There is within each of us an inborn need for our lifetime pursuits to have meaning and value—to serve some greater purpose¹. When that greater purpose is known to us, and even more importantly, felt by us, it provides both the driving force and the guiding star that inspires us to excellence.

Exceptional companies, like exceptional people, also benefit from having a clear and meaningful purpose². Companies are, after all, nothing more than a group of people that have chosen to combine their efforts for a shared purpose. With some companies, the only articulated (or implied) purpose is to maximize profits. However, those companies that have withstood the test of time understand that profitability is not an end in itself, but “…is like oxygen, food, water, and blood for the body; they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life.”³

Now, I’m not saying that profit isn’t important to us at NCsoft, because it is (I hope I still have a job after my boss reads this…). But you don’t see the words “Achieved Maximum Profit” as the epitaph carved on very many gravestones.  As one of my esteemed co-workers pointed out, “We all as people want our labor to have worth beyond the purely financial…”

So, if it isn’t profitability alone that provides meaning, inspiration, and guidance to our collective pursuits, then what other purpose do our efforts serve? What is it that we do?

Well, um, we make games for people to play together.

Massively multi-player online games (MMOs) to be specific. Definitely a fun pursuit, but where’s the sense of meaning and greater purpose in that? It’s not like we’re doctors saving lives, scientists curing diseases, ambassadors negotiating world peace, charities feeding the starving masses, or Al Gore cutting back on his electric bill. Nope, that’s not what we do.

We provide fantasy worlds where people spend their spare time, chatting away about frivolous matters with hordes of other online players, pretending to be heroes or heroines, and gawking at each other’s outlandishly costumed avatars. They march together on imaginary quests to banish make-believe creatures and collect virtual treasure.  Now, just how meaningful could this be? It’s just fun and games, right?

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Not to say that providing fun and games isn’t a meaningful purpose (and a fun way to make a living, too). However, there is a more fundamental value buried within the context of recreation and play that is driving increasing numbers of people toward online games.

Those numbers are getting huge. Comscore reports the global online gaming community to be a staggering 217 million people (one fourth of the worldwide internet population)⁴. What’s driving all these people to online games?

Other people are. 

This phenomenon is the result of the fundamental need all of us have to be with (or around) each other. From the moment we are born, we are driven by the need to be seen by each other, known by each other, understood by each other, validated by each other, and hopefully, accepted by each other. This fundamental need to connect with other people, referred to by psychologists as the need for “belongingness”, can be “…as compelling a need as food.”⁵

…there is an impressive array of evidence that humans possess …a fundamental "need to belong." This evidence suggests that the individual's need to belong to the human community is fulfilled by frequent and affectively pleasant interactions with at least a few other people…the association between human physical health and relationships with others is strong…the age-adjusted relative risk ratio between low social integration and mortality exceeds that of the highly publicized risks associated with smoking and obesity.⁶

Social connectedness is such a powerful factor that it is considered the number one predictor of happiness and well-being, “…All other objective predictors of happiness, including money, education, health, and place of residence, are only weakly correlated with happiness.”⁷

This innate craving for belongingness is the driving force behind a great deal of online activity. At the top three “most engaging” web sites ranked by Nielsen//NetRatings, they found that people were spending over half their time using IM and email in their relentless pursuit for social connectedness⁸.

Millions of people have turned to MMO games to feed their social connection needs as an alternative to brick-and-mortar “Third Places.”⁹  MMO environments share many of the characteristics of “Third Places,” such as: easy access with minimal entanglements, lots of conversation between “regulars”, playful mood, and feels like home away from home (where everybody knows your name). As one researcher put it, “…instead of having a few drinks, a game of darts and a lot of laughs with your friends, you battle a few monsters, explore a rich landscape and have a lot of laughs with your friends.”¹⁰ 

Some claim that most MMO players prefer to play alone. But these “solo” players are actually playing “alone together.”¹¹ They go through great effort to install, patch, and subscribe to MMO games that may suffer from network lag and server/client performance issues because they prefer to be surrounded by human beings in a virtual environment regardless of whether they chat or join groups. They feel the presence of people through world chatter and avatars running about. It’s like going to a coffee house to read a book because it feels better to have people around you.

MMO games can also promote socialization skills through designs that reward the development of “social capital”. MMO players “…need not only learn the game commands, but they must also become socialized into the game community…If you succeed, others will include you in their ‘buddy list’ to encourage further interactions. In short, these games are all about having the right social skills.”¹² 

As a parent, I welcome all the help I can get teaching my children to “play nice” and get along with others. Their well-being is highly dependent upon it. A 12-year study found that peer rejection was one of the major contributors to the psychopathology of young adults¹³.

And all this time we thought we were just making games.

While our players are busy spending their spare time, chatting, questing, gawking, and connecting with the “regulars” on their expanding friends list, they may experience an intangible sense of “belongingness” that brings them comfort in their “home away from home” (where everybody knows their name).

So we may not be doctors saving lives, scientists curing diseases, ambassadors negotiating world peace, charities feeding the starving masses, or Al Gore cutting back on his electric bill.

We make games for people to play together.

It is indeed a worthy and inspiring purpose… and just so you know, it’s a heck of a lot of fun too!

Dallas Snell, Director of Business Development

Dallas Snell joined NCsoft as Director of Business Development in April 2006. As a veteran of the gaming industry, Dallas launched his career with the development and publication of the #1 graphic adventure game, The Quest, through Penguin Software in 1983. Two years later, he joined Richard and Robert Garriott at Origin Systems. In 1986, Richard and Dallas jumped ship from Origin’s rather chilly New Hampshire offices, and founded Origin’s product development division in Austin, Texas. Shortly thereafter, Dallas became Origin’s Vice President of Product Development. During his tenure at Origin, Dallas managed, produced, or executive produced, such best-selling titles as the Ultima and Wing Commander series. After Origin’s acquisition by Electronic Arts in 1992, Dallas became Vice President & General Manager of the Origin division.  In 1996, he left the gaming business to pursue other interests. However, the lure of multiplayer online games proved more than he could resist, and Dallas rejoined Richard and Robert at NCsoft in 2006.