Calling Bullshit on 'Gamification' as a Buzzword.

Calling Bullshit on ‘Gamification’ as a Buzzword.

I resolve to stop being impressed by comments about gamification unless we all agree that games need more than points and a leader board and awards.

Points are great for tracking progress, but the number in the corner of my book goes up the closer I get to the end. A book isn’t a game, regardless of that rising number.

A leader board is a great way to tell who’s winning, but the NYT best seller list is a very well respected and highly monitored leader board - and a book STILL isn’t a game.

You get awards for doing things. You get rewards for doing hard things, or thankless things, or valuable things. I used ‘award’ because most gamification consists of stuff like badges (like foursquare), that acknowledge action, but not necessarily accomplishment.

People play games for the challenge, for the narrative, for the thrill of accomplishment, for entertainment, avoidance, escapism, and action.

Gluing points to a social network isn’t a game layer - competition is not inherently gaming.

I’d argue that gamification requires the introduction of (at least some) the following elements into something that doesn’t, by its nature, need to posess them: narrative*, skill development, challenges, a managed and intentional learning curve, fun, and a sense of interaction.

The last one requires some explanation: I don’t mean social interaction - games can be played alone. I don’t mean interactivity, a game need not react to you. But games need to ‘force’ you to react to what happens in them, whether by narrative, by emotional appeal, or by pure irritation. The elements that people call gamification, including awards, rankings, and points, are ways to encourage interaction, to keep you playing; they are the carrot and stick of a game, they are not the essence of a game itself.

*By narrative, I don’t mean a conscious story. But, for example, in a game of tic tac toe, there is two players, conflict, a goal, rising action, victory, and denouement. Same deal with solitaire, to a point. Special status for repeatedly using an application isn’t a narrative, it’s a trackable history. Narratives attach emotion to action. Games, in my estimation, always have the possibility of narrative.