Gamification has reached such a fever pitch that its proponents have begun sounding like parodies of themselves. An amazing recent specimen is comes from Mashable, under the title “9 Strategies to Gamify Your Startup”. The entire article is “worth reading,” so to speak, but this one’s my favorite:

When people have a measurement, they work harder to see that measurement increase. For example, road signs are gamification at its finest; they share the number of miles travelers have left until their destination, which gets drivers antsy to cross that finish line.

Are any words to express how stupid this is?

(via Kathy Sierra)

published November 5, 2012

Comments

  1. glenn

    I always figured the logical extreme of gamification is “everything is a game”.

  2. Bobby

    “Blue Steel? Ferrari? Le Tigra?! They’re the same face! Doesn’t anybody notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!” â?? Mugatu, ZOOLANDER (2001)

  3. William Cummings

    Retroactive categorization? How about birthdays?