Happiness: Closer Than You Think

Happiness: Closer Than You Think

As the year comes to a close, all of us are inevitably starting to reflect upon the year that has passed. Some among us may be satisfied with how things happened, but most of us must have felt at some point in time that there were many things we could have done better: be it with our finances, personal or work relationships, or just the direction that life is taking. In this article, we will attempt to examine the reason behind this phenomenon, and posit an alternative approach to tackling these prevalent issues.

Impediments to happiness typically revolve around these root causes:

A Sense of Belonging

Everyone wants to be wanted. It’s a no brainer, really. It’s a notion deeply held by anthropologists, and one that certainly explains the way humanity has banded together in social groups since history began. Through shared experiences, people in these groups formed identities that were relative to each other. Essentially, playing to each other’s strengths increased each individual’s chances of survival.

Are We Truly Among The Happy?

Individuals in our day and age are afforded more access to increasingly advanced tools to work with. Effectively, what this means is that each person has the ability to do tasks that required more people in the past.

Although the rise in productivity has been immense, such a progression affects us – as social animals – negatively as well. Simply because it isn’t needed in our daily lives, interactions with others have decreased as a natural consequence, and our abilities to communicate effectively become increasingly limited.

Interestingly enough though, there has been strong research showing that throughout human history, playing games have been invaluable for people to learn concepts and develop communication skills both quickly and effectively.

Feelings of Powerlessness

We live in a very connected society, and recent statistics have shown that the average Facebook user has more than 100 friends. Within these statistics, however, lies an undercurrent of insularity:

Many of us have great ideas and thoughts, but keep them within us due to the fact that we feel that there isn’t an avenue for us to express them. This affects our day to day interactions negatively, and gives us a sense that we’re stuck in mediocrity – because we feel we can’t make a difference.

The Answer to All This: Play Games

Aristotle believed that the ultimate happiness lay in practicing virtuous habits, whereas the Hedonists argued that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. Here at MatchMove Games, we believe in a happy medium.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, after we’ve satisfied our basic (i.e. food, water, and shelter) needs, we as a species look towards higher needs such as achievement, expressing our creativity, problem solving, and morality. And in a previous article, we discussed at length about how people who played online games were more fulfilled with their lives. A study by Prof. Jane McGonigal from the Institute for the Future revealed that gamers tend to be fiercely optimistic and extremely cooperative when completing quests together.

Interestingly enough, she believes that in such cooperative social games, these gamers can tangibly seek what seems to be missing from everyday life: an epic win. Epic wins, for the uninitiated, are achievements of an unparalleled magnitude, and the prospect of one propels gamers to embark on large quests that can change the status quo.

A social element has also been incorporated within games. Players now have the ability to join guilds or factions, opening up opportunities for cooperation and consequently allowing them to feel a sense of belonging. More significantly, playing cooperatively gives players resources they were not privy to before, and affords individual players the ability to make a much larger difference together than they could alone.

The thing about playing a game is that the happiness that a player derives does not lie with his or her achievements, but instead in the pursuit. We as humans are engineered to seek greatness, and along this search we realize that we become better than we were – more ideal versions of ourselves. And as this betterment unfolds, we become aware, naturally, that there is always something to look forward to and to work towards.

Finding Your Own Happiness
No matter what anyone prescribes, you know yourself best. Every person has a different perception of what makes them happy, so in that vein, finding your own happiness is the best thing you can possibly do.

It could be as simple as baking that apple pie your mother used to make at home, or as complex as setting up a grand plan to build schools in Africa. But at its essence, being happy is about acknowledging that we are in a position to make a difference, wherever we are in the world.
So in this New Year, take the time to tell the people who matter to you that they are important. Play games with your loved ones. Make the extra effort to smile at a stranger. Laugh more.
Because when it’s all said and done, the little things are what matters most.

Zhang Wenjie, Shaun
Shaun is the Staff Writer at MatchMove Games