which launched in 2005 and is still going strong, lets you spawn in a city post-zombie apocalypse and fend for yourself. One of the coolest aspects is that if your human character gets bit and zombified, you still have control of them as a zombie — there are no AI enemies, just other people. Zombies can also be brought back to life. You can’t play a ton of this a day — actions are limited to about 10 minutes — but it’s a good way to take a break from TPS reports.
Highgrounds
Strategy game Highgroundsisn’t quite as innocuous-looking as some of the other entries here, but it’s insanely addictive and fun, and runs right in your browser, meaning you can minimize it at a moment’s notice. The basic gameplay is easy to learn: place warriors on a battlefield and watch them face off with enemies across the aisle, each with their own special ability. The sheer volume of characters to recruit gives Highgroundstons of strategic potential. Daily events and PvP battles are the cherry on top of the sundae.
Arena XLSM
Most of the games on this list assume you have internet access at work — this isn’t the Dark Ages, after all. But what if you don’t? What if all you have is a copy of Microsoft Excel and a dream? Play Arena XLSM, a role-playing game written entirely in a spreadsheet program. The one-man project of Canadian chartered accountant Cary Walkin, it’s a lot bigger than you think it might be, with thousands of unique enemies, boss fights, and even four separate endings.
Nuklear LORD
Back in the early days of networked computing, “door games” were the hot use of processing cycles. Online bulletin boards would host these programs that let players enter into a fictional world, explored entirely through text commands. One of the most famous was 1989’s Legend Of The Red Dragon, coded by Seth Robinson. Players were given a set number of turns a day to explore, fight battles, attack, or even flirt with other players. Nuklear LORDis a modern-day update of the game designed to be played in a web browser. Even almost thirty years later, the game is still incredibly fun for short sessions every day.
SimAnt
One of the great hidden secrets of the internet is the incredible catalog of old DOS games available at the Internet Archive. Hundreds of old-school programs are playable in your web browser through emulation, and you could spend weeks of office time digging through them all. If you want a good place to start, how about Will Wright’s 1991 SimAnt? The award-winning game puts you in command of a nest of black ants that needs to triumph over other insects and eventually swarm a human family out of their house. Life as a bug will make you feel a little better about life in the cubicle, and you might even learn something in the process.
Leadership
This might be one of the most cunningly disguised games we’ve ever seen. Leadership, from a group of Danish developers, looks exactly like something you’d have to trudge through at work. Squint a little, though, and you’ll see a tiny spaceship in between those lines. You got it: this is a variation on the classic Lunar Lander, where you have a set amount of fuel to get a sensitive spacecraft from point A to point B — in this case, a flat part at the end of a line. The sheer camouflage factor is one thing, but Leadershipis actually really fun to play and even has online leaderboards so you can compete with fellow slackers all over the world.
Illyriad
Most browser-based city-building games are pretty shallow, relying on the Clash of Clans model to keep people hooked. Illyriadbreaks the mold in a number of compelling ways that make it one of the best in its field. The game, which launched in 2010, takes place in a persistent online world with no resets, meaning that the entire player base can interact with each other. You start out as the leader of a humble town and must grow it into a military and economic force through your own wits. A huge technology tree, constant political intrigue, and server-wide special events add even more fun to the mix.
This story originally appeared on Geek.
Topics Gaming