Running an Inclusive Game Night at Alignable
Company game night has been a staple in our company events since going fully remote, but it’s grown and changed a lot since its first iteration to become what it is today. Originally, game night was a mostly engineering event. The idea came about when many engineers on the team learned that we all played Overwatch outside of work and decided it would be fun to band together as a team online. From then on, it became a biweekly tradition that we choose a new video game and get everyone together.
And this was about the state of game night until the rise of Covid-19, when we all suddenly found ourselves working from home for our own safety. Gone were the days of hanging around a bit after work to chat about something. Game night went from a way to get some extra bonding time in with coworkers to one of the core ways to keep people saying hi and talking with each other. But there was an issue, game night wasn’t something just anyone in the company could hop in on.
One of the core issues with our original layout of game night was the accessibility to the whole company. We were originally choosing games that required a high barrier of entry. A lot of the games required an upgraded PC specifically running Windows to play, which not everyone at the company had. Additionally many of the games required a decent amount of previous game experience to play and enjoy, so people who grew up playing games felt comfortable hoping right in. However, those who hadn’t played many (or any) games before felt like game night just wasn’t meant for them.
It became clear that there was more we could do to make game night more inclusive. The first step in this direction was our choice in games, we needed something that anyone at the company could play. We started with a game with a much lower barrier to entry: Among Us. Among Us is a hidden role game where a majority of players are trying to fix up a spaceship by doing tasks, but a few players are imposters, and their goal is to sabotage everyone and pick off the crewmates one by one. One of the biggest features the game has is crossplay, so people on PC can play alongside people with the mobile app for both iOS and Android, making hardware less of a barrier to entry. Additionally, the game doesn’t require previous gaming experience: the controls are simple and most of the fun comes from social skills like deduction and deception rather than gaming specific skills like quick reactions and precision input control.
Choosing more approachable games made game night much easier to hop into, but it felt like there were still ways we could make it more engaging. A decent amount of people at the company seemed interested in the concept of game night, but didn’t have the energy to actually participate. So one additional option we provided was to live stream our game night on Twitch for others at the company to watch. With just a link, anyone could hop in to spectate the game and watch the chaos unfold without having to be a part of it themselves.
In the end, the efforts seemed to pay off. We went from game night attendance consisting of a handful of engineers to hosting a good portion of the company with attendance from multiple departments. And as a result, I’ve gotten to know people in other departments who I wouldn’t normally have a reason to talk to. It’s been great to see game night evolve into something for everyone and I’m really proud of how far its come.
