The four game additions are designed to be played in multiplayer groups within your Teams calls, in order to spark some light entertainment and office rivalry before diving into your latest Powerpoint deck. It’s part of an initiative which Microsoft has dubbed Games for Work, and is designed to show results and highlight winners of groups of players - from two people up to 250. Solitaire and Minesweeper are self-explanatory, as is Wordament - if you’ve tried the more recent Microsoft game which pits you against the clock to find words from a letter grid. IceBreakers, meanwhile, acts as a choice-based quiz where you can poll people on their preferences in order to spark conversation. “Would you rather site in the quiet or loud part of the office?” is one such query. It’s like JackBox but for CEOs. Announcing the games, Microsoft quoted one scientific stufy which stated employees who played short video games together were 20 percent more productive than those forced to endure more traditional team-building exercises. I unfortunately have to use Teams a fair bit, and can certainly see myself giving this a go.
