Gamification — How Much of It Is Really New?

An anonymous reader writes "It's nigh impossible to avoid all the chatter and buzz around the concept of gamification — using game mechanics to create engagement outside the world of videogames. Silicon.com has an interview with author Aaron Dignan, whose book Game Frame delves into the topic to try and pull out a few rules of engagement for businesses seeking to tap into the power of gaming to better motivate their staff. Dignan is fairly convincing, yet I can't help feeling there's a lot of hype and not necessarily a great deal of substance to all this gamification chatter. Perhaps the term itself is the problem — maybe 'playfulness' would be a better name for the concept. What do Slashdot readers make of the gamification movement and its evangelists?"

Old Concept

[im_thatoneguy]

The olympics used to demonstrate the martial skills of a soldier. Shot put, Javelin, relay races... these were all military skills.

Play is practice. Even in the animal kingdom you see 'games' and play while juveniles practice their skills. There's even some theories that song and dance originally was an outreach of coordinating work.

By historical standards what we view as work is unnatural. If you look at a tribal culture in which we existed for hundreds of thousands of years you'll see people working hard but they are talking to one another and being social. The idea of locking someone away to slave over paper is a pretty recent development.

I would say that what we're really doing is re-discovering the innate mechanisms by which we best learn and it's not through mechanical determination it's through a more interactive and engaging process that works with--not against our nature.

Maybe this is overly critical...

[SomePgmr]

This seems like just one more way to extract more work out of people that are increasingly disappointed with their station and ambitions (or lack thereof). It seems like both companies and individuals would do better to address the root issues. I don't want to have to put a game layer on top of my work to feel like I'm doing something important, and for good reasons.

Or maybe I'm just too cynical.

Re:Is there no escape...

[vivian]

I used to be obsessed with gaming - then one day I woke up and decided I should be spending a few hours a day leveling myself up instead of hours a day leveling up some virtual toon.

Now I spend about 1 to 2 hours a day doing the following: Getting physically fit by hitting the gym, cycling and sailing, and acquiring a real world skill like playing an instrument (Piano,guitar).
it's much more reqardign than spending hours and hours leveling up a virtual toon in a virtual world so I could get the uber sword of whatever from the in WoW - for one thing I know it's not all going to be for nothing as soon as the next expansion pack comes out.

Now I get out on the weekends and meet real people too, which sure beats reading trade chat.

I don't miss online gaming at all.

Fucking dumb.

[rAiNsT0rm]

I live in the real world, I may choose to work in IT but I am not a stereotypical nerd/geek and I also have ZERO interest in bullshit like this. I don't want fucking achievements and "points" or other inane things, I want to be treated as a professional and I want to do my job. That is already almost impossible in IT as it is never given respect and seen as purely a cost/drain as it is. If any company I would work for would implement something like this, I would resign instantly.