

Gaming the System - andrewpbrett
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2009/12/13/gaming_the_system.html

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patio11
Maybe it is just the ex- raid leader in me, but I've often thought of the day
job and business as games with paychecks attached. Sometimes it even feels
like I'm playing them -- particularly when checking my analytics stats. (I've
had a lot of fun playing Spreadsheets In Space with worse visualization than
my stats pages.)

I've resisted the urge to build actual game mechanics into my business for
fear of what it would do to my social life. (It wouldn't be too hard -- make a
quick Rails plugin to duplicate the Stack Overflow badges functionality, add a
few hooks into my pre-existing stats code, maybe add a post-commit hook to...
NO, NO, NOT GOING TO DO IT. But dang if the gamer in me doesn't see every
problem and start thinking of ways to kill the dragon... preferably
ridiculously efficient ways of killing the dragon without all the work that
the designers intended me to go through.)

~~~
demallien
Generally speaking, with your bare hands works best ;-)

More seriously, why do you resist? I mean, what is your perceived downside to
implementing a gaming type of system in real-world work?

~~~
patio11
I quit MMORPGs because the allure of rapid feedback, constant iterative
improvement, social recognition, and purple pixels was such that I neglected
things I believe to be more important than my leisure activities. Making my
business into an MMORPG would bring back all the temptations that motivate me
to excess AND stir _actual money_ into the mix. I think that would result in
me devoting too much of my time to my business and not enough time to other
things I believe are important.

------
teamonkey
In ev'ry job that must be done

There is an element of fun

you find the fun and snap!

The job's a game.

-

The wisdom of Mary Poppins.

------
DenisM
If you want to become serious about game dynamics I suggest watching this
interview: <http://mixergy.com/amy-jo-kim/>

