Artem is the QA engineer in Viaduct, and he wanted to talk about his main hobby, which he encourages everyone to try out – board games.

“I’m always open to opportunities and try something new whenever I get the chance, but one of my biggest passions is tabletop gaming. I often visit the Mafia club, I own a lot of games myself, and I have an ongoing D&D campaign with my friends. It is always so thrilling getting into the rules, mechanics, finding new strategies, and trying to outwit your opponents, be it another player or the game itself. Overall, games are a great way of practicing thinking outside of the box since it’s engaging and doesn’t feel like exercise or work. I myself have a couple of ideas for a game, for example, a tactical RPG about a war between wasps and bees. I was inspired when I saw a documentary about them, turns out the insect world is full of intense settings!”

Game elements have been a great learning and team-building tool for quite some time, and gamification as a concept can be seen in various fields, including IT. Obviously, work will never be just “fun and games”, but sometimes we all need that little dose of dopamine to get through.