We were doing so well.
After two years of recession, the nation was getting back on track. The jobless rates were stabilizing and economists were cautiously optimistic. Hope was on the horizon, until that little yellow pipsqueak came around again:
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 — allegedly 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.
And just like that, $120 million lost. Some are skeptical, but nonetheless the damage has been done – nearly reaching levels not seen since the great Zombo.com slowdown of 1999.
Google’s keeping the game up, in an act that can only be described as sedition. If one wishes to really waste time at work, pressing “Insert Coin” will allow you to play as Ms. Pac-Man with the left hand using the W, A, S, and D keys. At least this way you can look like your typing furiously, provided no one can see your screen too well.
