"Houston, We Have A Problem" for Microsoft shakes up even the ones most pampered

How hard is it to please Microsoft employees? After all, they have superior working conditions, solid salaries, high intelligence, and lots of games and entertainment opportunities. With all that at their disposal, is it even possible for a game to get these people exciting, and their eyes light up? Well, we found one!

Mission. Enhance cross-functional interaction, trust-building, and horizontal networking through gamification methods.

Background. The company's employees are smart, independent, and yet self-contained and autonomous. The management, in turn, finds it important for IT specialists to interact more with each other and stay in the same information space.

Interesting and challenging at the same time, the project required us to maintain the high standards set by Microsoft. To meet their level of expectation, we had to come up with something to captivate the best minds with. To complicate the game, we had to make some serious alterations.

The in-game tasks faced by the participants were planting a flag by lifting each other, solving math problems to access the next step, launching and adjusting a lighthouse using mirrors to point a laser beam to the right spot, collecting water with the Challenge Bottle, and fixing an air filter – all through communication and mutual assistance.

Over the 2 hours, the participants lived through an exciting adventure with full emotional involvement and complete immersion in the game. Demonstrating the mastery of effective interaction and mutual support, they learned how to work as a team using the strengths of each member.