“Gamification” of the Internet

This post was initially about why I believe that the “gamification” of the Internet is an entirely negative thing. While I still believe that accumulating followers on Facebook etc. is wasteful use of the Internet, there are aspects of community interaction where this may be of benefit to the world and our combined future on this earth. Why?

While I was researching “gamification”, I came across a TED presentation by Jane McGonigal that suggests that the combined online gaming communities could be leveraged to solve some of the worlds problems if utilised correctly.

Imagine the combined intelligence of the World of Warcraft (Jane’s own example) applied to world hunger or the energy crisis. Wow.

I am sure that if the game was find “Bin Laden” he would have been found some time ago already.

But, as Jane mentions in her talk, the key still needs to be found that would unleash this awesome mind power. It is possible that a real world scenario be built in WoW that could be used to test the theory.

It may, h0wever, be difficult to do this. Generally people who play in these communities do so as a diversion from life’s woes. Is life too complex, to dreary and just too damned difficult for us to consider and apply our minds in games to find solutions to the worlds problems? Jane appears to suggest that in gaming the final objective – no matter the obstacles – is easier to envision that those we experience in real life. Maybe because we can just go back to the last save and try again? Maybe because we fundamentally accept that it is just a game and that the consequences of cocking up are not that final as Fear and Death…. Or maybe it is just that we are more willing to risk everything in a digital world than the real one – just look at the shit people put up on their Facebook walls etc.

So, while the “gamification” of social sites may still be a bugbear for me, MOG’s could be a place of huge problem solving, life changing solutions.

So keep gaming in games, and social spaces for making connections that are meaningful and not numbers driven.