[forkLding]

Discord itself says this in their welcome messages but they used to be a game development studio that tried to develop an mobile MOBA game called Fates Forever back in 2014. However they found VOIP software to be pretty problematic and pivoted to develop VOIP software for gamers. Now they're a very popular chat client.

https://discord.fandom.com/wiki/Discord#:~:text=Advertisemen....

[madamelic]

Between Discord and Slack, I think something SaaS companies need to consider is looking at play and how to genuinely integrate play / fun into how they develop product. Both of these huge companies spawned out of video games and I think we are going to see more spawn this way.

I think play, especially at work, isn't discussed or considered enough and can form a strong core of a good product ("focus on the fun rather than the money") [0]. If a product evokes good feelings, especially if it is being used in an otherwise drab 'setting' ("I need to talk to other people"), people will gravitate towards it over others that don't.

I can't think of a person who is overjoyed to use, say, Microsoft Teams but you will almost certainly find people who love Slack or Discord to the point of pushing their leads to use them.

[0]: https://www.thegamer.com/sid-meier-games-should-focus-on-fun...

[dopidopHN]

I vaguely remember Flickr early version being a turn by turn MMO ? Maybe MMORPG, not sure anymore. But to your point: a gaming venture.

[benquinlan]

Flickr was actually created by the same person that created Slack, and it both cases it was a pivot from a failed MMO/MMORPG.