For many employers, Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites are already a threat (威胁) that cut into productivity.Now they have something else to worry about—the games hosted by these sites.
This new type of social gaming is called "asynchronous" gaming and allows people to play with their friends without having to be online at the same time.The low-intensity (低强度) engagement has made games such as FarmVille, Cafe World and Pet Society popular among employees who often log on during office hours.
"What we are seeing is that more and more people and organizations are recognizing the productivity lost so probably more chief information officers are blocking Facebook applications," Rebecca Wettemann of Nucleus Research said.
Boston-based Nucleus Research, which conducted a recent study into the effects of social networking sites on productivity, said nearly half of office employees in the United States access social networking sites at work, which leads to an average loss of 1.5 percent of total office productivity.