GROK collect

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.

increasing number of enterprise companies adopt a freemium model in recent months.

put the right elements in place to encourage it.

employees learning and mastering the software they were using to do their jobs.

The gamification of social networking and location based services as exemplified by Foursquare, Gowalla and SCVNGR are probably the most recognizable with badges, mayorships and rewards offered for check-ins.  Game mechanics has also been applied to engage people, change behaviours and innovate in many different fields including innovation management, health, training, employee performance, and even social issues.

engage stakeholders, improve performance and drive innovation

The gamification of innovation and enterprise architecture is a natural extension of design thinking as it is a human-centric and engaging means of harnessing the power of the collective to drive innovation and change.  I believe that game mechanics are going to have a huge impact on the way organizations engage stakeholders, innovate and evolve, and we are just now on the leading edge of that trend