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.

Print Deathwatch: Closing the design gap.

Using the Reeder for iPad application this morning (it’s brilliant) I started thinking about the value and profit chain surrounding the free content I read from blogs. The short version is, Reeder filled the final gap in that chain, and combined with the iPad, upgraded the content consumption experience with reference to blogging.

Let me expand on that.

A blogger writes to gain a voice, gain an audience, create a store of ideas, or to establish credibility or expertise. Some of these pursuits are motivated by personal needs, but others directly feed to business or monetary needs. “Establishing credibility or expertise” has an unmistakable ROI - and if you told coworkers you were spending an hour a day doing that, no one would question you. At this top level, the value (monetary and otherwise) should be clear.

Direct income from blogging usually comes down to advertising or sponsored content. The options range from Google AdWords, or networks like Federated Media (who I am quite intrigued by), to full on branded content, where posts are created in the “publication voice” to draw attention to an upcoming product. This isn’t “save the content industry” money, but it’s another economy within the chain, supporting the urge and inclination to create free content.

What I’m interested in this morning is the monetization of the design gap, between content published and aggregated online, and a fully designed print publication. I was floored by the beauty and interface of the Wired ipad application, because it felt like a digital magazine. I’m having the same reaction to the Reeder application, which interests me - this is a design solution for my personal collection of RSS feeds, a curated list of blogs which represent my interests. Constantly updating, and now designed in a consistent and fluid manner.

What I’m saying is: Reeder for iPad is the first piece of software that made my blog / RSS reading seem a direct competitor for my magazine reading.

A paid piece of software, adding another micro economy to the blogging process. And it has me thinking that maybe the “print is dead” crowd has a point. Maybe the era of the content creation leading directly to the pay cheque is over. As glossed over above, direct pay for content creation is probably going to be supplemental in a lot of cases. The money comes from leveraging what you and others have created, whether it be reputation you’ve built via your writing, filling the design gap, or creating the best device to consume that content from.

We’ve watched the music industry collapse due to the same disconnect - creating content does not flow directly into making money. Selling words is like selling music, it’s based on a fundamental failure to understand what digital means.

Put another way: I’m reading free content through a $5 application that runs on my tablet. And it’s hitting a point where the advantage in targeting, plus the closing gap in experience, is trumping the thin lead in quality that some print outlets still have.

A Hypothetical Query.

Upon (hypothetically) unlocking and jailbreaking my primary communications device, I asked a single question:

“I know a lot of developers - can I still buy apps from the store in the normal way?”

Meaning:

I will happily pay for applications (and prefer to do so if I have some connection to those developing the applications).

I consider paying for mobile software normal (moreso than I ever have for desktop / laptop software).

My (hypothetical) desire to jailbreak my primary communications device has little to do with a desire to get applications for free (therefore it must serve a need or a curiosity that can’t be served through ‘normal’ use of the device).

[The last question someone asks before doing something notable or disruptive is normally a source of at least this much information.]