Is gaming a hot new trend in employee communications?

When the Internet powerhouse Yahoo wanted to teach ethics to its employees, it faced a challenge familiar to multinational companies.

Yahoo employs nearly 14,000 people at 25 sites worldwide. Some work in environments where, say, a local inspector might hint that building permits would come through more quickly if somebody slipped him an envelope of cash.

But let’s face it: Yahoo’s tech-savvy staff would chafe at sitting down in front of a dated video in which actors with 1980s haircuts enact ethical dilemmas. So it hired a Georgia-based company called The Network to animate a game that involves a flying trailer, as well as a click-and-drag Q&A in which you feed wrong answers to a piranha named Ramon.

Yahoo isn’t the only company that is discovering the merit of games in communications, marketing and learning. Last summer Cisco Systems deployed a game by Juxt Interactive and No Mimes Media for its annual sales meeting. Jumping in on a thriller-like plot, the game forced staffers to use company technology as they untangled an international conspiracy.