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from the read-three-more-stories-to-earn-a-virtual-taco!-(redeem-via-IRC) dept.
How 'Gamification' of Everything Is Manipulating You (and How to Recognize It):
“Gamification” is the practice of adding game-like elements to non-game contexts. It isn’t new, nor it is always a negative, but it is being aimed at consumers and employees more and more frequently, whether to keep you addicted to an app, motivated at work, or inclined to spend your money on something.
[...] There’s nothing necessarily wrong with making consuming a product or doing a job “fun,” but when marketers and employers are hacking our pleasure centers in ways we don’t fully recognize, that’s manipulation, and that’s not really a game. Below are some of the tricks of the gamification trade, so you can spot it before it happens to you.
Behaviorists’ studies of rats and humans prove that both species are more motivated by intermittent, unpredictable rewards than anticipated ones. Rats will pull the lever more often if they sometimes get a food pellet than if they always get a food pellet, and gamblers would never play a slot machine that returned 89 cents every time they put in a dollar, even though that’s what will happen over time.
Some of the tricks are: Variable rewards and suspense, Manipulating our desire for progress, and Engagement and “streaks”.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Thursday January 20, @06:01PM (2 children)
In the event that you count "up votes" as gamification. I would say they are part of the "not always negative". Certainly better than some systems, but could be better perhaps. I like it the way it is, please don't break it.
Forced Microsoft Account for Windows Login → Switch to Linux.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 22, @01:04AM (1 child)
I see few, if any, of you predate the digital age. I didn't notice it until the '90s, never knew it had a name. Lots worse this century.
Free Martian whores! [mcgrewbooks.com]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday January 24, @05:00PM
Feels like a "with a computer" type of problem. Participation awards are a thing, right? And/or monetary incentives to do x thing? Making a job "fun" has been in the corporate playbook for years. This is just a "with a computer" kind of problem. Now, it may be much more insidious than that, but it's all part of the same system. The wring the workers out for all they're worth system.
Forced Microsoft Account for Windows Login → Switch to Linux.