So have you ever played games while at work or while attending a class?

Games are everywhere these days.  People of all ages are flocking to games on their iPhones, cell phones, iPods, PSP’s, and of course laptops.

Obviously many argue that they’re perfectly capable of doing more than one thing at once, and with games like solitaire where there are no time limits involved this is pretty understandable.

On the other hand, lawmakers were recently singled out in photos showing their apparent lack of interest in their congressional duties at a time where budgets where weeks late, bills were being signed without being read, and of course during a time of war when our leaders appear to be unable to make any decision as to how to fight it.

Nevertheless, gaming is becoming more and more a part of our daily lives.  There are obviously times when it is certainly inappropriate to be playing online games.  During weddings, funerals, church services, and probably while passing law.

On the other hand, there are plenty of times when you simply need a distraction from the daily grind.  In the U.S., federal labor law dictates that you are allowed at least one fifteen minute break for every 4 hour work period.  If that involves a little gaming to find that escape, then what’s the problem?  Plus you often have a whole hour at lunch right?  Chances are if you have a few minutes to unwind, you’ll do a better job of focusing once you get back to work.

FACT:  Gaming is cheaper and better for you than taking a smoke break.

One of my favorite games is Evony.  This is an online expansion and conquest game that involves building up a small village and eventually evolving it into not only a large castle, but you can have an entire countryside of castles.   I quit Evony, see note below!

But there is more to Evony than just building castles and maintaining an army.  In its own way, Evony teaches us a few things that we should be reminded of in business, in marketing, and in life.

1. Consistently making small efforts towards building your dreams.
   Whether your dream is to build your business, a second income, a new home, or in this case a small castle, Evony teaches us that it’s better to make hundreds of small motions, than to simply put off everything because you don’t have time to make big motions.

   With Evony, you can log on, make a few changes, and then get back to what you were doing.  You don’t have to sit there and babysit it for hours on end.  With proper planning you can log in, build up your castle, and then come back later to enjoy the benefits and plan for the next stage in your development.

2. Proper Planning and Evolutionary Growth
   As with any venture, there are more little things to do at the very beginning.  With Evony, the initial task are set in minutes, rather than hours.  Plus Evony’s beginner kits allow you to skip past the waiting.  The proper use of these tools can make the game especially enjoyable when you have time to play a bit longer than usual. As your castle grows and your character gains prestige, you will have more and more responsibilities.  You will find that you need to decide when and where to expand, and how to allocate those resources.

3. Failure Happens
   You also have to be prepared for failure and even be able to withstand and recover from disasters.  Look, anybody that tells you that they built their business, marketed a business, or even created their dream home without some unexpected challenges and failures is simply a liar.  Evony isn’t a fantasy game where you can just go chat with friends every day.  In order to keep from getting squashed, you’re going to have to build up a defense and join an alliance.

4. Reward Happens!
   With risk comes reward right?  Well it’s true too with Evony.  Instead of a long boring tutorial on how to play the game, Evony intelligently created a reward system to inspire correct behavior.  Good boy… roll over!  Okay so what it works!   It’s still better than tutorials.   Evony is brilliant in their rewards system.  You get rewarded for accomplishing things, and those rewards grow depending on how difficult the accomplishment is.  As in any business, there is also just plain dumb luck involved.  Evony has a daily reward that you get just for playing, but that reward is entirely random.  But isn’t that like real life?   If you had not stayed late to help a client, you wouldn’t have received the phone call from another client that’s ready to make a big order.   These things happen and you never know what’s around the corner.

I could go on and on about Evony.  If you like strategy games, then you’ll like this one.  The only thing I can think of that would make this better would be interactive battle scenes.  Evony has tons of detail when it comes to building the logistics for a successful city, but when it comes down to warfare and battlefield strategies, it is lacking a bit.  But hey no game is perfect.

This one is certainly fun and unless you want to buy upgrades, it’s absolutely free.  Plus, you can log in from any web-browser, set your actions, and get back to work in under a minute!

So hop onto Evony at evony.com and look for Lord Barkon on Server 084!

Actually I quit playing Evony.   The constant push to get me to pay them money, and lots of it… just caused me to get sick of the game.  At one point, I couldn’t advance until I paid something, so I quit!  I still like the concept, but not with a game where you compete with people who can simply plug money in to defeat you.

- Tony Darrick Baker