Distributed Play

The main problem that I see in the modern workforce is the growing popularity of wfh and its affects on mental health, especially in younger folks. While those with stronger social circles and roomates/spouses are doing fine, there are research papers and articles that describe the isolation younger professionals who live alone experience. From personal experience, going into office is a large part of my social experience in my day-to-day. As a working professional, it’s hard to set time aside just for socializing if you don’t already have a strong friend group or have social obligations like going into office.

My company has a “do-fun” fund that groups can apply to for bonding activities, for the purpose of helping their employees bond. The most notable example of it’s use is to fund meals. Employees will go out, take pictures of all the receipts and have the company refund up to $25. The company funding these bonding trips works really well, and I genuinely feel a lot close to my coworkers after these excursions. The application of the “do-fun” here requires being in office, but the idea can be modified for wfh.

As someone who enjoys gaming with friends, I often wonder why lonely professionals working from home don’t just play games with others. It was the way I got through Covid in college, and the situations are at least tangentially related. The problem is that gaming as a social activity in the professional world is limited by three pretty key factors:

• Cost: Managers want a free solution, or a very cheap solution. Kahoot, icebreakers over zoom, jackbox games. These are social games that engage the whole group for free (or $10), but it really feels like Captain Holt’s “Why is nobody having any fun. I specifically requested it”
• Scale: An activity everyone can participate in. The problem is that I can’t think of a single game I can have fun with while in a call with 20 other people. Theres too much management of people at that point.
• Feels Fake: The fact that this is meant to increase worker productivity really comes through in a lot of these. A manager somewhere needs to, well, manage these events and ensure people are having fun. But if you’re being managed, it’s hard to have a genuine interaction with another person while someone watches over your shoulders.

How do I bring the social connection power of gaming to wfh individuals while also dodging/addressing the issues above?

• Cost: By spending some money, employees can actually play something fun instead of free garbage. Modern “friendslop” games that are designed with multiplayer in mind are very entertaining and average $6 per player. I don’t think this is really negotiable, unless your employees are fine with playing something like fortnite or league.
• Scale: To truly increase social cohesion, people need to have time with each other in small groups. Dividing into groups of ~4 per game lobby allows the employees the ability to speak with each other and be heard while also gaming. As long as subsequent events don’t pair players up with each other again, the employees can talk to a large variety of people in the company in a personal manner.
• Feels Fake: I think it would be best if the event wasn’t company mandated and managed. Instead of having this online social event happen during company hours, offer steam keys and refunds to people who are willing to play games with their coworkers on their own time. The equivalent of a happy hour at an in-person company. The company should set the time, game and players for this gaming event to make it as frictionless as possible, like it would choose the venue and reserve seats at a local bar.

Overall, the idea seems sound. Now it’s up to the implementation.