

Is 'gamification' the future? - jrbedard
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-11/25/nesta-gamification-david-rowan

======
jlees
Gamification is simply the application of a ton of learnings (and in some
cases, pure intuition) about how humans behave, what drives us, and how to
keep us engaged. In terms of "stick badges on it and people will keep using
your product", gamification is not going to hang around all that long, ruined
by poor execution and over-exposure (as with any UX trend).

However, the trend of humanification -- _designing for and by humans_ , taking
us away from an age of faceless software -- is well underway, and I don't
think that's going away any time soon. I also think that's a Good Thing.

~~~
SideSwipe
Agreed, Gamification as it's being executed now is pretty shallow but I
believe that is going to change. We setup a small wiki for that very reason @
<http://gamification.org> to discuss the topic and open it up to collaboration
and collective brainstorming.

~~~
jlees
Oh, interesting. I like the concept of open source game mechanics!

------
ig1
I strongly believe that Game Mechanics are going to be _huge_ on the order of
magnitude of social or mobile.

Can you imagine what would happen if Zynga took their playbook and decided to
build a weight-loss startup (the market for weight loss products in the US
alone is $35 billion/year). Not to mentions the dozen of other billion-dollar
self-help industries that can be transformed with game mechanics.

Sooner or later life is going to be like a MUD with standardized ways of
measuring skills and comparing yourself against your friends. In a couple of
generations time kids will grow up talking about "levelling up" in real life
skills.

The application of game mechanics to real-life is only just beginning and it's
going to have a huge transformative effect on how people live their lives.

~~~
chailatte
Why would the kids of this generation or the next few prefer to play real life
vs virtual life? If anything, technologies in the future will allow one to
better enjoy the virtual experience, complete with realistic sensations and
freedom to modifying their world and create their own adventure. All for $9.99
a month.

Remember, real life is tough. Clicking a mouse is easy.

~~~
rsheridan6
Because nobody in real life is impressed by your level 160 elf mage.

~~~
chailatte
Why do you need to impress people?

~~~
brianmwang
Much of our behavior in everyday life is driven by how we present ourselves to
others.

~~~
chailatte
Hmm. I would think the entrepreneurs on this board would not care what others
think. Since they would appear to others to be losers who haven't had a steady
income for 3 years and borrow money from parents and relatives to code the
next game that would get people addicted on clicking on buttons.

~~~
JabavuAdams
They care what other entrepreneurs, investors, customers, etc. think.

When most people say "I don't care what other people think", it's not really
true. It just indicates a mismatch with the audience under discussion.

~~~
chailatte
I know lots of entrepreneurs who don't care what others think of themselves.
And their client/customers/investors don't care as long as the product is
good.

Look at Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg; you think they care what others think
of themselves as a person?

~~~
trotsky
_Look at Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg; you think they care what others think
of themselves as a person?_

You mean like the zuck arranging to announce a $100M donation live on oprah a
week before the social network hit theaters?

------
bpm140
What we are seeing is the backlash against the idea that just adding points
and badges will create a compelling experience. This is no more accurate than
if you replaced [your favorite game] with a series of menus and button presses
and threw in some random point and badge awards. The experience itself must be
rewarding.

That said, "gamification" techniques can be a wonderful thing. Points are a
useful way to highlight positive interactions with users ("you did X, this is
a good thing, these points help you realize that"). Badges are a good way of
providing metagame elements, both at the beginning of an experience (to
shorten the learning curve) and at the end (to provide extended engagement).
This all relies on a compelling core experience, of course.

I think that Dennis has been clear that Foursquare is a social layer on top of
physical locations, not a game. That people generally see it as a shallow game
can be considered both an example of the compelling (and perhaps overriding)
aspect of the gameplay elements and an indictment of the core 4Sq experience.

------
sayemm
Gamification for me, is like the Wall St of the internet.

A lot of hype, little real value.

Big difference between the gaming industry (PS3, Nintendo, Zynga... which are
awesome) and attempts at trying to make the world a game.

~~~
coryl
Zyngas not quite there yet

------
chailatte
Badges/leaderboard for pushing a button != game. More like cheese for the
caged rat.

~~~
Lewisham
Games only have value if you have emotional investiture in them. I have no
investiture in Stack Overflow points at all, but I do like seeing my karma go
up in HN (cue epic downvoting now) as I get some sense that I can hang with
the cool kids.

People see World of Warcraft and say "it's just a bar going up", which is
entirely true, but with investiture of that bar (say, for comparison, or sense
of progress/reward etc etc) it becomes something else entirely.

