Work can be insufferable. People expect things from you, so you trudge through these requests because you'll be (under)paid for your efforts every two or four weeks. It would make everything better if there were some entertainment at the office. And while having a playlist of the best movie soundtracks to listen to at work can help, sometimes you just need something more engaging. Like, say, video games. Believe it or not, there are video games you can secretly play at work. In fact, there are a whole bunch of browser-based discreet video games that are perfect for life in the cubicle. Some are text-based and look innocuous, and a few even replicate the appearance of a Word doc or Excel spreadsheet that will easily fool a quick glance from management. Check out this list below to see if any of these secret video games are ones you could get into and vote up the ones that are the best to play while "working."
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Another of the games cleverly disguised to look like some sort of spreadsheet, Leadership is a lunar lander clone. But, it's a pretty clever one. The game produces graphs and charts to create the obstacles you need to avoid on your way to the other side, so a quick glance from your boss won't get you busted. Probably.
Paperclips looks innocent enough, and certainly won't catch the eye of a manager glancing at your computer screen. It's an addictive clicker game where you build a paperclip empire. You may be surprised at how hard it is to pull yourself away from the game.
Kittens is a text-based game with a clean and simple UI. It doesn't look too distracting and is easily hidden away on an Internet tab. You manage a village of kittens, assigning tasks to them and such. A fun way to pass the time in any office.
A video game in disguise, CyberCode Online may look like a regular line of visual studio code, but in reality, it’s an epic real-time MMORPG that’s easy to pick up but hard to put down. It’s a creative way to get your game on while also looking like you’re working.
While GeoGuessr can be a little obvious if you're trying to keep your gaming on the down low, it is pretty addicting and makes good use of information readily available on the Internet. You begin the round somewhere in the world (through Google Maps), and based on your surroundings, you must guess where you've landed.
"You've died of dysentery." If you grew up on The Oregon Trail, you'll be familiar with this line because it's the one videogame they made you play in grade school. The browser version is just as good as you remember, and it's fun to be nostalgic about the early days of life where you didn't have responsibilities or work you should be doing.
DEFCON may look simple and uninteresting, but it's actually very engaging. It's basically a browser version of Thermonuclear War from WarGames and is insanely deep. You'll find yourself pouring hours into the game and realize that the time to clock out is suddenly too soon.
Desktop Tower Defense might be 10 years old, but it's still one of the best timewasters on the Internet. It works in almost any browser and the gameplay is terribly intoxicating. Your job is to stop the "creeps" from reaching a certain spot on the office desktop, using different defensive strategies and "towers" with specific tools (shoot, freeze, and block progress).
Arena XLSM, a pseudo-RPG battle game, is pretty darn amazing. The entire game takes place inside an Excel spreadsheet using macros to make the action happen. It clocks in at just under 1MB in size and still offers a surprisingly deep combat system, considering the limitations of the application.
Escape games are great, but most of them are pretty simple and not terribly rewarding. However, Sagrario's Room is arguably the best in the genre and quite challenging. You start your adventure in a tiny room with a plastic chair screwed to the floor. Of course, the door is missing a handle. Good luck.
Doom, the game that introduced most of the world to the FPS genre in the early '90s, is now fully playable in a browser. A flash-and-mouse offering still lives for your entertainment. So, anytime you get the urge to go postal at the office, why not just take it out on a bunch of creatures in Hell.
SimAnt is the classic life simulation game developed by the only sim developer that ever mattered, Maxis (The Sims, SimCity). It has a great browser version that's just waiting for someone to play it. The ultimate goal is to turn your black ant colony into a giant society that can destroy the red ants, and force the human occupants of the house to move out. Pretty dark stuff, but well worth your office time.
Bow Man is very simple and extremely addicting. An entire game can be completed in just thirty seconds. All of these factors make the game perfect for a quick office distraction, but the fact that you can play against other human opponents ups the ante even more. If you're not going to be competitive at work, you might as well be competitive as a fictional archer.
If you didn't play the many, many Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego games, watch the cartoon, or enjoy the show based on the exploits, then something was wrong with your childhood. The Broderbund classic has a browser version available and it's just as great as you remember it.
Pac-Man needs no explanation. It's the perfect game for a quick five-minute goof-off, and this is the best browser version available. Avoid the ghosts, eat the power pellets, yadda yadda.
QWOP is ridiculous. Originally developed by Bennett Foddy, the Cut Copy bassist who was finishing his dissertation in philosophy, QWOP is a ragdoll, physics-based running simulator. It is notoriously difficult, but also a hell of a lot of fun.
Still considered one of the best shareware games of all time, Scorched Earth (or just plain Scorch) is an old school DOS turn-based artillery fragfest. You control the power and angle of your shot, but also have a host of weapons you can add to your loadout that can change the landscape dramatically. Always a good time.
Tactical Assassin Substratum offers an interesting spin on the traditional point-and-shoot genre. Ultimately, the idea is to shoot the bad guy, but in this situation, you need to watch the scene play out before trying to decipher who the villain really is. That's pretty awesome.
Prince Of Persia is considered one of the all-time greats in the platforming genre, and, as luck would have it, there's a fantastic browser version available. All of the then-acclaimed "smooth animation" is intact and the keyboard interactions aren't cumbersome or difficult to master.
