A Cold Stone Creamery store manager counts a game developed by her employer--designed to teach portion control and customer service--as one of her favorites. The 24-year-old grad student includes the
game in a list of favorites alongside such classics as Halo and Tetris. The game she likes so much is a cartoon simulation of a Cold Stone Creamery store; players must scoop cones against the clock
and try to avoid serving too much ice cream. "It's so much fun," she said. "I e-mailed it to everyone at work." According to the company, more than 8,000 employees voluntarily downloaded the game in
the first week of its release. Is video game training becoming a trend? The U.S. military has used video games as training since the '80s and it would appear that big corporations are catching on.
Cisco Systems and Canon Inc. also use video game training to teach new employees. Game interactivity and fun seem to resonate with new, younger employees, but they also seem to teach resource
management, collaboration, critical thinking and tolerance for failure, said one expert, who works at a game consultancy. He estimates that games make up 15 percent of the market for corporate
training products. Big companies like games because they're cost-effective: why pay for someone to fly to a training campus when you can put them in front of a computer? It's even better when
employees take the games and play them on their own time.
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