I came upon this 3 years old topic that I feel it deserves a revitalisation. Why? Because I think that gamification of most stuff is healthy. I might be overgeneralising here a bit, but thatâs how I feel. Of course it comes without say that a gamification of some content should be carefully crafted so that it doesnât become too pushy or serves itâs own self-purpose. So hereâs my small take on it, can you share your own thoughts on the matter?
The Good
It makes forum interactions more fun, more challenging while also providing more content to everyone.
The Bad
Some people donât like gamification itself, for variety of reasons
some content (forums, websites, productsâŚ) is simply too serious to be gamified. Like a forum where you discuss drug side effects (oops )
The Ugly
When the gamification itself (badges, likes, rewardsâŚ) become the main generator of content. An example of that would be a forum post titled âBoost your likes - every poster in this topic should like every other post here so we all improve our number of likesâ)
Gamification shortens the gratification cycle (link to post)
Like everything in life, a good balance must be made. And last but not least, I hope to get the âFirst Shareâ badge out of this post ).
âHave your cake, and eat itâ , wants to come to mind - but only because as a community we have a decent amount of cake now. We have âeyeballsâ on us as a community, and great ideas, also some bad ideas, but we have more good ideas because most of us, are builders. I used to like trying to win badges, but that need for recognition got replaced during the big-lockdown with another hobby that taught me a thing. The best rewards are the ones you enjoy ceremonially, and through your own hard work. The best cake is the cake you enjoy in a ceremony of sorts, cake is a reward for hard work. And rest, from hard work is best, when it happens in a set place, in a set time, and often with friends around you.
Iâm thinking of the kind of reward you give a child who gets good marks at school, you take them out for a dinner at their favourite restaurant, maybe with their friends, to reward them for their achievement. But you only do this if they work hard. Gamification shortens the gratification cycle, by giving the reward too soon.
And thatâs where I like to depart, because the lesson I learned in my lockdown side-hobby of writing game reviews, is that there is a certain reward in getting to the end of each year now and realizing that I have broadened my own horizons and viewpoint by playing games I would not normally play. Simply to be able to practise my writing skills. I have a niche hobby there, and just like all those people who have niche pursuits, we have a very valuable thing to give. And not giving it would be to deny ourselves an outlet or voice for our creativity, and our personal development just because that personal pursuit, does not give âinstant rewardsâ. Rewards are merely a stepping stone taking you from mild milk, to real meat.
Fantastic observations! I added your catch-phrase to âThe Uglyâ part
⌠that need for recognition got replaced during the big-lockdown with another hobby that taught me a thing. The best rewards are the ones you enjoy ceremonially, and through your own hard work. The best cake is the cake you enjoy in a ceremony of sorts, cake is a reward for hard work.
This, in my opinion, is the gist of it. In my own words I would say that first you need to develop self-introspection so that you can observe when you do something that satisfies you and second, be content with your own achievements - now that doesnât mean that you should stop there but too many people are âsad while searching for happinessâ, not realising that journey itself can bring them satisfaction that they think will only come at the end.
Iâm thinking of the kind of reward you give a child who gets good marks at school, you take them out for a dinner at their favourite restaurant, maybe with their friends, to reward them for their achievement.
This is where I slightly disagree. For example, we donât have a reward system at home. âif you clean your room, you will get a chocolateâ or âif you sit still while I talk to my friend, I will let you play games laterâ - this is indeed a tremendous motivator for young kids, but Iâd argue is a negative one. They grow in assumption that everything they do must be rewarded and vice versa, they wonât do things if they are not rewarded in some way. Instead, honest congratulation and a hug is best they get from us parents, but then we go and play games together, travel the world and generally spend time with them so that they feel connected. On the other hand, of course they get rewarded for bigger achievements or birthdays etc.
To get back on the topic, I still think little competition and rewarding is always good, it just has to be the right amount.
Maybe a more minor detail:
I would call that pointification. Some games are pointified, but not all games.
I do not see badges being cakes given in a ceremony.
Some days ago I was surprised by being notified for receiving this 6 badges for my contribution last year.
They mean nothing to me. I already KNOW that I have participated heavily here.
I never thought about how to win them. Until that very point I did not knew that they existed.
Each was also granted to 4 other people. Nearly always the same people (6-8 different). The people I saw being most active.
At best this.
Even more than badges (which I only see when I look at someones profile) I dislike the leaderboard.
I set it to Year and was not surprised see the same people which got the same badges.
There are quite some discussion points, in your post as well as in the article you provided. I loved the article and especially how that person managed to attract millennials to the library.
As with all things, we donât have to like the same features. I would make a point, however, to put ourselves in the shoes of forum owners - they want participation and meaningful content. Badges are just one of the features for forums like this that help with that.
Personally, Iâd love to be rewarded in food but if I canât have that, badges will do just fine
Iâm a total sucker for achievements and all that kind of stuff but it has to be fair.
That could easily be solved by removing the badges that require your input
I donât think there should be badges based on what YOU do yourself. eg: Liking a post. But rather on retrieving likes.
Obviously the posts âboost your likesâ should be removed and the person should probably get a warning or ban or something
When I can see there are badges to be earned, I am stuck between my completionist desire to get all the things (or none of them, that would also be fine, but only having some of them is a terrible state of affairs!), and my contrarian attitude to avoid taking the âusual pathâ marked out by the badges. This might sound contradictory but I suspect a lot of testers have these urgesâŚ
If unachieved badges arenât visible, on the other hand, then they are simply a nice surprise
I think this is normal since the forum isnât like⌠comparable with a stack overflow.
Even on platforms like stack overflow youâll be able to see that itâs always the same people who are getting the same ârewardsâ. Itâs because they are âleadersâ in their domain. Itâs just more visible on here, since itâs a bit smaller. Especially since they removed all the possibilities to create forum topics and dump everything into âchatsâ
I also dislike the leaderboards since they still involve likes given, which it shouldnât!
)
every other post here so we all improve our number of likesâ)
).
but if I canât have that, badges will do just fine 
