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Lately the product du jour appears to be a new method of gamification, turning the Web into a series of achievements and arbitrary goals. But the question I want to ask is: Do we really want the entire Web to be a game?

Case in point: WordPress. I had never noticed this before beginning at PandoDaily, but WordPress doesn’t seem to recognize the difference between someone that doesn’t know how to use a blogging system and someone using their VIP, this-is-serious-business to do some actual writing. The first time I posted to PandoDaily I was greeted with a little sidebar that screamed “Congratulations, you’ve made your first post! Next goal: Make five posts!” with a little star next to it, which made me feel like I had just learned the alphabet and impressed my kindergarten teacher. Why does something like Fitocracy work, when something like WordPress’ hand-holding doesn’t?

I chose to play a game.