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Work is Play!!

January 14, 2010May 5, 2018 Prasad Ajinkya2 Comments

I have been reading Reeves and Read’s Total Engagement: Using games and virtual worlds to change the way people work and business compete, this is as part of my work (I know, rocking job :-)). The whole idea started when we decided to see how individuals change their approach of work if they see their passion in their work (and not the other way round!!). One of my passions is games. Hence the book, and to see how games can be used in work scenarios in order to change the way employees engage with their jobs.

By the first set of chapters itself, the authors had me re-affirm my faith in games completely. The authors looked at around 800 different jobs available with the US Labour Department (O*NET), and identified around 50 0r so different capacities/skills needed to function in those jobs. Each of these skills was then explained as something that we (as gamers) do whilst playing our favorite games.

So why do we pay for doing the something for which we can also get paid for? Why cannot work become play? I strongly believe it can be made into a play-space. Imagine your job as a MUD :-)

Learnings from start-ups

January 12, 2010May 5, 2018 Prasad Ajinkya5 Comments

During my brief stint with eYantra, our foundation team did some cool stuff. We also made more than our fair share of blunders. I am just putting it down in one place, so that oth ers can benefit from our experience. On reflecting back, I am glad this happened because it was an eye opener in more senses than one. It was also a stint which significantly boosted my confidence.

I worked there for a span of two years, and had to come back to Mumbai because of personal reasons. What happened after that I only came to know through small and infrequent chats with the employees there. Enough to realize that I need to share this with everyone to benefit from the collective’s insights.

The Do’s

Have high levels of energy. It’s your baby, only you can make it happen and no one else. If this requires sacrificing lazy Saturdays and Sundays, then so be it.
Your core team can make the difference between a failed idea and a successful venture. Their group dynamics is very important for your venture to succeed.
Weekly meetings to keep everyone upto par on different tracks. I think this becomes more important with increasing members in the team.
Show a sense of direction, and be integral to your vision. If you falter, your team looses faith in you. Soul searching (if any) should be done with as small a team as possible.
When in doubt, discuss. Come to a common agreement with the team to move ahead.
Be starkly honest to the first set of your employees. Treat them like family. If you are a product oriented firm, then your product development team is to be treated with the utmost respect.
Get some market traction before your product is ready. That way you will already have a ready buyer for the product.
(appended) Find differentiators and expound them in the market
(appended) Believe in your idea. If you don’t believe in it, then no one else will

The Dont’s

In an e-commerce setup, all the divisions are important. One cannot run without the other. Treat them likewise.
Under-commit but don’t over-commit. Your reputation is at stake e.g. if you promise someone biryani and deliver daal then it won’t be appreciated, but the other way round, you will have a satisfied customer
Don’t expect your employee to show the same amount of commitment that you have. You have equity, they don’t.
Confounding your employees with that variable performance bonus … it’s more of a disabler (suggestions welcome here). (amended) If you still want to have that variable, then have complete transparency in how it is calculated, and give your employees a chance to perform by including it in the next round of appraisal.

The list will be re-visited upon and your comments will be integrated into this. Thanks in advance.

Manish Saini writes –

Don’t reduce the pay of your urrent employees in the pretext of the variable, rather introduce as a part of your next round of appraisal.

Ranjith Boyanapalli writes –

DOs would be to “find a valid differentiator” and have your “goto market strategy well in place”.

Mayur Pathak writes –

Every idea needs its own time and grooming. It is important to be persistent enough. Take suggestions though, but dont rely on them. Dont give up just because you lost patience or because some one said so. Come to the office every morning thinking this is going to be the best day ever.

don’t reduce the pay of your urrent employees in the pretext of the variable, rather introduce as a part of your next round of appraisal

Rise of Nations: Strategy should be civilization specific

January 11, 2010February 7, 2017 Prasad Ajinkya14 Comments

Any season player will tell you that the choice of civilization will make or break your game. This is all the more true in multi-player games. When our lot started playing, we quickly realized that certain nations are way much better than the rest. Soon, some of us developed their styles around certain civilizations. Amongst the entire lot, one of us could never figure out which is his best civ. He used to play the same with any civilization … soon it dawned on the rest of us, that this is the way the game is to be played. You need to be as good or as effective with any civilization. What needs to change is our choice of strategy.

For example, if you are Aztec, then you have to be a war-monger. You cannot stay in peace. If you are Greeks, then you have to boom and race ahead in terms of ages. So on and so forth. Some civilizations are well rounded. The Americans, Dutch … Indians … I think they are very well balanced to suit any strategy.

I know some of you may not agree, but I think the winning player is the one who can choose the right strategy with the right game play style with the right civilization. That’s the trick.

Rise of Nations: Delayed rush

January 10, 2010May 5, 2018 Prasad Ajinkya3 Comments

In continuation to the earlier post on Rise of Nations, I realized that rushing strategy changes once you are on a sea map. The complications are there because you need to go Sci1, Mil1 and Com1 (to build a port). That means time management has to be absolutely spot on. The ante of the gamble rises because by the time you have a sizeable army and navy to support the crossing, the opponent has gained significant advantage by booming.

So one of the main decisions you have to take is – do you sacrifice economy or the element of surprise? Sea maps are generally long drawn out battles, and the quick rush at the start can really turn the tables. This is even more applicable against the AI. The moment you are across, the first thing should be to capture a city. That becomes your military base. All military upgrades you do on your home base, all unit production on your military base.

How do to Delayed Rush

Here is how I go about the delayed rush –

Build two villagers and set them on timber
Research Sci1, then Civ1 (I try to strike a balance between speed and economy)
Build a farm, keep churning more villies
Build the second town and go for Com1 the moment it is feasible (54 food, 54 wood)
Focus on wood, build one more timber mill
Build a dock and some fishing ships, one to explore, the other (1-2 to fish)
By this time you are ready for Mil1, research and build a barracks. Note: Do not stop churning out villies, putting them on wood and farms
Aim for Classical age and while you are aging start building units at the barracks. I generally squeeze 3HI + 1 archer before I age.
The moment you age go for the senate. Research Despotism, this gives you 25% cheaper barrack units.
Now start churning barrack units. Atleast 3HI + 2LI. So you should be having 6HI + 2LI + 1 archer.
By this time, your fishing ship would have found your opponents shores, take your army (with the patriot), and head towards the shore. This should be around the seventh minute or so of the game, by which not many players have put together a navy. How to tackle with the navy we will deal later.
Board the shores, and head for the nearest city. Attack mercilessly, and take it down.
Search for enemy barracks and take it out as well. Wait for the city to assimilate.
Once the city is yours, then convert this into a military base. Barracks, Stables, Siege … the works.
A temple and a fort would also be advised. This gives you more space territory. More territory + attrition is a good defensive tactic.

Now use your home base as an economic powerhouse, and the military base as the hammer and nail to drive into your opponents heart.

If you see the screenshot I have attached, I was playing against Americans, had managed to put two cities and launch an attack on the enemy shores. Found the second city, and took it. Then used it to take the capital and then the third city.

Variants

I have seen some folks wait for even some more time to research Mil2, and get some siege engines in place. That is also effective, but then to launch an attack you will also need some naval support to engage with the opponent’s navies.

Rise of Nations: Rushing

January 9, 2010May 5, 2018 Prasad Ajinkya10 Comments

This is for all gamers who play Rise of Nations (and/or Thrones and Patriots). One of the most effective strategies is rushing early on in the game. I shall put it down with pros and cons that I have experienced in the last 18 months of playing the game.

What is a rush?

A rush is done by immediately launching into an attack and striking the opponent before he realizes what just happened. He might be building the 5th farm, getting ready to age, and boom! in comes your army from the darkness and takes his capital. Yeah … that’s what I am talking about.

How is it done?

Pretty simple really. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book.

Research Mil1 (some civs already come with this, you are lucky then). An alternate is to go Sci1, Mil1 (but I feel you end up loosing precious timber)
Start scouting and build 2-3 villies and put atleast one on farming
Build a barrack and start churning out Heavy Infantry (HI). Use the scout on auto, and HI created on micro to search for more ruins. Fastest way to build your resources.
Build atleast 4 HI and start heading towards the general direction of your opponents capital. Ignore other cities, you will get to those later. If you are not able to find the capital, then only go for other cities.
Keep the unit queue in your barracks active. I aim for 6HI + 2LI (light infantry to take out archers). For speed you can do 5HI + 1LI as well.
The minute you find the capital, use all soldiers to attack the capital. Beware of towers and archers.
Keep an eye out for the opponent’s barracks. If you have been fast enough, then he should be constructing it right now. Use one HI to tear the construction down (but this is not your priority, the capital is)
That should do, you will get the capital sack (+500 resources). If you think that you can hold onto this city (i.e if you have suffered minimal damages, then continue churning more LI (2-3) and some bowmen. Then age. If you think you are going to loose the city, then start razing resources (timber first, farms next, temple, market, university in that order)

Counter

You can counter a rush. Here’s how –

Go Mil1 and build a barracks
Build a tower behind your capital. With behind I mean, keep the capital between the tower you build and the direction from which you most expect the attack from.
In the barracks build 1-2 archers
Focus on booming and aging to the next age. Post which the first research should be attrition in the tower

Pros

If done properly, you can now use the existing resources as a launchpad for the next opponent. I have seen players do double and triple rushes even taking out 3 players in a go
War happens far away from your capital leaving you with a busy resource churning capital
In the least it cripples the opponent and makes him ultra-paranoid

Cons

If countered well, you are left with a crippled economy and defenseless. It takes a good player to come out of this situation
If you are attacked by another player when your army is attacking someone else, then its bye-bye capital and without a city almost immediate loss

In the screenshot I have attached, I was playing a 1-1 Arena match against a Tough comp (piece of cake). I started out with enough resources and a good civ (Turks – faster assimilation). I was not able to find the capital, so I took the city I could find (see the minimap). Then I got to see the border of the capital and moved towards that direction. By this time the Brit had made a barrack (+1 free archers). Fortunately I had 2 slingers to take on the archers. All is well :). By the seventh minute I had taken 2 cities and game over.

Seasoned players, feel free to chip in.

Vipul says (and I agree) –

If you see that the map is a sea map and you have already started plans for the rush, then you need to change strategies a little bit. You need to go for a delayed rush, and switch from pure rushing to delayed rush and booming.

Rise of Nations

January 8, 2010May 5, 2018 Prasad Ajinkya1 Comment

I started playing Rise of Nations during my post graduate days as a student. The second year of post grad was filled with high energy bursts of activity followed with lazy days of meandering nothing. Lazy is an understatement here. Anyways, I found the game interface slick, experience interesting, but the sad part was that the computer always ended up kicking my a$$. I was playing the game the way I used to play AOE. That was’nt enough. Why should I build another town when the one that I have is well secure? In the midst of placements, and general frolicking, I soon gave up the game. I started playing the game again almost 4 years later, this time with friends who were a whole decade younger to me.

The multi-player environment followed by the zest to get better and better (not to mention the competitive levels of the other players, you know who you are :-)) egged me on to find more stuff about this game. In fact TIME magazine has done a piece on this game and how it enables elder people to slow their mental decline. Next time someone asks me why I play this game, I simply say – capacity building ;-) (I hone my multi-tasking skills!)

Passion and intent

January 7, 2010February 7, 2017 Prasad Ajinkya1 Comment

Bill Watterson to in the commencement speech to his alma matter (Kenyon College), came out with several gems. I wonder how many of them will be retained by the original audience.

An excerpt –

Like many people, I found that what I was chasing wasn’t what I caught. I’ve wanted to be a cartoonist since I was old enough to read cartoons, and I never really thought about cartoons as being a business. It never occurred to me that a comic strip I created would be at the mercy of a bloodsucking corporate parasite called a syndicate, and that I’d be faced with countless ethical decisions masquerading as simple business decisions.

Bill talks about his passion, and how it manifested in different forms during his college years. How the passion overtook him, and then how the business overtook his passion. Without keeping your mind fresh, if you engage with passion, then even you might go through the same experience. The key to it is to play and keep an open mind for different ideas and experiences. So what new did you learn today?