Some places set aside work time, half a day per week, for "game playing". They provide a bunch of games. You're paid as part of your work to play them.

This is to get people out of their cubicles and away from their computers and talking to colleagues. It helps people have a break from a particular problem (which is often all they need to solve that problem). It allows people time to chat to each other, about problems they're trying to solve or just general stuff. You know that you're not interrupting someone's work during one of these afternoons.

So, if a company is going to force some social time this is probably a better way to do it.