Althought clearly in violation of my work equiptment use agreement I think it might be possible for me to play PC games on my work computer. They've disables the installed DVD disc player, removed MS Paint, etc to clearly discourage entertainment based PC use at the office. However, I'm not sure if there's a way the Information Technology people could "catch" me playing video games. For example, I noticed Dungeons of Dredmor through Humble store is just a zip file and think I could load up a flash drive and either play from that or copy to work hard drive.

Is this foolish nonsense sure to cost me my job? ...or would it be a loophole that workplace computer people would be unlikely to detect? Could IT detect RAM memory usage spikes or are they likely to sort through hard drives for "contraband"?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

As long as it is not an online game, most IT departments will not snoop for games. It's not really in their job description to babysit the employees. However, they can view downloaded files, internet history, and other stuff if they wanted to. Also, some IT will lock down your computer so you can not install programs. Not something I would do at work, but it's your life. You never know which coworker will rat you out when their ass is on the line, so if you do it, you better keep it to yourself.

I wouldn't do it. I've known some really cool IT guys who wouldn't care so long as nobody called them on it. On the other hand I have worked with some real dirtbags who would read through peoples emails and sometimes use remote access software to connect to certain peoples machines and watch their desktop just to see what that person was doing. And this wasn't just a case of nosy IT guys, in some cases they were asked to spy by senior managment.

If your workplace is that strict about non work-related computer use, it's best to not risk doing something that would put your job in jeopardy.

Of course, you could always stick to games that have a "boss key". :P

If you have to ask, it's probably not a good idea. At all.

Is it a laptop or desktop PC? You don't have admin rights, and/or it is somehow disabled that you can't install software yourself? Are you specifically talking about gaming at worktime, or at all on the PC?

Naturally I can't say how it is with your employer. I think we are not supposed to do it either, but as I've seen people openly watch youtube videos, read news or visit web forums on their work PCs, I guess our employer is quite lax about it. Heck, I often see my line manager go to non-work related web pages too. As long as people do their job (either at the workplace, or later at home, like I am doing at the moment (9:30pm)), the company doesn't seem to actively care if people use their PCs also "recreationally".

I presume the IT hound dogs of the company can see what web pages I visit, and maybe even what apps I've run. Definitely they know what I've installed, I'm sure of that. My work laptop is full of games (mostly GOGs and HiBs, actually), and I don't care if they know. So far no one hasn't complained.

The only thing I make sure is that I don't install any clearly pirated software, both if it caused any legal problems to my employer, and in case they might have any trojans I am not aware of. Also I try to be careful with free software that say they are free only for personal use, not for corporate use. I am unsure how they are considered if I install such to my employer's PC, even if it is only for my personal use.

The only things I've seen blocked on my work PC is that I can't e.g. download Windows updates from MS pages myself, nor install e.g. IE or Firefox on my own (but install them from our IT shop). But I can install e.g. Opera browser without problem.

In the past I've sometimes played some games even at work, but nowadays I don't really care to do it at work even if I had some leisure time. Not peaceful enough, I rather do it back at home. But I do play games on this same laptop back at home.

I don't know the specifics of your job but I for one would tend to feel a lot safer if air traffic controllers, nuclear power plant engineers, and NORAD radar techs would keep from playing games while on the clock.

Now that I think about it, bus drivers, cab drivers, and pilots, same to you. Wait till you have clocked out (or at the very least come to a complete stop and or landing) before game playing. :D

I've sometimes thought about that. Not sure if it would be legal here (I don't think reading one's (work or other) mail is). I know there is a remote assistance capability where the IT guy can ask for a permission to connect to my PC remotely, but I don't know if they can (legally) watch anything I do, without me knowing it.

Yet, the few times I've played games at my workplace, I actually disconnected myself from the company network for that time. I guess that is enough to stop them tracking me at least in realtime. :)

My advice would be to ask the IT guys themselves. Most of them do have bigger worries than "Is employee X playing games", but if there is a compay policy that forbids you from playing, they do have to check, since it would be their job on the line as well.
If you can give them a good enough reason why you have the time to play, and show them what you will be playing, it is possible that they'll allow you, or at least turn a blind eye towards you.

That of course assumes that you are on speaking terms with the IT guys, and that you are a jovial enough fellow to be able to convince them of your good intentions.

P.S. You could probably ask them to install Master of Orion 3, it is a spreadsheet simulator after all (j/k).

If my employer cared if I was on forum sites, I would have been fired a long time ago. But I do see my employer blocks facebook and other sites of their ilk. Youtube, no blocks at all. Microsoft Updates occasionally blocked, and Antivrus Updaters sometimes blocked, which makes no sense to me. And of course we got the netnanny that won't let me view content with some arbitrary limit of key words. Sometimes, a few GOG forum posts are blocked from viewing because of the f-bombs used.
And 75% of my gog forum time is done at work. What else is there to do, work?

You forgot GOG staff :P

Oh right, I remember when I've had some PC problems and I've called the IT support, they have connected to my PC remotely to check things out. Usually one of their scheduled Windows updates have failed to install, or some stupid things like that.

Then they see the masses of (game) shortlinks on my desktop, as well as the huge amount of entries in the Control Panel's installed applications view. They do sometimes comment on it saying "Heh, lots of software...", but that's it. :)

On those occasions they seem to have been more "concerned" about what unusual system icons I have on the taskbar running that they don't recognize. Like once I think I had a system icon for Alcohol 52% active, and the IT guy who was remotely controlling my PC (on my permission) did quickly check what that system icon was about. But he didn't comment anything on it.

Probably too disgusted at your choice of an inferior virtual image software.

Bah, I've caught my 63-year-old boss playing a silly flash arcade, and she still does more work than all of us combined. In our office you've got to have admin privileges to install anything, and there are few modern "portable" applications/games that will work off a flash drive. Many GOGs will, though. ;) I wouldn't get in any serious trouble if anyone caught me, but I'd feel embarrassed and I'd probably get reprimanded. I do read some forums and Wikipedia every now and then between bursts of hard work. Nothing illicit about that.

Place I worked before my current job had a policy that if you wanted to play games on the machine at lunch then you were free to do so (as long as you owned the game). I found out about GOG from one of my colleagues playing Evil Genius in his lunch break, and then talking to him about it.

It was quite cool, then when tethered phone contracts came in, the WoW crew tooled up and got to spend yet another 5 hours of their week on it.

It was a good atmosphere in that respect, they understood that a team was more motivated when you gave them some freedom.