Study: Pac-Man on Google wasted 4.8 million hours

[pokerfan]

Meh, like you wouldn't have wasted that time on Facebook or playing Freecell.

According to a study by RescueTime, Pac-Man on Google--the playable version of the iconic game that the search giant replaced its home page logo with on Friday--cost the economy a total of 4,819,352 man-hours and a whopping $120,483,800 in lost productivity. As RescueTime put it, you could hire every single Google employee, including co-founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and CEO Eric Schmidt, and get them for six weeks for that much money.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20005958-52.html

[underpants]

1. Damn! I didn't know you could play it

that is just hilarious.

We literally have run out of things to do

[pokerfan]

2. It's been archived for posterity

http://www.google.com/pacman

Have at it.

[JVS]

3. Thank god! I've been jonesing!

[Lucian]

4. So how many hours were wasted on this study?

:P

[petronius]

5. I'd guess about 8 hours:

0:00:05 - reporter makes up number
7:59:55 - reporter plays Pac-Man

:)

[pokerfan]

6. I remember when Tetris was unleashed upon Western Civilization

That must have consumed about a trillion worker-hours.

I hacked a floppy giving myself an unachievable (but not entirely improbable) high score and passed it around the office.

[one_voice]

8. I played Tetris/Super Mario when I was in labor...

with my son. I played till about 45 mins before he was born. It was a good way to pass the time.

[arcadian]

13. He had controllers in the womb?

That was nice of you.

[one_voice]

16. LOL!...

No, I played on the Gameboy thingy. But it might explain why he was very good at playing at a young age. :-)

[RandomThoughts]

7. So if people are not working, that cost the economy?

So when you take a day off, you cost the economy, when you take a lunch break, or go on vacation you cost the economy?

Anyone see how that is backwards, people do not serve the economy, that is the flaw in thinking.

[Posteritatis]

9. If you pause for a second between sentences writing a memo, you cost the economy!

If you type at less than 120wpm, you're costing the economy for the time between keystrokes!

I imagine that one would start some interesting reactions among the MBA crowd if someone turned it into a study...

[madinmaryland]

10. I thought Pac-Man had signed with the Cincinnati Bengals.

:shrug:

Pac-Man Jones.

[Quantess]

11. "Time wasted?" No way. That's time well spent!

[Blue_Tires]

12. i like the new quirky layout...

they were smart to try something fresh instead of the 'standard' board....

[woo me with science]

14. Happy to have done my part. nt

[TommyO]

15. I played for about five minutes. Fortunately, I'm unemployed

so I cost the economy exactly zero people-hours.

Edited to add: I'll take responsibility for the incident and collect my $120M.